"Hidden Gem of Northern Cyprus" Karpasia by Pinat

My first visit to this beautiful piece of nature was in July 2011. I was again in Northern Cyprus visitng my soldier husband. After a bit of hesitation (Traffic is on the left. It was going to be our first time driving on the left), we decided to rent a car to reach rather “hard to access” parts of the island. It was so exciting for us because back in Turkey we love going on road trips. We love starting our journey early in the morning and stopping wherever we feel like stopping, staying wherever we feel like staying. It was the first time we were to do this outside Turkey. It sounds a bit wierd to call “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” as a foreign country for us but I guess we are the only nation in the world to do so. Plus, the traffic is on the left so we were definitely going to do a road trip outside our home country.

We left Famagusta and started following the coast to the northeast. The scenery was amazing and each time we took a curve, I was either repeating the same words (“Oh! Look at the sea!” or “How green this place is!” or just randomly taking pictures. We were on our way to Karpasia and we were completely unaware of what would come out. The only thing we were sure was the fact that at some point the road would end. Yes, because we were driving towards the northeastern corner of the island.

We stopped at a random place (somewhere near Yenierenkoy or Ayios Thyrsos) on our way where we enjoyed our Turkish (Cypriot) coffee. My travel notebook was in the car, I was so lazy to get it. So, I wrote the name of the place on a napkin and after a few minutes, the napkin started its journey above the Mediterranean Sea. The name of this random place is a mystery now. I’m sorry for that to all fellow VTers.

The most striking for me was the harmony of the Greeks and Turks. It is no something easy to find on this island since Turkish intervention in 1974. If you spend enough time in various parts of Northern Cyprus, it is easier to understand what I mean here. We have seen many little open churches and the majority of the shop names in the villages we drove though were both in Turkish and in Greek. I really liked that.

We continued driving till we reach the entrance of “Zafer Burnu (Karpaz) Milli Parki” (It is the name of the national park. It is one of the six national parks of Cyprus). The park is a pretty big area and I fell in love with every corner of it. The things we did, ate, discovered, can be found in the related tips.

Our drive-along ended when we reached the northeastern corner of the island, which is actually the end of the national park. We had to take exactly the same way back as there was no alternative route or road. We still enjoyed it a lot.

In short, Karpasia is absolutely a must-see in Northern Cyprus if you have a (rental) car!

• Pros:Turkish-Greek harmony; wonderful nature; undiscovered
• Cons:No public transportation and hard to reach on foot
• In a nutshell:Fell in love with every corner of it. Already been there twice but want to go for the third time and the fourth and the fifth... time