It’ll be five days since I’ve been back in Cyprus by the time you read this. Monday afternoon, we got in the car and began driving from the village to Nicosia. It was a little bit like travelling from the countryside to Central London, except the journey only lasts about 45 minutes and not almost two hours!
Without realising, I slowly drifted off to sleep and woke up to the sound of thumping. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing: the sound was hail stones banging against the windscreen.
For the last five or ten years I’ve only come across rain a few times in North Cyprus, but nothing prepared me for this. We drove to my workplace hoping the rain would die down, what I saw though after was honestly unimaginable. Each car was at least two feet under water, rainwater that is
This was crazy, the drainage system on the island was made so poorly that after raining for only for half an hour cars were literally swimming through water. As my dad drove in and out of back streets, avoiding the traffic was ‘rewarded’ with a flood scene in each street. One man we saw was part of the navy, he was laughing at his colleague as he battled with his umbrella and the wind. It was actually hard not to laugh with him. In another back street, our car’s tyres were so deep in rain water that the car had a nice wash as it splashed as high as the sunroof.
You want to know the funniest part: we’d only collected the car that morning! It was a nice, black and shiny Ford and now? Well flooding, winds and muddy rain water. You can imagine just how filthy it got, not a pretty sight at all anymore. That said, ours wasn’t bad, compared to the other drivers and pedestrians we saw on our way. A flood of muddy rain water was gushing down steep roads. It was like the caramel fondue waterfall in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Having never witnessed such shocking weather before, when we reached my cousin’s florist I just and watched from the window. As cars came round the corner and into the side road, it was so sad to see cars struggling to move, high splashes of rain water onto the pavements and people jumping as far they can to cross the road. It felt like I was in a scene from film. One of those natural disaster films and you’re the character who watches in disbelief at how it all changed so quickly.
Those of you who know this little island will know it as being hot, sunny and with good weather all year round. I can assure you it isn’t. Even now as I write, bolts of lightning are flashing, making the sky look purple. It really isn’t all sun and fun when you visit in other seasons or decide to live here. Two years it’s taken me to decide and be certain I want to move to this island. Only a week in and I’ve witnessed rainfall like no other before…
So be it, it’s still the peaceful and beautiful island I love so dearly. Let’s just see what life here is really going to be like.
