Journey into Cyprus

This is quite a unique book, Thubron must have been the last person to freely walk around Cyprus in the 1970's before things went to hell and the island was split in two.  During his walk he interviews both Greeks and Turks to try and judge their level of animosity towards each other.  On the whole they seemed quite peaceful, not much hatred towards each other...surprisingly there wasn't any hatred towards the British who had carried out their usual colonial brutality on the locals.  Everybody he met was kind and they fed him, gave him shelter and asked how much his boots cost.

I've read a lot of travel books and this is one of those rare books about a country I have visited and it was nice to see Thubron visit a village that I have been to, each place got a little cheer from me.

The best part of the book was when Thubron found a small cave at a popular ruined site and he went exploring, soon the cave got smaller and darker.  Thubron was relieved to see some daylight coming from a gap in a paving slab above him and had a look through it, so see a lady looking back at him.  Just imagine the shock of seeing an eye staring back at you from beneath the paving slabs.

This was an interesting read, I liked how much the focus was on the history of the island,  there is so much to learn about Cyprus and this only touches the surface.

Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2020/05/09/journey-into-cyprus-by-colin-thubron/