"Nicosia ~ The last divided city" a Nicosia Travel Page by Loubna

Nicosia...my home for the past three years. If anyone told me that I would be living here a few years ago I would of thought they were crazy! A job transfer later and I landed here. London or Cyprus - after 12 years in London I chose Cyprus :o)

A bit of a love hate relationship really and it all depends of the season :o)

Nicosia is formed of the pedestrianised old town and the new town. There are quite a few places to seat and have a few drinks. The town is deserted at the weekend when everyone goes to the coast in summer and the mountains in winter.

Nicosia is very easy going and sometimes too much. 3 years later and I am still trying to get used to the shopping hours, all shops close on Wednesday and Saturday afternoon, the whole of Sunday as well as a couple of hours at lunchtime. Great if you work in retail, not so great if you are the customer.

This is definitely the most secure place I have lived. I could walk at any time of the night in the streets and not feel threathened and live in a house without bars on the windows.

There are plenty of places to go out although it does get tiresome. Most places have a crowd of "I spent 5 hours getting ready and I won't move too much in case my make up gets disturbed" :o) I am lucky enough to have a group of crazy friends so we make the most of it :o)

My neighbour is a great 91 year old Cypriot woman. Yaya, grand-mother in Greek. She has adopted me as well as the rest of her familly. She is an amazing woman. The past year has been a hard time and she was a great source of support.

Should I want to stay in for the evening she always pushes me to go out and enjoy myself. Had a few parties at my house and she rejoices to hear young people having fun even when the music is only put down at 5 in the morning :o) Gave my life in Cyprus a whole different perspective.