10 Things I Don't Like About Cyprus

WORK IN PROGRESS: This article is, as the label suggest, a Work in Progress, so may change radically over the next few days. In the mean time please feel free to volunteer your suggestions and comments.


Following my article '10 Things I Love About Cyprus', I thought I would balance things out a bit and list the 10 things I don't like about Cyprus. This is more interesting for most people who are thinking of living in Cyprus because its the kind of stuff you wouldn't know until you have lived here for a while. However, please keep in mind the Things I Love article all the time whilst reading this, as there really is much more that I love about Cyprus than I loath. Anyway here we go..

1. Animal Neglect & Cruelty.

I'm trying to be careful not to generalise here, but "in general" the Cypriots often don't seem to have much regard for their animals. In the last three years, my wife and I have been upset by the sight of dogs released next to highways, or tied and abandoned under bridges where they will die the most agonising death in the baking sun. Many of those that do keep dogs will rarely walk then, and keep them in a cage in the back-yard of their homes - sometimes without adequate food or water, and little opportunity to exercise or socialise.

The most cruel example of this related to the treatment of hunting dogs. A popular time of the year in Cyprus is the hunting season, and many people in Cyprus keep hunting dogs tied up in their yards for this reason - of course with little food or water, room to exercise, and certainly no walks. In fact the Cypriot government actively - though perhaps inadvertently promote this behaviour by not requiring the registration or payment of the yearly dog license fee if the dog is not walked!

More than likely, you will have heard of the extensive dog and cat poisonings that happen throughout Cyprus - often using Larnate (though - technically - banned these day), but also using many other chemicals that are freely available over the counter.

Oh, and God forbid you should dare to take your dog for a walk near the beach as the Cypriot's are liable to string you up - or run you over. I mean this quite literally - as you may have read about the Paphos man and his dog who were deliberately run over and killed by an irate Cypriot who did not agree to him walking the dog near the beach - Paphos Man Killed for Walking Dog .


2. Driving - incompetent/discourteous/parking

People in Cyprus drive how they want and where they want, with little to no regard for human safety or road sense. Abit like the 70s in the UK, drinking and driving is rife - and just to bring things bang up to date, they also make extensive use of their mobile phones whilst driving. In fact, using a mobile phone whilst driving is so common you would think it was needed to steer their cars, and judging by how they park perhaps it is - thought this point will require further investigation. Also, seat belt seem to be considered decorative items amongst Cypriot drivers, and rarely will you see a driver (or any other occupants, including children) using one.

There was a time only recently that drivers were allowed to park on the pavement, even though they would have received a ticket for parking on a double yellow line on the road next to it - yes, really! Recently the law moved, just abit, to place a ban on all parking on walkways. Nowadays, drivers still park on pavements with no come-back from police or traffic wardens. However, I am sure that these drivers feel guilty about it and will eventually learn their lesson!?? Speaking of traffic wardens, try to park on the Larnaca sea front along with EVERYONE else (it has a single yellow line), and you will soon realise that the only cars to get a ticket are those with foreign plates or car rentals. I wander why this is??! I guess whoever said that "the only thing that saves us from a corrupt banana bureaucracy is its inefficiency", was right!

Not quite to the same extent as Egypt, but drivers in Cyprus often use their horn and indicators interchangeable. The Cypriot car horn is very much considered a general purpose item, and is also often used as a stress toy, or as a musical instrument in order to beep along to whatever's on the radio. God forbid there's a wedding or a football match on 'cos you'll be bleeding from the ears by the time you get home.

3. Traffic

Until recently there was little to no public transport in Cyprus, so if you don't have a car you are pretty much staying at home or spending a fortune on taxi cabs. Ok, these days there are giant blue buses apparently taking people between the major cities for 2 Euros a throw - which is pretty cheap, but I am yet to see a single one of these buses ever pull over and stop to pick anyone up. Do they actually stop? Does anyone know where? Perhaps they just go around in a big circle all day long so that EU diplomats and the next bunch of UN suits who come over for a jolly at public expense to once again fail to help Cyprus reach a settlement on reunification (that none of they really wants, by the way) will think Cyprus has a public transport infrastructure.

BTW, they used to have a rail way system back in the 1950s, but since kicking the British out of Cyprus and claiming independence, they seem to have forgotten how to operate it. Needless to say, they no longer have one! Reminds me of what happened with Concord - too far ahead of its time!

4. Car Import Duty

This is the biggest public con of them all! Cyprus is a full member of Europe - a free market where goods and services can be traded without the overhead of uncompetitive practises such as tariffs and customs charges. However, bring your car over, and a customs charge of between 2000 and 4000 Euros is imposed on your - something that is entirely illegal by EU legislation. However, you are not allowed to register your car unless you pay it. Of course, you could take them to court in the hope of getting a customs charge refund - but by the time the case was settled you would probably have sold one of your kidneys along with everything else you own - all towards your unrecoverable legal expenses.

5. Cypriot Youth (that pretend to like football).

At or during the time of a local football game do not under any circumstances consider going to your local hostelry to partake or a bevi or two.. You run the risk of baring witness to 10s if not hundreds of hooded young Cypriot w*nkers decending on the pace in order to assault the bar staff, customers, and wreck the place. Only recently a bar around the corner from where I work on Griva Dhigeni, Nicosia was trashed by more than 100 hooded youths, who assaulted the owners and his staff, chopping one of his fingers off in the process just because the landlord happened to support one of the other local football teams. The ironic thing was that the football team that the hooligans support had actually won that night! Morons!


6. August Break.

This is a break time of year if you want to beat the traffic as most Cypriot people disappear to the UK, Paphos or Ayia Napa. However, try and see a doctor, a car mechanic, a vet or most anyone else you might need, and you will probably be out of luck.. they will likely be in the UK, Paphos or Ayia Napa! I tell you, its a good job the Kiti power station explosion that killed 18 people and cut the power supply to the whole of Cyprus by 50% didn't happen during August - else everyone who didn't go away during the August break would be living in their own filth and looting for firewood by now!

6. Discriminatory Charging

7. Bad television