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Transcript provided by YouTube:
00:00
cyprus is one of my favorite islands and
00:02traveilling
countries in europe that i love to the
00:04
moon and back
00:05
this is the story of how i drew 1 500
00:07
kilometers
00:08
literally all around the island
00:10
exploring its mountains
00:12
castles ancient sites religious
00:14
monuments beautiful nature national
00:16
parks
00:17
beaches and so much more
00:26
it’s very early morning i just came to
00:28
nicosia the capital of cyprus which is
00:30
actually the only capital
00:32
in the whole world that has a border
00:34
it’s separated into two different parts
00:36
the turkish part right there and the
00:38
greek part right here either way i’m
00:40
here with my
00:41
new filmmaker my boy pj
00:44
first things first we decided to explore
00:46
more of nicosia the capital of cyprus
00:48
and world’s only divided capital
00:50
even though the city has lots of
00:52
beautiful cafes restaurants and other
00:53
tourist attractions the most
00:55
tracking thing was the border literally
00:58
in the heart
00:58
of the old town having explored the
01:00
greek part of nicosia we hopped into our
01:03
car and drove to ayanna one of the most
01:05
famous
01:05
coastal cities of cyprus that receives
01:08
thousands of beach loving tourists
01:10
every single year as beautiful as the
01:12
town was we certainly weren’t going to
01:14
spend our day on the beach and went
01:16
somewhere a little bit more exciting
01:29
this place truly is a cypriot paradise
01:31
on earth the one and only
01:33
sea caves it’s a group of tall rock
01:35
formations with deep caves inside them
01:37
as well as crystal clear water all
01:39
around the legend has it that the caves
01:41
were even used by
01:42
pirates to store their riches as amazing
01:45
as the caves where the sun was setting
01:47
and it was time to check out another
01:48
gorgeous place in the area
01:50
the ping salt lakes of larnaca so we
01:53
were making our way towards
01:54
one of the biggest cities here in cyprus
01:56
and then on a random road
01:58
we saw this it’s a huge
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pink salt lake that looks so good and
02:04
they have all these reflections of you
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know the buildings and the
02:08
hills and and and the trees and stuff is
02:11
insane
02:12
apart from their beauty the lakes are
02:14
home to 85 species of water birds among
02:16
which are thousands of flamingos
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unfortunately when we visited the lake
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the flamingos had already emigrated
02:23
someplace
02:23
else but nonetheless the lake looked
02:25
spectacular the next morning it was time
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to go off the grid
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big time we came to some sort of a no
02:33
man’s land
02:34
here in cyprus and they have a very old
02:36
mine here
02:37
that apparently looks quite good uh
02:39
however we’re so remote
02:41
look at that there’s literally just one
02:43
car there that’s our car
02:45
there’s absolutely no human being
02:48
around us right now and it feels
02:50
incredible well this abandoned mine is
02:52
called kokkinogi and even though it’s
02:54
not particularly old it stands like the
02:56
modern ghost of the six thousand year
02:58
old copper industry in cyprus
03:00
you see thousands of years ago cyprus
03:02
used to be a lucrative center
03:04
of copper production that provided
03:05
enough metal for the whole
03:07
of the roman empire when the empire felt
03:09
the industry ground to a halt until the
03:11
19th century when great britain revived
03:14
the mines which once again closed
03:15
very soon and have been sadly abandoned
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ever since
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i’m at the very very top right here it’s
03:23
kind of scary honestly because
03:25
this thing seems to be so old and rusty
03:28
and stuff look at these things
03:40
then we once again hit the road and
03:41
discovered another interesting place
03:43
that most
03:44
tourists will never visit it’s so
03:47
strange that a place like this exists in
03:48
cyprus but
03:49
check this out apparently it’s a
03:53
huge red toxic lake you cannot swim
03:56
there you obviously cannot drink from
03:57
there because you die
03:58
and it’s literally in the middle these
03:59
mountains super hard to find absolutely
04:01
no tourists completely empty
04:03
crazy as magnificent as the lake is it
04:06
really is incredibly high in
04:08
acid so going anywhere near it certainly
04:11
isn’t the best idea
04:12
that’s where we spent a little bit of
04:13
