The last divided capital city in the world

Continuing our tour on this second day of the weekend in Cyprus and after visiting Larnaca and Limassol the day before which take you not even two hours at each place to visit anyway, we continued towards the capital city, Nicosia: the last divided capital city in the world. Now if you ask me, especially after the disappointing feeling with the other cities, I must confess that my expectations were somehow high, only to find they lowered pretty down and too quickly. Almost all the old Ottoman houses are gone and in its place, tasteless ugly buildings, like the ones you find in mainland Greece everywhere. I do not judge the country after these feelings though, after all, I’ve only been to the major cities and nowhere else, and yes; there are other nicer places to go and sights to visit on the island, for instance, Paphos which will have to wait for another trip to Cyprus.

So, if your plans are coming to Nicosia, or Larnaca and Limassol, then save the hassle, the money and over all, the long flights to reach these destinations. It is unfortunately not worth it if a cultural trip is what you are looking. In the other hand, beaches, yes of course there are. But again, why would you even get on this long flight when you have nicer beaches nearer, also in the Mediterranean Sea? As of now, this trip has merely been for us a tick off the list of places to be and countries to visit.

Take a look at the city’s map, the old walled town core. Dating from the Venetian times when they captured the city in 1489, demolishing churches and palaces to use the masonry for the construction of these fortifications, it is a perfect circle formed of 11 bastions, all of which preserved in a rather good state. Another unique fact is the division of the city in two halves. The north side is Turkish, the south side is Greek. The UN Buffer Zone is what lies in between, basically a no one’s land of derelict buildings and ruins acting as the border between both countries. The buffer zone continues in both sides, splitting the island.

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