Tag: Cyprus

Varlamov and Cyprus: A Bad Match

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I know that not everyone likes Ilya Varlamov. Ukrainians, at the time, were very offended by his video about Ukraine (and honestly, for good reason—the video is very ambiguous). Still, sometimes he talks in a pretty interesting way about the countries he visits.

But experience shows that this “interestingness” can be very uneven—and sometimes not very accurate, if you have an analytical mind. And if you also know the country he’s talking about… For example, in his series 30 Years After the USSR—which included that infamous Ukraine episode—not every installment gives a full picture of what’s going on. His video about Belarus was also very superficial, basically about nothing. And the ones about the former “-stan” republics are more about refugees than about the countries themselves.

But I’ve been living in Cyprus for almost ten years now, so I’m always interested in reading and watching what people think when they visit this island—an island I already consider my second home. (You can only really call your homeland the country you were born in, but that doesn’t make it better than the others.) A few years ago Ilya Varlamov released a video about Cyprus as well, and even then it struck me as choppy and not very useful.

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Cyprus: A Historical Dumping Ground

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Photo from the Vestnik Kipra website

A few days ago, Vestnik Kipra published a fairly large article (in Russian) about the problem of waste dumps on the island. And since I’ve long been thinking of writing about this peculiar issue, I decided not to miss the chance to share my thoughts.

The article says that this beautiful island is essentially dying under the weight of countless illegal dumps that virtually no one is dealing with. Cyprus has had a waste separation system for years, as well as dedicated collection points for bulky trash. Yet all these efforts do little to solve the problem.

We could debate endlessly why these dumps appear and why no one takes proper care of them. The problem is, in reality, a complex one. I’ll try to illustrate with a few examples why, in my humble opinion, the island grows dirtier and dirtier every year.

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Book: Oksana Korzun “How to Move to Another Country and Not Die of Homesickness”

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I can’t really call myself a person with vast experience in moving. Relocating from one apartment to another within the same city is an interesting experience, but it’s hardly something global. However, dropping everything and moving to another country — that I’ve done only once. And even then, my move was relatively easy, since I wasn’t moving into the unknown, but simply transferring to another office of my company. And the company — huge thanks to them — helped so much that I barely had to think about the process at all. Still, in 2014 my wife and I, along with our three children, moved to an entirely different country, and I learned a few things about what such a transition means.

On top of that, because of my job I’ve always communicated a lot with foreigners, and after 2010 that kind of interaction only grew — including business trips. That’s when I began to notice the cultural differences more clearly and look for ways to bridge them.

Unfortunately, after 2020, many of my fellow citizens were forced to leave their homeland. And in 2022, the brutal war with Ukraine made many people flee anywhere they could, sometimes leaving part of their families behind. Questions about moving — how to do it properly, what to expect — began to come up more and more often. I started keeping a separate document about the specifics of moving to Cyprus (in Russian) and tried to advise people who had already relocated or were just planning to.

And in those conversations, many recurring themes came up — some of which left me at a loss, because I simply didn’t expect to hear them from people planning to move abroad. Probably because I’ve always taken every matter too seriously, never making decisions without preparing thoroughly and learning everything I could. But not everyone is as crazy as I am.

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Cyprus: Is Learning to Drive Hard? (with Help from Cypriot Smurf)

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I often see the same question: is it hard to learn how to drive in Cyprus, since the steering wheel is on the other side? I actually wrote about driving in Cyprus a few years ago — Cyprus: Driving. But in that post, I went straight into the details.

If you already have driving experience anywhere else, you can just start driving without any help. There are limits on how long you can drive with a national license (varies by country). And if you’re just exchanging your license — it’s just a matter of going and replacing it. But to get a license “from scratch,” you need to take lessons with an instructor. Or if you want to improve your practical driving skills — that can also be helpful.

I took a few lessons with an instructor, since Belarusians can’t simply exchange their licenses. For us, the process is as if we have no license at all (even if you’ve been driving for 20 years). The most useful thing I got out of those lessons was: just relax, and everything will be fine. Also, the experience of driving with a Cypriot instructor explains a lot about the island — the local driving style and even the mentality.

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Euronet ATMs: A Relatively Honest Way to Take Money from Foreigners

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In Cyprus (as in many other European countries, by the way), you can often come across Euronet ATMs. I remember someone once told me to be wary of them, but didn’t go into much detail about why.

I hardly ever saw these ATMs in the capital, Lefkosia (Nicosia), but in tourist areas, they’re on almost every corner—brightly designed to catch your eye and offering the option to withdraw large amounts of cash. That’s appealing, since most ATMs have withdrawal limits. And when you’re abroad, cardholders usually pay an additional fee for each transaction, so it’s more cost-effective to withdraw less frequently but in larger sums.

