Today we visited GAP Vassilopoulos, a Cypriot service provider in the shipping industry. GAP was founded in 1964, operate in 10 countries, and has 1500 employees. GAP started off as just shipping, but has evolved into transport and logistics, business solutions technology, airline logistics, financial services, business to business trade, and acquisition. They even operate…

Today we visited Kakopetria, an isolated mountain town in central Cyprus. the landscape of the town is magical with the homes spanning a range of what seems to be over 100 feet of elevation spread through the valleys of the surrounding mountains. The oldest parts of the town are hundreds of years old with the…

Today, our first location was the famous Aphrodite’s rock. Aphrodite’s rock has great significance in Greek mythology, as the name would suggest. It is said to be the exact birth place of the Greek goddess Aphrodite. The rock is special geologically too because it is a different color than the other surrounding ones. Aphrodite’s rock…

Near Famagusta, the ghost town Varosi was a unique sight for sure. The best way I can think of to describe it is an almost film-like apocalyptic town. Almost all buildings still standing but abandoned and slowly deteriorating. A fascinating observation is that the Varosi’s infrastructure from 1974 looks to have been near equivalent to…

Today we visited three companies, Vasiliko cement works, VTTV, and CMMI. Vasiliko is a highly vertically integrated company which produces cement and clinker for domestic use as well as exports. Vasiliko was founded in 1963 and is the current largest heavy industry in Cyprus. The company makes use of their own employees and contractors to…

Our first company visit today was with Bernard-Schulte Ship management. Their Limassol facilities are all located right near the marina, one of the bussyest parts of town. Today I learned that the shipping industry as a whole is regulated by many companies including the IMO, International maritime organization. BSM is currently operating about 600 ships…

Today we learned about different religions here in Cyprus by visiting the St. Lazarus Church and Hala Sultan Tekke. Hala Sultan Tekke is a grave site for one of the prophet Muhammad’s companions who spent a great deal of time in Cyprus during the ancient Turkish/ottoman reign over Cyprus. The building is the oldest remnants…

On our first full day in Cyprus, we visited the Kourion ruins and kolossi castle! Kourion is thousands of years old dating in ancient Roman times. The first part we learned about was a bath house comprised of multiple different rooms each serving its own purpose. The order of the rooms are as follows: main…