North Cyprus in 2 Days

foreign are we gonna need for an intro to explain just everything well this is the island of Cyprus no disagreement so far however if you turn on a geopolitical map you will see huh well that's gotta have an interesting backstory now precisely because I'm not into making hour long videos just half hour long videos that I assumed would be 12 minutes long I'm actually going to Outsource the heavy lifting of the history into the next video because the history of Cyprus is just way too intricate and fascinating a song let's leave it in the margins though to be honest you might as well just go check out Kings and Generals they did a great breakdown as well the bite size revision version okay British colony Independence sort of Britain held onto these air bases unrest a big 1974 War the UN draws this big line that separates the Republic of Cyprus that is predominantly Greek speaking from the declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus or from here on in trnc low angle flag shot which is mainly Turkish speaking but unrecognized as a nation internationally except by well turkey now that is a disgracefully brief summary so watch the history video after this one for a little bit more nuance can't tell you just how uninterested I am in having a geopolitical slap fight occurring in the comments below I am categorically not taking a side so in the video I'll be mostly referring to the trnc as Northern Cyprus and the Republic the south of Cyprus as Southern Cyprus because that's where they are no beef and if I don't use a particular form of words you approve or particular absence of nuance that you would like if you just flick through the dictionary and find bad faith criticism and then grow up but to start off with statements that no one could possibly get mad at I think some of the highlights in the north actually beat out some of what you can see in the South which is why I was super buzzing that we made it over as it's not entirely straightforward to get to so after two days in the South we got a cab to take us to the north and across the line the road to Nicosia was pretty uneventful we only caught brief glimpses of the UN buffer I mean best I got was this sign and this unimpressive three seconds I mean it's basically a line of barbed wire with just some waste ground around the other side the University of Nicosia even overlooks it so it's not that special the UN buffer line as it's drawn it's not even that precise I mean according to GPS at this exact moment we crossed into the UN buffer but there were still houses and just well all these trees anyway having a taxi takes across the border seem like the easiest choice having not tried it before and not knowing what the sich is just seemed better having a native speaker you know just in case something was amiss and hey bottom line it was very straightforward no real drama the border crossing which no shock you can't film very uneventful because we're in a cab waved through on the Greek side quick passport check at the Turkish booth on the other side whole thing about 15 minutes nothing intimidating and then we're on the Turkish side and it's pretty normal there's many things that flash past the window too rapidly to get any decent footage huge trnc Flags trnc flag etched on the Mountainside and even a bright gold mosque I'm actually really annoyed about this so you've got this huge mosque just shining bright gold like in the middle of the landscape and I was trying to film this from the car window and for some reason my camera was just so focused on the smears on the near window it was all completely out of focus so I deleted that shot when I was short in space and I figured we'd just catch it on the return journey and then we never came back the same way so all I've got is this shot from someone else's website because it's so new no one's actually taken any photos of it yet so there you go they have Burger King in the north so I guess that's something it's got a lot of English signage round two which I had been wondering about before we arrived but yeah if you're expecting something like that mildly offensive orientalist intro from Aladdin yeah this is not it anyway my footage for the drive was bad we got into kyrenia the weather didn't really look too pleased to see us but there was a little bit of blue poking through we stopped off at a cafe to have brunch and thanks to the Lira being so weak right now all of this was about 12 quid for breakfast drinks and just everything all in for both of us but yeah nothing like a spot of Turkish coffee and a Turkish tea to get you in the mood well walks along the sea wall and I got all I wanted for Christmas I mean look at that Sunshine as well as just how beautiful the water is and that is kyrenia Castle a castle turned Venetian Fort hence the massive bastions I mean if you told me this was just the next town on from hania or rethimno on Crete well I mean I deny it furiously because there's no way I'd let something this huge get past me but I mean it might as well be the layout feels very familiar and the relaxed Venetian Port Vibe was just as present the inside of the castle is a bit of a funny mix of former medieval parts and upgrades for the age of gunpowder they're like in modern times they could have selected a slightly more sympathetic material for the roofs but anyway amazing views there's also the Shipwreck Museum with a boat just like over 2 000 years old we got a drink overlooking the harbor and took the weight off our shoulders normally this would be where I'd get an espresso vanity shot but even though we'd ordered a coffee it never actually materialized so I just got this cold beer and said um FES is everywhere here I'm kind of split on it it's it's okay but it's not that great now I'm a bit embarrassed about what happened next we tried to find the bus station but there was like nothing at all at the pin where all the maps had pointed so we went to here which is the terminal but there was no one there either no tickets nothing doing just some guys in a cafe directed us back to where we started now we knew in advance there were no official bus timetables but I really wasn't prepared for there to be no bus stops either that feels like giving us a rather unfair disadvantage anyway yeah look at us the tourists who couldn't