We finally made it to Cyprus! Going through customs was a breeze, so hopefully that good start carries on the rest of the trip. As we took a step out of the Larnaca Airport, we felt a nice refreshing breeze, and looked up to find cloudy skies. “A terrible day in Cyprus”, someone joked. A terrible day in Cyprus seems to be a very nice day in Pittsburgh, which have been few and far between, at least during the semester.
Other than the difference in weather, the difference I noticed right away is that people drive on the left side of the road. Good thing we will not be driving here. On our bus ride to the hotel in Limassol, there were only a few houses here and there, and it was mostly open, desert-like fields with small trees. There were plenty of billboards along the road, about half in English and half in Greek. Many were for real estate, which seems to be a large and growing business here. I also noticed this when we arrived in Limassol, with many hotel/apartment style buildings being built and under construction. I have heard Cyprus is being a more common place for English speaking people to immigrate to, as there is a minimal language barrier and the culture is easy to assimilate to, so this makes sense. It is exciting to hear of the growing tourism and immigration to Cyprus, as I had barely heard of the country before applying to the Plus3 Program. Just from spending less than a day here, I can concur that it seems like a nice place to move if you are not looking to feel extremely out of place.
Another difference in culture we observed was that when people go out in groups for food, it is not common to split the bill. Instead, one person pays and people find ways to make it even, such as paying back or alternating who pays. This is understandable and is probably appreciated by restaurant staff. Similar to this, a 20% tip on every meal is not expected. However, if the service is good, it is polite to tip about 5-10%. I assume this is due to better wages for people in the food industry. Also, business hours are shorter than their American counterparts. For example, our hotel does not have staff at the front desk after the evening. The banks also close fairly early at 2 pm, and a lot of things are closed on Sundays. This is slightly inconvenient, but I think a small price to pay for better hours for all of the people who work at these establishments.
Overall, many things are slightly different than they are in the US, but the differences all make sense and one can easily see why things are this way here.
The picture I included is from our walk to the Limassol Marina area, which is about 5-10 minutes from our hotel. It is a beautiful seafront area with lots of restaurants and gelato shops that I will most certainly be frequenting.