Britain’s legacy in Cyprus was evident as quickly as I turned out of the airport. The busy highway was lined with indicators urging “Drive on the Left!”
“We’re a part of the EU, so individuals assume we drive on the proper right here. You wouldn’t consider the variety of accidents on the highway from the airport – we name it dying row,” Giorgos on the automobile rent firm informed me.
A British protectorate from 1878 to 1914, occupied from 1914 to 1925 and at last a Crown Colony, Britain relinquished control over Cyprus in 1960. As a situation of the handover, nevertheless, they stored two Sovereign Base areas: Akrotiri and Dhekelia. Protecting roughly three per cent of the island, they’re among the many 14 surviving British Overseas Territories, alongside the likes of Gibraltar, the Falkland Islands and (for now) the British Indian Ocean Territory.
“They’re in our nation however they’ve their very own legal guidelines, their very own colleges – they even have their very own police pressure, reporting to the UK’s Ministry of Defence,” Cypriot buddy Vassiliki defined to me the next day as we drove previous miles of barbed-wire fence separating us from Akrotiri, with its golden seashores and salt flats flecked with pink flamingos.
Pink flamingos on the salt flats round Akrotiri – getty
Surprisingly, there was no checkpoint to enter Akrotiri, on the southernmost tip of Cyprus. “You may’t enter the army areas, although,” Vassiliki warned.
In distinction to Limassol’s skyscrapers, glittering like knives within the shiny sunshine throughout the bay, this enclave, inhabited by British army personnel and their households, together with several thousand Cypriots, jogged my memory of Lewisham within the Eighties. British flags hung limply above Indian eating places, pubs bore garish facades, and there have been rows of shuttered outlets.
“Our shoppers are actually intrigued by this little-known British territory within the Mediterranean with its pink postboxes, using golf equipment and British grocery store chains,” Morgan Bourven of YPT, a British firm that leads excursions of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, informed me.
Purple phone packing containers may be discovered all through the British territories in Cyprus – Peter Alvey /Alamy Inventory Photograph
In line with native newspaper The Cyprus Mail, some 40,000 British residents – largely retirees – live in Cyprus. I used to be staying in Paphos, a seaside resort which is dwelling to round 20,000 of them. Not like the downtrodden Sovereign Base areas, Paphos was a busy jumble of name new house blocks, many with plunge swimming pools and pocket-sized gardens.
On the sandy seashore reverse the town’s Tombs of the Kings, a subterranean necropolis the place native aristocrats have been buried from the 4th century BC, I met Rob and Jules from Birmingham. They’ve lived in Paphos for the previous two years and adore it. “They converse our language, drive on our facet of the highway. It’s scorching right here a lot of the yr, they usually even have chippies – what’s to not like?” stated Jules.
Paphos is likely one of the hottest areas for each British holidaymakers and expats – iStockphoto
A brief drive from the ice-cream vans circling the yacht-studded harbour of Kato Paphos, Vassiliki confirmed me one other remnant of British rule. Inbuilt 1958, Polemi Focus Camp occupies scrubland close to the village of Stroumpi. It’s the place the British incarcerated – and allegedly tortured – Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston (EOKA) guerrillas throughout its rebellion towards colonial rule. A watchtower survives, the doorway gate yawned huge, and grass grew wild round a lone Nissen hut housing a crude mannequin of the unique camp, together with black-and-white images of internees.
“You might say it’s a little-known piece of native historical past – one that the majority Cypriots don’t need to keep in mind, and plenty of British need to neglect,” Vassiliki stated as I flicked by means of the dog-eared pages of a guests ebook the place Magadalena from Liverpool stated she “couldn’t consider this shameful episode in British historical past” and Cliff from Kent scribbled that it was “superb that the Cypriot individuals nonetheless like us”.
Polemi Focus Camp, the place the British incarcerated EOKA guerrillas – Alamy
In Nicosia, Europe’s last divided capital, I lunched at Giagia Victoria. Celeb chef Paul Hollywood is claimed to be a fan of this classic café, with its Fifties décor, which backs immediately onto the town’s buffer zone, nonetheless full of barbed wire, anti-tank ditches and minefields.
It was an odd sensation to sip treacly Turkish espresso roasted over scorching coals in a briki (copper pot) and chomp syrupy semolina cake politika, whereas gazing out over acres of empty buildings, their partitions riddled with bullet holes and their roofs sprouting grass. They have been deserted in 1974 through the Turkish invasion.
“My dwelling was over there,” waiter Andreas stated, pointing to a crumbled house block with a tree rising by means of the center. “We took what we may and left in the course of the evening. We have been by no means ready to return. From 1974 up till 2003, when the primary crossing opened, we couldn’t even go to the Turkish occupied facet. I used to be going to be married to a Turkish-Cypriot lady – I by no means noticed her once more.”
The Buyuk Han is a restored Ottoman caravansary in Nicosia – alamy
A brief drive away in Nicosia’s bustling suburbs, I visited a jail the place EOKA fighters have been stored in darkish, cramped cells. “Some have been executed, however in an effort to keep away from scary riots, they have been buried secretly close to the jail in a tiny courtyard, now often known as The Imprisoned Graves,” the information defined.
Just as in India within the days of the Raj, the British in Cyprus additionally had their hill stations the place they went to flee the summer season warmth. Lieutenant-Basic Sir Garnet Wolseley established the primary such outpost within the 1870s. Typically referred to as “the Simla of Cyprus”, Platres sits within the foothills of the Troodos Mountains.
Leafy Platres was as soon as a magnet for celebrities and royalty – Alamy
The leafy streets of this colonial relic are lined with an eclectic mixture of structure, starting from chunky alpine chalets to no-nonsense brick bungalows and eccentric turreted follies. On the top of its splendour, this high-flung village was a magnet for celebrities and royalty, together with Egypt’s King Farouk, for whom the Brandy Bitter was invented, and Daphne Du Maurier, who wrote Rebecca, her darkish research of suppressed want, on the (quickly to be refurbished) Forest Park Resort.
Over dinner within the wood-panelled confines of The New Helvetia, one of many oldest accommodations in Platres, I bought chatting to a Canadian couple. “This village is an actual timewarp,” I remarked. Brian from Toronto chuckled, earlier than replying: “Identical to the British in Cyprus!”
Find out how to do it
EasyJet has flights to Paphos from £174 return. Luxurious golf resort Minthis has suites from £275 per evening, together with breakfast. Young Pioneer Tours operates excursions of Akrotiri and Dhekelia. In Nicosia, ebook a personal tour of Northern Cyprus with Cemal from Get Your Guide from £420 for a gaggle of 4.
Source link