by The legacy in Great Britain in Cyprus was obvious as soon as I was from the airport. The busy street was lined with signs on which “drive on the left!” Was asked!
“We are part of the EU, so people think that we drive here. You would not believe that the number of accidents on the street from the airport from the airport from the airport will be called,” Giorgos told me from the car rental.
A British protectorate from 1878 to 1914, which was occupied from 1914 to 1925 and finally a crown colony, British Great Britain in 1960. However, as a condition for the handover, they held two sovereign basic areas: Akrotiri and Dhekelia. They include around three percent of the island and belong to the 14 surviving British overseas areas, together with Gibraltar, the Falkland Islands and (for the time being) the area of the British Indian ocean.
“You are in our country, but you have your own laws, your own schools even have your own police and report on the British Ministry of Defense,” explained the Cypriot friend Vassiliki the following day when we broke miles of miles of barbed wire fences that separated us from Akrotiri, with its gold beaches and salt areas, which were played with Rosa Flammingos flames.
Surprisingly, there was no control point to enter Akrotiri on the southernmost Cyprus tip. “However, they cannot enter the military areas,” warned Vassiliki.
In contrast to Limassol’s skyscrapers, which glittered over the bay like knife in a bright sunshine, this enclave, which was inhabited by British military personnel and their families together with several thousand Cypriots, reminded me of Lewisham in the 1980s. British flags hung limp over Indian restaurants, pubs carried bright facades, and there were rows with closed shops.
“Our customers are really fascinated by this little -known British territory in the Mediterranean with its red post boxes, riding clubs and British supermarket chains,” said Morgan Bourven from Ypt, a British company that leads tours through Akrotiri and Dhekelia.
According to the local newspaper The Cyprus Mail, around 40,000 British citizens – mainly pensioners – live in Cyprus. I lived in Paphos, a retort by the sea where around 20,000 of them live. In contrast to the oppressed sovereign base areas, Paphos was a busy mess of brand new apartment blocks, many with diving pools and gardens in pocket size.
Rob and Jules from Birmingham met on the sandy beach opposite the city of the city, an underground necropolis, in which local aristocrats from the 4th century BC were buried. They have lived in Paphos in the past two years and love it. “You speak our language, drive on our side of the street. Here it is hot most of the year and you even have chippies – what is not to be liked?” said Jules.
Vassiliki showed me a short journey from the ice cream, which circled the yacht port of Kato Paphos, and showed me another remnant of British rule. The Polemi concentration camp, built in 1958, is located near the village of StrOUMPI. Here the British dated the Ethnici Organose Kyprion Agoniston (Eoka) guerrillas during the uprising against colonial rule -and supposedly tortured. A watch tower survives, the entrance gate yawned wide and grass was wild for a lonely Nissenhütte, which housed a rough model of the original warehouse and black and white photos of interned.
“You could say that it is a little-known piece of the local history one that most of the Cypriots don’t want to remember, and many British want to forget it,” said Vassiliki, when I leafed through the dog ear sides of a visitor book in which Magadalena from Liverpool said she could not believe that they were crossed in the history of Liverpool.
In Nicosia, Europe’s last shared capital, I ate Lunch in Giagia Victoria. Celebrity chef Paul Hollywood is said to be a fan of this vintage café, with his decor of the 1950s, which goes directly back to the city’s buffer zone and is still filled with barbed wire, tank trenches and minel fields.
It was a strange feeling to sip Turkish -Turkish coffee that was roasted over hot coals in a roasted Briki (Copper pot) and Chomp Sirupartigen semolina cake PoliticaWhile they looked empty buildings over tomorrow, their walls were with bullet holes and their roofs that sprout grass. They were abandoned in 1974 during the Turkish invasion.
“My home was over there,” said Kellner Andreas and pointed to a crumbled apartment block with a tree that grew through the middle. “We took in the middle of the night what we could and went in the middle of the night. We could never return. From 1974 to 2003, when the first intersection was opened, we could not even go to the Turkish side.
A short trip in Nicosia’s lively suburbs I visited a prison in which Eoka fighter was kept in dark, narrow cells. “Some were executed, but to avoid unrest, they were secretly buried near the prison in a tiny courtyard, which is now known as imprisoned graves,” said the guide.
Just like in India, the British in Cyprus also had their hill stations in the days of the Raj, where they could escape the summer heat. Lieutenant General Sir Garnet Wolseley founded the first such outpost in the 1870s. Sometimes referred to as “Simla of Cyprus”, Platres sits in the foothills of the Troodos mountains.
The leaf roads of this colonial relic are lined with a versatile architectural mix, which range from chunky alpine chalets to no-nonsense bricks and bizarre tower follis. At the height of his splendor, this high -stained village was a magnet for celebrities and kings, including Egyptian King Farouk, for which the brandy sour was invented, and Daphne du Maurier who wrote who wrote who wrote RebeccaYour dark study of the oppressed desire in the (soon renovated) Forest Park Hotel.
At dinner in the wood restrictions of the new Helvetia, one of the oldest hotels in Platres, I talked to a Canadian couple. “This village is a real time,” I noticed. Brian from Toronto giggled before he replied: “Just like the British in Cyprus!”
How it works
Easyjet has flights to Paphos from £ 174 Return. The Luxury Golf Resort Minthis has suites from 275 GBP per night, including breakfast. Young Pioneer Tours run tours through Akrotiri and Dhekelia. In Nicosia you book a private tour through Northern Cyprus with Cemal from Get Your Guide from 420 £ for a group of four.
