Published on 06 December 2004 at 07:07 pm
Filed in Expat Life In Nicosia Cyprus
I’ve been in North Cyprus for quite a while now and have been on the receiving end of countless pieces of useless advice and numerous totally incorrect observations from expats and locals alike...
From where the main police station isn’t in Lefkosa (I spent a whole DAY wandering round completely lost in July) to the fact that installing my central heating was a waste of good money and I’d never need it - har har har, very funny...but why does no one ever tell you about the important things?
Today I went laden down with Christmas present parcels to post to those I didn’t manage to catch up with when I was in the UK. I’d spent ages wrapping the little delights and then stuffing jiffy bag after jiffy bag...only to be told by the lovely lady in the post office that she was going to have to open every bag, unwrap every present and check the contents of each individual present!
Sigh.
Oh, what?
Common practice?
I should’ve known?
Well, no actually. I lived in Germany for the 7 years prior to coming to North Cyprus - the most rule orientated, world renowned for form filling in triplicate, rules for everything country on EARTH...and I never ever had to go through the humiliation of explaining why I was sending my best friend in Bedford silly Christmas underwear when I lived in Germany...though come to think of it I did get woken at 7.03am one snowy morning after doing the late shift the night before and having been on-call all night by a German who “thought I should know” that I was meant to have cleared the snow off the pavements outside my house by 7am. Hmmm.
So anyway, to all those of you considering a life in North Cyprus - if ever you want to post a parcel, don’t bother with wrapping paper and don’t seal your packages! A USEFUL piece of advice from an expat on the ground.
