One of the complaints I hear regularly from ex-pats is that Cyprus doesn't have much to do in comparison with the UK. They cite the wonderful theatres, museums and theme parks and bemoan the perceived lack of educational and cultural activities for children on the island.
I do agree in part – who wouldn't want to be able to take their children to London's Natural History Museum or catch a West End musical? We haven't made it back to the UK since having the kids, but I am really looking forward to the day that I can show them places such as Madame Tussauds, the planetarium, Buckingham Palace, and even Pepa Pig World!
But I do not accept that there is nothing going on here. Every week in my capacity as a journalist I hear of a large and varied number of events taking place in Larnaca. Added to that are the list of permanent places of interest we have from museums and monuments to workshops and themed parks.
So it's not a lack of things to see and do that is our problem, I believe that the problem is simply a lack of awareness. I know that I myself wouldn't be aware of half the events taking place if I wasn't a journalist writing about them, and there are many more still that don't even make it on a journalist's radar and that I pick up from Facebook. Where are we going wrong?
As I do not watch Cypriot television I might be missing advertising there, but I do listen to local radio and the events they promote are mainly of the clubbing variety. Even some of the bigger events are not that extensively plugged, and on many an occasion, the final programme is not ready until a mere few days before the event (a reason that I often cannot promote some events, as they are not ready before my editorial deadline).
The other issue is that many events are promoted on a micro-level, ie, only amongst those involved, their families and friends and the particular industry they are affiliated to, so many events are very insular. But we have so many of them! Off the top of my head I could give you numerous suggestions of things to do and see any day of the week across the island, and I believe it would take me years to see everything Cyprus has to offer.
Through a Facebook page 'Kids Fun in Cyprus', we found a number of museums that we had not known about and have so far taken the kids to three; two in Nicosia and one in Limassol. At all three museums, I was asked where on earth a Larnaca family had heard of their little museum, as all three were surprised that word was getting out. The museums are small in size – nothing on the scale of other European cities – but we are small scale as an island, so it stands to reason. Personally, I found them to be just the right size for my young children's concentration levels. All three were enjoyable, well presented, inexpensive and educational, but no one I know had heard of them either. And therein lies the problem.
On another note, I am still deeply feeling the loss of Larnaca's greatest annual event ever – the West End musical brought directly from London every July 1 and 2. The event was stopped as a result of the financial crisis and was something I looked forward to all year round, as I am sure many others did too. Time to bring it back I think…
First appeared in The Cyprus Weekly, 26/09/14
