Exploring Nicosia

North Nicosia

With no natural light in our room, we were rudely awakened by my daily 0700 alarm.  Then my hope to doze for a few minutes were dashed with problems with a tenant’s garage door at home.

Our hotel supplied an awesome breakfast and soon after that, we departed for a walk on the Turkish side of Nicosia, before it got too hot.  We made stops along the way to try resolve the tenancy issue at home.

The crossing at Ledra Street was easy with no queues and once across, we found our way to the Selimiye Mosque, which was once the Cathedral of Saint Sophia.  It is the largest surviving Gothic church in Cyprus but as with my last visit, some serious works are ongoing and it wasn’t possible to visit.

At the nearby Bazaar, we found a sweet shop.  The prices (verbally) seemed quite reasonable compared to the flasher one at the crossing.  Then we realised they were in Euros rather than Turkish Lira.

It worked out to be 3x the price we had paid at the cheapest place in Istanbul, but about half the commonly-placarded price.  So, it wasn’t a successful purchase.  We don’t need any extra sugar in our lives.

As we exited the bazaar, we saw a little “toy train” with its driver offering a free ride around the Turkish side of Nicosia.  Only a tip was required.  We hopped on and were taken around the quiet parts of the old city, some residential areas, parts outside the old city wall, the Ledra Palace crossing, another crossing, the busy commercial area, courthouse, a mosque and its graveyard.

It was the best find of the day despite it’s initial tacky appearance!  On my previous visit, I endured a very hot and sweaty walk even when it was nearly November.  Despite that I had missed the existence of the busy commercial area.  Before today, I had thought Turkish Nicosia was very sleepy unlike Girne!

While there was no commentary, a guidebook was in the seat pocket.  The driver mimed various sights with his arms as he drove, and we could see his gestures through his rear windscreen.  One should use this ride as an orientation and then follow-up with visits to individual sights.

Crossing back to “the south”, we grabbed a sandwich and some drinks at the supermarket before settling into the room to avoid the day’s heat.  Kim did pop out briefly to visit a motorcycle museum nearby which had around 200 bikes.

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Nicosia’s City Walls

We left the comfort of our aircon room before 1800 and decided to eat so we could explore in the cooler portion of the evening.  We found a Vietnamese place nearby which also did some other Asian dishes.

The vermicelli and Korean chicken were great choices.  Even though we love Mediterranean food, it was good to have umami (natural or otherwise) in our meals again.

We walked off dinner in the “bailey” (low area like a waterless moat) between the city’s high internal walls and the low curtain walls.  Nicosia’s walls are from the Venetian era, built in the 1500s.  So, they are a little younger than a lot of the Byzantine ruins.  The city’s new main square, Eleftheria Square is located in the south-western part of the bailey.  There are few straight lines, as can be expected, designed by Zaha Hadid.

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We finished the evening with a cuppa at McDonald’s with a custard and strawberry pie.

Note:  As it is my second visit to Nicosia, and in consideration of the extreme heat currently, my exploration this time have been more limited.  You can read my previous travel explorations of Nicosia here, here and here.

Thoughts on leaving Cyprus

Both sides of Cyprus (and Malta) are European oddballs of their British influence:

• Buildings are wired with sockets to accept chunky (Type G) British plugs.
• People drive in right-hand drive vehicles on the left-hand side of the road.

Both sides of Cyprus seem to have a degree of reliance on migrant labour, somewhat stronger in the south.  They come from the subcontinent, Middle East, Africa and the Philippines.  It’s not too different in many western European countries that I’ve visited now.

I’m a little sad that division of Cyprus isn’t resolved after about fifty years.  From what I’ve read, northerners are keener to reunify but the sticking point with the south is the number of mainlanders that have settled in the north.

However, there’s an equivalence of any EU citizen being able to work and live in the southern republic, right?

Then there’s the question of ethnic allegiance rather than a single Cypriot identity:

• On both sides of the green line, the Greek or Turkish flag flies proudly alongside the local version of the Cypriot flag.
• Drawing a parallel here, it would be rather unthinkable for Singaporeans or Malaysians of Chinese or Indian descent to fly the Chinese or Indian flag!