time admiring its beauty and hit the
04:15
road again this time
04:16
into the mountains
04:29
uh apparently began raining really
04:31
heavily
04:32
uh all these clouds came up we get we
04:35
can hardly see anything we couldn’t even
04:36
see the mountain even though it was
04:38
there in the distance
04:39
so now we decided to turn back go all
04:42
the way back to the coast and
04:44
explore some other places and hopefully
04:45
come back to this mountain in maybe one
04:47
or two days
04:47
because obviously it takes a very long
04:50
time to come here
04:51
but uh hey you know what can you do as
04:56
unfortunate as it was to not
04:57
reach our destination for the day we
04:59
turned back and kept on exploring
05:01
everything we could find starting with a
05:03
famous unesco world heritage site
05:05
called choiro the neolithic settlement
05:08
of chiaro koike okay from the 7th to the
05:10
4th millennium bc
05:12
is one of the most important prehistoric
05:14
sites in the eastern mediterranean
05:16
its remains and defines from the
05:18
excavations there have thrown
05:20
much light on the evolution of human
05:21
society in this
05:23
region imagine this was someone’s
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bedroom
05:27
someone’s bathroom someone’s kitchen
05:30
someone’s neighbor right there then we
05:33
continue driving west of the island
05:35
until we came to one of the weirdest
05:36
borders i had ever seen
05:38
in my entire life man the the borders in
05:41
cyprus are
05:42
so weird if you look at google maps
05:44
right now you will see that
05:46
i’m standing literally at the border
05:49
that separates cyprus
05:50
which is here from the united kingdom
05:53
right here
05:54
so basically on that side right here
05:56
this street
05:57
is cyprus and this thing is the united
06:00
kingdom
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so in a way my right foot right now is
06:04
in
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united kingdom and my left one is in
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cyprus
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having unexpectedly found ourselves in
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the united kingdom we had
06:14
to keep on going unfortunately the roads
06:16
certainly
06:17
weren’t the best look at this i don’t
06:19
even know if we can cross it
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however the british part definitely had
06:22
some epic places to see especially this
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amazing castle
06:25
colossal castle is a former crusader
06:27
stronghold that held
06:28
great strategic importance in the middle
06:31
ages and contained large facilities for
06:33
the production of sugar from the local
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sugar cane
06:35
one of cypress’s main experts in that
06:38
period
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the original castle was built in 1210 by
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the frankish military but the present
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one was constructed in 1454
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by the hospital years that hosted such
06:47
famous people as king richard the
06:49
lionheart
06:50
who even celebrated his wedding in the
06:52
nearby city of limassol
06:54
i’m at the very very top and apparently
06:57
it feels really strange to be here
06:58
because i think this is the only part
07:00
i’ve ever been to
07:01
in my entire life it’s actually divided
07:03
in two countries
07:05
because that right there is england
07:06
where they have the military base and
07:07
everything
07:09
and that is cyprus as interesting as the
07:11
castle was it was time for something a
07:14
little bit
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more active
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[Music]
07:33
the next morning we finally got back
07:35
into the mountains and drove all the way
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to the very
07:37
very top of cyprus we uh we finally
07:41
reached the top of cyprus at almost two
07:43
kilometers above the sea level
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which is why it’s actually quite cold in
07:46
here uh technically
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that place actually is the very top of
07:50
cyprus but that’s a military base so
07:51
they wouldn’t let us
07:52
through for some reason and but
07:55
nonetheless we get to enjoy you know
07:57
these views
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to be completely honest with you i was
07:59
hoping this could be like a
08:01
you know off the beaten track experience
08:04
however there’s so many russians around
