The last divided capital

The old city of Lefkosia (the Greek Cypriot part of the city) is filled with expensive shops, trendy resturants, and cafes. It's pretty much like every other EU capital city in that respect so I didn't intend to stay there too long. At night I walked along the "Green Line", the dividing line of the city. The buildings along the line are all abandoned, so walking around at night was pretty spooky. The next day I headed back across the border for a look at the TRNC part of the city (known as North Nicosia). It's much more interesting.

First I walked along the Venetian walls that overlook the UN buffer zone and then made my way through twisting streets into the heart of the old town.

North Nicosia is like Havana, it's filled with crumbled and decaying buildings but also with real people going about their daily lives. They are currently getting a lot of money from the EU to improve things so I'm glad I got to see the city while it was still loaded with charm. Buildings near the Green Line on this side are also abandoned, and some places appear to be frozen in time.

Looking through the window of an old cafe you get the feeling that the customers abandoned their game 30 years ago and it's been waiting there ever since. I tried to poke my nose into as many windows as possible. I looked into one where they were running a printing press.

I was invited inside and found out that they were making a childrens book.



All through the city there were kids playing in the streets.

This is what happens when you let them play with your camera.

Besides being a unique and interesting place just by existing at all, North Nicosia also got the bulk of the historic sites in the city, including this medieval caravanserai called the Büyük Han.

And this 17th century caravanserai.

And a huge Gothic church that has been converted into a mosque. After a full day of exploration it was time to get to my next destination, the port city of Girne (aka Kyrenia. Divided or not most cities here are know by a couple names. I assume one is Turkish and the other Greek, but it seems like the Turks will use the Greek name and vice versa so it gets kinda confusing). I just assumed there would be frequent bus service throught the day considering that it's an important city just a half hour away. But I found out that in Cyprus there is no bus service in the evenings at all. Refusing to be stuck I blew all the money I saved by hitching and not paying for attractions the previous day on a taxi ride to Girne.