The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. That´s the official name of a country which is recognized only by Turkey. This part of the un-united island I visited in 2013. To cross the border between the Greek and Turkish part you need only your passport and to fill out a free visa form. The capital city of the Turkish part, Nicosia look much more poorer than the Greek part of the city. The streets are much broader and not everybody speaks English like in the Greek part. The Turkish cultural influence is visible on first sign.  In every coffee bar you see the divided part for women and men and everywhere you see the small Turkish cups with black tea. In the Turkish part of the island is also the military presence much more visible. The kilometre long streets are bordered with military bases. Everywhere you can see watchtowers the armed military personal. An exception is also not the case when, like in our case on the way to castle St.Hilariona you are stopped by military, because there are manoeuvers going on.   

On the Turkish side of the island or also different shops. It´s funny, on one side of the same boulevard, which is divided by OSN forces, you can buy on one side a Louis Vuitton pears for 1000 € and on the Turkish side for 10 €! It´s a fake of course, but are you really sure that in the Greece side you buy the original, when only 100m away the shop owner can buy a fake for 10? On the Turkish side you find also another feature which is not so common like on the Greece side. You find whole villages which are fenced and serve as military bases and just behind the village are several night clubs J. Well also soldier have to relax ;). It is very similar to our shopping malls behind town, only here on several hundred square meters there are several night clubs. What I wrote about the beaches on the Turkish side of the island does not guild for the Turkish part! The most beautiful part of the Turkish part of the island is the north tip. Just imagine tenth of kilometres of perfect roads and just a few meters from the roads empty beautiful beaches. On one side of the road clean and empty beaches and on the other forest and mountains. Sometimes you see a nice, small village on the edge on a beautiful beach. But there is something strange on that picture…in a few seconds you notice instead of a church a high minaret. In your head you connect minarets with Arabic countries and deserts. But here it is like a small nice Swiss village, but instead of a church you have a minaret. Nothing is perfect and also this nice landscape is scared with an almost 10 kilometre long strip of project houses build you English retirees.