So… the trip for April is……Cyprus! Yes, the sunny and politically divided island nation in the eastern Mediterranean. It was time for another weekend trip and Cyprus seemed like a good idea for a little late spring holiday. I also got to meet up with one of my friends from college who was born in Cyprus and currently lives in the capitol.


The water around the island was an amazing shade of blue. The coastline on the West side of the island was quite rocky in places with smooth pebble beaches. This picture is of Petra tou Romiou, allegedly the birthplace of Aphrodite. The beach was covered with smooth, flat, stones that were perfect for skimming across the top of the water.

The capitol of Cyprus is Nicosia and is at the middle of the island’s Turkish/Greek conflict. Since 1974 when the Turks invaded the northern part of the island, Cyprus has been split between the Greek and Turkish parts. Nicosia is split in half by a UN-controlled demilitarized buffer zone. All the streets are blocked along the line except for a few official crossings. Only recently has it been possible to cross the line and travel into the North (which of course I did). It was pretty crazy to see the bullet holes in the sides of buildings and abandoned machinegun bunkers all through the city.

Cyprus did have some amazing ancient Greek and Roman archeological ruins. While I was there I visited several different sites but my favorite was, called Salamis. This was on the eastern part of the island in Northern Cyprus. Since it was north of the line there were very few tourists. It took more than two hours to walk around the entire site but my travel partner and I only saw two or three other people. The site is more than 3000 years old and had amazing views overlooking the ocean. It was easy to see why someone a long time ago would have wanted to build a city there.