Not a Paradise: a Short List of Cyprus’s Shortcomings

Every time I close my eyes, Cyprus is still not a paradise…

This was the first topic I started to work on. I did not intend to start my observation of the island from negative moments, but unfortunately, cons, disadvantages, shortcomings, minuses and all the relevant synonyms are what a human mind catches in the first place. Especially if this human being is Alisa.

It’s been more than a year since I became a freelancing housewife who changed vast abysmal Russia with an avalanche of big cities full of opportunities, but grumpy people and grumpy salaries, for a tiny island in the Mediterranean full of pretty villages, fresh fruits, dust coming from North Africa and full of… Russian people.

There appeared to be so many Russians in Cyprus who refused to learn Greek that locals themselves started to break through the jungles (or better to say taiga?) of the difficult slavic language. I was surprised when our landlord said she’d taken a course in Russian. For God’s sake, why? That’s because you cannot run a successful business in Cyprus if you do not speak Russian, she said. What can I comment?

The worse conditions for business in our motherland become, the more intense the influx of Russians is. And we are so stubborn in our reluctance to learn foreign languages, that some locals have to adapt.

I will not put the presence of a great amount of Russians as a disadvantage. Although I have not attended any concert or workshop of Russian stars (Monatik is not counted, he is Ukrainian), the very opportunity of seeing them and hearing your native language in the streets of Limassol greatly contributed to my velvet adaptation.

However, Cyprus might be a real problem. For example, if you are a pedestrian. This is actually the first thing I remember when people ask me about Cyprus’s main flaws.

1. In Cyprus you don’t have a right to be a pedestrian

Before I moved to Cyprus, I had been told I would not survive here without a car, but I could not imagine the scale of the disaster.

Imagine you are walking with a stroll and now need to cross the road to reach one of the very few parks in town, or reach the sea…

Or imagine you are working home with two bags of groceries and you bump into a parking line which is supposed to be a sidewalk for pedestrians:

And you can literally wait for 10 or 15 minutes to cross the road – the river of intense traffic would be running, and there could be not a single crosswalk along the entire road.

A good news, however, is that drivers can see you waiting and just easily stop on the road to let you get to the other side. People here are indifferent, and the road rules are largely based on courtesy.

2. The culture of taking it easy. Including the problem of rubbish

You can go along the Molos Promenade in Limassol and see happy locals on the benches – drinking frappe and discussing news. Smoking cigarettes and throwing plastic packets straight where they sit. Yes, I’ve never seen a city whose center would so full of garbage.

You can notice dozens of plastic bags lying by the road when leaving Larnaca Airport.

You may not see rubbish on the beach lines where luxury hotels are located. But if you take a step deeper into the city, you’ll see hills of rubbish. Here is, for example, how Makariou Ave looked like two (!) weeks after the famous Limassol Carnival was over. As Cyprus Mail reported, three tons of recyclables were collected after one day of the carnival. Yet, something was missed:

Cyprus is still the second largest producer of municipal waste in the EU, according to the European Commission’s data.

The system of recycling was introduced several years ago, and you may see recycling bins of various colors standing randomly around the city (in fact, it’s green for glass, blue for plastic and brown for paper). However, people seem not to know that each color serves for a certain purpose.

Today Cyprus recycles less than 20% of waste. The rest is getting rotten at waste deposits or goes to the sea. Along with Greece, Malta and Romania, the island is facing a serious risk of failing to meet the EU’s 2020 recycling targets for municipal waste (the target for 2020 is 50% rising to 65% by 2035).

The island’s administration is trying to improve the situation: they hope to change the garbage collection fees to «pay as you throw» model and motivate people to recycle more, while last year they implemented a 6 cents fee for each plastic bag at all shops (previously plastic bags had been free in an unlimited amount – what a horror!).

Undoubtedly, Cyprus has difficulties in implementing EU waste law “mainly due to the lack of infrastructure and collection systems for recyclables and the lack of coordination between different administrative levels in addition to insufficient capacity”, as the EU warning report states. However, people’s habits is another thing that should be changed. Solving the rubbish problem is about enlightenment and raising awareness. In this sense, I so much respect Hong Kong’s Ocean Park where there is no chance you can find an amusement ride without a social ad on it.

Here is the service – Green Dot – which will help you understand what and where you can recycle in Cyprus. They also offer mobile applications.

3. Dust, dust!

Cyprus experiences dust storms quite often, with the «dust season» usually lasting from January until March. When the second year of our Cypriot vacations arrived, I was already thinking about purchasing the mask of Bane (the one who broke Batman).

This is more serious than it may seem. The dermatologist I talked to a while ago said that a recent laboratory analysis taken in Nicosia showed that zinc and some other heavy metals had been found in the Cypriot air. Although some publications suppose Syrian warfare is a reason for soaring chemicals, scientists consider North Africa to be the place in which the dust originates.

Wherever the dust really comes from, the disturbing fact is that here the amount of patients with HPV virus and oncology has increased in recent years.

You can trace air pollution in Cyprus here – on the Cyprus Air Quality Website, and also on Ventusky – an amazing service which will allow you to check cyclones, wave heights, weather changes and, if you click on a city, – air quality.