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there’s there’s
08:06
atms shops and everything it’s a very
08:08
touristy area even though mount
08:10
olympus was a little different from what
08:11
i initially expected but it still felt
08:14
really good to be back in the mountains
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surrounded by gorgeous nature
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all around it felt fresh and exciting
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and once again i guess this place is a
08:22
great proof that cyprus being such a
08:24
small island such a small country
08:26
has so many insane insane places to
08:30
offer
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um just crazy wow then we spent quite a
08:34
while hiking
08:34
in the nearby forests toward one of the
08:36
few waterfalls in cyprus and took our
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car hundreds of kilometers across the
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coast
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until we reached a place of immense
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importance to the local cypriots the
08:46
birthplace of the goddess of love
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the aphrodite’s rock
09:04
[Music]
09:07
the next morning we found ourselves
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surrounded by ancient history in paphos
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archaeological park one of the most
09:12
important archaeological parks
09:14
in the region that’s been inscribed
09:15
unesco world heritage list
09:17
for its outstanding ancient remains this
09:20
is another reason why traveling around
09:21
cyprus is so
09:22
incredible you come to one of the most
09:24
ancient places in the whole country and
09:27
it’s completely empty
09:31
the park includes sites and monuments
09:33
from the fourth century before christ
09:35
the middle ages while most remains date
09:37
to the roman period
09:39
among many other interesting remains the
09:41
intricate mosaic floors of four
09:43
roman villas formed the impressive
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epicenter of defines
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and depict various scenes from greek
09:49
mythology
09:50
then we explored quite a bit of the
09:51
gorgeous coastal areas of southern
09:53
cyprus and went swimming on a
09:55
really really really remote beach out in
09:58
the wild
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until it was time to go to the north
10:02
we just went through the um the the
10:04
greek checkpoint
10:06
right now we’re officially in the no
10:08
man’s land
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it’s a two kilometer long um i guess
10:12
area or something
10:14
where that doesn’t really belong to
10:15
anyone quick status update we
10:17
are finally at the border but apparently
10:20
we cannot cross the other side
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if we don’t have the turkish insurance
10:24
or something like this
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and they’re supposed to be selling it at
10:27
the border but there’s no one here and
10:29
they
10:29
they’re not sure when they’re gonna come
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so now we’ll just have to wait maybe for
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30 minutes maybe for an hour maybe for
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four hours because that’s literally the
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only thing we can do now luckily the guy
10:39
came sooner than we expected we got our
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overpriced insurance and finally found
10:43
ourselves
10:44
in the northern part of cyprus
10:46
[Music]
11:07
getting into the north was a very
11:09
interesting experience because even
11:10
though it’s the same
11:11
island it did feel different the
11:13
currency was different the people looked
11:15
different they spoke a different
11:16
language and most of them were muslims
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however some things still stayed the
11:20
same
11:21
this church was the first place we
11:22
visited in the northern part of cyprus
11:24
and it had a very long history as it was
11:26
originally a byzantine
11:28
building built on the side of an
11:29
aphrodite temple
11:31
it has been reconstructed at various
11:32
times over the centuries with most of
11:34
the buildings dating to the 18th century
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when the large central dome was added
11:38
the place really did look incredibly
11:41
beautiful
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we were driving our car on a random road
