When I first arrived in Cyprus I didn’t know what to expect from this island. I was coming from a period abroad because I lived three months in Germany and two in Ireland – two cold countries very different from Italy, where I come from. I didn’t have time to get much information about the geography, the history or the culture of Cyprus, so I decided to let myself be surprised.
While getting off the plane, a heat wave swept over me and it felt like home. As soon as I arrived in my new beautiful apartment, the constant sound of cicadas reminded me of Italian holidays in Sardinia, Sicily and Tuscany. I was feeling at home even though I wasn’t.
During the first days, I was really curious to discover many anecdotes as quickly as I could, but I immediately adapted to the Cypriot motto “slowly slowly”. So, I slowly slowly started to gather information and notice details about the island of Cyprus.
First of all, I didn’t know that Cyprus was located in the far east of Europe. It is much closer to Lebanon, Israel and Turkey than to Greece and Italy!
Secondly, although I don’t speak a word of Greek – except for “kalimera, kalispera, kalinichta, efcaristò and parakalò” – I instantly loved its sound. This language is so pleasant to my ears and I hope to learn it one day. Furthermore, as everyone here can speak English, I was still able to communicate with ease. For this reason, I hope not to be lazy and avoid learning Greek.
Another thing that surprised me is the huge number of cats present on the island. You can find any kind of cat: thin, fat, blue or brown eyed, stray, purebred, and so on. From my balcony, especially during the night, I often hear them fight. It sounds like the cat-version of Fight Club. But, since I love cats, I consider myself in paradise.
Before coming to Cyprus, I couldn’t imagine that ice coffee could be a successful business. Here people are crazy for ice coffee – cappuccino, espresso, latte, americano and more, all in an ice-cold version. Truth be told, with 40 degrees, drinking a big cup of hot coffee sounds like a real pain. So why not drink it cold and enjoy both the flavour of coffee and the freshness of a cold drink? I think it is a perfect combo when living in hot countries.
Leaving aside the first good impressions that I had about Cyprus, there are aspects that surprised me in a negative way.
As I consider myself an environmentally friendly person, it seems that here the environmental problems are not taken seriously enough. For example, the use of cars. Cypriots use the car for everything. It is true that public transport doesn’t work efficiently, but it is not sustainable to have so many cars driving around. Secondly, the air conditioning. I know that it is very warm during summer here, but in every shop, office and on public transport the air conditioning is so strong that people need to put clothes on in order not to freeze. I do realize that living without it would be impossible, but a good idea may be to keep the intensity lower to reduce the polluting effect on the environment. Lastly, I didn’t expect so many skyscrapers. In my personal opinion, they ruin the landscape on an island with so many natural beauties and archaeological sites.
So far, these are the aspects of Cyprus that have impressed me the most. I want to go deeper into what I have discovered and keep on learning as much as I can in order to fully immerse myself in the culture and history of this country and to experience it fully.