I don’t think there was a better way to start out this trip than by getting a lay of the land and taking a tour of the old city, new city, and the University of Nicosia. The city is a lot bigger than I had originally thought and I was impressed with the creativity of Zaha Hadid. The new city is very modern and there are a lot of luxurious shops. I definitely want to spend some more time in the new part of the city and explore all of the different shops that were there.

Despite how nice the new city was, I definitely think I like the old city better. It’s so vintage and it’s something that I’ve never seen before, and the cafes are really cool. On the contrary to the new city, there are a lot more places to eat than shops or boutiques in the old city, and the food is so good. What I liked most about today was the tour of the old city and how I was able to learn so much about the history of Cyprus and the history of the architecture in the old city. Being able to see the physical differences in different archaeological periods and where the archbishop lives was something that really fascinated me.

Seeing UNIC was cool too because it seemed pretty similar to a university in the United States and their campus was nice. I was jealous of how nice their dorms looked, though. Overall today was fun and tiring so I’m looking forward to see what’s in store for the rest of the trip (and to fix my sleep schedule)!