11:44
here in the north of cyprus and then
11:47
on our right we saw this
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turns out this place is called the
11:51
dagdar water reservoir and the
11:53
fascinating thing about it is that most
11:54
of its water
11:55
actually comes from turkey by a very
11:58
long undersea
11:59
pipeline eventually we made our way to
12:01
the most famous city in the northern
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part of cyprus called
12:05
where we met this bloody legend by the
12:06
name of
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we’re finally here with my brother al
12:10
well there is evidence showing that
12:12
kerenya has been populated since
12:13
5000 years before christ it was formally
12:16
established
12:17
right after the trojan war these days
12:19
kairani is a cultural and economical
12:21
center described as the tourism capital
12:23
of the northern part of cyprus
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it is home to numerous hotels nightlife
12:27
and e port as well as three universities
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with a student population of around
12:30
fourteen
12:31
thousand we spent quite a bit of time
12:33
walking around kyrenia and then alp took
12:35
us to his favorite fashion for an
12:36
absolutely incredible
12:38
dinner
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[Music]
12:46
look at that
12:47
[Laughter]
12:51
nice can’t wait to try do i get the
12:53
knife or no
12:55
no oh thank you enjoy thank you
13:05
early next morning with our stomach
13:06
still full we decided to check out the
13:09
castle of kyrenia which is one of the
13:10
largest castles
13:12
in the whole island research carried out
13:14
at the site suggests that the byzantines
13:16
built the original castle in the 7th
13:18
century
13:19
by 1489 the venetians had taken control
13:21
of cyprus and in early 16th century they
13:24
enlarged the castle
13:25
giving it its present-day appearance
13:28
walking around this incredible castle
13:30
and seeing everything that’s been
13:31
preserved there felt
13:32
incredible just as checking out the
13:34
views from the very top
13:45
look at that bro look at the views
13:50
crazy
13:53
having shown us the castle alp took us
13:55
to this unique mountain village called
13:57
karmi
13:58
this lovingly restored village is a very
14:00
peaceful place with gorgeous views of
14:02
the northern coastline that’s mostly
14:04
inhabited by
14:05
british and german expats what
14:08
turns out that after the war when all
14:09
the greek people moved out of the
14:11
northern part this village was left
14:13
abandoned and then the local government
14:14
started leasing it out to hundreds of
14:16
foreigners who wanted to stay there
14:18
as a result these days the village has
14:20
its own church a few bistros and even a
14:22
british
14:23
pub as good as the day already was we
14:25
decided to go even higher
14:27
into the mountains and eventually arrive
14:29
to by far my favorite place
14:31
in the northern part of cyprus honestly
14:34
i absolutely can’t believe
14:36
the epicness of the place i just came to
14:40
it’s so good you won’t believe it as
14:42
well you’ll see it in one
14:44
two three
14:48
look at that the castle of saint
14:50
hilarian not only looks
14:52
incredible but also has a remarkable
14:54
history it was first constructed by the
14:56
byzantines to prevent the arab
14:58
pirates from raiding the coast then it
15:00
was controlled by different rules at one
15:01
time
15:01
even becoming the focus of a four year
15:03
struggle between holy roman emperor
15:06
frederick ii and regent john the ibelone
15:09
for control of cyprus
15:10
these days it still stands at the same
15:12
place enchanting everyone who gets to
15:14
see it with their own eyes i mean
15:17
just look at this place
15:25
[Music]
15:29
still excited from last night’s views
15:31
the next morning we hopped into alps 4×4
15:33
and went on an incredible
15:35
road trip we just came to a really
15:37
famous national park
15:38
here in the north called karpas and
15:40
apparently in this park they have over
15:42
400 wild donkeys uh living here
15:45
and right now we have three donkeys
15:47
surrounding the car waiting
15:48
for this look at that
15:58
it’s crazy
16:03
yeah the hundreds of donkeys was
16:05
definitely something i never expected to
16:06
find in a national park
16:08
in cyprus but it certainly made the
16:09
experience even better
16:11
especially with incredible views like
16:13
this
16:14
[Music]
16:19
just came to the northernmost point of
16:21
all of cyprus
16:22
just by this this epic water and it’s
16:25
incredible because
16:26
there behind me if it was clear you
16:29
would be able to see turkey
16:31
and there on that side if it was once
