By: Teddy Espinosa

We arrived at our gate at the Athens airport and began to wait for what we thought would be a 20-30 minute wait to start boarding. 45-50 minutes go by, and we haven’t started boarding yet. We freaked out, but I had looked at an email that said our gate was actually located down the stairs. We rushed down the escalator and found our gate, where we were hurried onto a small bus. The bus then took us to the airport. A small, green Cyprus airline plane that was relatively empty. 

On this flight, people are not quiet at all. And they want to get up and move constantly. Many people move around the plane while we are still gaining altitude and even when we are going down in altitude. They serve snacks and drinks on this plane. It is quite strange, but nearly everybody, except for our group, bought something or ordered something from the snack cart. The snack cart, because of this, moved quite slowly for a relatively short flight (90 minutes). They had cans of Coca-Cola, Lay’s chips, peanut M&M’s, gummy bears, coffee, and more. They even had other options, such as sandwiches and a Caesar salad in a box. I don’t believe we can order those on flights in the US. At least not on normal commercial flights. As the flight began to descend and lose altitude to reach our new destination in Cyprus, the stewardesses made their way through to ensure everyone was finally seated. They would even pick up small children who had moved away from their parents on this half-full flight and put them back with their parents. These people really do not see personal space as Americans do. Which is honestly what I had suspected before in Athens. People would get extremely close to us, and we were a little uncomfortable with it due to our upbringing telling us to stay away from strangers and to always watch our backs. It doesn’t seem to be the case here in Greece.

The plane has landed, a fairly rough landing at that. But when the plane landed, the people clapped. It was quite strange. Normally, you don’t get an ovation like that from the pilots in the US.

Landing & First Thoughts of Cyprus-

Looking out of the window of my plane, Cyprus already seems to me to be quite like Athens. Arid and dry with a dusty complexion. I had thought originally that Cyprus might look more like a tropical oasis in the middle of the Mediterranean, but alas, Athens had changed my mind about that idea. Cyprus seems to be more akin to a desert or savannah than anything remotely tropical.

First Impressions-

When I thought of Cyprus, I thought it was going to be a foreign country. Completely deprived of anything American in antiquity. However, it honestly feels more like I am in Miami or Myrtle Beach than a foreign country. They certainly adhere to tourist monetization and are not really “Greek” here in Larnaca. The only thing similar here to Athens is the Greek language in some places and the crazy drivers. The driving around here is awful. They have street signs, but for many, I do not know what they mean, but in any case, it doesn’t seem like anybody follows them anyways. How is a tiny street both a one-way and a 2 way? I literally saw someone tonight pull up in front of someone driving right in front of them and basically kept moving forward until the other person finally started to back up to allow the other car to turn. What???? The boardwalk is colorful. The beach is stunning. But let’s get back to the boardwalk. Walking down it, we saw a McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, TGIFridays, and probably some other American-based food chains. We stopped and got food at a restaurant, and they served Sushi, Chinese food, Indian food, cheeseburgers, hotdogs, breakfast, booze, ice cream, pizzas, salads, steaks, and beans on toast. Welcome to Cyprus! Here I thought I wasn’t gonna get my hands on a nice greasy burger for a month! Although the food wasn’t very good, it certainly stumped us as to where exactly we were. Are we in Florida??? I had thought it was insane. We even saw some Native American wooden sculptures being sold in a few of the shops. Like really??? I thought the craziest thing that I would lay my hat down and call it a night would be if we had come across a country and western bar in Cyprus. And then we came across a country and western bar…..in Cyprus….. 

View of the traffic jam from my balcony.