Cyprus represented a significant change up from our usual travel routine. Typically heavy on sightseeing, or activities, with significant driving in between, we anticipated doing almost none of the above in Cyprus. While the country does have its share of worthy sights ( and is loaded with history given its central Mediterranean location ), our purpose while here was pretty much to relax, enjoy time in a few hotels or AirBnb’s, and let someone else do the cooking and cleaning ( I’d still be driving, but not nearly so much ). We’d promised something like this to ourselves, had been remiss in not actually doing it, so with Lois’s birthday falling in the middle of this week it seemed like the perfect excuse – and Cyprus was close, just a short ferry ride away from Mersin where we had just arrived.

Having secured our van in the gated and manned Tasucu port parking lot, we boarded the ferry for Girne ( Kyrenia ) the main ferry port in Northern Cyprus.  Here some explanation is required for those readers not familiar with the politics and geography of Cyprus. Ostensibly an independent country since 1960, in 1974 a conflict arose between the predominantly ethnically Turkish citizens in the northern part of the island and the majority ethnic Greek population in the south. It morphed into a full blown war when Turkey invaded to “protect” ethnic Turks The country has since been divided ( a UN supervised “Green Line” exists to this day ) into the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus in the south and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus ( TRNC )- a kind of quasi state recognized only by Turkey. Oddly, one gets stamped “out” of Turkey upon departure from  the mainland and stamped “in” to the TRNC upon arrival in Northern Cyprus- almost like another country……only it’s not. Fortunately, movement between northern and southern Cyprus is easy, a quick passport presentation, and one is waived through ( both ways ). Curiously, all driving is on the left, a legacy of decades of British control leading up to 1960. Enough with geo-politics, now to exploring Cyprus.

Coming from Turkey ( to the North of Cyprus ) , and due to ferry schedules, our first and last nights were spent in the TRNC. Apart from driving on  the left, the TRNC seemed pretty much like Turkey. Nicosia ( capital of the Republic of Cyprus ) is split between the north and south as mentioned above. Very Turkish in the north , very Greek in the south. We found it interesting that some of the tourism marketing literature even plays into the division, citing the fact that “Nicosia is Europe’s only remaining divided city” ( admittedly it is quite fascinating to wander around and see just exactly how the division operates ). Life goes on, on both sides, and everything seems calm these days but it is really weird to look down streets and see them completely barricaded off and blue UN insignias everywhere.  

The dedicated pedestrian crossings ensured traffic between the two sides only moves where it can be controlled – while photography is supposedly prohibited at the checkpoints, practically every tourist can be seen snapping away ( us included ). The whole process was easy to navigate, just hard to believe such a division still exists. We asked an elderly Cypriot who lived through the war if he saw the possibility of unification, “Not in my lifetime !” he replied. Indeed both sides seem dug in and the status quo, which kind of works, seems likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

Beyond our time in and around Nicosia it was mostly spent relaxing by pools, swimming in the ( still incredibly warm ) Mediterranean wherever we came across nice beaches, and sampling Greek, Turkish and Cypriot food at the myriad restaurants and food stalls that dot the island. It’s hugely popular with British and European tourists, as one would expect, and while November is typically out of season there were still tourists around. The days ranged between 24 and 26 degrees and were mostly sunny – warmer and sunnier than is typical we were informed ( happy with that ! ). 

Paphos, ( popular with the Brits ) in the western extremity, occupied our first couple of days and Ayia Napa, at the eastern end filled the remainder of the time we spent outside Nicosia. We enjoyed both, possibly preferring  Paphos just a bit ( a little less touristy, perhaps because it was a bit more remote). We’d splashed out just a bit on the Ayia Napa accommodation though, and were delighted with the property- almost devoid of tourists, had a huge pool to ourselves and the owners upgraded us to a huge one bedroom unit with a massive deck. We felt very spoilt ( but loved it ! ).

One of our other project’s on Cyprus was to firm up some plans for future travel given we’d backed out of crossing Iraq by land and then hit some roadblocks with our shipping options out of Turkey. Killing a few birds with one stone we decided to store our van in Athens ( Greece ) over Christmas and fly home for a break with our kids and granddaughter. We’d left time to get from Turkey to Athens, and purchased a couple of return tickets home via London from there. This effectively pushed the onwards shipping decision down the road a bit and placed us in Athens when we returned – a popular port with great connections, hopefully something suitable will arise between now and then. Fingers crossed !

In Case You Wondered:

Q: Are there any “hassles” in particular in owning/driving a North American campervan in Europe ( or elsewhere ) ?

A: It is crowded in places. Roads can also be congested in some parts ( and narrow in others – Holland ! ). Many countries have tolls on their main roads which can get costly ( and they charge more for campers ), though these can usually be avoided if one stays off the toll roads.  Laundromats can be hard to find in some countries, or if you can find them they are of the “we’ll do it for you” variety ( costly, and slow – we prefer self serve ). Mind-boggling ( to us anyway ) is the number of places that have a washing machine only, no dryer ! Not convenient when you don’t want to hang around and waste time watching your clothes dry. Oh, and diesel is expensive in Europe ( as is gasoline ).
That’s a pretty short list of ( fairly minor ) grievances and overall it’s been a wonderful place to travel with a van ( hardly surprising then, that many Europeans also have motorhomes/campervans ). As a result the whole continent is generally well set up with RV infrastructure. It’s been critically important to have a cassette style toilet for easy dumping of waste – many times we use a simple toilet to empty it ( the biggest benefit of a cassette ) as North American style “black water” stations are almost unheard of in many places here. It’s also been helpful to be able to charge our batteries on the European 240v electrical system ( we have a dedicated 240v input charger in addition to our base 120v system ). Used rarely, but good to have. What’s also been critically important to making life manageable so far is our ability to be “off grid” for extended periods – big solar capacity (1,000w), big Lithium battery capacity (500a/h), good DCDC charger, and big water tank ( 165litre in total ). Not “scrambling” for power or water is key! Induction cooking has been wonderful – no searching for propane and struggling with all the different European fittings.

We still have much more of Europe and beyond to explore but that’s a quick overview so far. Hopefully we’ll  continue to feel the same way as we explore further…😊.