The world's last comically divided city

Climb over and 'freedom' awaits in the Turkish part of Lefkosia
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Day 53

Nicosia/Lefkosia was 50 minutes away from Larnaca in a shared taxi. It happily bills itself as the last divided capital on earth -the Turkish Cypriots in the north who call the city, Lefkosia and the Greek Cypriots in the South who call the city, Nicosia.

There is obviously a serious border between the two parts of the city but the border itself looks rather comical. There would be walls/fences that were only about 6 feet or so high with no barbed wire and no soldiers in sight so it would not be difficult to climb over the wall.

Plant pots, pictures of balloons...it must be no man's land in Nicosia
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Also, parts of the boundary were made up of houses and buildings so it looked as if you could walk in one of these buildings and simply walk out the other side. It seemed all very Disney club..

It was now time to go through the official border and I started taking pictures before I noticed a no photography sign. However, there was no soldiers or Mickey Mouse dressed characters to stop me taking pictures in 'no man's land' so I took some more photos.

As for Nicosia/Lefkosia, I really liked the place - it was clean with quaint little walkways and charming shopping streets with cheap eateries and nice churches (particularly St Sophia Cathedral). The best thing about Nicosia was that it did not have a beach or otherwise it would probably have been spoilt along, long time ago by British tourists.

In Nicosia, castle designers opted for the stone cladding exterior
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I don't know how long that Nicosia will be the last divided capital on Earth. However, if the border in Nicosia ever comes down then, just like in Berlin, I would like to think that David Hasselhoff will be on hand to sing the wall down.