We hope that no Cypriots are offended by what we're about to say - Cyprus is a nice little island that is not nearly as cool as Lebanon. Yes, we are biased. But our visit to Cyprus, coming after our 4-day whirlwind tour of Lebanon, proved to us that Cyprus just doesn't have that same exciting, rugged edge that Lebanon has.
So if you don't think you're ready for a place like Lebanon, we recommend that you start with Cyprus - or as we like to call it "Lebanon Light." Here are six reasons why Cyprus is for lightweights and why Lebanon is, well, Lebanon:
Here are Carter and Hampton rapping their arms around one of Cyprus' largest Black Pines. Note - they can almost rap their arms around the trunk. Also note - the sign next to the tree tried to impress us with the fact that the tree is over 500 years old. Oooh...
Megan and Wade could stand on the trunk of one of Cyprus' black pines... barely.
There's a reason why Lebanon's Cedars are world famous. This tree that Wade is sitting on is over 3,000 years old. So when Cyprus' trees were still saplings, Lebanon's Cedars were already as old as human history.
2) Old Radical Political Leaders vs. "Damn, didn't that guy say he wanted to kill Americans!"
As you may know, Cyprus is divided between a Turkish-controlled north and an ethnically Greek south. They had their own civil war back in the 1970s - nasty but much more brief than Lebanon's. The legacy of that period can still be seen in the different political statues and flags on the two sides. Above is Hampton, holding a flag of Kemal Ataturk on the Turkish side of the island. Big deal. Ataturk was controversial in what, 1922?
This is a bust of Archbishop Makarios III, leader of post-World War II independent Cyprus. Turks might find him radical because at one point he advocated union with the Greek mainland... a pretty weak case for radical thought for Lebanese standards.
In southern Lebanon and in the Bekkaa Valley, we drove past dozens of posters like this one of Hassan Nasrallah. This guy makes Ataturk seem like Tony Blair.
We mean, come on, Lebanon has posters of the Ayatollah Khomeini - the man who coined the phrase "America is the great Satan."
And Yassir Arafat pops his head up outside of Palestinian refugee camps.
3) Pretty Mountain Views vs. Stunning Mountain Views
We had a nice walk up to the top of the highest mountain in Cyprus, 1,952 meters above sea level. That makes the highest peak in Cyprus about 1,038 meters shorter than Lebanon's tallest mountain.
Megan was getting annoyed with Hampton's incessant picture taking of Cypriot views that paled in comparison to Lebanon's.
Here is a typical view of Mount Hermon, Lebanon's second tallest mountain that towers above the Bekaa Valley.
Nothing compares to the mountains and valleys of Lebanon!
4) European Tourists vs. Locals Hanging Out
It took us about 30 minutes in Cyprus to realize that we were surrounded by European tourists, like this gentleman running in his speedo. There's nothing wrong with that - we found the Europeans in Cyprus to be quite pleasant. But the island started to feel like a giant tourist playground.
Tourists are harder to come by in Lebanon, especially the resort-going type that you find in Cyprus. Instead, we have a lot of locals hanging out, like the ones pictured above. The reason why they tolerate weird tourists like the Morrises is because there aren't that many of us... yet.
5) Greek Tombs vs. Phoenician Tombs
We admit that Cyprus' Greek ruins are impressive, especially considering that some of them date from the Homeric period.
Here we are in Cyprus' "Tomb of the Kings" which dates from the Hellenistic period from 200's BC.
Yes, they have Greek tombs in Cyprus, but in Lebanon we have equally impressive Phoenician tombs...
...And here's what makes Lebanon's tombs more impressive: this one, at least, was built over 2,000 meters above sea level.
We also had it totally to ourselves. In Cyprus, we shared the Tomb of the Kings with about 1,000 other tourists and we had to pay an entrance fee. For this tomb above Bcharre, all you needed was a good pare of shoes to walk half way up a mountain.
6) Opened Borders vs. Closed-Shut Borders
Fortunately, the tensions between the Turkish and Greek Cyprus seem to be waning. Here is Hampton, just outside the border of the two sides. We were not allowed to take a picture any closer. But notice the elderly grandparents behind Hampton, strolling across the border. Clearly, things have settled down in Cyprus so much that even Grandma tourists feel comfortable visiting. It was also telling that nobody on the border had a machine gun - we have a guy with machine gun that guards our street corner in Beirut.
Speaking of tense borders, this is about as close as we could get to Israel. Two teenagers with walky-talkies, presumably working for Hezbollah, were watching us to make sure we didn't take any pictures that might compromise their positions in any future wars - we snuck this one anyway. All of this is not to mention the three checkpoints where armed soldiers / militiamen turned us around. Cyprus just seemed so dull in comparison.
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