Cyprus - Friendly perseverance / Zypern- Freundliches Durchhalten

In the news, Cyprus was previously known to me only in connection with the bank crisis and russian money. After a brief visit, this impression has now changed quite a bit.

Inspite of the difficulties like the turkish military occupation for 40 years, losing more than half of  previous income source by that way, being at the remote edge of the European Union, facing the financical crisis troubles and more, the people of Cyprus remain obstinately friendly to us foreigners. They show perserverance in continuing to rebuild their lifes in the face of all these hardships.
Maybe a legacy of the long-gone British presence?


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Aus den Nachrichten war mir Zypern bisher nur in Verbindung mit der Bankenkrise und russischen Finanzströmen bekannt. Dieses Bild hat sich nun nach einem kurzen Besuch ziemlich verändert.

Trotz der Schwierigkeiten wie der seit 40 Jahren andauernden militärischen türkischen Besatzung, die zum Verlust von über der Hälfte der bisherigen Einnahmenmöglichkeiten führte, dem Schattendasein am äussersten Rand der EU, dem Einbruch durch die Bankenkrise und weiterem, bleiben die Zyprioten hartnäckig freundlich zu uns Ausländern. Sie zeigen ein Durchhaltevermögen darin, ihr Leben erneut aufzubauen im Angesicht all dieser Schwierigkeiten.
Vielleicht ein Erbe der britischen Präsenz vergangener Tage?

Varosha - Imagine London city surrounded by a fence, all people evicted within hours and then closed off to any human presence for the next 40 years to be used as negotiation mass. And yes, that contruction crane has been standing there all this time. Elizabeth Taylor and the like used to go on vacation here. This district delivered more than half of the income of Cyprus at that time, so you can assess the impact this has had on the economy of this small country.

Weddings - Big business, thousands of foreign weddings take place here in the nice climate, so british and eastern european folks come here.

Sea Caves- The southern coast has now partly taken over the role as touristic magnet, combining caribean sand beaches, blue sea and european standards.

Initiative - instead of sitting in the cafeion, why not build an original kiosk to earn some money? The Cypriots do have this drive. Sadly, sprayers have been "creative" here and spoiled the work, so that paint has to be cleaned manually.