Cyprus

Cyprus is strange Island. Is the real border between two worlds. Geographically that boundary line is supposed to be in Istanbul, but in the small piece of land I arrived from Israel the politics differences between Islam and Christianism are notorious. Greek ortodoxus and Turkish Muslims faced each other over the fence. And they do not smile. Since the Turkish Invasion in 1974, as answer of the Military Hit of the Colonels which tried to annex the Island to Greece, Cyprus is divided into three parts: South Cyprus, the country everybody recognises in the International Sphere and part of the UE, the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus, only recognized by Turkey and few others Muslim Countries, and the 5% of the territory which still is under British Soveragnity. The Brits left the Island in 1960 and some still blame them for the political mess and the following war.

The island is beautiful, good beaches, nice mountains, churches, castles, monasteries, little towns everywhere with old men having their coffee, emerging in turism but still pure, but at the same time, soldiers and barbed wire. You can move freely but the military stuff is there. In the South are a lot of statues glorifiying the soldiers died in the war meanwhile in the North are a lot of cartels claiming for peace. It is obvious who wants to maintain the status quo. The Turkish are happy but not the Greeks who had to left their properties in the North to be occupied by strangers. The property issue is always one of the problems hardest to solve in every conflict.

I crossed the border in Nicosia after a very good mountain ride with Antoni Vassilous and a friend oh him. Antoni is a long distance traveller I met on a website for adventure bikers. He rode from New York to Argentina and wanted to meet me when in Cyprus. They took me to the border and then I noticed the meaning of “Independent Republic”. Basically means you are under the Turks law for the bad but not for the good. Example: they use Turkish Lira as currency and they have on the land the Turkish Army, but there doesn´t work the Turkish insurance so you have to buy new insurance if you want to drive into the ghost republic.