4. Endless construction bringing even more dust

One problem with Cyprus’s city architecture is that there is really no sense in it – many houses were built randomly and using cheap materials which make you feel «hot» – not in a good sense – (and even burning!) during the summertime, while during the wintertime the temperature inside is even colder than outside. Although we picked an apartment in a quite old, but renovated house in a good area not too close to the water (which would make it more humid and colder in winter), my God, our electricity bills were madly high after July-August and January-February periods – thanks to ACs and the underfloor heating system.

Now that Cyprus is getting richer, the influx of Russian developers and financiers is increasing, the demand for qualitative shelters has jumped.

A panelized grey building may be sold and demolished overnight, and the construction of its modern copy may start immediately. That is the process which won’t finish in the upcoming years which will keep bringing more and more dust and noise to cities. Specifically, to Limassol.

This leads to another important inconvenience.

5. No gardens in the cities

It’s more pragmatic and profitable to build 20-30 additional panel houses to settle rich developers.

Limassol, a Cypriot New York, is not a harmonious city in this sense, as here you may enjoy greenery mainly in Dasoudi Park, Municipal Park and the Molos Promenade.

Well, the official city guide lists 15 parks. But let us be honest – its authors added desolate walking paths and little playgrounds to it. They are so tiny and usually full of people that you will struggle to find peace of mind there.

6. 24/7 support? Nah, not here

Indeed. There were services I was excited about, the ones I needed and wanted to pay for and which I never used at the end of the day, because I simply did not receive a response.

I will name two examples – Innerscience Center (for yoga classes) and Aktina Training Center (for different courses on softwares like Office 365 or Photoshop). Both are located in Limassol and both replied me 3 (!!!) months after I sent my requests to them. The answers of the both began with «Apologies for a late response»… But at least they did reply. There were plenty of organizations which ignored or didn’t receive my requests thanks to the poorly configured websites. Studio 8 is one of them. If you try to visit them personally, many can be closed for a siesta.

In the meantime, let me again finish this paragraph with a piece of good news. There is a gym open 24/7 – the only one in Limassol and entire Cyprus, it is called Muscle Factory and is located not far from well-known Makariou Avenue.

7. Pharmacies are closed on Wednesday evenings and on weekends

There used to be a long-standing regulation for all companies to have rest on Wednesdays – the midweek, – as operating 5 days in a row is way too difficult. Especially in the heat. This regulation was cancelled several years ago, but removing a tradition from minds is not too easy.

Today only the most conservative shops are closed on Wednesday evenings, while all shops on Makariou Ave or Anexartisias street are open 6 days in a row. However, the story is different with pharmacies. They are closed on Wednesdays after 13:30 and on weekends.

Each city borough has one pharmacy open at night and on weekends, and there is a special mobile application in App store listing them, however, it does not provide correct information.

So, if there’s a need, I advise you to refer to Cyprus Mail Online to check open pharmacies: https://cyprus-mail.com/pharamacies/ – this one is 100% correct, and we’ve had a chance to check it.

There’s also a space for another piece of good news (it’s more of a joke though) – if you cannot find a night pharmacy, go to a night bakery! Indeed, Sigma (around 10 bakeries in Limassol) and Sunfresh (8 in Limassol) operate round the clock and each time we pass them by late at night – there are always some customers selecting attractive cakes.

Well, this approach implies that a dose of endorphins offered by sweets and candies is way more effective than pharmacy chemicals.

8. Beauty salons are closed on Thursdays

Cypriot beauty salons tell a similar story – since they all operate on Saturdays (the highest demand from women made it a working day), the administration once allowed them to take a day off on Thursday. But there is a way out. If you need an emergency hairdo on Thursday in Limassol, go to a Russian salon! Most of them are situated in Germasogeia, but these are in the city center:

If you need to fix nails, choose Malina Nailbar in front of the Molos – they operate 7 days/week until 9 pm.

If you need to fix everything, rush to G Bar! It is located in the historical center and every day until 8 pm they offer haircuts, hairdos and makeups accompanied by a cup of coffee.

9. A cruel entertainment – hunting wild pigeons

When we moved to Cyprus, I sometimes had dreams about cozily hooting owls. I stopped believing dream books when I was 15 and at first accepted owl songs as pure fantasies, unless I realized these were wild pigeons singing in the mornings!

Light-brown, smaller and more exquisite copies of their urban relatives, their songs sound like owlish «uhuhu» – pretty wild birds flying in pairs and singing for each other.

Now guess what – many Cypriots’ hobbies include training their shooting skills at them, as they are tiny and thus are really hard targets.

Hunting is quite popular here, and even in the conservation area of Akamas where hunting is strictly prohibited, we saw many shells from large-caliber bullets…

I know, this article seems like impenetrable criticism, but Cyprus is surely more than that. This country is indeed conservative in many ways and it largely influences people’s lifestyle and business approaches. At the same time, it contributes to its authenticity.

I have enjoyed all the months living here – the island of Aphrodite may offer all kinds of leisure (even skiing and snowboarding!) and its nature is unbelievably diverse. Be sure to come here, but be aware of the above anyways 😉

Sincerely,

Alisa Abramova