This post is also available in:
Italiano (Italian)
Even in traveling to northern Cyprus I had problems with the car, indeed, always with the rental agency.
Traveling to North Cyprus, the difficulties at the end
The route was spectacular, but there were misunderstandings. The pickup and drop-off location was just beyond one of the borders of Nicosia.
The guy who delivered the vehicle to me said that on the way back I could park wherever I could find a space. Also I could have left the key under the mat, with the car unlocked. I was comfortable with the fact that Cyprus is among the safest nations in the world. But the overall situation is complicated.
The next day, after a beautiful ride that I will describe later, back in Nicosia, I left the car in a little hidden parking lot but the only one with space. I didn’t think to take a picture because there really was no alternative and it was only a few meters from where they had delivered it to me.
To travel to North Cyprus I would not need a phone, partly because I had downloaded the route I would have to take off line. So I had decided not to take a sim for those 24 hours. But keeping the phone off was my flaw. I avoided roaming jokes, and any international jammers’ phone calls, but I didn’t answer the one from the agency right away.
Visit Nicosia
I took a tour of the charming old part of Turkish Nicosia. Unfortunately, the former Cathedral, now a mosque, was closed for restoration.
Once I crossed the border and re-entered the European community, I turned on my phone and found a call and email from the rental agency.
The Greek part is also interesting, but let’s say I didn’t enjoy it fully because I was apprehensive about the car.
The town is small, has beautiful cobbled streets with lots of small stores and establishments and impressive old walls, from some ramparts they have made parks out of them.
In the Greek part there is also a modern area with skyscrapers. Overall one feels in a European Mediterranean city. While in the Turkish one, the greater poverty is evident and you can clearly feel that you are in another country.
What jumps out most to the eye are the barbed wires and the modern wall dividing the city and the island. It is full of armed military, lookout towers and there are border checkpoints with albeit mild controls.
The car is gone!
They couldn’t find the car! I explained where it was and that the driveway to access the parking lot cornered a bar. The chick had the audacity to ask me if I remembered the name of the bar, but it was the only one on that 50-meter-long street! And where they must have been used to work.
I continued my rounds, but every now and then the thought would come to me, which toward evening increased: Had they not yet found it? Or perhaps not even looked for it?
At 4 a.m. I woke up tormented by the doubt of what might happen if there really was no more car?
What if they were being clever?
What trouble could have come up with a complaint from an unrecognized country?
What if I eventually had to pay her back?
After an hour of tossing and turning in bed, I decided to check out. I got dressed and with the other car approached the border, which was 15 minutes away from my Bnb. I walked across the border and even though there was a chain in the driveway at that hour, I noticed that the car was exactly where I had left it and clearly visible. I took some photos and re-crossed the border, with the other thought that perhaps the guards would consider that double crossing in five minutes and at that hour suspicious, but they said nothing to me either. I forwarded the photos to the agency, and indeed the fact that there was a chain at night showed that I had not only brought it back at that time.
Alarm returned
Very calmly they replied: thank you we retrieved it, yesterday then we didn’t have time to come back, whereas when they had come to pick it up you had not yet arrived.
No wonder they hadn’t seen it, and before they doubted it wasn’t there, they could have waited for me! Incidentally I was actually ten minutes late, but because the off-line google map evidently did not accept that there might be a border and had led me astray, wanting me to cross the border from another point.
In the end I could file my trip to North Cyprus as a perfect day and as well with the final excitement.
Home set of travel The scent of the Mediterranean islands
Previous stop Visiting Cyprus by car and playing hide-and-seek
Next stage Getting sick on the road and in a bad hotel
Trips taken, travel stories divided by continent
Countries visited in my travel stories
Anecdotes, divided by type in travel narratives
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.