A look at Cyprus, the divided island

Cody: We should move to Cyprus.
Daddy: Why?
Cody: Well they've got all these ruins to climb on and these geckos. I just love these geckos so much, they are so cute!
Daddy: It is settled. We move here.

Roman ruins, just lyin' around!

Where is Cyprus? See map: It lies off the coast of Syria basically but otherwise smack in middle of the Med. Historical crossroads location ensures tons of ancient ruins and settlement evidence from everybody on back to the Stone Age. Figured prominently in the Crusades. Recent history features the partition of the island into two parts (Turks in the north, Greeks in South) as a result of a Turkish armed invasion in 1974. UN armistice line separates the two factions.

The Greek side of the island is more developed: car rental agencies, hotel chains, air conditioning. Turkish side lacks much of the infrastructure of globalization, but as a result is much more authentic and apparently feels like a bit of a time capsule. We don't know, we were not able to cross the DMZ on this trip. You can't take your rental car across the border area into the Turkish side for one.

Cyprus has a gem of an abandoned/lost places location AND is an example of one of the few remaining divided cities in the world. The "lost place" is a resort area called Varosha on the Turkish side. It was a gleaming beachfront in the 1960's, frequented by the Richard Burton and Liz Taylor jet set, but fell on the wrong side of the armistice line after hostilities ended. Tourism and travel to the island immediately crashed and many of the city's inhabitants and business owners were Greek and fled south. Varosha was closed off by the Turkish military and forgotten. 

The beach at Varosha. The entire place is a laboratory for urban decay, and if you go into explore the Turks will try to shoot you. There are some interesting drone vids of the place though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXGOb2drpJo

While Varosha is the biggest "Lost Place" on the island, you also have a UN-administered Buffer Zone that splits the island, and the capital of Nicosia, right in two. The UNFICYP (UN Peacekeeping Forces in Cyprus) will take you on a walk into the no-man's land between the two sides to see scenes of urban ghostliness: brand new cars still sitting in showrooms and unwashed dishes in sinks left when the inhabitants fled suddenly. The Nicosia Int'l Airport also sits right in the middle of the zone, which yields additional crazy images (below).

The UNFICYP website offers an ill-defined application process that gives no guarantee they will agree to escorting you in there, but I find the thought fascinating and worth pursuing.

Waiting lounge, Nicosia Airport

Passenger jet in the wrong place at the wrong time in 1974.

Top of the line showroom models, zero miles, just a small bit of dust...

"You're not going back to Cyprus," an agency friend from America told me, scoffing blatantly at my pronouncement of a return trip to see more. "Who on earth actually returns to Cyprus!" It is true, when you live over an ocean in North America, Cyprus is the kind of place you would barely consider visiting even once. But living over here strange things become possible. Bulgaria is another example of a place you don't think about getting to, yet last year I was there twice, so who knows what can happen.

Our trip to Cyprus was booked on a whim during a February evening after the kids went to bed. Cassandra suddenly realized we had no upcoming plane reservations. A quick visit to Easyjet's website found us some cheap roundtrip fares (60 Euro) heading out on a Thursday and coming back Saturday night. We would fly into Paphos, a resort area on the southwest side of the island. We booked a hotel and had the guidebook from Amazon two days later to start figuring out what there is to do. I feel lucky that this sort of thing happens often, although it is quite bad for our carbon footprint.

The day of the trip we arose early and Jasper threw up in the cab on the way to the airport. Then threw up on the airplane multiple times. Then later on some more, although by that time it was just dry heaves since there was nothing left in him. So a slow start to the trip, and it also meant that some of the drives we'd planned were now off the table. Miraculously, he did not shut down and implode while being sick and getting carted about the Mediterranean by his schizo parents.

Hotel view.

Paphos Castle, originally a Byzantine Fort, then upgraded by the Venetians and used variously as a prison and warehouse.

View from the top, with Jasper barely holding on.. Poor Guy!

The kid truly demonstrated amazing constitution, pushing through this. 

Lunch at a nearby cafe. We are quite militant about sun protection.

A great family vacation moment, Cody expressing his displeasure with the decision to drive up to a national park and do a hike. He would rather stay at the hotel and watch local cartoons in Greek. So as a result, he refused to turn around for the picture. Just look at his defiant posture! The little rascal.

A lot of travel is not the perfect sandy beaches and soaring snowy mountains, it is the rubbish-filled, sun-baked pull-overs on the side of the road. You're looking for a view but just get thorn bushes that scratch you for your trouble.

Left-side driving is stressful, especially in the round-abouts. Luckily I didn't have to shift.

At a water source after one of the hottest hikes in my life. Akamas Peninsula. Your options on Cyprus are either 1) Sweating heavily or 2) Heatstroke

Outside Paphos at the archeological park lies a complex full of mosaics that are some of the world's finest examples of Roman work. They were discovered in 1940 by British soldiers digging trenches for protection against German air raids. Now they are much better looked after.

Mosaic that adorned the floor of a Roman nobleman's house. 

We met up with some friends from Berlin who also happened to be in Cyprus: Sophie, Alba and Elijah. Elijah goes to school with Jasper. Sophie (foreground) is French and the last two places they lived in before Berlin: Namibia and China. 

Something about columns that instantly turns things "old."

The tribune that overlooks the Agora of the Paphos settlement.

Some cool spiky-looking desert plants.

Stopped off for crepes in a beachside cafe. Jasper fighting it by falling asleep. Elijah on Gameboy. Cassandra and Alba discussing her law school plans for the fall in the Netherlands.

Corn on the roaster: with an old hair dryer powered with a car battery she heated up the coals and cooked some corn for Cody. He was quite interested in the whole process.

Nothing like the touch of mystery that an old shipwreck brings to a trip: the questions keep coming. How? Why? Will they ever remove it?

There is a rope dangling down that people have used to climb up and explore the 30 degree angle decks. Apparently it was an old grain hauler.

When family pictures are taken in front of rusting shipwrecks, something is probably wrong with you.

Jasper's feeling slightly better. But stay tuned, Cody was about to come down with it!

Saturday afternoon, heading back to Berlin.

Because it is relatively easy to access, I do think about how to get back to Cyprus. The problem is the pile of other places equally as interesting and cheap to get to that we haven't seen. Maybe that's not a problem.

From here, it was three more weeks of school, then summer holidays of six weeks, then back to school the first week of August.

Thanks for reading

Jay