Photo: Ukrinform
Car rental - the road to freedom
Once in Cyprus, my brother and I had to experience all the hardships of public transport. At first we thought that by riding around the island on minibuses and buses, we could save money. But we became dependent on transport. The fact is that city buses in Cyprus serve passengers at 30-minute intervals. And the time spent waiting for a miracle - the appearance of a four-wheeled friend - costs much more. Money is something that can be earned, but we simply cannot afford to miss a host of amazing curiosities that the island of Aphrodite is rich in.
Having drawn the appropriate conclusions, we decided to rent a car, which was not difficult at all. Numerous rental points offer a wide range of cars. To rent, it is enough to present a passport and even not an international, but a domestic driver's license. True, there are restrictions: the minimum driver age is 25 years, the minimum rental period is two days. According to the website rstcars.com, car prices vary depending on the make of the car, ranging from 20 pounds for the Suzuki Alto to 52 pounds for the Toyota Landcruiser. But the longer the rental period, the cheaper the payment per day.
For two weeks of renting a Nissan, we paid 250 pounds, including insurance. There were no mileage restrictions, but this should be clarified immediately, since somewhere you can encounter a limit - say, 100 km. Anything over the limit is paid separately. When all the formalities were settled and the conventions agreed upon, we took turns getting behind the wheel.
At first it was unusual to drive. Road signs, indicators, parking spots along the roadsides are located on the left in the direction of the car, and you keep trying to find the gear shift lever with your right hand on the door. But if you get used to a good thing - an automatic transmission - within the first 10-15 minutes, then turns at intersections and interchanges take much longer and are more difficult: out of habit you try to take your right lane - and then you realize with horror that you are on the oncoming lane and someone is driving straight at you. However, Cypriot drivers treat guests very kindly and give them the opportunity to correct their mistake. After all, it is easy to identify such 'kamikazes' as us - all rental cars have red license plates and their registration number starts with the letter Z, so a foreigner can be seen from a mile away. However, adaptation to 'mirror' traffic happens very quickly - by the end of the first day of the road trip you feel confident enough.
There is no talk of rudeness on Cypriot roads, on the contrary - drivers are considerate, and we have repeatedly seen their willingness to help. For example, one evening, when it was already dark, around the next turn of a mountain serpentine, a scattering of sharp stones suddenly appeared. Without having time to react, we punctured a tire. We stopped, took out the spare tire. And then a car stops next to us, a Cypriot girl gets out and asks if she can help... Imagine: a mountain road, a remote place, almost night... However, there is no need to be surprised at such an act - crime in Cyprus is practically absent. A typical picture: a car is parked at the sidewalk, the doors are unlocked, the windows are down, and a briefcase and a mobile phone are lying on the seat... At first you are amazed, but then you realize - this is not carelessness, not eccentricity, this is how they live here!
By the way, about eccentrics. Rarely, of course, but on Cypriot roads, where left-hand traffic is in effect, you can meet eccentrics who drive with right-hand drive - it is not forbidden here. But often such an original soon begins to feel discomfort and hurries to a service station, where for 800 pounds they will help him transform his Mercedes into a left-hand drive version. And rarely does anyone ask service stations to install a super alarm on a car. Why? Simply because cars are not stolen here, there is nowhere to go - water all around!
We have never met more friendly guardians of order than local traffic police officers. They are especially friendly to drivers of rental cars, who are not fined at all for speeding. More than once, while driving on the highway leading to Larnaca airport and rushing at a speed of 150 km/h (with a permitted 100) after a turn directly at a patrol car with a radar, we breathed a sigh of relief when the policeman, who had initially made energetic motions for us to stop immediately, upon seeing the red plates, gave a sign to continue. True, the Cypriot guardians of order are much stricter with the native residents of the island. They are fined for not wearing a seatbelt, throwing garbage out of the car window, talking on a mobile phone while driving. Increased strictness is also shown towards children. The rules prohibit transporting children under five years of age in the front seat. And children aged from five to ten can be placed in the front seat only if that place is equipped with a special child protective seatbelt.
And in general, Cyprus is just a godsend for a road traveler. 200 km long, 100 km wide - that's the whole island. Distances are short, roads are good, all paved and equipped with directional signs in two languages - Greek and English. The speed on highways is 100 km/h, on others - 60 km/h, and traffic, except for the central highways of large cities, is not very busy - you can drive for your own pleasure.
Since we stayed in Limassol, which is located exactly in the middle between the western and eastern ends of the island, wherever we went, it was convenient and close, and we managed to return to our hotel by night.
