Posted by mahallas in
Cyprus
The mahallas inbox received today a very interesting email! One of our friends (Nas) suggested that since the municipals keep on naming new streets (or rename others) after the name of dead presidents, using street names to move around is NO-LONGER effective. Many streets have the same name which makes our life difficult.. ..especially when our sense of direction is not so good!! Using LANDMARKS instead can be quite useful indeed and thus they are usually used.
After his suggestion we are now making a list of landmarks for every city in Cyprus to help people move around :) Please help to complete the list by contributing the landmarks in your mahalla.
Starting from Nicosia we are publicising those our friend wants to share with you. His mahalla is Kaimakli.
Nicosia:
- Pentadromo (5 roads) this is the connection point for Pallouriotissa and Kaimakli.
- Roundabout Bata
- Roundabout Sopas (named after the location of the old Sopas gas works)
- Fota tou Kalispera (Kalispera traffic lights) I think this referred to a block built by Mr. Kalispera which has since been demolished and replaced by the Marfin Laiki bank. These are the very last set of traffic lights found upon leaving Nicosia and joining the Nicosia/Limassol highway
- Fota to Gavrielidi (Gavrielidi traffic lights) this land mark is used by the older generations used to refer to the Gavrielides building which still exists. The younger generation calls this the sfinakia lights (after the club) or Starbucks lights (after the overpriced coffee house)
- Apoel – the junction just up from the Hilton on Makariou where the right tun takes you into Armenias street (Apoel football club being on that junction)
- Giorkio (this evades me every time and i always get lost – it is i think near the old hospital and i have no idea what Giorkio is/was)
- BMH (British Medical Hospital – which no longer exists but is off Larnakos Avenue heading towards Aglantzia)
- Octagono – (possibly also Milano ! uncertain – Milano the restaurant has since moved)
- Drakoumel – a periptero kiosk in Engomi
In the comments below complete with landmarks from your area and help your neighbours from other areas find their way easier. Alternatively send us an email at contact@mahallas.com
At a later stage we might build a map with those :)
Special thanks to Nas for his email from which most of the content of this post is taken..
3 Response to Never get lost again - the landmarks method!
BMH stands for British Military Hospital.
Giorkio is the huge/ugly glass building next to the Prodromou park at the beginning of Prodromou street.
Also in that area is the Public Swimming Pool (Dimotiko Kolimvitirio) and the Pediaios Traffic Lights (Fota tou Pediaiou or Giofirin tou Pithkia)
And the Central Prisons.
i thought in cyprus we navigate with landmarks anyway, don't we? i mean when you ask the way, does anybody tell you the names of the streets or just say 'go left you'll see a periptero (kiosk) then a kahvene etc. etc.'. giorkeion i think is named after the son of a cypriot millionnaire (think he made his millions in south africa). BMH there is a military complex there, many regiments are housed there, as well as SNE which is the main military hospital of the (stupidly named) National Guard- stupidly named because it only takes greek cypriot orthodox people, but that's another matter. i think there's also the fota tis klimatarias (the grapevine lights :) ) but i don't know exactly where they are. there's also the round-abouts, the orfanidis round-about and the metro one. would be useful if somebody would do the rest of nicosia (i mean north too, for example i'd love to know how to get to dereboyu) and the other cities. in central nicosia there's also the promaxwnas, oxi (the periptero and square at the place where i think somebody was killed) there olympiakos and orfeas grounds as you go towards kaimakli following the walls (i think it's kyriakou matsi, but i'm lousy with street names). there's also obviously debenhams/woolworth traffic lights (the ones at makariou).
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