Today was our first full day in Cyprus!! After 3 flights and 2 bus rides, we finally arrived at our hotel around 8pm local time. I had slept a grand total of three hours over the various legs of our journey but I was so excited to finally have arrived that I didn’t feel tired at all. After getting settled in the hotel, I walked around with some friends to get a sense of the area, grabbed some dinner, and went to bed so that I would be ready to go the next morning.
This morning was our latest wake up of the trip as our meeting time was at 10am. We had a little breakfast at the hotel and then met up with our representative from the University of Nicosia (UNIC). She gave us a tour of the New City. I loved walking around because it felt so different when compared to the hustle and buzz of east coast cities that I am used to such as Philadelphia or New York. Everything felt much more calm and peaceful. The weather was absolutely beautiful and I was happy to have left the rain in Pittsburgh.
After touring the New City, we had a couple hours to ourselves. A few of us first grabbed a coffee at a local place in the New City called BrewLab. I had a mocha because I absolutely love chocolate and I thought it was pretty good. Then we stopped at a bakery a couple of stores down and my roommate (Elena) and I split a bread stuffed with halloumi. Halloumi is a popular Cyprian cheese made from goat milk. It was my first time ever trying it and I really enjoyed it.
After lunch, we met back up with the big group and went to the University of Nicosia for a short orientation and tour of the campus. We then returned to the hotel and had about an hour before our next tour. Elena went back to our room and relaxed which was nice after a day of being on our feet.
The next tour was of the Old City which was the part of Nicosia that the hotel was located in. There is a rich history in the Old City of Nicosia and I really enjoyed learning about it. One of my favorite parts of traveling is learning about the ancient history of an area because I find it so fascinating to see how much of the history has been preserved. One of the things that I found most interesting was seeing the division between the Cyprian side of the capital and the Turkish occupied side. The history of the occupation is so intriguing and to see it in person was very interesting. Anywhere there is a wall or a guard post on the Cyprian side is painted in the colors of the Greek flag (white and blue) to honor the heritage of the guards (as Turkish Cypriots do not serve). The fact that this divide is such a normal part of everyday life despite the opposition from many Cypriots is something I have never seen or experienced before. Our tour ended at the tavern where we all ate dinner. We were served so many different small plates that I cannot even count. I tried and enjoyed everything that was brought to us. One of the dishes that really stuck out to me was feta that was coated in sesame seeds and honey. The contrast between the feta and the sweet of honey was amazing and I couldn’t help but get seconds. During dinner, our guide from UNIC taught some of us some common Greek phrase such as please/your welcome (barakalo) and thank you (efharisto). I plan on studying up tonight and hopefully being able to us then tomorrow.
Overall, I had an amazing first day and I cannot wait to see what tomorrow brings!