16:33
again clear you would be able to see
16:35
syria
16:36
because they’re literally just 50 and 60
16:38
kilometers away something like that we
16:40
spent quite a bit of time exploring the
16:41
nearby area and went to this
16:43
gorgeous gorgeous sunset spot
16:56
then on our way out of the national park
16:58
we face such strong harassment from the
17:00
local population
17:01
i almost couldn’t take it man so many
17:06
so many
17:20
the next morning we had a wonderful
17:21
traditional breakfast and continued
17:23
exploring
17:24
we just came to an incredibly beautiful
17:26
beach here in the national park once
17:27
again it’s completely empty
17:29
the water is so clear it literally hurts
17:31
my eyes and
17:32
of course there’s no way i can miss an
17:34
opportunity
17:35
to go swimming in a paradise like this
17:38
let’s go
17:38
as you know i’m definitely not the
17:39
biggest fan of spending time on the
17:41
beach but this place was so good
17:43
i definitely couldn’t resist i mean
17:46
could you
17:49
[Music]
17:58
as awesome as it was to enjoy the
17:59
gorgeous cypriot nature it was time to
18:01
explore
18:02
more of its ancient sights yeah now we
18:05
came to
18:05
one of the oldest ancient city in cyprus
18:09
and you can see so many columns around
18:11
is from the roman times
18:13
before the century it’s an interesting
18:15
wheel
18:16
yes indeed super cool place
18:20
and it’s awesome we get to experience it
18:21
with my boy
18:24
the ancient city of salaam is dates back
18:26
to thousands of years ago and as
18:27
important as the city was it
18:29
unfortunately got destroyed and
18:31
abandoned in the 7th century a.d
18:33
by the arab conquerors however some
18:35
prominent roman actors still perform
18:38
their ancient art now we’re in the one
18:40
of the ancient theater in cyprus
18:42
and normally here is not any performance
18:45
more than 100 years
18:46
but today we have a special performance
18:49
to be
18:50
or not to be
18:58
well it’s not the best performance but i
19:00
got here free
19:01
it’s okay yeah now the performances
19:03
could definitely be
19:04
improved but hey it’s great someone’s
19:06
still doing them you know
19:08
then we spend a little bit of time
19:09
exploring the ancient city of famagust
19:11
and made our way
19:12
back to necosia for our last day in
19:15
cyprus
19:16
the first place we visited was the main
19:18
mosque of the city that’s a former roman
19:20
catholic cathedral converted into a
19:22
mosque
19:22
after the cypriot war alp told me that
19:25
the selemia mosque is the largest
19:27
surviving historical building
19:28
in nicosia and according to sources it
19:31
may have been the largest
19:32
church built in the eastern
19:33
mediterranean in the millennium between
19:35
the rise of islam
19:36
and the late ottoman period not only
19:38
that it was the coronation church for
19:40
the lusignan kings of cyprus
19:42
then we thanked al for all the amazing
19:44
hospitality he showed us spent a bit
19:46
more time walking around the streets of
19:47
necosia
19:48
and came to the place where it all
19:50
started
19:51
i can’t believe i’m saying this but it’s
19:53
already been 10 days since the start of
19:55
our trip which actually started right
19:57
there
19:57
on the other side of the border here in
19:59
the kosher so right now we’re in the
20:01
northern side obviously when we started
20:02
we were in the southern side
20:04
and since then we’ve gone literally all
20:06
around cyprus in zigzags
20:08
uh well over a thousand kilometers and
20:10
the trip has been
20:11
you know incredible and it’s so weird
20:13
that it’s it’s actually
20:15
sort of gonna be over because i really
20:17
like being here the people were nice the
20:18
food was great the locations were
20:20
amazing the weather is perfect
20:22
and even though we have to catch our
20:23
flights really really soon but
20:25
before that i still want to do one last
20:28
thing here in cyprus that i’ve been
20:29
dreaming of doing
20:31
for the last few days so let’s go
20:36
now
20:39
[Music]
20:41
this 1500 kilometer road trip took us
20:43
literally all across the island of
20:45
cyprus from tall mountains to lush
20:47
forests from big cities to villages
20:49
national parks and white sand beaches
20:51
we saw it all i know that the country is
20:53
certainly going through a rough period
20:55
in its history with the obvious division
20:57
in the center of it but i’m very
20:59
grateful for all the kindness and
21:00
hospitality
21:01
i received from the local people i want
21:03
to thank every wonderful cypriot for
21:05
hosting me on their gorgeous island and
21:07
sharing its treasures with me
21:09
thank you the people of cyprus your
21:11
island truly
21:12
is a paradise on earth
21:15
[Music]
—
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