For a long time, I didn’t really look into what made these ATMs so problematic—especially since I live far from any tourist zone and don’t have any of them nearby. But I kept hearing negative feedback, so at some point I decided to dig into the issue.

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Cypriot Languages

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When I wrote about the IT industry in Cyprus, I briefly touched on the topic of languages on the island. However, I’ve now decided to delve deeper into the subject because it’s not as straightforward as it seems, and it’s a fascinating topic.

I believe Cypriots themselves are well aware of the languages spoken on their island, but if you ask an immigrant who arrived a few years ago and generally feels like a “local,” they will confidently tell you that the island has three official languages: Greek, Turkish, and English. The more informed ones might even show you a residence permit or a birth certificate (like the one illustrated in this post), where all terms are presented in these three languages. However, this statement is incorrect.

Before I explain why it’s incorrect, it’s worth exploring the historical background by going back centuries.

Originally, some population lived on Cyprus, but during the time of the Trojan War, when the Greeks were returning victorious, some of them settled on the island. This marked the beginning of the assimilation of the local population, and Cyprus essentially became part of Achaean culture (since there was no unified country of Greece at the time, and the Greek city-states were constantly at war with each other, except when they united against the Trojans, for example).

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Cyprus: The Church

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What else could one write about on Christmas Eve if not the church? I’ve never been a religious person myself, but I do love history, including the history of the church. So today, instead of just a short note about churches in Cyprus, as a true armchair historian, I’ll start from afar.

As is well known, Christianity derives its name from Jesus Christ, who was a Jew and preached his teachings in his native lands, which at the time were part of the vast Roman Empire. Opinions about Jesus himself and who he really was as a person may vary (for more on this, I highly recommend the book Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth). However, it is well documented that Christianity was initially intended exclusively for Jews. No other nations or pagans were deemed worthy of it.

Moreover, when one of the apostles began introducing non-Jews to Christianity, he was initially almost ostracized, criticized for his actions. And yet, Christianity would never have become a global religion had it remained exclusively Jewish.

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Cyprus: Slowly, the Poop Floats Away…

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I’ve been silent for a long time, but it’s time to finally talk about the main issue, rather than small things like the slow pace of work and the lack of responsibility among Cypriots. Especially since meteorologists are saying a storm is coming our way from Rhodes, which could sweep across the entire island overnight and into Sunday—so no one will be left to tell you the truth.

Many people (myself included) often write about the lack of central heating on Cyprus, leaving everyone to fend for themselves during the winter. However, far fewer people talk about another side of everyday life—sewage systems!

Modern generations in big cities are spoiled by the comfort of having a toilet in their apartment. Only those who were sent to their grandparents’ village in the summer might recall the rustic charm of an outdoor wooden outhouse. And the Japanese have gone even further, inventing futuristic contraptions that heat the seat, wash your butt, and dry you right on the spot (they’ve gone too far—nothing sacred left!).

Of course, Cyprus has a central sewage system. But not everywhere. And even where it exists, it often doesn’t meet European standards, which has led the EU to threaten Cyprus with legal action because poorly constructed sewage systems harm the environment and the health of animals (and humans too, but apparently if they’re not thinking for themselves, they don’t deserve much sympathy).

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Cyprus: Where the Heck Is That?!

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I’ve come across this multiple times—people often have only a very vague idea of where Cyprus is located. Everyone knows it’s somewhere warm, with oranges. Fewer people know it’s somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea.

Recently, I came across an excellent photo of Cyprus taken from space, apparently by astronaut Thomas Pesquet.

Cyprus has a very distinctive shape, making it easy to recognize on maps and from space (with enough magnification). For some reason, this shape is sometimes referred to as a “fish,” though I don’t see any resemblance to a fish here. The island’s silhouette is also featured on its national flag:

But let’s get back to the photograph, where this silhouette is clearly visible:

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Cyprus: A Bank, Like a Meal, Is a Leisurely Affair

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I was thinking about what else to write about Cyprus when the topic presented itself—we had to open a bank account for my daughter.

When I first came to Cyprus, everything was new to me. I didn’t know any Greek at all, but the similarity of the alphabets allowed me to at least try reading Greek signs. I remember the very first word I noticed was “Τράπεζα,” which I kept seeing everywhere. It’s pronounced exactly like the Russian word “трапеза” (meaning “meal”), but in Greek, it means “bank.” And since banks are everywhere in Cyprus, the word was hard to miss.

The first time I had to open an account, the company I worked for helped me. That’s a common practice in Cypriot companies that bring in employees from other countries. Back then, the process was pretty quick—everything was prepared for me, and all I had to do was sign where they pointed. Then it was straight to work, with my salary deposited into the account on the last working day of each month.

Later, when I had to handle various bank-related matters on my own, I began to learn the intricacies of the process firsthand.

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