Colin Thubron's trip to Cyprus is nothing more than a basic reading for anyone who has the slightest interest in the island. It's a journey to write, but the book is much more than merely the scenery or the sights. It is imperative that traveling to Cyprus is not just a journey, Cyprus, because the reader feels that experience has spread more than just tourism, as if we were the first to think of this idea as well.
Colin Thubron's trip was great on foot. It was not constant, but Cyprus moved from east to west and north to south. There are occasional voyages on the way, but overall, the text itself communicates the slow pace of the author's development in the light of observation and reflection. The text even seems like a rest period, so it is a pleasure to record the moments when the author stopped on the road to sit on a stone or a mosaic, reflect or read, or the local habit was in a cafe.
Like all good travel writings, travel to Cyprus regularly gives you a sense of well-being. The landscape unfolds with perfect observations that reflect the view. However, both the invasion of the visitor and the local place of residence are still clear, their relative status is not disputed. Certainly they are foreigners, but they always open them with local invitations, information and hospitality.
But here's history. The name, Cyprus itself, comes from copper, the metal that formed the base of mining on the island's neck in the classic world economy. Colin Thubron's description of copper mines – memories and still working – is impressive in the Troodos Mountains. If the name of the island comes from economic activity, religion in Cyprus gives the greatest impression, and these religions are also on these pages, described in detail and repeatedly referenced, as their significance is in the process.
For two thousand years, Cyprus followed Aphrodite's cult. He, like the island himself, was never satisfied with a single relationship. He regularly moved to another with the seemingly inevitable offspring of each encounter that lived his own life, whether mortal or god. That is how the island itself remained, where the culture of ancient Greece became modern in the presence of the Greek language, but in a version that the Cypriots made themselves. Rome was long in flirting, creating palaces and theaters, decorated with mosaics, still decorating the areas on Paphos. Long and continuous marriage with Byzantium resulted in the continuing survival of the Orthodox Church in the life of the island. There are more than 5,000 churches and monasteries and are an integral part of South Cuban culture and politics in Cyprus.
The Lusingnan era was not necessarily known, but it lasted for more than three centuries and the French-speaking Saint John Knights ruled. They stopped from the Holy Land on their way home after they were fired upon the Crusades. They govern and tax, but the island's culture and local traditions have continued, almost in their own sphere and in their own rules, despite power. A short Venetian period saw the island exploiting the city's commercial benefit. Trade routes had to be secured. And then in 1570, the Ottomans arrived and stayed for three hundred years, changed the religion by introducing their own religion and Turkish culture. In a short English period, he left Cyprus with a second language in English, which to this day allows Colin Thubron and others the illusion that the illusion of communication and participation is easy. And now, of course, there is a partition, a permanent nation of Turkish North and a Greek Southern United Nations mediated fence for non-unified nations.
All of these and more are Colin Thubron's travel to Cyprus. But with the orienteering and landscape appreciation, we can take a real look at the culture born in history, but at this time and place we express it as the author travels. There are anecdotes, comic moments, and occasional threats along the way. The only disappointment comes when suddenly the road ends when the author approaches north of the eastern edge of the winding peninsula of the island. But that's the beauty of the trip. You have to make sure what this is and when it happens because in the end this is the next path that calls for it. However, with his writing, Colin Thubron allows us all to experience everything and repeat the possibility.