Nicosia: the Divided City’s Southern (Greek) Side

I left Larnaca for Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus, was the reason for my trip. The last divided capital city in Europe, it is bisected between the Republic of Cyprus in the south and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. When Cyprus got its independence from the British in 1960, conflict simmered between the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots. It boiled over in 1963 in the superbly named “Bloody Christmas” (not to be confused with the very entertaining horror movie Christmas Bloody Christmas) when Greek Cypriot policeman killed two Turkish Cypriots. Violence erupted and over about four days, and ending on Christmas Day. 538 people were killed, with the Turkish Cypriots taking a little more of the casualties. Following that, more conflict until 1974 when the Greek side tried to take over the Turkish side and the Turkish side in turn invaded the Greek side. So a proper demilitarized zone (officially the United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus) was set up between the two states and dividing Nicosia in half. And that is what I wanted to see.

Getting to Nicosia

Unless you’re driving, the easiest way to get from Larnaca to Nicosia is by bus. It’s just a regular city bus that runs between the two cities and costs about €7.00. They leave about every 30 to 60 minutes from a bus stop on the main road in Larnaca that runs parallel to the sea. You can’t pre book and I recommend getting there early because the day that I went there were so many people that the bus filled up with not everyone getting on board. Also being the first person there doesn’t necessarily guarantee a seat, so I recommend arriving early and having sharp elbows.  The ride was pleasant and dropped me off right in the town, on the Greek side.

Where I stayed

I made my way to my hotel, Kipros Accommodation.  It was an odd little place but with some charm. It was a good location, and I had a room with a private bathroom sort of upstairs from a tiny little reception area. It didn’t have much in the way of amenities, but it had everything that I needed and when I arrived until the room was ready they immediately offered me coffee which I appreciated. I had decided that I would spend my two days in Nicosia spending one night on the Greek side and one night on the Turkish side so I could have the best of both worlds.

Exploring Nicosia

I went out to explore.

The main attraction for me in Nicosia was really the border, but other than that it was a delightful town with attractive old streets and some old churches and occasionally a bit of street art. There were a couple of streets lined with busy restaurants and shops. (There was much more to the city outside of the more historical centre in which I spent most of my time but I didn’t venture into the other part of the city except to find the odd cigar store.) It doesn’t rank as one of the most charming European cities that I’ve been to, but I absolutely liked it and I think it was a good place to spend a day and a night. Also, I was happy to be there at Christmas as they were nice Christmas decorations and occasionally people playing live music and it had a good festive atmosphere.

I visited the Cyprus Museum, which was a small to medium sized museum of antiquities, which was excellent. Given the age and geography of Cyprus and the fact that Nicosia itself has been inhabited for 5500 years, the artifacts on display were impressive. The museum itself feels kind of old and rough around the edges, but the displays were wonderful.

I also visited the excellent Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre, better known as the NiMAC, which is the largest contemporary Art Museum in Cyprus. It was also enjoyable and filled with new and unusual art and installations.

I wandered around and explored the area, which was interesting because occasionally I would be walking down a street and then suddenly come to a dead end, not because the street ended but because it would be the green line border between the city’s halves. There were two places that had checkpoints, but other than that the streets would end with barrels stacked high and barbed wire with a patrolman on a little platform of above, or sometimes it would just be another wall cutting the street in half with video cameras on top monitoring activities. It was very peculiar. I was so curious to crossover but that would wait until the next morning.

Smoking Cigars in Nicosia

One of the best surprises about Cyprus was that it is an excellent place for cigars and cigar smoking. There were several cigar stores on the Greek side, and I visited about three of them including a La Casa del Habano. All of the stores had wonderful selections and tremendous prices. I bought a box of Ramon Allones Specially Selected and it cost about the same as what you would pay in Cuba. (And, no, they weren’t counterfeits.) The first store that I went to (Cigar Haven) was a tiny store with a little humidor and a couple of chairs. It also had a lounge, but I opted to sit in the store and chat with the owner. A delightful guy we chatted about cigars and life in Cyprus, and he played Tom Jones music nonstop. Tom Jones actually became sort of the unofficial soundtrack of my time in Cyprus because people everywhere seem to be playing his music. I learned that he had recently performed there and lot of people had (re)discovered his music and were digging it. I can’t complain.

I enjoyed my visit to that cigar store, but I also smoked at the lounge at the La Casa del Habano, which was on a residential street in a yellow house and I went to another store with the lounge (Tobacco House Cyprus) and chatted with the guys there as well. The best thing was smoking cigars outside of the shops wasn’t really a problem. Occasionally a restaurant would have a no smoking sign on their patio but for the most part smoking on any patio was fine.

My greatest smoking experience there though was when I saw this adorable little cafe, and I wanted to go there for breakfast. They had a few seats outside and I thought it would be perfect to sit outside and have my morning cigar (a Davidoff); it was raining, but there was an awning over the patio. I went inside and asked the fellow if I could sit outside and he said “why don’t you sit inside?” And I said “Because I want to smoke.” Her replied, “You can smoke inside.” I said, “Can I smoke this?” And I held up the cigar, thinking that surely that would be a deal breaker, but he smiled and said, “It is no problem, you are in Cyprus.” I melted with warmth and happiness. I ordered to show my appreciation I ordered more food and coffees than I would have normally and I sat there enjoying my coffee and my cigar in this charming cafe, which had several cats in it by the way, and no one even looked at me sideways. How civilized.

All in all, I had about a day and a half on the Greek side of Nicosia. I was satisfied with that amount of time, but I also wouldn’t object to going back. I think I would like to see more of the country and I would certainly go back and avail myself of the hospitable cigar culture there.

But after a nice sleep, I awoke the next morning had my cigar breakfast and prepared to cross the border to the other side of the city. More on that in the next post.