cyprus and friends

• Hello. I stumbled upon this thread and I thought I'd share my views on the original question. I grew up in Cyprus and returned to it after spending many years abroad at various western countries. I too have problems making friends in Cyprus although I am a very social person. I speak perfect greek so it's not the language. It's just that Cypriots don't become friends with people who happen to talk to them at bars, on the street, etc. In fact, If you talk to someone at the bar in CY it is usually interpreted that you're hitting on him/her! Cypriots usually make friends through their acquaintances (i.e., they know somebody and they meet his/her friends and so on). So the hard thing is to get into the circle. What I'm trying to say is that there are a lot of cypriots who are not xenophopic (yes, there is a prejudice against people from countries from asia). It's just that they don't make friends with whomever they accidentally meet. This applies to both foreigners and locals. Although we don't make friends easily, those we make we hang on to them and care about them. Our friends are not just people with whom we hang out, they are much more than that. That said, I agree that it's not easy trying to make friends in Cyprus. But, there are a lot of educated young people in Cyprus who are very open to have foreign friends. You (and me as well) have to work a bit harder for it.

  Nikos 31 Jul 2009, 08:04 - Report

Why is it so hard to make friends in Cyprus?