Category: Cyprus

I live in Cyprus for many years now. It is a beautiful little island in Mediterranean Sea. It features warm weather for most of the year, sea, very kind and hospital people, plenty of jobs in IT industry, good food and plenty of alcohol, stable currency, and more. It’s really a nice place to live if you can handle small towns and villages. It’s also a great place to raise the kids.

Not much happens here. It is a quiet and simple place. Yet, when something happens or when I write about it, I post it to Cyprus category.

hack {cyprus} *12 presentations

As I mentioned in a post yesterday, I was going to see the presentations of project on the first Cyprus hackathon.  And I went.  And it was awesome!

It was a bit tricky to find and I nearly missed it, as I didn’t know all the buildings that belong to Cyprus University of Technology.  Luckily, I spotted a bunch of people in black t-shirts outside of the building.  And there are only three groups of people that wear black t-shirts: geeks, hard rock fans, and policemen.  I approached carefully, and once I knew these weren’t the police, I knew I would blend in and have a good time.

Continue reading hack {cyprus} *12 presentations

hack {cyprus} *12

I’ve heard the hack {cyprus} *12 announcements for a few weeks now, but unfortunately was too busy with my own projects to attend.  If you missed all the noise, hack {cyprus} *12 is a hackathon-type event, where a bunch of people get together decide on a few ideas they want to implement and jump into coding.  They usually go at it non-stop for approximately 24-48 hours, after which they present the results.

These are quite common in all the countries where programmers live.  Now, we can proudly say that programmers live in Cyprus too.  The picture above is from a few minutes ago.  Just for the record, it’s Saturday night, after 1:00am!  That’s nothing but impressive.

The event seems to be quite well organized, with its own website, Facebook page, Twitter, and more.  (Have a look at their live stream page for latest updates.)  It is also being sponsored by quite a few companies, including Microsoft, Cyta, and Cyprus University of Technology.

As I said, unfortunately I was preoccupied with something else to book my attendance for this event.  However I am planning to go see the presentations tomorrow (care to join me?).  According to the schedule, some time around 5-5:30pm the teams will show off what they have managed to achieve in such a short time.

Geroskipou Beer Festival

I came across the announcement for the Geroskipou Beer Festival somewhere in my Facebook stream.  Being a big (literally) fan of beer, I couldn’t not post it.  Even with the heavy heart after all the previous beer festivals I’ve been to in Cyprus.  This one seems to follow the general pattern: 5 EUR entrance buys you one beer.  You’ll pay for the rest, and there are about 40 different ones to taste.

As these festivals usually go, you’d probably overpay for the beers, and the variety won’t really be of 40 different brands.  Judging from previous experiences, small can of Keo, large can of Keo, small bottle of Keo, large bottle of Keo, and a draught Keo – are five different varieties and not one.  Heck, I’m not even sure I can list 40 different brands even if I’ll remember all the beers I ever drank or saw on sale in Cyprus!

Just for the fun of it, I’ll try .  First of all, the local ones, obviously: Keo, Carlsberg, and Leon.  Mythos from Greece.  Then the usual suspects: Hoegaarden, Guinness, Krombacher, Stella Artois, Warsteiner, Veltins, Heineken, Beck’s, Budweiser, Pilsner Urquell.  Then slightly less usual suspects: Kilkenny, Caffreys, Erdinger, Konig Ludwig and Konig Ludwig Dunkel, Weissbier, Franziskaner, Amstel, Grolsch, Fosters and Bavaria.  Then a few Belgian beers: Blanche, Duvel, Kwak, Leffe (blonde, dark, and red), Chimay. A touch of Mexico with Corona and Sol. Ciders, although not technically beers, are almost always present at beer festivals – Magners, Strongbow, Woodbecker and Somersby.

How many are these? 38.  Throw in a couple of non-alcoholic names that I don’t know, a coupe of Asian (Chinese and Japanese names that I cannot remember), and, just to get rid of any doubts, a couple of nice ones from Bavarian Delikatessen shop – those names are tough even for Bavarians.  There you go – 40 or so varieties.  Now, can you imagine all of them in one place?  I can’t.   Not even in supermarkets which offer a great variety these days.

Somehow, the more I think about this festival, the more I think it’ll be like the others.  What do you think?  Is it worth driving all they way over to Geroskipou just to get the same beers you can get in any Limassol pub or supermarket?

Cypriots still heaviest smokers in EU

Cypriots still heaviest smokers in EU

CYPRIOTS are the heaviest smokers in the EU puffing 20.5 cigarettes daily, according to a survey conducted as part of the European Commission’s campaign ‘Ex-smokers are unstoppable.’

According to the survey – conducted by iCoach, a digital health platform aimed at helping smokers kick the habit – only one in ten Cypriot smokers have given up smoking, since 2011, and those who still smoked,  consumed the highest number of cigarettes in the EU at 20.5 cigarettes daily.

However, most smokers in Europe – 46 per cent – consume 11-20 cigarettes daily, with the EU average amounting to 14.2 cigarettes daily.

Cyprus was also ranked eighth among European countries, with 30 per cent of its population currently smoking. Ranking first was Greece at 40 per cent and last was Sweden at 13 per cent.