“Are you actually playing Pokémon right now?” One of my roommates asked me as I casually caught another poliwag with a great throw.

“Yes. I absolutely am.” There was zero shame in my response.

Pokémon Go is hopping in Larnaca. Our hotel, the Blazer Residence, was basically on top of two Pokéstops, three if you walked out of the suite and down the hall. The beach promenade is lined with Pokéstops and Gyms, and Raids were easy to walk to.

Why, you must be wondering, am I writing a blog post about the history and culture of Larnaca, and talking about Pokémon Go?

Well. I’m glad you asked. First of all, you do a ton of walking in Larnaca. It’s a really navigable area that we stay in, with shops, restaurants, coffee, bars, churches, monuments; everything, really, within close distance.

In Pokémon Go, walking confers several benefits. 1. You hatch any eggs that you’re incubating by walking a certain number of kilometers. This has the added bonus of making it easier to adjust to kilometers as a measurement of distance for Americans. 2. As you walk, you earn your pokémon buddy their respective candy, which you use to either evolve them or increase their stats. I was finally able to take my Noibat and evolve her into a significantly more powerful Noivern, a feat requiring 400 candies (roughly 900 km– I did not walk that much in Cyprus, it just helped push me over the needed edge).

Secondly, Pokéstops are located at points of interest. You spin a Pokéstop, and a little picture and blurb pops up about what that location is. For example, the Armenian Church next door to the Blazer has a stop and a nice little explanation of the church’s history. This might not seem like a big deal, but it was through spinning Pokéstops along the beach that I found the Armenian Genocide Memorial. Could I have read the plaque of every statue I came across while I was in Larnaca? Sure. But that’s a little unrealistic. It was sort of forcibly brought to my attention via Go, which piqued my interest and gave me a nudge to look deeper into the recent past to understand more the relationship between fleeing victims of the Armenian Genocide and the Republic of Cyprus.

Thirdly, it’s fun. It’s a fun thing to do, walking around, getting coffee, seeing what kind of Pokémon are catchable by the beach, in the mountains, and at seemingly every archaeological site on Cyprus. Really. I was astounded. Paphos, the Sanctuary of Aphrodite, Kition– there were Pokéstops and even Gyms at Kourion. To me this indicates a robust interest from not only tourists, but locals who put up the Stops and Gyms.

So yeah. Go ahead and play Pokémon Go while you’re here in Cyprus. Find some buddies and go out and Raid, or make friends with the local teens clustered around the same Raid Boss, scrolling furiously on their phones.

–Miki