Today was our first official day in Cyprus. We started the day off by taking a walking tour of the new city. There is a physical wall, the Venetian Wall, separating the old and new city of Nicosia. Freedom Square is located in the center of Nicosia as a crossover point between the old and new city. The new city holds many modern shops such as malls, clothing stores, boutiques, and coffee shops. Nicosia is known for some of the best coffee shops. The North and South of Cyprus is split by a line called the Green line. The North is home to Turkish Cypriots and the South is home to Greek Cypriots. This Green Line serves as a buffer zone between the two parts. We took a tour of the University of Nicosia where there is a diverse population of students. There are 16,000 students enrolled in the school including those taking courses online. While there are many students from all over the globe, only around 62 American students are enrolled in the university. 

We then visited the old city which had many historical architectural structures. The open balconies of the houses represented the British homes and the closed balconies represented Ottoman homes. The Ottoman homes had closed balconies since women were not allowed to show their faces. One of the first symbols of the church was a dome. The dome represented heaven so when a dome was spotted on a building it was most likely to be a church. We ended the day with a traditional Cyprian family meal. These meals are considered to take around two to three hours for how much is brought out. Each platter was given one after the other starting with a Greek salad. The rest of the meal consisted of pita bread, tzatziki, kabobs, fried cheese, and a yogurt with marmalade for dessert. Unlike in the US, it is not common to tip your server. If you really want to tip your server it is most appropriate to give them a five to ten percent tip compared to a fifteen to twenty percent tip in America. My favorite experience of the day was visiting the old city because of the architecture of the buildings and churches. The most common material used to make the buildings were mud blocks and marble.