22 May 2015
Postcard from Cyprus
May 2013
It's been hard over the last few years to avoid news of Greece's economic woes. Its cousin Cyprus has reportedly been hit if anything harder, albeit later, with their bad banks, a crashing economy and hardship for all. Cyprus seems to have tried combining a country with a hedge fund which doesn't work very well, as Iceland found out.
So what's it like? What does a country look and fell like, when it's in trouble? Will there be beggars on street corners, riot police at the airport, or mass protests in the streets? As our packed Aegean Air flight lands in Athens en-route to Larnaca, I wonder whether there will be a whip round to pay for the aviation fuel, or the hot meal replaced by a bag of chemically composed snacks (silly me, I'm mixing them up with BA). In fact, the flights were both uneventful. The car hire, on the other hand, was something else.
It's been hard over the last few years to avoid news of Greece's economic woes. Its cousin Cyprus has reportedly been hit if anything harder, albeit later, with their bad banks, a crashing economy and hardship for all. Cyprus seems to have tried combining a country with a hedge fund which doesn't work very well, as Iceland found out.
So what's it like? What does a country look and fell like, when it's in trouble? Will there be beggars on street corners, riot police at the airport, or mass protests in the streets? As our packed Aegean Air flight lands in Athens en-route to Larnaca, I wonder whether there will be a whip round to pay for the aviation fuel, or the hot meal replaced by a bag of chemically composed snacks (silly me, I'm mixing them up with BA). In fact, the flights were both uneventful. The car hire, on the other hand, was something else.
We'd booked a convertible with Avis, a reliable provider of worthy but rather dull cars, for a suspiciously low price. Despite being one of the most expensive categories, a week's hire was little more than the cost of a day for a Smart hired in Geneva. There isn't an Avis counter at Larnaca, so we take the shuttle to a portakabin in a remote piece of wasteland. The sole attendant is a faded blonde from Essex, with a well travelled body, leathery skin and a deep cackle of a voice that spoke of enthusiastic chain-smoking. After some discussion resulting from her explanation that Collision Damage Waiver did not mean we were insured in case of a collision, and that if we wanted actually to waive our liability to damage caused by a collision, we would need the Special Collision Damage Waiver, available only in Cyprus for a few Euros per day, we were given the keys to a Ford Focus convertible.
The doors creak open to reveal a sad interior, stained seats and an odometer reading nearly 100k km. The engine's a little rough and the transmission clunky. Rather like the attendant, it had led a full and long life. But the engine starts and the roof comes down, so we decide that it's good enough and off we go.
Driving through the villages to our hotel, we're reminded of the British influences here, starting with driving on the left. There are also yellow boxes at junctions, English 3 pin electric plugs and all the signs are in near-perfect English (we do like the translation of luke-warm to "looks-warm" on one menu). We pass 'Harry's Bar' and 'Jack's Pub', offers of 'Full English Breakfast' and 'Pints'. Interestingly, the only roadmap we can find to buy is in German, "Willkommen in Zypern" and some of the posher developments are promoted in Russian, with dot ru web addresses. But the overall impression is this is a cross between a Greek island and Bognor Regis.
So, what of the depression? There are no riots, protests, graffiti or really anything obvious to support the expectation this economy will contract 10-15% this year and next. As in Ireland, there are housing estates that are built, but empty; nearly every villa seems to be for sale and many shops are not open, up for lease or just empty. But the residents are cheerful, seeming to shrug it all off and get on with life. Perhaps that's just because the full extent of their situation hasn't really sunk in yet.
We're driving from Larnaca airport in the south east to our rather posh spa hotel in the north west. The impressions of the economy are of agriculture, mainly cereals and lots of poly tunnels, and basic tourism in the form of villas to buy or rent. We pass a big oil terminal but otherwise there's not much sign of industry or commerce. Pamela, reading from the guide book, tells me to be careful not to cross into the Turkish north of the island, because the car would be uninsured and we risk arrest. The border she's spotted on the map and is concerned about turns out to be a regional boundary, as the green line is some way further north, so we're safe from jail, for the time being at least.
The hotel is lovely, even if we could do without some of the Englishness of poor showers, friendly but amateur service, and meat n' two veg style menus. But the pool is gorgeous, the wine list extensive, our room clean and quiet and we're encouraged to pick oranges from the garden, which is full of orange trees. There's a bird nesting outside our room, lizards galore in the rockeries, and a wonderful evening frog chorus (which we've recorded). This is a super place to relax.
Tomorrow, we will be joined by Katie and George and a group of about 30 INSEAD friends for our annual reunion. We're promised chamber music, a talk by the High Commissioner on the strategic nature of Cyprus and no doubt lots of good food and wine.
Looking at an atlas, it's easy to see why this country is strategic. We're so close to Lebanon, Syria, Israel and Egypt. Athens is four times the distance than Damascus, and about the same as Baghdad. We're looking forward to hearing what the High Commissioner has to say.
The doors creak open to reveal a sad interior, stained seats and an odometer reading nearly 100k km. The engine's a little rough and the transmission clunky. Rather like the attendant, it had led a full and long life. But the engine starts and the roof comes down, so we decide that it's good enough and off we go.
Driving through the villages to our hotel, we're reminded of the British influences here, starting with driving on the left. There are also yellow boxes at junctions, English 3 pin electric plugs and all the signs are in near-perfect English (we do like the translation of luke-warm to "looks-warm" on one menu). We pass 'Harry's Bar' and 'Jack's Pub', offers of 'Full English Breakfast' and 'Pints'. Interestingly, the only roadmap we can find to buy is in German, "Willkommen in Zypern" and some of the posher developments are promoted in Russian, with dot ru web addresses. But the overall impression is this is a cross between a Greek island and Bognor Regis.
So, what of the depression? There are no riots, protests, graffiti or really anything obvious to support the expectation this economy will contract 10-15% this year and next. As in Ireland, there are housing estates that are built, but empty; nearly every villa seems to be for sale and many shops are not open, up for lease or just empty. But the residents are cheerful, seeming to shrug it all off and get on with life. Perhaps that's just because the full extent of their situation hasn't really sunk in yet.
We're driving from Larnaca airport in the south east to our rather posh spa hotel in the north west. The impressions of the economy are of agriculture, mainly cereals and lots of poly tunnels, and basic tourism in the form of villas to buy or rent. We pass a big oil terminal but otherwise there's not much sign of industry or commerce. Pamela, reading from the guide book, tells me to be careful not to cross into the Turkish north of the island, because the car would be uninsured and we risk arrest. The border she's spotted on the map and is concerned about turns out to be a regional boundary, as the green line is some way further north, so we're safe from jail, for the time being at least.
The hotel is lovely, even if we could do without some of the Englishness of poor showers, friendly but amateur service, and meat n' two veg style menus. But the pool is gorgeous, the wine list extensive, our room clean and quiet and we're encouraged to pick oranges from the garden, which is full of orange trees. There's a bird nesting outside our room, lizards galore in the rockeries, and a wonderful evening frog chorus (which we've recorded). This is a super place to relax.
Tomorrow, we will be joined by Katie and George and a group of about 30 INSEAD friends for our annual reunion. We're promised chamber music, a talk by the High Commissioner on the strategic nature of Cyprus and no doubt lots of good food and wine.
Looking at an atlas, it's easy to see why this country is strategic. We're so close to Lebanon, Syria, Israel and Egypt. Athens is four times the distance than Damascus, and about the same as Baghdad. We're looking forward to hearing what the High Commissioner has to say.
# posted by DavidF @ 17:18 
