Horizons Unlimited - The HUBB - Cyprus: Middle East Getaway

The Natural Middle East Getaway to Europe is from Cyprus. So there is a little bit of information about crossing the Island. From Haifa leaves a ro ro boat to Lemasus. It goes once a week and tikets can be booked at Rosenfeld Shipping Company (www.rosenfeld.net). Then are two options: let the bike goes to Pireus (Greece) and fly to there from Tel Aviv or Lemasus or the most expensive one, leaving the boat in Cyprus, crossing the Island and take another ferry from the Non existing Turkish Republic of North Cyprus to Turkey. I took this option because I do not like anyone handling my bike. We have been together for a while and is like my wife, as most of you know and feel. But this trip is really expensive: I paid 360 euros for me and the bike. The trip lasts one night. Arriving Lemasus early in the morning. European Green Card is valid in Cyprus but high fees: 105 euros more.

Cyprus is beautiful Island and petrol is cheap. I did a great trip across the Troodos Mountains with Antonis (veteran hubber) and a friend of him. Crossing the border in Nikosia is not hard, but you have to hire a new insurance because they do not accept green card or Turkish insurance. 20 euros more for one month. You should ask also for import permit. I did not ask and in the ferry custom they accepted the South Cyprus one I got in Lemasus as a favour for a traveller, but others guys couldn’t´do the same because they are different countries and they do not get on well since the Turkish Invasion in 1974.

More about money. Ferry tiket to Turkey about 100 euros plus 11 Turkish Liras (City tax) and 20 more in Turkish arrival (port fee). Kyrenia is not far from Nikosia, and the Island is still beautiful, especially is worth to visit the Bellopais Monastery. From Kyrenia leaves daily ferry to Tasucu, an small village between Antalya and Antakya. The ferry, full of Turkish people and with cafeteria, is very slow. 8 hours for about 65 km. You arrive at night but in town there are few cheap hotels and pansyons beside the sea with beer and wifi. Prices about 40 to 70 Turkish Liras, but in a really need (Cyprus got me broke) one can sleep on the beach.