In two weeks we covered 2,000 km. We saw practically everything that guidebooks on Cyprus tell about: Petra Tou Romiou bay, where, according to legend, the goddess of love Aphrodite emerged from the foam, ancient mosaics, a Roman amphitheater and the underground Royal Tombs in Paphos, the Church of Saint Lazarus in Larnaca, Limassol Fort, where in 1191 Richard the Lionheart married Berengaria of Navarre, the beaches of Ayia Napa, the Venetian walls in Nicosia and also the wall dividing the Greek and Turkish parts of the Cypriot capital. We drove through the Akamas Peninsula, where it is forbidden to build hotels and villas: the Cypriots want to keep these places untouched by civilization intact. Moreover, the law is the same for everyone: one of the ministers of the Cypriot government, who managed to obtain permission for personal purposes to build a hotel in a protected area, was forced to resign - even though construction had not even begun.
Especially memorable were trips to the Troodos Mountains. Just a moment ago you were strolling along the coast, where it was plus 25 degrees, and 40 minutes later you find yourself at the top of Olympus, at an altitude of about two kilometers, where snow lies until March-April. Unlike the treeless coast of Cyprus, the mountains delight with the coolness of cedar trees, in which Orthodox monasteries hide. In ancient times, when coastal settlements were constantly subjected to pirate raids, monks prudently settled high in the mountains, among impenetrable forests. By the way, in the hot summer months, when the air temperature on the coast rises to 40 degrees, the mountain villages of Troodos become a refuge for Cypriots: it is not so hot here, local taverns serve delicious trout and other wonderful dishes, so Cypriots prefer to spend their weekends at altitude.
Public conveniences
Naturally, on Cyprus tourists cannot do without using places where they can take care of certain "needs" - refuel the car, satisfy hunger and thirst, and then, excuse me, empty the bowels.
As for food, it is presented in a fairly wide assortment in any Cypriot tavern located near the road. Moussaka (minced meat baked with vegetables and topped with a sauce of eggs, flour and milk), suvlaki (beef baked with young onions), Greek shish kebab on small wooden sticks, rizogalo (sweet rice porridge with cinnamon), halva made from semolina and nuts with the addition of sugar, honey and vegetable oil, baklava, kadaifi - these are just some of the dishes of Cypriot cuisine that conquer tourists' stomachs.
And on the island of Aphrodite there is an abundance of vegetables and fruits. Thanks to the mild climate, potato harvests are gathered three or four times a year, strawberries appear in January and are sold until November, there are so many oranges that they are transported by trucks for processing, like potatoes back home. There are also inexpensive and very tasty wines. Tavern owners often present a glass of wine as a gift to the guest, and when you explain to them that you are driving, they just wave their hand: the Cypriot traffic police do not consider a glass of wine drunk by the driver an offense. The same cannot be said about the insurance company - if you crash a car while intoxicated, the insurance is annulled. Then you will have to pay the damages out of your own pocket. True, in the evening, when you know you won't have to get behind the wheel again, you will definitely have a glass or two of white, rosé or red Cypriot wine, which most local dishes are washed down with.
The island probably makes the oldest wine in the world - Commandaria. It is a sweet, quite strong, thick dessert wine, similar in taste to Madeira.
Cyprus is famous for seafood and fish. Crabs, shrimps, oysters, mussels are cooked very tasty here. But tourists must be careful in choosing culinary exotics: firstly, unusual food may not suit the stomach, secondly, you need to know some subtleties - for example, you cannot drink water after octopus, it makes them swell and gradually fill the entire stomach. And then you can't avoid problems. Although these stomach problems on Cyprus are rarely avoided by anyone. The only reassuring thing is that there are plenty of places of true public convenience on the island - almost every gas station, in addition to a mini-market and the filling station itself, also has a toilet.
Fuel - wow!
As for savings and prices, Cyprus for motorists is still not cheap. Gasoline here is quite expensive - 0.7-0.8 pounds per liter, but the quality is excellent. You pour such fuel, and you definitely won't hear any rattling or pinging! Gas stations are common, only in the mountains they are not in every locality and do not always have the required grade of fuel. At night there is no service staff at gas stations, but refueling is still not a problem thanks to special miracle machines: you insert a paper bill into the slot and get fuel for the whole amount. If you miscalculated and the tank turned out to be overfilled - no problem, the check will indicate the change, which you can get back during the day. Convenient!
As for communicating with the local population, which cannot be avoided when traveling around the island by car, everything is fine here - there is no language barrier in Cyprus. Although the official languages are Greek and Turkish, most residents speak English reasonably well. And also on the island quite a lot of people understand Russian. Once we drove into a remote mountain village and, addressing a local resident in English, heard an answer in Russian! This person did not understand English, but knew Russian.
We have not encountered anywhere in Europe such a cordial attitude towards our tourists as in Cyprus. This is probably due both to the close ties going back to past centuries and to the traditional sympathies preserved from the period of the joint struggle against the Ottoman Empire and the allied relations during the First and Second World Wars. Although, perhaps, it is all more prosaic: many Cypriots do business with the countries of the former USSR, and there are plenty of our tourists here. That is why it is not difficult for Cypriots to learn a couple of Russian words even on the island. However, you had better see for yourself the hospitality and goodwill of the local residents.