Cyprus (1) Around Mazotos
Cyprus (2): Larnaca and Ayia Napa
Cyprus (3): Paphos, Limassol and Troodos
Cyprus (5): Things to do
Overall, Cyprus is just fabulous. It has great food, lovely people, perfect weather 9 months of the year, loads of things to do (beaches, watersports, villages, partying, ruins, culture etc), is cheap, relaxed, easy to drive around, not crowded at all, everyone speaks English, has lots of all inclusive hotels, and what not. The people are one of the friendliest people I have met. No one is in a hurry and everyone stops and starts chatting with you, smiling and laughing all the time. It was such a pleasant experience, I could not find one thing there that was not great. I would recommend anyone and everyone to visit. Here are some random impressions during my stay
Overall impressions
- My first day in Cyprus, when I was driving from the airport to Hadjios, I smelt gobar while driving on the streets 🤣. As we used to pass the same spot quite often, we always smelt the same at the same spot everytime. I found that very funny
- Cyprus has so many beaches. Anywhere you drive there are beaches and they are all amazing. With rocks and crystal clear waters, in the deep blue of the Mediterranean
- We saw the moon every night as there were no clouds ever. Sometimes during the day too. And it looked so huge in the evenings right after sunset. Also, the moonlight shone in the water next to us most evenings when we drove back
- Most of the island had rocky terrain. It was quite yellow and dried out when we went there. And agriculture is also huge here, there were fields everywhere on the island
- The cypress trees (of Van Gogh fame) are everywhere - on precipices, along the streets, everywhere
- There were many cats everywhere, just like the Greek islands
- The houses in all the suburbs (and even the cities) were quite big and beautiful. And most of them had orange roofs
- Everyone speaks English here, I missed that so much in Amsterdam
- Cypriots are very proud of their heritage. And they all love to talk about it. They also don't like their salad being called ‘Greek salad’ 😁. Its always Cypriot salad that we had to ask for
- There is a lot of anti-Turkish feeling everywhere. Graffiti and billboards with that message abound everywhere, especially when driving to Ayia Napa as the highway is close to the border
- People were so so friendly here, all the time. I had only one experience where the person was not extremely friendly to me. I had gone to a local pharmacy, and the pharmacists was not very helpful. Interestingly, the locals also feel the same. I went online and she had got many such bad reviews. Also someone mentioned that she was not Cypriot, so that explained why she wasn’t friendly 😁
- Fresh off the farm strawberries and watermelon were being sold everywhere along the road
- There were many Nepali people around. In fact the melon and strawberry shop near our place had a Nepali person selling the fruits. And there were loads of Russians too. Apparently, the island is one of the places where Russians can still travel even after the war
- Driving was such a breeze here. So relaxed. People are nice, helpful and follow rules. Easy to park and there were no crowds anywhere. It was a pleasure to drive around on the island
- There are loads of beach bars and many of them hold regular beach parties at night
Weather
Everyone says the perfect weather in Cyprus is in Apr-June and Sept-Nov. We went there in August, and it was hot hot hot in Cyprus. And extremely humid. It was 35+ during the day. (apparently warmer than usual). It may have been better if the temperatures were 5 degrees cooler. Then one could do more things in the afternoon also. For now we mostly stayed inside during afternoon or went into the pool or the ocean or went out for lunches sometimes. So not much sightseeing (which closes by 5) was possible. We mostly left our Airbnb only late afternoons. And the evenings were breezy, it was always lovely to be out. In fact, just after sunset, the weather was perfect. And the cities used to become lively just after too.
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