Ten Cypriot Staycation Summers...

The last time I hopped on a plane was to go to the UK on a wobbly Easy Jet flight to Leicester and was pleasantly surprised by the UK weather which was unexpectedly mild with no rain. That was September 2015.

Following that, for the next ten years, I opted to stay in Cyprus. During these years I have seen Cypriot presidents leave and take up office, lived through a pandemic which limited travel, switched jobs and welcomed a niece into the world and had to say goodbye to loved ones who passed away. It seems like a lifetime but in the process I have felt changed, even renewed despite the lack of travelling.

In this time I have also read steadily, gathered knowledge, visited places of interest in Cyprus and become more aware of this island's deep and complex history and culture. My Cypriot nature has become more apparent and I have blended in more with the world around me and my spoken Greek has improved.

Even though at times the desire to get on a plane and escape for a while is missed, the island pulls me back-its shores, its mountains, its lifestyle, its protective nature. There is so much I have yet to discover, so many more places I haven't yet visited or experienced. In short, we are lucky to live here. The climate, the food, the easy way of getting out and about. 

There are times when we complain, get angry and grumble at the state of things and there are certainly aspects of life here that can and must be improved, but being a small island changes and improvements are feasible as long as they are competently and effectively done. 

In its troubled past, this island had to start again from very little and it is commendable in itself that the unoccupied part of the island has made so much progress since those troubled times. More still needs to be done and the future awaits, but Cyprus pushes forward like all other nations into a period which will hopefully bring good fortune, prosperity but above all, peace and reunification.

Lawrence Durrell in his book 'Bitter Lemons of Cyprus,' said, "Taken leisurely, with all one's time at one's disposal Cyprus could, I calculate, afford one a minimum of two years reckoned in terms of novelty; hoarded as I intended to hoard it, it might last anything up to a decade."

For me, a decade it has been, without having had an eye on other lands, but despite this I have gained and seen an island like the sea around it, in all its seasons, in all its calm and upheaval but still with an eye on the horizon, looking out and awaiting what is next to come.