16. April 2025
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Walking through Nicosia (Pictured Story)

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

The much I loved Cyprus (and also the capital), the much visiting Nicosia has been depressing to me. Having all the neutralized zones to preserve peace and border controls in the middle of the city too strongly reminded me of the former German-German border. Nonetheless, the city is just too beautiful not to share it with you. Here is my Pictured Story about strolling through the Northern and Southern part of Nicosia. Hope you like it, but also get a bit of the sad mood in this place.

 

It is very hard for me to give the political situation correct and without prejudice. I am convinced. In line what I feel is politically most correct and also in line with typical international phrasing, I do not use the phrase Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus for the territory of the Republic of Cyprus occupied by Türkiye. 

 

Nicosia – Location & Border

Due to the occupation of Türkiye / Turkey, Cyprus and Nicosia is in fact split into two parts. If you reside in Northern Cyprus, you typically arrive at Ercan International Airport (ECN). The Republic of Cyprus runs two major airports, Larnaca (LCA) and Paphos (PFO). The former airport of Nicosia is located in the neutralized zone and thus closed. There is a good bus system in the Republic of Cyprus. You may, however, use a rental car, which is the most flexible and convenient way to explore the island.

Crossing the border by foot may be easy for European citizens, but you should always be aware that the border crossing is as if you cross a border from the European Union to Türkiye. This also means that you need a passport to commute between the two parts of the city. There was a Russian passport person in front of me on the way back to the no-occupied part, who just had a one-time entry visa for the Republic of Cyprus and thus ran into quite some trouble. Of course, there are also border checkpoints for cars in other parts of Nicosia and the country. However, you typically must not cross border with a rental car.

 

Visiting (the Southern Part of) Nicosia

Our trip was in the non-occupied part of Cyprus. Thus, the hotel we stayed in (MAP Boutique Hotel) has been in that part as well. Especially the city center of the Cypriot capital is a real beauty, with quite some historic buildings, churches and cafes which give you the opportunity to hang out and enjoy yourself. The range of shops is rather Western European selection and not too thrilling, though.

However, there is also the other side of visiting Nicosia. Like I also showed you in the Shacolas Tower Museum and Observatory review, you run into Northern Cyrpus and Turkish flags, high walls, barbwire borders. You especially need to take care that there is no military lookout around. You might not see that there is one hidden on the picture you are just taking – but you can be sure that they will see you and warn you not to take pictures of military infrastructure. Part of a Nicosia visit is also that streets are blocked nowadays, simply because they used to run towards “the other side” or what is now controlled as neutral area as part of the United Nations mandate. As said, this has been very depressing to me. The Cypriot “peace” is really weak and requires a lot of military effort by all parties involved.

 

Visiting the Occupied Part of Nicosia

We used the Ledra Street Checkpoint to visit the Turkish-occupied part of the capital city. You may have some waiting lines, but things are in general rather quick. Apart from potential visa issues I already made you aware of you might also run into customs controls when you return back to the Republic of Cyprus. One reason are general customs issue, but the key issue is trademark piracy. Especially on the fashion side, Northern Nicosia offers some opportunity to buy “branded” clothing at cheap price.

In general I felt that the Northern side of the city – apart from the key shopping district – is a bit more run down than the “Greek” part. However, there is a lot of street art, some interesting shops and also some museums worth visiting (we just did not want to invest too much time over there). The Euro in widely accepted in all somehow-touristic places, even though you would typically pay with Turkish Lira in here. There are even different licence plates.

Again, there is some nice street art, but if you get too much to the South, you likely run into another blocked street. One thing I really liked in Northern Nicosia, though, is food – there are some very nicely priced delicious restaurants around. You easily get around speaking English – some people also preferred to speak German to us.

 

Cyprus on Flyctory.com

Here are all my postings related to Cyprus:

 

Flyctory.com Pictured Stories

The key contents of Flyctory.com Pictured Stories are the picture, not the text:

 

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