figure out the bus Network because everything was in Turkish well eventually we just had to give up uh we jumped to the cab which was more than we were aiming to spend but in the end it was like 900 Lira which because the lira's at Rock Bottom was about 45 pounds which for a major connection across the whole island for both of us it's like oh yeah well not that much really okay but I I really defy you to do better without considerable faff well the mountain range that isolates the North Coast is quite stunningly beautiful but then all of a sudden it drops off on the other side onto a remarkably flat plane now kyrenia is one thing really not doing a very good job of getting footage on the road this trip anyway we got into famagusta about the time a thunderstorm seems to be playing out just to the north the room was pretty nice once again British plugs same as the South along with the driving on the left it was a bit of a noisy one at one point I thought the aircon had gone to like beast mode but I thought there was a petrol station next door and the car wash was just a pretty intense sounding well our combination was in the new town but a short walk away and these are the walls of famagusta and not to dive headlong into this but this is probably the best example of Venetian defenses we've seen anywhere I mean heraklian's walls are taller and more extensive but the whole place is lined with basketball courts and parked cars which is well basically everyone does with their Venetian fortifications use it as parking space but this you can clearly see without obstruction and they're in a great state of preservation look as historic atmospheric towns on Cyprus go Fama Goose that easily clinches it as the most exciting pretty sort of open with that you know especially when I was trying to get Jen enthused about including Northern Cyprus on our trip it's packed the brim with ruined churches of both Gothic and Byzantine architectural conventions it's quite unlike anything else not just the amount that's there yet remarkably few people yeah based on the physical footprint of the Town famagusta felt quite empty like only a third the number of humans it would take just to occupy the buildings but not to be outdone they're trying to get as many sleeping dogs under one car at once and yeah not a huge choice of restaurants either this place seemed pretty buzzing we asked for a menu but nope there isn't one there's just a huge spread they bring out to everyone's standard so okay and oh whoa okay you were not kidding yeah we really enjoyed this stayed out late that evening went home very full and content so next morning was the one morning I didn't leap out of bed too early we had a cab coming at 10 so rather than going to the old town we stuck around the new four coffee and breakfast the coffee was good it wasn't exceptional but it was Vivid it had interesting flavors and good effort and gone in so that's good watching this Turkish presenter reading his notes from a laptop and nope still not sure what's happening here so we got a cab just out of the north of the town the first place we're going the cab driver hadn't heard of it which was surprising as this is one of the most significant Bronze Age sites on the island then again I would assume that was common knowledge because that's just who I am now uh Habit wired it would be closed but there are a couple of people hanging out in this office and for a quantity of Lira approximating 50p we got to explore this site that could use a little tidying sure but ah just thrilled it was open for us to explore even though there's no like towering remains here and Comey is hugely significant especially for fines there's a bunch in the British Museum and every time I see one that was found in Comey I'm doubly pleased to have witnessed it for ourselves we then walk down the road which probably not what most people do but it made sense with the chain of things we wanted to see and look scarcity vehicles around in this bit there was this Monastery with surprisingly extensive Museum collections then there was the catacombs almost makes me want to make some very specific deposits just so a future archaeologist has to utter the sentence that these catacombs contain two cat tombs and two hat cones just me okay there are also these tombs that were sadly not open apart from just to look at from the gates and then alongside the road and round to salamis but first quick stop for a drink and to make a fuss of the doggies hi doggy salamis was amazing like on an island already famed for its Roman ruins these are more impressive in height and complexity than both Korean and pathos sadly we then had to cross this industrial Wasteland on foot I mean yeah it's just you pay I mean God this must be among some of the best beaches on Cyprus I mean not least for the absence of other people I'm not claiming to have examined each Beach exhaustedly but lonica is nowhere near as nice and pathos is this for the most part it was kind of windy which was keeping the heat bearable it's about an hour walk from salamis to glapsides or glapsiders whichever it is with this ruined Basilica on the way if you know where to look uh we stopped off for a bit of a rest the water temperature well early May on a fairly windy day I mean it passed the testes test like it just hits you in the nuts and it's like yeah okay that's not bath water but it's not gonna be a problem I have just such happy memories of this day exploring on foot the warmth the open Countryside the beach just great early mid-afternoon when we got the cab back so took off on foot to see more of the Old Town of famacusta it is remarkable just how separated the old city and the new town are it's a completely clean break and look I'm not saying I'm against it I mean quite the opposite I think it has the effect of keeping the Old Town particularly special it's just unusual that it's this complete Island essentially I mean I can't think of another Venetian town like it where the old and new don't bleed across at all spend some more time seeing the ruined churches heard Incubus playing from this place and realized I was hazardously low on coffee interestingly the dude didn't know about iced espresso but maybe an iced Americano which was pretty great and about the same thing well we ended up here for dinner with