Photo of the Day - "Sieging the Walls"

On two separate occasions over the past week I noticed people hiking up the same deteriorated section of the fortification wall in Nicosia.

Photo of the Day - "Buffer Zone Bell Tower"

Overlooking the overgrowth of the Buffer Zone from south Nicosia to see the bell tower of the Catholic Church in the Old City. Although one can enter the building from its facade, which exists in south Nicosia along the Green Line, the exterior of the building is considered to be within the Buffer Zone.

View of the bell tower of the Catholic Church at a dead end road in north Nicosia along the edge of the Turkish Military Zone north of the Green Line.

High Speed Rail Study in Cyprus

I will be the first to remind everyone of the time I suggested an intercity rail system for Cyprus after a summer and fall of extremely high temperatures and low rainfall seemed to be turning the island into a desert. Well, a research group at the University of Cyprus seems to have listened to my suggestion and recently published a study that suggests that implementing a rail service in Cyprus would be cost effective (paid off entirely within 15 years if EU funds contribute to construction) and it would significantly lower the carbon emissions caused by the reliance on personal automobile to move around the island (reportedly reducing transportation related emissions by a staggering 70 percent). 

This project wouldn't make the taxi drivers very happy, who went on strike yesterday to demand an increase in the cost of bus fare...