Nicosia

Instead of taking the motorway from Limassol to Nicosia all the way, our group made a detour via the picturesque mountain village of Pano Lefkara. This is one of the main areas where lace is still produced by hand. Some of the smaller, handkerchief size pieces, take a week to make. How much you ask? 20€ .

As you drive through the countryside, it's hard not to notice all the fruits and vegetables that are grown in Cyprus. We tend to think only about the abundance of olive trees, but Cyprus grows just about everything except pineapples.

The dream of every Greek Cypriot is to have his own home. Almost all the villas you see rising above the hills throughout Cyprus are new. The old is painstakingly restored with government grants. So, you will find the old town centres are lovingly preserved for future generations to enjoy. What you won't find are greedy developers bulldozing large tracts of old properties to build something new.

Nicosia remains the only divided capital in the western world. Since 1974, The Turks have occupied the northern part of the city as well as the northern part of the island. The Turkish Cypriots, who lived in the south and moved to the north, were compensated by the Turkish Government with land, a house and in some cases a car. Similar compensation was given, by the Cypriot Government, to Greek Cypriots who moved to the south. Despite negotiations between both parties, the Turks have not indicated their willingness to leave the island. In fact, to underscore their point, they have brought in thousands of mainland Turks to live in the northern territory.

If you wanted to phone someone in the Turkish occupied zone, you might only be twenty feet from that person, but your call would be routed through Turkey, Asia – a continent away. The border itself is very informal and relaxed. To cross from Cyprus to the so called “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus”, you present your passport and a very official looking person stamps a piece of paper. You get 90 days to visit or get Turkish delight. Now, let's say you fly into the “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus”. Your passport will be stamped on arrival.

So you think a trip to Greek Cypriot Cyprus would be a good move. Guess what, you will most likely be refused entry because of your passport stamp. So how come I can go from Nicosia in the south to Nicosia in the north and return without a problem? The Cypriots just pretend you haven't been there because your passport isn't stamped by the Turks.

Nicosia is a sprawling metropolis of 250.000 people . While tourists do visit, it is not their usual destination. I wish I'd had more time to visit Nicosia, but half a day doesn't do it justice. I saw the Cypriot version of the Statue of Liberty, and the Cathedral of St. John with its magnificent wall paintings.