Worth knowing, curious things and what we miss in Cyprus

'Different countries, different customs' as the saying goes! And even though the culture shock is limited here and we didn't feel like we landed on a different planet like we did after landing in Japan (a warm greeting to all former classmates at this point), we would like to bring you closer to some peculiarities that we have noticed in the past two weeks.

The Cypriots love meat! Okay, we almost suspected that, because the closely related Greek cuisine is not exactly known for its veggie sticks. However, the love for meat goes so far that you can even buy meat at the fruit and vegetable market. And recently we bought a sandwich at a street stall that was topped with four different types of meat! Plus cheese!

The rest of the supermarket offering is not that different from ours. Okay, living snails are not very common in German supermarkets, but otherwise the only curious things are sliced mushrooms and a huge can with fishy contents (which doesn't smell). This can is open in front of the supermarket checkout and apparently you help yourself with a spoon and pay by weight. We will investigate this further, promise!

One peculiarity in Cyprus are the three taps above the sink. If I understood correctly, one tap is connected to the municipal water supply and is pure cold water. The second tap, with hot and cold water, is connected to the water tank on the roof, which is heated by a solar system. The water from the roof is only used for showering, washing, and flushing the toilet, while the municipal water can also be used for cooking, but it is chlorinated. We always cook with water from the supermarket, which can also be bought in 15-liter and 20-liter bottles here.

We could write a whole book about traffic on the island. The most important rules are as follows:

1. If you don't want to make enemies on the road, then consider the speed limit as what it is, a guideline. Add at least another 10 km/h and everything will be fine.

2. It's none of your business where I want to turn! Using turn signals is for weaklings. And why should you use a turn signal when leaving a roundabout? Everyone eventually goes left. Always!

3. If there are obstacles on the road that require special right-of-way rules, remember this: The one with the bigger car always has right of way! Easy to remember!

4. Being a pedestrian is not necessarily easy here. In the center of Larnaca, for example, many sidewalks are so narrow that two people cannot walk side by side. In rural areas, there are often no sidewalks at all. I (Timo) walked along such a road from our vacation rental to the fish tavern on the beach and had to jump into the bushes several times when cars were passing by. Some drivers shouted something to me through their lowered windows and waved friendly. Translated, this probably means something like: 'Oh you ignorant, daredevil pedestrian from foreign lands! Be careful and get a driver's license quickly so that you don't get hurt in the land of wild traffic!' or in a more concise form: 'Hey you idiot! Don't walk here!'

What we miss so far:

The list is actually manageable. Family and friends, of course, are in first place, followed closely by our old sofa. Oh mighty, green sofa, we will remember you forever. No sofa will offer us as much space and comfort again. We miss you! And of course, we also miss our friends and family, so don't get the wrong idea ;-)

And actually, but we were already aware of this, we miss the luxury of being able to drink t tap water. Buying drinking water is not the problem, but rather the fact that you have to transfer water from the huge canisters into handy bottles several times a day. When we have finally settled in Cyprus, we will definitely find out to what extent a water filter can help us to eliminate these inconveniences.