By: Zander Weinberger

Nicosia is the capital of the Republic of Cyprus, and the United Nations border zone separating it from the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus goes right through the center of the city. On our field trip to Nicosia, I was excited to cross this border, as I had heard so much about it, and was curious to see the change in culture. The inner old city is walled in on both sides of the border. I went over with a few friends, and pretty much everyone on the trip crossed over at some point. Crossing the border was very simple and involved showing your passport to a Cypriot official in the first zone, walking approximately 100 feet, and then showing your passport to a Turkish Cypriot official in the second zone. As soon as you passed the border, it was apparent that you were essentially in a different country. It had a clear Turkish influence, and the city got noticeably denser. There was an eloquent 13th-century mosque nearby, but we decided to explore the city a little further first. What we saw was mainly comprised of restaurants and shops, as this area is close to the border, and it was clearly intended to be a tourist destination. We came across a huge indoor bazaar, with many shops lined up close together. They had many traditionally Turkish items in the shops, such as fez hats. We came across a traditional Cypriot flute shop, with the shop owner making all of them herself. They were all very intricate and expensive, but there was a box labeled “damaged flutes” for only 6 euros. I tried a few of these damaged ones, and they played perfectly fine, just having a crack on the bottom end. It played similarly to a recorder, but not on a traditional Western 12-note octave. We spent around 30 minutes in the bazaar overall, but I only bought the flute. I noticed while looking through the shops that around half of them had no shopkeeper present. I saw only a few cameras as well, meaning they had a trust system in place to prevent theft from occurring. I just found it interesting, as this situation would be basically impossible in most places in America. We then returned to the mosque, but only one of us could go in, as they required visitors to have their legs covered, and there were no wraps available. As we had only a few hours left, we sat down for a quick lunch, where almost all of us had a mixed doner. It was quick to pass back through the border again. This wasn’t on the Turkish side, but there is an observatory near the main plaza on the 11th floor, and from above, you can see the clear division between the two sides of the city. It’s only $2.50 to get in, and there’s a tiny museum at the top as well, so I would recommend it just to get a view of the city and take a few photos. I wish I had more time on the Turkish side, but the fact that tourists are allowed to go over there without any hassle is great.