There is no denying that our trip to Cyprus didn’t go quite as well as it should have done. Now that I am back, though, and have caught up on things like sleep and vitamins, I have started to reflect on some of what we saw. As I touched upon a few days ago, the fact remains that Nicosia, Cyprus’ capital, is Europe’s last divided capital city. The island has been split in two for almost fifty years; it is a longstanding, unresolved conflict. Yet, what strikes me as strange is, we never hear anything about it in the media, and the vast majority of people are totally unaware of it’s existence. Most people will be forgiven for thinking that Cyprus is just a happy, peaceful little island in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Of course, the situation there is nowhere near as black and white as I once took it to be, and the more I look into it the more complex it seems. Needless to say, however, our trip has really sparked my curiosity, and I find myself wondering if the conflict there could ever be resolved and the island could ever be reunited. Surely it is too beautiful a place to remain split in two forever. After all, resolutions were found to other longstanding conflicts such as Northern Ireland. The only way that will ever be achieved, though, is if more people realise that the conflict, the stalemate, actually exists. Until then, Cyprus will remain split in two, something which now strikes me as sadder than ever.