Today was our first full day in Cyprus and it was definitely an eventful one. It was very informative with both the New City and Old City tours we did in Nicosia and it was a great experience getting to try the local food and see the University of Nicosia . 

We started off the morning with a walking tour of the New City part of Nicosia, walking through the newly renovated Freedom Square as well as the various streets lined with coffee shops and clothing boutiques. It was really interesting to see how every street corner had a coffee shop and I was intrigued to hear that coffee was considered a social outing where people spend a good two or three hours talking over a cup of coffee. I am a big coffee lover so this definitely seems like something I would have fun doing, especially in contrast to the quick grab-and-go coffee culture in the U.S.. We learned a bit about the newer renovations that had been done to create New City, especially how far it had come since the Venetian Walls had been put up. It was pretty obvious where the separation of the Old City and New City was which was quite unlike anything I had seen before, especially since the history in the U.S. typically doesn’t include foreign invasions like the ones Cyprus went through. We were given a nice break to explore and get some lunch either in the New or Old City during which a few friends and I decided to sit down with some coffee and small pastries from a local bakery. One thing I have noticed from my outings is that service is phenomenal and every Cypriot I have encountered has been incredibly welcoming and refreshing.

Then we departed on a bus to the University of Nicosia where we got a nice introduction to the campus and the Plus3 program in Cyprus overall. We were visiting during the student’s finals week which must’ve been a pretty stressful time for them. It was nice seeing the students around campus and we learned a lot about the exchange programs and students from abroad that the University hosts which I felt was a pretty distinctive feature of this university compared to the colleges in America. There was an outdoor amphitheater that we sat at for a while, soaking in the sun with a nice view of the mountains in the North. 

My favorite part of the day was the tour of the Old City that we did later in the evening. Our tour guide was very passionate and knowledgeable about the rich history that Cyprus hosts. I loved seeing the distinctions between the British and the Ottoman architecture throughout the city, especially the balconies which were very telling of the cultural differences between the two rules! The religious institutions that included both Christian and Ottoman architecture were also beautiful and very telling of what the city has been through and how the people fought for their religious rights and desires. There were a lot of beautiful shops and buildings, including the palace that the first Cyprian president lived in, that we got to see with a gorgeous sunset in the background. I learned that families geared the architecture of their homes to be as secure as possible and protect their families as needed due to the limited security of the town itself. I was also stunned by the story of how the tour guide’s mother hand made the mud blocks that were then used to make her family home over the course of 10 years. We ended the evening with a group dinner at a local restaurant that served us delicious Cyprian foods while we enjoyed the company of the numerous stray cats in the streets of Nicosia, something that would be considered quite strange back in the U.S.