In the category of “Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it” we went on a segway tour of Nicosia. One of our friends wanted to do something goofy for her husband’s birthday, so eight of us got together and went for an evening tour. Nicosia is small, so I didn’t expect to see much we hadn’t already seen, but as it turns out there are nooks and crannies that we haven’t made it to yet.
Before we could embark, we had to do a little Segway practice. I kept remembering this video which makes me laugh uncontrollably, even now. Thankfully our guide was a good teacher and there were no incidents, though I do slightly resent that he made all of the women go first because he assumed we needed the most practice. (I won the segway race later, so I showed him how women can drive.) It’s also worth adding that since most tours I’m aware don’t cross the green line, this post only covers the Greek municipality (i.e., southern part) of Nicosia.
Our first stop was the Archbishop’s palace. The palace itself isn’t that interesting, but out front they have these two vintage cars parked. Why, you ask? Well, the car on the left is a Cadillac that was given to Archbishop Makarios by JFK. The car on the right is a Mercedes given to him by Khrushchev. As far as I know we don’t give heads of state cars anymore, but it was the height of the Cold War and Cyprus was a committed member of the non-aligned movement, so perhaps we were trying to woo them.
In the bottom center of the photo, the graffiti that says “Kypros – Kibris – Enosis” — this is pro-solution graffiti, as it says Cyprus (in Greek), Cyprus (in Turkish), and Union (in Greek).
Same graffiti, different meaning– with the Turkish “Kibris” scratched out, it says Cyprus Enosis in Greek only. Enosis in Cyprus is most commonly associated with the desire of Greek Cypriots to officially become part of Greece. That idea pre-dated Cyprus’ independence from Britain, and union with Greece or Turkey was expressly forbidden in the Treaty of Guarantee that was signed as part of Cyprus’ independence package. The 1974 Greek-backed coup in Cyprus was perpetrated by Greek Cypriots who wanted enosis with Greece. As with all things in Cyprus, the history is complicated.
A peak into the buffer zone that still divides Cyprus and bisects the walled the city. You can see a Turkish military position on the right-hand side.
A beautiful mural showing the many foreign influences in Cyprus– Greek, Ottoman, Phoenician, Lusignan, and more…
The walled city is nearly four hundred years old, so there are many nooks and crannies where cars were never intended to go. Works great for segways though!
The southeastern quarter of Nicosia doesn’t have the heavy pedestrian traffic of the Ledra Street area, and I’m not entirely sure why– in this part of the town, the buildings are beautiful restored with their original character. Here you can see a street with an Ottoman balcony. At the very end of the street you can see a small stone building; that’s the Famagusta Gate, one of three original gates leading through the Venetian walls.
Village mosque with a mini-minaret! One of at least five mosques I can think of within the walled city, but I’ve never actually counted.
Another beautiful building:
Throughout Cyprus, it is fairly common to see old Cypriot doors with lovely ironwork and the dates included in the top. As you can see, this building is from 1908. I love the turquoise color against the traditional Cypriot sandstone building…
Segway parking– cheers to being able to leave them completely unintended while we checked out the nearby church! I wouldn’t even leave loose change visible in my locked car in Ecuador, unless I wanted my windows broken.
Old Greek sign, probably from the 1960s. The middle line is someone’s name (Kyriakou), but my resident Greek speaker didn’t know what the last word means.
We ducked into a local church where the priest was burning some lovely lavender incense. Here is a shop of the top half of the iconostasis. I think I mentioned in an earlier post about how many Orthodox Churches incorporate ostrich eggs into the chandeliers; here are six eggs for you!
Wax babies hung off the iconostasis, usually brought as a prayer for fertility.
The Venetian walls at night, unfortunately I have no model to stand down at the bottom for scale. The internet claims they are about 12 meters tall, but they seem bigger because they are quite thick as well.
The Nicosia liberty monument, which I had never even noticed until this tour– probably because I’m usually speeding past it on the way to my favorite restaurant in the city.
Our tour ended with a totally unnecessary drive (what is the verb for moving via Segway?) down Ledra Street. There were 8 or 9 of us, trying to squeeze down a one-lane pedestrian road that was wall-to-wall with people, dining tables, and benches. There is nothing particularly atmospheric about Ledra Street, it’s nice if you want to people watch or get a bite to eat, but not ideal for a Segway tour. At the top (bottom?) of Ledra you come to the pedestrian crossing, in the foreground is the Republic of Cyprus checkpoint, you walk about 150 feet through the buffer zone and the “TRNC” checkpoint is just down where the bright light in the middle of the picture is.
And here’s a cat, sleeping in the public art:
