Tag: Cyprus

Hiking in Amiantos, Cyprus [with photos]

kyriakos

On 19th March went on a hike to Amiantos area in Troodos. The trail started near the village of Kato Amiantos walked along the river reached the flooded entrance of the old asbestos mine and then climbed up the hill over the mine and then descended back to the river and followed the same path back. A total of around 12km of walking, and climbing up and down; this was probably the hardest hike I’ve done in my life and most certainly one of the hardest trails in Cyprus (I am trying to find a harder one just for the challenge).

Walking along the river side was easy; we had to cross the river a few times but it was not that hard, the challenge started when we reached the lake, at that point we took the wrong path and ended up having to climb up the hill which was quite steep. Once at the top we slowly started walking down when we realized we spent 5 hours in what was supposed to take us 3-4 hours. At that point we decided to take a different path so that we could make it off the mountain before sundown. The new path was quite hard, we were essentially climbing down the dry path rainwater created. Because the particular mountain peak is mostly made of sand, the water eroded a steep corridor around a metre wide and around 2 metres deep. We needed to be careful not to touch the walls cause the path would collapse and at the same time had to climb down drops of about 2-3m at a time. It took us another hour to get out of that and then walk along the river back to our starting point.

Was it fun? yes! will I do it again? definitely!

The river
Walking down the peak.
Trapped in the narrow corridor.
Trapped in the narrow corridor.
View from the top
View from the top
Above the mine
Above the mine
The lake at the peak.
The lake at the peak.
our crew
Our Crew! Had the camera shutter on a 2 second, barely made it in the picture.
The abandoned buildings viewed from the peak.
The abandoned buildings viewed from the peak.
Valentinos pointing where we should go.
Valentinos pointing where we should go.
We look happy cause we thought we went through the worst part, we were so wrong.
We look happy cause we thought we went through the worst part, we were so wrong.

Lefkara village photos

kyriakos

Lefkara is considered one of the most picturesque villages in Cyprus, located in the hills between Limassol and Larnaca it’s a must visit for anyone spending time in Cyprus. It’s a fairly large village with a lot of coffee shops and traditional taverns usually quite busy especially during weekends. Ideally try parking as soon as you find a spot cause streets are narrow and road traffic makes it driving even harder.

Took these photos back in September during an unplanned visit.

Online Shops that ship to Cyprus

kyriakos

Its extremely frustrating to find a product you want to buy online only to realise they don’t ship to your country (and to do so, sometimes you have to go through the process of filling up 3 pages of sign up forms). Living in Cyprus which happens to be too small to be a viable marker for many its very rare to find online stores that care to send their products all the way to us. So I made the following list of places that I’ve either ordered before or I know that ship to Cyprus. I plan to keep this list updated as I find new Cyprus-friendly shops – and if you know any I missed, please let me know. So here’s my list:

 

Site Ships from Products & Notes
Play.com UK (and more) Video games, Books, BluRay/DVD, Mobile accessories, Limited selection of clothes. Sells other products too but doesn’t ship to Cyprus.

Used to ship to Cyprus for free when it was a single shop but now it became a reseller platform so some sellers will send for free some for a small fee. But in general they do send to Cyprus without a problem.

Game UK UK Video Games, Console accessories.

Good prices, has new games on time. No free shipping but cost with shipping usually comes about the same as Play.com
Zavvi UK Video Games, Movies and limited range of computer products/laptops.

Quotes prices in Euro and has free shipping to Cyprus via Post for most items. Appears a bit more expensive than Game.co.uk on the items I checked but might be compensated by the free shipping.
(Thanks to Dimitris Georgiou for the tip)

Overclockers UK UK Laptops, Desktops, PC Components.

Best shop for hardcore PC gamers. Has custom built gaming machines, and a great selection of high end PC components. If you are building a powerful PC, you should look here first. Prices are OK (you can probably find cheaper if you look elsewhere). They might give you some trouble when ordering from Cyprus, in the past I was asked to send a scan of my passport, but after that they sent my order without any delays.
Computer Universe Germany General Electronics, Laptops, Mobile Phones, Tablets, Cameras, Lenses, PC Components, HiFi.

Only found out about this store recently and haven’t had the chance to order from them yet. But compared to other sources they seem to have the cheapest PC components and a good selection of them. Also their laptop section has almost everything you’ll need. They ship using regular post (DHL in Germany but you’ll receive your product in the Post Office in Cyprus) or UPS which costs considerably more.
B&H Photo USA Everything Photography Related, Laptops, Tablets, Professional Audio & Video, TVs and Projectors.

One of the few US based shops that will ship any of its products to Cyprus. If you are interested in photography this is the site to check. They sell cameras, lenses, tripods, lights, filters accessories and anything a photographer might need, from the cheapest snap cam to the most expensive and rare SLR Lens. The prices are good you will have to pay taxes in Cyprus since they ship from outside EU, so in some cases check amazon.co.uk or ebay.co.uk for the same products before ordering. They ship via UPS or Air Freight for large items such as TVs (which can be costly). They also offer the option to prepay taxes through their site. Personally I never used that option and it turns out you pay a little less tax in Cyprus.
Adorama USA Photography, Laptops, Tablets, Professional Audio & Video, TVs and Projectors.

Similar product range with B&H Photo, ships to Cyprus via UPS.

Clove UK Mobile Phones, Tablets & Related Accessories.

Never used them myself but I know people who did and are quite happy. They have the latest handsets in stock almost immediately after release (usually earlier than Cyprus retailers) and their prices are quite good. In addition to credit cards they also support PayPal which is a plus.
HandTec UK Mobile Phones, Tablets, GPS.

Similar product range to Clove, but appears to be slightly cheaper (at least for Samsung and LG models I checked).
(Thanks to Michael Demetriou for the tip)

Please note I am not including any Chinese stores, since there is literally hundreds (if not thousands) of them that usually sell the same products via drop-shipping and they all super happy to ship to Cyprus (usually for free via regular post). I might write another post about Chinese shops in the future.

I also don’t include Amazon.co.uk because a lot of its sellers won’t send products to Cyprus.

If you know of any other shops that you think should be included in the list above please post about them and your experiences in the comments.
 

Cyprus Broadband and Mobile Marketshare (Q2 2013)

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According to statistics released by the Cyprus Office of Electronic Communications & Postal Regulation (OCECPR) the broadband market share for the 2nd Quarter of 2013 are as follows:

Broadband Marketshare Cyprus 2013 (2nd Quarter)

Cablenet seems to be the winner of that period with a 2.7% increase while Cyta continues to be the loser with a 2.9% decrease. During this period the broadband penetration in Cyprus was 69% (down from 71%, same period last year). This is the first time it decreased since broadband connectivity was first introduced to Cyprus. This can be accounted to the economic situation (a lot of businesses closed down, taking their connectivity with them) and the fact that a lot of people use mobile connectivity for their basic internet fix.

On the mobile battlefield, the percentages are as follows:
Cyprus Mobile Marketshare 2013 (2nd Quarter)