"In a few months you will howl like a wolf": the story of a Muscovite woman who moved to live in Cyprus

Two years ago, a Muscovite Irina Ivashkova, together with her English husband and children, moved to Cyprus. The family considered this island ideal for life. But after a few months, the woman realized that tourism should not be confused with emigration — the rest here is really heavenly, but life is ... hellish.

Read more about her story below.

At the beginning of 2018, Irina and her husband decided to move to another country and began to consider different options. Their choice fell on Cyprus. After a business trip and two vacations spent there, it seemed to the woman that she knew everything about the island, and that it was ideal for living with young children.

But almost immediately after moving, Irina realized how much she was wrong. According to the Russian woman, the whole of Cyprus turned out to be one big village, especially the city of Paphos, where they moved.

According to Irina, the village way of thinking and living is in the genes of the locals.

In addition, according to Irina, there is a complete lack of urban infrastructure in Cyprus, which she is used to in Moscow.

At the same time, prices in Cyprus are inflated several times — for products, appliances, furniture, services… In general, for everything! But the quality of goods and service leaves much to be desired.

However, most of all, the Russian woman was upset by the vaunted "Mediterranean climate". Having lived here for two years, Irina realized that you can enjoy the weather in Cyprus only in the off-season. The rest of the time it's unbearably hot here, plus in summer all kinds of animals "crawl out": cockroaches, snakes, spiders…

In winter, it is also hard on the island — the temperature drops to five degrees Celsius at night, and since there is no central heating system here, it can be colder in the house than outside.

Despite the fact that Irina's family lives in a more or less decent apartment and tries to save money, they have to pay more than 300 euros per month for electricity all year round. The reason is that the air conditioner works constantly.

Another popular myth associated with Cyprus concerns supposedly good environmental conditions. The lands here are really very fertile — up to four harvests are harvested from them per year. But this is probably the end of the advantages.

According to Irina, Cyprus is very dirty. Garbage is thrown out almost everywhere, and not by tourists, but by local residents. Despite the fact that there is a garbage sorting system and there are special waste collection points, it does not get cleaner.

Even more astonishment and even horror is caused by the monstrous attitude of Cypriots to animals. It is considered the norm here to have a "one-time" dog for the period of the hunting season, and then just throw it in the mountains.

At the same time, the Russian woman emphasizes that she does not want to draw conclusions about the Cypriots as a nation, since she met very nice and generous locals. But she can't continue to live on the island either — already now she and her husband are looking for a new country to move to.