Larnaca; Saturday, 15 March, 2025

I was up relatively early again as I wanted to get an early bus into town to make an early coach to my destination for the day – Europe’s last divided capital and the only one which was the capital of two countries, Nicosia.

After a quick breakfast and taking the airport bus right to the coach stop on the seafront in Larnaca I was able to get straight on the Nicosia bus and get a window seat, which was lucky as a few minutes later the bus was pretty much full. The journey across to Nicosia isn’t the most interesting as it runs straight up the motorway, but it does mean it’s only just over the hour (and scheduled to take longer as I’m assuming during the week the traffic in both Larnaca and Nicosia isn’t as smooth as it was for us today.)

The coach drops you off at the Solomos Square bus station in the centre of Greek-Cypriot Nicosia, above the former fortifications of the city which have been converted into a very pleasant sunken square and gardens - Eleftheria Square – which I had a wander around before heading into the Greek old town for a wander around there.

Eventually my wandering took me to Ledra Street the main street of the city and the commercial and retail heart of Cyprus. It’s also from here that the main crossing point over the Green Line that has divided the city since 1964, 10 years before the war, gives you access to the Turkish-Cypriot side of the city. In a slightly quicker process than the previous day I was quickly nodded out of The Republic of Cyprus, a short 60 second walk through the buffer zone and then an equally quick nodding into the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus for the second time in as many days.

I had a long wander around the Turkish-Cypriot side of the city including taking in the views from Zahra Street high on the fortified walls of the city. From here you look across the former moat of the fortification which is now the UN Green Line buffer zone – complete with look out towers, and a almost barren landscape save for a UN soccer pitch – and over to the former Ledra Palace Hotel, once Cyprus’s most prestigious hotels and now under UN control and the site of meetings between Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders.

From Zahra Street I continued my wander through the streets of the Turkish-Cypriot side of the city, taking in the markets around Sokmar and then on up to the Selimiye Mosque, again located in a converted cathedral. After a bit more wandering I found myself in the Büyük Han. This is one of the largest Caravan Inns built in the city to house the trading caravans as they crossed the island and built within a year of the Ottoman takeover of the island.

From the Büyük Han I headed back towards the crossing point, though in this part of town it can get a bit difficult to navigate as many of the streets end in a steel gate or brick wall, marking the outer boundary of the Green Line and the physical symbol of the separation of the city. Eventually I found my way back to the Ledra Street crossing and once again headed back into the EU – I was very glad that at present there is no passport stamping, as over the last two days that would have used up several pages of my passport!

I headed back down Ledra street and stopped off at the Shacolas Tower. At 11 storeys high this is the tallest building in the city and from the viewing platform on the top floor there are excellent views out over the city both the Greek and Turkish sides and out towards the mountains in the north and the mini-Manhattan of towers to the south.

From the tower I then wandered over to the Leventis Municipal Museum, housed in two converted town houses, which tells the history of the city (from the Greek-Cypriot perspective) up until the modern day, and then a short walk away I quickly visited the Cyprus Museum which houses archaeological artifacts from across the Island and it’s numerous sites.

A bit more wandering around town before I found a very nice restaurant on Ledra Street for an early dinner and then back to the bus station to catch the coach back to Larnaca and change onto the bus back to the hotel, arriving back just before 9pm and the welcoming comfort of my bed.