Living Like a Local: Top 5 Activities in Cyprus, Overseas Living Letter, Volume 17, Issue 3
Last week’s newsletter, Best Residency to EAT, PRAY, LOVE, received an overwhelming amount of support, thank you! In it, I had a small bout of whining about not wanting my vacation to end so soon. My getaway with the girls felt far too short… and then, this week, life surprised me.
I was reminded (by my own calendar, no less) that I had agreed months ago to a family vacation, at the very same hotel. I’d completely forgotten! Life has a way of slipping in little synchronicities that keep us grinning.
Since I’ll be away, I thought I’d share an article I wrote that never made it into Mediterranean Condos. It was originally published in Overseas Living Letter (Volume 17, Issue 3) by Live and Invest Overseas last year. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Living Like A Local: Top 5 Activities In Cyprus
Northern Cyprus’ culture and history spans thousands of years, which has influenced the daily lives and activities that locals partake in. If you ever decide to choose this destination as your retirement or part-time home, you’ll do more than the typical tourist activities.
But you might not even be aware of which are the true local experiences until you’ve been here for a while. Most tourists will frequent the beaches, popular restaurants, historical landmarks, and go to popular hiking trails. All of this is fun, but there’s more to us than just that.
One of the perks of being an OLL subscriber is that you get the insider info that not just anyone is privy to.
These are my top five activities to do while living in Northern Cyprus… coming from a local.
1. Barbecue Gatherings (Mangal Culture)
Sunday barbecue is a big event among locals. Families and loved ones get together to feast and drink. Most of the time, the food will be comprised of some basic mezzes (tapas) to share, which can be cacik (tzatziki) or hummus.
The main course is grilled meat, usually a butchered local farm animal that roams fields and mountains frequently, so it is delicious. Sheftalia and Kibris pastirmasi are local types of sausages that are also in abundance in these gatherings. We finish it off with halloumi in Cyprus pide (pita bread) followed by halva in pide, which serves as the dessert.
Locals say that if you fly over Cyprus on a Sunday, you will not see it due to the smokes coming from barbecues. We also joke about the shape of the island of Cyprus—it looks like a pirzola (lamb chop), and we like to think it signifies our love for the food.
Alcoholic drinks accompany these sorts of gatherings, and the feasting can take most of the day, usually starting around 11 a.m. and ending around 4 p.m.
Celebratory events can prompt even larger gatherings of this sort: New Year’s, religious holidays, or work celebrations like May 1st.
These gatherings are like potlucks: everyone contributes with different ingredients and/or dishes. They are usually hosted in the various popular mangal sites like Alevkayasi or Kirni.
Even if you don’t bring anything, Cypriots think it is harmful to the passerby to suffer the tempting smell of their food and not have some of it, so they will offer to share it. Nevertheless, it will be polite and considerate to bring something.
2- Treasure Hunting
In Northern Cyprus, locals will frequent fields to entertain gathering (‘‘treasure hunting’’) activities in certain seasons. These are often family events.
The main treasure is a mushroom called Gavcar. You can find dedicated groups on Facebook where people showcase and brag about their Gavcar findings. They keep their location a secret so they can go back the next year before someone else can beat them to it.
Other things people hunt for are herbs and edible plants like wild asparagus or wild spinach. Plus, a few local plants too, such as hostez, yumurta-otu, lapsana, cabbar, semiz-otu, and gomec. Some are cooked as meals, and some are eaten pickled.
3- Family Time At The Beach
I think spending a day at the beach is a top activity for everyone, locals and tourists alike. But locals specifically go between June and October. Even if the water is warm enough to swim outside of the season, most would not even think about it.
Beachside picnics are popular, and often include watermelon, a local cheese called halloumi, and local sourdough bread.
Fun fact:
Most may not know that halloumi cheese is a trademarked Cypriot cheese. However, the government once forgot to renew the paperwork for the trademark and lost it for a short period of time.
Locals are picky about the beaches they visit, and most prefer Famagusta Bay, Karpasia, or Alagadi Beach. Most people work until 2 p.m. during the summer months, hence a visit to the beach after work hours is not uncommon. But it is more common for locals to go on the weekends.
In addition to short beach visits, Cypriots will often plan a longer trip to Karpasia once a year. Karpasia is home to the famous Golden Beach. Here, a visit to the Karpaz National Park to see the donkeys and a visit to the Apostolos Andreas Monastery to make some wishes are in order.
Some of these beaches are protected sites, so visitors should follow a few essential rules to enjoy their trip responsibly.
In dedicated turtle beaches, sea turtles come ashore at night to lay their eggs and follow the moonlight to make their way back to the water. Any light around them would be a distraction, and they can end up going the wrong way, possibly getting injured or killed. Thus, during the nesting season, turtle beaches like Golden Beach and Alagadi Beach are off-limits to visitors between 8 p.m and 8 a.m.
Following the nesting, the nests are identified and protected by white cages to deter daytime visitors from potentially stepping on them or protect them from predators like foxes or dogs.
During September, you can book a guided trip to watch the little turtles hatch their eggs and find their way back to the water. It’s beautiful to watch their first-ever steps into their new lives.
4- Embracing The Meyhane Culture
Taking part in Meyhane traditions should definitely make this list.
Meyhane is a local restaurant where side dishes are shared among everyone at the table, while the main dishes are distributed over the course of two hours.
On arrival, you will be served lots of mezzes (tapas), and then all the starters and main dishes are distributed in intervals. The experience includes live music (mostly Turkish), dancing, and lots of drinks (a famous one is raki).
The starters include dishes such as Cypriot pita bread, ezine cheese, and vegetarian meatballs. For tapas you can enjoy babaghanoush (grilled eggplant salad), potato salad, cacik (yogurt with cucumbers and herbs), muammara (roasted red pepper dip), hummus, and more.
For the main courses, shish kebab (lamb and chicken shop), grilled chicken wings, and adana kebab are the norm.
The evening ends with a seasonal fruit platter and semolina halva pudding.
5- Local Weddings—COMING UP NEXT WEEK
I’ve decided to write an extended version of “Local Weddings” for the next edition. If you’d like to be the first to read it when it’s published, join our free subscription newsletter Mediterranean Condos if you haven’t already—you won’t miss a thing!
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See you in the next issue!
Warm regards,
Soylem Coli
Mediterranean Condos Team
