Nicosia

Deep Purple update: Tickets.

Tickets for Deep Purple are available in Limassol. They are sold in the DVD club called Musical Paradise which is on Griva Digeni street, opposite Petrolina petrol station and Sigma bakery. Tickets are 25 CYP a piece. There is no seat, row or any other position marker on the ticket and all tickets are at the same price. The concert starts at 21:00 on Friday, July 15th 2005. Yes, this coming Friday!

I’ve got mine already. Next question is: How do I find that place in Nicosia (Eleftheria Stadium) where they will be performing? Is it that stadium at the entrance to the city?

Rock festival in Nicosia

Once again Andrey Shvachko informs all rock and rock-n-roll fans that there is an event coming soon.

Date: June 17, 2005 (Friday)
Time: 20:00 – 00:00
Place: Amphetheatre of Intercollege campus, Nicosia

There will be several bands performing. Andrey will participate in two of them.

No information about tickets and no map so far. But finding Intercollege is very easy. Here are the instructions: when entering Nicosia from Limassol-Nicosia motorway, go left to the roundabout, than go left again to enter the main road which goes around Nicosia. Drive straight. You’ll pass Orphanides supermarket on the left, Metro supermarket on the left, Jumbo supermarket on the right. Keep going straight until you reach the T-junction. There will be a huge church on your right. Turn right and drive straight until you see Intercollege buildings on your right (about 5 kilometers later).

There is a discussion at the RussianCyprus Forum, as usual. Stay tuned for more information.

30th Cyprus Internation State Fair

30th Cyprus International Fair opened its doors for visitors on May 20th. About 280 companies from 25 countries will be displaying their products until May 29th. The range of goods is really impressive: furniture, building materials, plastic products, mattresses, solar energy systems, foodstuffs, pumps, travel goods, baby items, aluminum products, industrial machinery and equipment, electric domestic appliances, cars, telecommunication equipment, sanitary ware, tools, spare parts, kitchenware.

The Fair will take place at the usual location – Cyprus International Fair in Nicosia. Open hours are daily from 18:00 until 23:00. On Saturday the Fair is open from 18:00 until midnight. On Sunday – from 18:00 until 23:00 again. Tickets are very reasonable priced at 2.50 CYP for adults and 1.00 CYP for children and students.

You can find more information about the Fair at its official website.

Troodos Rally 2004

There are some indications in the web, that Troodos Rally 2004 starts today and will proceed for the next couple of days. Cyprus Automobile Association has a tiny bit on its website. There is also a brief mentioning in the news by Cyprus News Agency.

I have both called and emailed Cyprus AA for more information. Email hasn’t got a reply yet. Phone is very tricky for handling Special Stages information – names of Cyprus villages are tricky to foreigners (me and the lady on the other end). I’ve got only few tiny bits.

The ceremonial start will be today in Nicosia at 20:30. Tomorrow, Leg 1 will go through the villages Tseri (6:53 and 12:41), Rouva (not sure about the name, but time is 7:51), Kalo Chorio (8:19), Pyrga, Kalavasos, and few other. Leg 2, on the day after tomorrow will go through the same stages, but in reverse order, if I understood correctly.

I will update this post if I get any more information via email or otherwise. Please use comments or email to let me know if you have any information regarding the event.

Update (1 Oct 2004, 13:30): I’ve found another news article, which mentions Kronos village.

Update (1 Oct 2004, 13:36): RallyBase has an entry for Troodos Rally. Currently it lists only the event of 2003. Winning drivers information might be useful.

Update (2 Oct 2004, 13:17): I’ve got a reply to the email. They have sent me
this file (MS Excel format, but OpenOffice nicely opens it) with all the locations and times of the event. Cool! They also said that fans can pass by Cyprus AA office in Nicosia to get maps free of charge. Office address is on their website.

Update (11 Oct 2004, 20:04): Links to RallyBase in the article were wrong. Fixed. Thanks to RallyBase website webmaster Tjeerd.

Experience with CID

Today I have spent the first half of the day in Nicosia at Russian Council. My brother, my wife, and myself all had to do some paperwork. After I have finished with my part and was waiting for my brother, I walked around and made few pictures. Apparently, the guard at Egyptian Embassy was all alerted and reported me to CID (if anyone knows what this abbreviation means, let me know). Two officers came, checked all my papers and questioned me. They checked my story over the phone with another guy who confirmed my status, my visa, and stuff like that. They have asked me (although I was first to suggest) to delete the pictures of the Egyptian Embassy building and the guard at the gates. Of course, I did. This is one of the beauties of the digital photography – you can delete a couple of images without ruining the whole film.

The only few pictures I was allowed to keep from Nicosia were with the photographer you can see on the left. He looked really cool, and when noticed me taking pictures of him, he shot me in return. Later, when the CID officer saw the picture of this guy on the display of my camera, he told me that this is a very famous photographer in Cyprus and that everyone knows him. Heh, looks like not everyone. Again, if anyone can recognize the guy, let me know.

The moral of the story (confirmed by arrived immigration officer) is: do not photograph any government buildings, military setups, courts, embassies, police offices, and the like. It can easily get you into trouble.

P.S.: Both CID officers that questioned me were very calm, polite, and generally positive. I was really impressed on how delicate and politically correct they handled the situation.