On the bus ride from Limassol to Famagusta, we had a great description of more Cypriot history from our tour guide Georgia. The places we passed by included both an English army base and the northern side of the island under Turkey. One of the things I learned more about as we were traveling there was the complications with the British. As it turns out, the people of Cyprus, primarily the Greeks, were promised unification with Greece if they were to assist England in WW2. Despite this, Britain did not stick with this promise and hired certain Turkish Cypriots as police officers during the Greek Cypriot uprisings after the fact, which effectively pinned the two groups a little more against each other.

Later, when we visited Varosi and Famagusta, it was surreal. All the buildings not only abandoned but completely raided and broken down following the attack of the Turkish. As Georgia told us, it was truly a time capsule to the year 1974 when it took place. Even more impactful, it was where she grew up, so she recognized almost every shop and building around us and told personal stories about them. One in particular that I found interesting and sad was the ice cream stand she remembered (pictured below), which she said sold the first soft-serve ice cream in the area. Seeing how it looks today, along with all of the other buildings, is incredibly depressing as you could tell the life that used to be there. Nevertheless, it was a really engaging experience that brought me a new perspective on the conflict between the two halves of Cyprus. After that, we saw the newer parts of Famagusta that were very pretty along with an extremely complex church.