A small island in the middle of the Med

37% was invaded by Mehmet
33 years of occupation

Turks celebrate the occasion!

Cyprus is the name

It's still divided, what a shame!

Cypriots suffer on both sides

But noone hears their cries

Here you are, children of Atlantis

Children of Caphtor, land of beauty,

Atlantis the land connected to Syria,

Not Turkey or Siberia.

South of Cyprus is the place

I hope this doesn't blow like an egg in our face

Per Plato's book and his ancient story,

This was the place of major glory!

The place of elephants, monkeys and more

Land of wealth, love of art, island of CaphtorWhat would Turkey now do?

The media is making much ado.

She cannot have a piece of this pie

Turkey is angry, but we cannot lie,

The history talks and evidence is high,

She'll be left alone and hung to dry!

Little church,Gate to St.George Alamanos
Germasogia Dam, Kurium in the afternoon.

"Small town of Cyprus, crystalline
With the sky of blue sapphire!
In your atmosphere the voluptuousness
Of my youthful years can wander.

The voluptuousness of bold plans
And premature pure longings…
And my thought like a shipwrecked vessel
Returns to You from tempest of the passions.

Cling on, cling on to my memory tenderly
Tonight, town, and lead me once again
A traveler tangled in chimaeras, mentally
Sallying forth from your lovely shore."

Nikos Kranidiotis

My Cyprus my wound

I bring to you Hasan the corner stone

from the demolished mosque of Paphos

I bring to you Praxandre the corner stone

from the demolished church of kyrenia

two carving scarpels

two columns

a girland around

Love-Peace

BiterCyprus - Our country

From the poetic collection < Poems 1955-1998> by Theodoros Efthymiou

What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step. It is always the same step, but youhave to take it. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand and Stars, 1939, translated from French by Lewis Galantière

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
~Theodore Roosevelt

In this age, which believes that there is a short cut to everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way is, in the long run, the easiest. ~Henry Miller, The Books in My Life

Don't compromise yourself. You're all you've got.
~Janis Joplin

My new country.
Who doesn't know Niagara Falls?
Also below, the beautiful historical town of Niagara on the Lake.

The Cyprus mouflon is an endangered species inhabiting Cyprus' Paphos forest on an area of 620 km(2). There is only one population of this subspecies in a single reserve which is threatened by habitat degradation, forest fires and diseases transmitted by domestic sheep foraging in the same area as the mouflon

A spring visit to Cyprus can encounter some of the best bird migration anywhere in the Mediterranean. Add the presence of a number of distinctive island races and two unique species - Cyprus Warbler and Cyprus Pied Wheatear - and the appeal of spring birdwatching on beautiful 'Aphrodite's Isle' is irresistible!

The Cyprus Warbler, Sylvia melanothorax, is an Old World warbler which breeds on Cyprus.
This is a bird of dry open country, often on hill slopes, with bushes for nesting. The nest is built in low shrub or gorse, and 3-5 eggs are laid.The Cyprus Warbler's song is fast and rattling, and is similar to that of the Sardinian Warbler.

The subtle white and yellow Cyprus crocus from the Iris family is an endangered species protected by law and is found commonly at high altitudes in the Troodos Mountains.

With its approximately 1.800 species and subspecies of flowering plants, Cyprus, is an extremely interesting place for nature lovers and has all the attributes which make it a botanist's paradise. Being an island, it is sufficiently isolated to allow the evolution of a strong endemic flowering element. At the same time being surrounded by big continents, it incorporates botanological elements of the neighbouring land masses.

About 8% of the indigenous plants of the island, 125 different species and subspecies, are endemic. The island's great variety of habitats, attributed to a varied microclimate and geology, is the main reason which contributed to this high number of endemics.

Epipactis veratrifolia

Orchids are the most popular wild flowers for enthusiasts. The one endemic orchid-Kotschy's bee orchid is an exquisite species looking much like a bee both in its shape and patterning. The Troodos helleborine, while not endemic, grows mainly on the slopes of Mt. Olympus. Other orchid varieties include the slender, pink-coloured Troodos Anatolian orchid, the cone shaped pyramidal orchid, the giant orchid and the colourful woodcock orchid.

There are eight species of snakes indigenous to Cyprus, three of which are venomous. However, only the blunt nosed viper is dangerous to humans.

Nestled in the hills, south of Cyprus' capital Nicosia, sits Lefkara - a village famous for its traditional style of lace embroidery, world-wide known as the "Lefkaritika".
First foto
In 1953 seven Lefkara women worked to complete a Leonardo da Vinci design, offered as a gift to the Queen of England for her coronation. An embroyed crown can be seen in the centre.
Lace-making is a tradition for Cyprus and the village of Lefkara. The technique is carried-out from generation to generation.
It is even reputed that Leonardo da Vinci, on a visit to Cyprus, was very impressed by the Lefkara women's adaptation of Venetian embroidery. He is said to have taken a piece of work with the "potamos" design on it back to Italy to grace the altar in Milan Cathedral. This design is known today as the "Leonardo da Vinci design".

Cyprus fresh bread baked in a stone oven. That's how my grandma used to do it and still done in a lot of villages.
When you order Meze (or mezedes or mezedakia) in a Cyprus hotel or restaurant, you are served a rich collection of appetizers and savories in up to 20 saucerlike dishes

Some well known facts concerning the Cyprus Halloumi Cheese are:
•Halloumi , is the "Queen" of Cyprus cheeses
•Halloumi has been an indispensable member of Cypriot cuisine for centuries.
•Halloumi has been remembered together with Cyprus for ages.
•Halloumi is a product that pleases all tastes.
•The purity in the essence of Halloumi is beyond comparison.
•Halloumi is a taste that comes from history.
•Halloumi does not lose its uniqueness over time

Grill it,fry it, grind it, put it in soups ,eat it with bacon and eggs. Delicious !

Archimandrite Kyprianos (1788) mentions (History and Chronicles of the Island of Cyprus) that halloumi/hellim cheese was exported 144 years prior to 1788. In his book Geoponiko (1643) Monk Agapios describes the method of making halloumi cheese. A few years ago Cyprus managed to obtain exclusive rights to the name halloumi/hellim in the USA, Canada and Europe.

Archimandrite Kyprianos compared the shape of halloumi/hellim to 'tongues of cheese'. There are different possibilities regarding the derivation of its name, however the most probable is the one sited in Kyriakos Hadji-Ioannou's, Etymological dictionary of the spoken Cypriot dialect (1996),that it has derived from the Arabic word 'khllum' that means cheese.

In the Bronze Age Cypriot potters supplied the island's practical needs for cooking, serving and storage containers. Working without a fast wheel, they fashioned handmade vessels in a range of rounded forms that imitated the shapes of gourds, perhaps even molding some pots directly over gourds. This is unsurprising, since gourds themselves were used as containers.

Cypriot potters were also artisans who exercised considerable imagination in their craft. Their wares were always interesting, often exuberant, sometimes experimental and even outlandish. Since pottery was produced in small batches by individuals or families rather than by factories, idiosyncrasy rather than uniformity was the rule. Pottery was also discernibly regionalized, varying from place to place on the island. This makes the Bronze Age pottery of Cyprus among the most diverse found anywhere in the ancient world.

Pictures of pottery from the Semitic Museum.
TheCesnola Collection from Ancient Cyprus.