Travel Report Cyprus

Why geocaching in Cyprus and a coffee cruise?

Coffee trips finance trips for older people to tourist locations and cafés with the sale of electric blankets - that's my very brief, private definition of coffee trips. I had found a provider for Cyprus who brought me to Cyprus for only 169.- EUR, accommodated me there for a week in hotels of the upper middle class and gave me a week-long educational tour in a well-kept bus. My prize: I have to convince my husband to do this with me in a double room and I have to endure three sales events with leather, jewelry and carpets. I didn't think twice and signed up for the "Self-experiment coffee trip in Cyprus". Conclusion: it was ooookay. No more and no less. Good for the country point, but not otherwise. You can do it once, but you don't need to do it again...

Geocaching in Cyprus - how to get there

You can get to the island by plane in a fairly reasonable time - however, you can only land at Ercan Airport in the northern part of the island if you come from Turkey. So all planes have a stopover in Turkey.

Ercan Airport near the city of Nicosia is manageable and conveniently located. After about half an hour you reach the east coast of the northern part of the island, where you will find many hotels, but also some caches. A good starting point.

Geocaching in Cyprus - St Barnabas Church

St Barnabas Church is located very close to Nicosia and Salamis. It is considered one of the sights of the island of Cyprus.  Barnabas was an apostle, martyr and is revered as a Cypriot national saint.

Contrary to my ideas, it is not a monastery but an icon museum. Still a very impressive church or church building. The tomb of Barnabas - a separate building - is only about 150 meters away from the former monastery complex. The Cache St Barnabas Church is located in close proximity to the burial site https://coord.info/GC5TC6Y

The question is whether you need to know this icon monastery. The monastery garden was almost prettier, which looked very nice with the orange trees.

Geocaching in Cyprus - Nicosia

Nicosia or Lefkosa is the last divided city in Europe.

From a ring road that surrounds the old town, you can easily move in the narrow streets in the direction of the caravanserai. What I had already feared as sales events is just a very nice inner courtyard with many typical oriental shops and a few cafés. There is a cache nearby, Büyük Han https://coord.info/GC6H09T. For me the most beautiful cache on Cyprus, on the one hand because of the hiding place, on the other hand because of the nice contact with the "guard". I come from the caravanserai in the direction of the coordinates and stand between the tables of a small cafe. A waiter addresses me with "Cache-Cache". I do not understand correctly and decline with thanks…. Then I am led to a lamp in the tree and shown a turning movement. I understand and hold the cache in my hands. Here – rather unusual for Cyprus – there is even space for TBs! When logging in, the owner of the café comes up to me and invites me for a coffee. He tells me that the cache is from a friend of his and he is just the guard. In that respect, it's an impressive country here.

Now I'm on my way to the Greek side of the city. In addition, there is a border crossing for pedestrians in the narrow streets, directly at a small main square. Show your ID at the border, walk through a "corridor" and enter on the other side. Not much is going on here in the morning, that changes during the day and it certainly has something to do with the travel season. Tourists can be seen here in December, but it will be very different in June.

Directly behind the "green border" one seems to be back in the west. Past oriental shops in narrow streets, a pedestrian zone with shops like McDonald's, H&M and others looks more familiar to us than the caravanserai or a bazaar. A typical souvenir for Cyprus is more likely to be bought in the Turkish part. Another tradition can be found here on the Greek side. Then I head to the multi, which is disabled but takes me to beautiful places. I only take a photo of the final, a jar cannot be found here. Was nice anyway.

The "traffic jam at the border" is also limited on the way back. The respective Greek side is not interested in my entry and exit, the Turkish side asks about the reason for my visit and waves me through. In the streets of Nicosia I also found dead ends – especially at the multinational – that end at a border fence with barbed wire. Soldiers patrolled on the Turkish side. In contrast, the "Green Border" with the border crossing looks very harmless. In any case, it is not difficult to get from one part of the island to the other with a passport.

Geocaching in Cyprus - Salamis

If I remember very, very vaguely back to my Latin days, then there was something about a Battle of Salamis....
In this place steeped in history, you can also find a tradition near the amphitheater. But it would be a shame if you came here just to look for the cache. A walk past the headless figures, through the columns of Salamis or up the stone steps of the amphitheater - that's also part of it. The forerunners of today's underfloor heating can be seen particularly impressively in the bathroom.

