Thoughts of Cyprus

It is a crazy place...

Schitzophrenic.

The Northern part of the island is like no-where else. This is because technically it doesn't exist. It is unrecognised by the international community (apart from Turkey), and yet through some creative interpretation of international law it is counted as part of the EU.Its renegade status means that there are NONE of the large international businesses there (1). It must be one of the only countries in the world without a Starbucks, a Macdonalds or a Wallmart (or whatever the local re-branding is).

On the other hand the south of the island is full of all of the conveniences of western civilization. All of the stores and resteraunts seem to be there (even Nandos!) It is a comforting feeling, but slightly sad that the center of the southern half of Nicosea is just like the center of any large European city.

I think Cyprus is possibly the only place in the world where you can step from the Middle East, to the middle of Europe in the space of 100 meters...



(1) Apart from coca-cola of course... I suspect that you could visit tribes of remote amazonians that haven't had contact with the outside world for hundreds of years, and there would be 2 constants. The first would be coca-cola, and the second would be that they all supported Man Utd...