cyprus

After a night out on Gemayze Street and a day getting lost on the never-ending hills of Beirut, I finally met up with Catherine in Cyprus! We stayed in Agia Napa, a coastal city on the Greek side of the island. This place is like the Jersey Shore of Cyprus. The streets are lined with kitschy restaurants, little souvenir shops, clubs, strip joints, live music... during the summer, it is supposed to be the hot spot for drunken Greek youth. In March, it was me and Catherine and a dozen 70-year-old's who spent their time day drinking. I had a wonderful time though, surrounded by beautiful bays, and the clear water of the Mediterranean.

We spent our last day in Nicosia. A sign at the checkpoint dividing the Greek and Turkish sides claims “Nicosia: The Last Divided Capital.” From the woman standing behind the front desk at our hostel to the taxi driver who took us to Nicosia, we heard many talks of the “Turkish occupation” from Cyprus' Greek occupants. We didn't have a chance to hear what the people on the Turkish side thought about the division of their island.

You had to present your passport at the check-point in Nicosia, though you didn't need a tangible border to feel the division within the city. On the Greek side, Catherine recognized the brand-name stores from London, and I enjoyed a much-missed Starbucks chai latte. Contrastingly, moments after crossing the border, we heard the call-to-prayer echoing from a mosque. On these streets, I recognized the nameless shops full of heaps of clothing and piles of pistachio sweets, and the many advertisements for Effes beer, from similar alleyways in Syria.

Cyprus was sort of a spur-of-the-moment choice. From the taxis back and forth from Lebanon, where I was forced to rely on my own Arabic and bargaining abilities, to the many hours I spent at airports, it was also a fairly independent trip for me. In between a book and another Starbucks-style coffee, I saw a quote etched in wall at the Larnaka Airport in Cyrpus... something that I feel as a reality now for myself and for many of my friends:

“Every day is a journey, and that journey itself is home.”