And so the life has taken me to Cyprus

I finally decided to open up the English content of this blog, so that the tri-lingual character does not remain only a good-hearted intention.

So here I am, in Nicosia trying to push through the school paperwork related to my status as an exchange student in here. On Wednesday O. flew to Romania and I flew to London Gatwick to spend a relaxing night at the airport before hopping on the plane that took me here. Must say that the stay at the airport was actually pretty pleasant, even though the Yotel-hotel where I had semi-seriously decided to stay for the night was fully booked. I still slept some hours on a bench - just like dozens of fellow travelers seemed to do - ate some very British sandwiches, read cheap tabloid-papers, went to a morning service in the Chappel and so on...

However, the most interesting event of the journey took place immediately after I arrived when the fire-alarms went on in the passport-control area and the hundreds of people queuing in there had to get out through emergency exits :) The funniest thing is, that we somehow ended up in the baggage reclaim area and right when I walked in through the small door, my backpack was rolling on a conveyor belt next to me! So before I even realized I was in the baggage reclaim area I already saw my bag - the shortest time ever I had to wait for one in an airport.

The initial settling to Nicosia went fine as well, even though the situation was still extremely uncertain the day I left Finland. Luckily a couple of friendly exchange students agreed in the end to take me to stay in their flat until I can move in to the place we rented with O., because that place will be free only in a week and a half from now.

About Cyprus... I have to say I didn't quite have the time yet to get to know Nicosia, never mention the other parts of the island. What I can say is that the capital certainly is not a metropolis - quite a different capital than Seoul (where I still was a month ago) for example :D One thing I can say though: this city certainly is not the most pedestrian-friendly I have seen. There is no sidewalks at all and the cars go sometimes pretty fast, so you'd better keep your eyes open as a pedestrian.

I'll try to provide more material once I have had time to see a little more than University offices and all kinds of documents to be filled in and information to be acquired for course registration.

I.