great views across the rooftops not that you care but it was actually Jen and my fifth wedding anniversary that day it was fine um and I hadn't seen one of these in a while but the world's weirdest format to serve water dessert menu um yup okay the back cover was actually proper decent so that was dope walk back at dusk along the Venetian walls with the call to prayer echoing along the length didn't sleep well that night not least with the call to prayer kicking in at around 4 45. but got up to catch the sunrise was surreal to see the main road just completely deserted the aim was to catch Sunrise from the walls which I sort of managed scuttled around the town may need to catch the ruined churches I hadn't seen the previous day there are so many um anyway with time and annoyingly camera space running out gonna have to make some tough choices well nothing was actually stirring in the old town so I went a bit further into the new town to find some coffee and this place was yeah again pretty great I know it's not a big enough sample size and the coffee here definitely wasn't bad but the South narrowly clinches it with the better coffee if I could just underline because of the status of the trnc as unrecognized it might give you the impression you're gonna find some failed state with residents walking around on dirt streets so um yeah tell me that this doesn't look like any other vibrant European city this is not Somalia the trnc is a very chill place with modern shops and a way of life only fractionally different from the UK mostly by virtue of the Heat and this use of the Costa franchise which I have a feeling would not have approved of this change of their logo and branding well it was time to leave famagusta interesting Twist on our route back the cab driver opted for the famagusta checkpoint which was smart as there were no cues except they wouldn't let him through even with the international driving license paperwork he had so we ended up back on the Turkish side and heading for left kosher which was another hour so we saw the middle of the north again and once again no particularly riveting footage to speak of thankfully the left kosher Crossing was very easy though the queues were backing up on the other side it was all made much more gripping by the fact that I was busting for the bathroom however even though we are now back on the south of the line I am very happy to say the story didn't entirely end there having looked around the south of Nicosia I could not resist having a go at just one last thing so here's the deal this is ledra Street and it carries on across buffer zone it's a pedestrian only Crossing and you just show your passport to one side and then the other and you're a cross so we just had a brief look around the northern side of left kosher and gosh darn it if I didn't know this was here but 90 seconds from the border you see this and how cool is this this is the boyak Han which dates to just after the Ottomans taking over and it's filled with quirky little shops sadly one of the major things I wanted to see on the other side this is the saleemia Kami uh probably got that wrong as formerly a cathedral but it was clad head to toe in scaffolding all except the one Tower and you know it's like once the scaffolding goes up on a cathedral it's years before it comes off so that's too bad I guess but I mean look okay at least it's having work done to keep it nice had a quiet drink not far from the checkpoints and then just walk back again super easy back the reek side to catch bus and get to the airport and look this gives me a degree of hope it's not everything but to be able to stroll through ballpark five minutes to go through both checkpoints if the queues haven't built up too much and assuming you've got a British or EU passport just to have a quiet drink on the other side and then stroll back look these aren't two communities hell-bent on killing each other this is an aging geopolitical split that for many of the next generation of cypriots on both sides of the line just isn't really a thing there's a generation coming up who have no interest in this still having the trappings of a war zone they're just happy to have an iced espresso and hang out together final thoughts on the North all were really warm and smiley and pleased to see us I mean if you asked us what we were doing in the North or why couldn't tell if that was just a translation or Genuine incredulity but they were definitely pleased to see us um English levels were impressive not as many people fluent as the South but everyone still managed simple exchanges and with most people you could hold a conversation small word of caution I have seen this plant before but I have never had such an issue with it needling me in the foot every time I stepped off the path to get a shot end of every day you're still yanking them out of your socks it's brutal uh in case you're wondering as a predominantly Islamic area the north is very chill alcohol is available from almost every store Beachwear at the beach basically as long as you're not doing something that would be considered anti-social anywhere else like urinating into someone's handbag while burning the national flag now of course I'm not animating that look you'll be entirely fine and yeah having now done it I can confirm that no part of getting to or being in the north was all that stressful and considering all the amazing things we've got to experience from making the crossing I am so glad we did it's a big recommend from me and hey here's hoping that as the years go on Things become even more chill and the buffer zone becomes even more permeable to the point that everyone agrees it just isn't needed anymore however as promised earlier next episode is going to be a quick fire summary of cypriot history from ancient times all the way up to the present day so check that out in the meantime the music you've been hearing in the background is ours you can find that on bandcamp.com and if you want to support the channel that's the place to do it please follow us on Instagram and Twitter and we'll catch you very soon

Channel: Forest Archaic Collective

Views: 19,697

Keywords: Famagusta, Kyrenia, Girne, Lefkosia, Salamis, TRNC

Id: FVZhh-riVqI

Length: 18min 16sec (1096 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 20 2023