Nicosia-Lefkosia

Of course, you have to visit the capital, or rather the divided capital, of Cyprus. A fantastic, huge city with a beautiful old town. And we would actually move to this city in November if the sea weren't so far away. Naturally, we looked into what we could do there beforehand. We had planned two days, but in the end, we actually spent nine days in Nicosia.

On the way to the hotel, we noticed a huge Turkish flag on the mountain. We could then admire it from our room's balcony.

It's insane what lengths the Turks go to in order to provoke the Greeks. The flag is as big as four football fields and is illuminated at night.

The most famous is probably Ledra Street, the largest shopping street in Cyprus.

You can do some really great shopping there, and it's also the street where the passport control stations are located for entering northern Cyprus.

(You can only go there with a passport)

As always, we prepared for our trip to northern Cyprus and headed straight across the border. It was a strange feeling crossing the Green Line, which was once the largest shopping street in Cyprus (we'll write about that in a separate article), into northern Cyprus.

You could immediately see the difference compared to southern Cyprus; development here was far less advanced. We explored the narrow alleyways and also visited the

Caravanserai (Büyuk Han), the oldest building on the north side.

This used to be the place where merchants traded and sold their wares.

Today, it's home to many small shops and restaurants. A very pleasant place to linger. Oh yes, you can always spot the locals there quickly, because they're all playing backgammon.

We continued on to the market halls. There you can find just about anything you can imagine. The downside: it's not always necessarily all fresh.

As we left the halls, we came across Lukas the engine driver.

A really funny guy who cruises through the streets in a little tourist train, showing you some of the sights. With Turkish music playing and lots of fun, you can see a lot, and it's all free.

We had originally planned to head back across the border afterwards, but we passed a small village square. It had really old shops and taverns, and there was even live music.

Of course, we couldn't resist and spent a wonderful afternoon there.

Oh yes, lest I forget, you can pay with euros everywhere there except on the public bus.

Then we continued on to the south side to enjoy the evening by the hotel pool.

On the southern side of Cyprus, there's plenty to see and do, and you can stroll through the old streets of Nicosia.

One particularly beautiful spot is the Shacola Tower (it looks like an office building). On the eleventh floor, there's a museum about the history of Cyprus, and you get a truly fantastic panoramic view of Nicosia. The entrance is on a side street.

From there, we strolled to the smallest cathedral, St. John the Baptist Cathedral—really tiny and covered in gold. Of course, we also had to visit the oldest church in Cyprus, St. Michael the Archangel. What a magnificent building!

We certainly couldn't miss the wonderful Laiki Geitona district. A beautiful old town with typical little tavernas and local shops.

Of course, we couldn't resist going back to northern Cyprus. This time, we were headed to Girna. We were told we could easily get there by bus in 45 minutes. Which was indeed the case, but unfortunately, no one told us that these so-called buses were actually old cars that would definitely have ended up in the junkyard back in Germany. But at least we got to where we wanted to be.

Very beautiful area, but unfortunately there are no beaches, so we had to come up with something else.

We booked a boat tour with swimming and a buffet. It sounded like a great idea, but unfortunately, the seasickness really upset my stomach. I was stuck on the boat for five hours and felt incredibly nauseous.

All in all, aside from the nausea, we wouldn't do it again.

It was a complete tourist trap.

We then went to the bus stop, but unfortunately no bus came. And only after waiting for an hour did the locals tell us that the buses probably leave from somewhere else.

We'd had enough and took a taxi for €25 (the bus ride there was €4) back to the border crossing. A great experience with many obstacles; we wouldn't undertake this trip again from Nicosia.

The next day, we booked a Segway tour with Andreas through GetYourGuide.

We were lucky enough to have Andreas as our only guide, so we didn't need the introduction, since we absolutely love riding Segways.

Andreas did a fantastic job; he spoke to us very slowly and clearly in English, so we could understand everything.

He gave us a fantastic tour through old Nicosia and introduced us to many local artisans.

Among other things, we also visited a wonderful little hidden gem.

Strassen Cafe Apomero =Versteckt

The orange cake there was absolutely amazing.

After that, we drove slowly back and spent the afternoon by the pool.

Because Rainer enjoyed the cake so much, we did the same tour again the next day on the scooter.

This café is definitely worth a visit if you're in Nicosia. Back at the taxi, Rainer apparently thought the day shouldn't end so boringly and quickly organized a scavenger hunt.

He left his cell phone in the taxi, of course on silent. After we located it with my phone, we followed the taxi. Unfortunately, without success at first, until we met Lambro, another taxi driver.

Lambro did everything he could to find our taxi, making countless phone calls until we finally located the driver. He was kind enough to hand the phone over to the hotel. So, after an hour and a half, we were finally able to end our treasure hunt.

We were very relieved and spent the rest of the day by the hotel pool.

We will definitely come back to Nicosia. A wonderful city with so much charm.

Maybe we'll even spend New Year's Eve 2024 in this beautiful city.

We will write about Farmagusta and the Green Line in another article.