Geocaching in Cyprus - Golden Beach and St. Andrew's Monastery

In terms of cache technology, you don't have to report anything about the Golden Beach and the Andreas monastery with the wild donkeys. However, anyone who loves lost places and animals in the wild will find what they are looking for here.

Donkeys are already waiting at the entrance to the grounds of the Andreaskloster and demand tolls. Three donkeys can also be found at the monastery itself, which are happy to accept the donkey feed that is sold here. These are carrots, tangerines and other fruits. In the monastery itself you can visit the Greek Orthodox Church, light a candle and walk a little down to the sea. There you will find the well that, according to legend, Saint Andrew carved into the rock.

Geocaching in Cyprus - Farmagusta

Farmagusta Cathedral is a Gothic cathedral that is now used as a Turkish mosque. I couldn't even remember the complicated name of it. And although everything here is firmly in Turkish hands, you will find the direction “St. Nicholas Cathedral". That's not entirely conclusive...

If you have visited the impressive cathedral, you can find two more caches on the island in Farmagusta. One of the two tradis is very close to the old town and cathedral. It is called Magusa Moat Meander #5 and can be found here: https://coord.info/GC4WAK3. Although it is a large box, finding it wasn't that easy. At first I wasn't sure whether I was allowed to go there (see the gate with the barbed wire for yourself), then the question arose as to the right side. Shortly before giving up there was a suspicious pile of stones. It wasn't there a few minutes ago, was it?

Briefly exchanged TB's and we went along the city wall to the other side of the harbor for the second tradition. But the Tradi https://coord.info/GC4W0D7 is much easier to find.

Geocaching in Cyprus - Bellapais Monastery

The monastery, or rather the monastery ruins of Bellapais, is located very close to the town of Kyrenia on the northern coast of Cyprus. It is a ruined monastery that some guidebooks describe as one of the most beautiful ruins in the Mediterranean. It is located in the noblest district of the same name near Kyrenia, in which there are many villas. The view to the mountains of the opposite mainland over the sea is breathtaking.
The monastery ruins are of Gothic origin and the name means something like "beautiful peace". It is also called the "white abbey" because of its white Habites of the Premonstatins.

The approach is typically touristic. The bus winds up a narrow pass road to park in a large bus parking lot with stalls and toilets. The last few meters are on foot through a narrow alley to the monastery forecourt.

The monastery walls look beautiful in the sunlight. Stunning views of Kyrenia Harbor can be enjoyed from the edge of the citrus garden. In the former dining room - today it looks more like a church - you have amazing acoustics, which is often used for concerts and music events.

Even if there is no geocache here - at least not yet - it is definitely worth the visit. After all, you can see the fortress of Kyrenia, where you can find a tradition again.

Geocaching in Cyprus - Kyrenia

Kyrenia is a town in North Cyprus on the north coast. When the wind is north you have a view of the opposite mainland.

Inside the fort you will find a beautiful courtyard which also houses the entrance to the museum of the shipwreck found many years ago from an earlier century and a descent into the basement to the torture chamber. There, life-size figures are used to show what such torture could look like.

On the outer wall of the fortress, so that you can get there without having to pay an entrance fee, is the only tradi of Kyrenia that can be reached on foot. Easily hidden and definitely found thanks to Hint.

In the old town of Kyrenia you can stroll along the harbor, sit by the sea and have a drink in one of the many cafes or restaurants. The narrow streets of the old town are home to many typical tourist shops where you can buy enough fridge magnets, pens and mugs. Considering that this is not a small city, the tourist district and the old town are quite manageable. But absolutely beautiful!

Geocaching in Cyprus - conclusion

After my visit to the cache in Northern Cyprus I can say that it is definitely worth coming here for sightseeing for one or the other cache. But if you expect cache highlights here, you are wrong here. Geocaches with unusual D and T ratings will be missed, as well as special hiding places. Here the country dot, the new souvenir from Groundspeak for Cyprus and many places steeped in history that you should visit when you are looking for a can.