People often talk about what one goes through when traveling to a new country, like the culture shock. In my previous experiences of going abroad, I have never had any issue with this. And I would say that I am also not experiencing culture shock in Cyprus. However, for the first time I had some trouble adjusting and it’s all related to transportation.
People in Cyprus rarely walk or take public transport to get somewhere, they almost always go by car. As someone who cannot drive, I was a little nervous to learn that there are no trains, the busses are often late and the busses don’t drive till late in the evening. So far, I have mostly managed to get around the city by walking and if something is further away, I can take a bus. For activities outside the city, I might have to depend on others.
Despite the majority of my experience of exploring Nicosia being done on foot, I have still found it to be a big adjustment that people drive on the left side of the road here. While you should always look both ways before crossing a road, I kept forgetting which direction the cars are supposed to be coming from, meaning I had to pay a little extra attention.
Additionally, pavements aren’t present everywhere, really small or sometimes blocked by garbage containers, meaning you might have to step onto the road for a bit before being back to walking on the pavement. Since this happens quite frequently, it is important to remember the cars drive on the left side of the road. Although, again, looking before stepping onto a road is always advisable.
Another thing I noticed is that people here often don’t use their turn signal. Sometimes when I cross roads that were seemingly safe to cross, because no car was signalling, there would end up driving cars onto that road. Some drivers do signal their turns, but it has happened often enough that there is suddenly a car on the road I am actively crossing, that I feel it is worth mentioning. Since I would prefer not to get hit by a car, I have taken to waiting for all cars to pass even if no one is signalling that they will turn onto the road I will be crossing. Sometimes, this means I am waiting for nothing, but most times there will be a few cars that end up turning onto the road.
Trouble crossing roads brings me to my next traffic related issue: where are the pedestrian traffic lights? Some bigger intersections do have pedestrian traffic lights, but a lot of intersections don’t, so you just have to wait and see when it is safe to cross. When you walk the same route every day, you get used to the intersection and will know when it is your turn to cross, but on unfamiliar intersections it can be a gamble. I have often ended up hurrying the last few steps, because it turned out that it was actually not the best time for me to cross the road. And there may have been a few times when my timing was not ideal, resulting in people honking at me. But not to worry, I have checked and honking is very common in Cyprus.
Overall, I am hoping I will soon get used to the driving behaviour in Cyprus and maybe, in a few weeks or months, I will even try to bike through Nicosia. I don’t think I am ready to brave the streets of Nicosia by bike just yet, so for now I will stick to walking.