Cyprus cuisine focuses mostly on Mediterranean, seafood and light meals. The very famous Halloumi cheese originates from Cyprus. This is a cheese that is made with a mixture of goat and sheep milk and usually served as an appetizer: sliced thinly and grilled. Popular Cypriot seafood dishes include squid also known as calamari and octopus served in red wine (also called red mullet) and sea bass.
Cypriot chefs love to use cucumber and tomato in a variety of dishes. Other popular vegetable meals include potatoes served with olive oil and parsley, kolokasi, pickled beets and cauliflower and asparagus. Common meat preparations include meat that is marinated in wine and dried coriander seeds. The meat is then either charcoal grilled such as the lamb dish souvla or dried and smokes like the lounza dish. Sheftalia is minced meat that is wrapped in mesentery and pourgouri (cracked wheat) is another traditional island delicacy.
Although Greek and Turkish is the two official languages, English is seen as a semi-official language. This is largely cause by the thousands of foreigners that has made Cyprus their home over the past few years. Especially the Greek-speaking south considers English to be an important language. They print all official documents in both English and Greek. You also don’t need to translate any of your English documents from abroad into Greek for them i.e. birth certificates and university degrees.
The Greek and Turkish Cypriots use English to communicate as they would rather speak a neutral language. All political debates between the two areas and communities are carried out in English. Younger Cypriots are especially fond of speaking English as it is considered “cool”.
Before the island was separated into the distinct areas in the early 1970's most Turkish Cypriots could understand Greek. Still about 20% of the Northern Cyprus residents claim to be able to understand and speak Greek. This way of life was stopped when all Turkish schools became monolingual and children no longer learnt how to write in Greek.
For everyday conversations, both Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots use a form of local dialect of their mother tongue, which slightly differs from the standard versions of the languages. The Turkish Cypriot dialect can be understood in Turkey, as the only big difference between the two is where the accent is placed on a word. However, Greek mainland natives have difficulty with understanding what their island kin has to say.
The climate is warm and Mediterranean with mostly rainy winters and dry summers. Summer temperatures are lower in the higher parts of the Trodos mountains and hotter in the lowlands. Winter temperatures are pleasantly mild at the lower elevations, where it rarely snows, but are much colder in the mountain areas, where there is often sufficient snow for skiing. Dust storms are prevalent throughout the year.
