(And on the way, drivers must pass through several tunnels through the mountains—check out the photos at the right to see one!) Can you guess how long it would take to drive from New York across the U.S. to California? About 40 hours! As you can probably tell from that comparison, Cyprus is a fairly small island. In fact, its area is somewhere between those of Delaware and Connecticut.
On such a small island, commuting from suburbs and villages into the cities is quite common, as is commuting from city to city. So much commuting can cause traffic in the mornings and evenings since the old city centers were not originally designed for automobiles hundreds of years ago. Sometimes the roads there can be quite narrow and winding, or curving! In more remote villages, like Vouni, which I visited one weekend, the roads are still more winding, and cobblestone paving is the norm, or normal thing, in some areas. Check out the photos to the right and on page eight to see how different the road conditions can be in cities versus in villages!
Speaking of road conditions, on a special holiday earlier this fall, I saw many Cypriots getting around the roads (and skies!) of Nicosia in some rather unusual ways: by tank, armored vehicle (a type of military transportation), ambulance, fire engine, police car, fighter plane, helicopter, and marching on foot. Can you imagine why I might have seen all of these forms of transportation in one place at the same time? Stay tuned to find out below!
