# Going into creative exile in Cyprus



## RonJeremy (Sep 17, 2009)

Hello, now that my UK workplace has gone bust I'm thinking of taking a half-year off from employment and just spend on creative projects for fun as opposed to straight away to for another stressfull job whoring out my creative skills,

So 1 or 2 months from now when all my redundancy payments reached me I'm thinking of signing a 6 months long-term lease in Cyprus (i.e. around October to April) and just staying there for a while sitting at my computer making stuff, 
I'm planning on living purely on my savings (I have about 31k euro in the bank from my last job), tho I'd prefer to spend as little as possible and I won't be needing much if any entertainment, I've seen good studio-apartments for 250 euro a month).

Right now I'm not too concerned about asking specific questions I just wanted to get the topic written and see if there's any general oppinions and information I've overlooked here.


1) How do I move stuff there if it's medium size? most information I can find is about big families moving furnitures there, but for me I'm looking only for furnished apartments and thus all I need to bring is:
*Computer(s), a couple of them would do + one 22" monitor, tho I might consider going compact-living and just bringing one really good laptop.
*computer chair, a good one is very important, tho the one I have currently is not super expensive (£60) so if moving-costs are expensive I might just buy one there instead and then throw it away after 6 months.
*one of those door-frame pullup bars for working out.
*maybe my steam-cooker

In other words I'm right at the place where I'm not sure if maybe going super-compact living would be best (1 bagage of clothing, 1 backpack with laptop), or if there's any way to cheaply/easily move some boxes of stuff.


2) I've heard grocieriues is pretty expensive, is there any types of food that's very cheap? I don't care the slightest about taste altho I need quite a lot of calories so noodles isn't an option. For example here in UK milk and carrots are very cheap and high quality so I've been using that as my main source of energy.


3) Do I really need a car? I read somewhere you need one because of lack of public transportation, but cars are expensive and bad for environment I was hoping to just have like a bicycle, (and maybe just rent a car for my first couple of days when moving in)


4) Music.. number 1 annoying thing with UK is that it's socially acceptable to blast your music on nightclub level in a apartment block, which is obviously bad for someone wanting to work at his computer at home all day, is it similar in Cyprus?
I was looking at some studio apartments for example these:
Cyprus Property Rental Sales - Apartments, Villas and Townhouses :: Long term property
Cyprus Property Rental Sales - Apartments, Villas and Townhouses :: Long term property
but I couldn't quite guess who would be living as neighbers in such a place.. expats? locals? turists? .. and what their relation with music might be


5) 6 months lease.. so far all the websites either says 12 month lease minimum or they don't say anything at all. do you think there are 6 months leases?
Do you think it might be even cheaper during winter because it's off-season? a few websites has "winter rentals" catagory but that catagory is always empty, strange..


6) Internet.. is important, I was hoping some apartments would have broadband, tho one of those sticks might be ok idunno.


7) Bank account. It would be great if I could have a Euro-currency bankaccount, tho I'm not entirely sure how that would work, since if I'm there for 6 months it's probably too short to justify trying to be a citizen, but I'm still planning on terminating my UK rented-apartment, and not sure if they would allow me to use my parents address (they live in sweden)


Anyway don't worry too much about the exact questions I would just love to hear your comments in general.


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

RonJeremy said:


> Hello, now that my UK workplace has gone bust I'm thinking of taking a half-year off from employment and just spend on creative projects for fun as opposed to straight away to for another stressfull job whoring out my creative skills,
> 
> So 1 or 2 months from now when all my redundancy payments reached me I'm thinking of signing a 6 months long-term lease in Cyprus (i.e. around October to April) and just staying there for a while sitting at my computer making stuff,
> I'm planning on living purely on my savings (I have about 31k euro in the bank from my last job), tho I'd prefer to spend as little as possible and I won't be needing much if any entertainment, I've seen good studio-apartments for 250 euro a month).
> ...


Hi, 

1/ I don't know what would be the best way but my guess would be by packing the bit you want in boxes and organinsing to bring it with you as extra baggage.
I beleive there are ways you can do it without it costing an arm and a leg. I am sure someone will come along who knows more about it.

2/Groceries are only expensive if you insist on British branded goods. Shop locally and buy local brands. A litre of milk costs just over euro, fruit and veg is dirt cheap if you buy seasonal local produce and don't go for imported stuff. For meat pork is very cheap.

3/You do not need a car if you live in Paphos or one of the suburbs. There is a good bus service.

4/ Most apartments in the touristy areas tend to have holiday makers in them during the summer who are out most of the of the time and they are empy most of the winter.
The links you have given are to a website that is owned by one of our members, I can contact her if you like to find out what she has available.

5/ As there are so many empty apartments I know that you can often get 6 months leases even in long term properties especially during the winter months.

6/ Internet is widely available in Paphos. 

7/ I would keep any UK bank acount you have and use your card to draw money out as it is only for 6 months. Not really worth opening a bank account for that time.


Regards 
Veronica


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## RonJeremy (Sep 17, 2009)

thanks for the quick answers Veronica, 

1) ah ok I always assumed extra flight baggage had to be just like normal baggage-cases (which would be impractical to have like 3-5 of those) but maybe you are allowed to do box-style, I'll look into it.

2) " fruit and veg is dirt cheap if you buy seasonal local produce and don't go for imported stuff. " < Great!  

3) "You do not need a car if you live in Paphos or one of the suburbs" < ah great that seems to be the place I'm considering (seems most convinient for expat-style so where I read there's almost no busses it must have been outdated information.

4) sounds good, 
ah so some members here (including you) are ppl who rent out, cool, probably no reason to contact her yet I don't like to be too much of a window-shopper before my high-level plan is more worked out.

*If they are empty during winter I don't understand why there's not more attempt to market winter-rentals, I can't find any websites that offers discounts for winter-rentals (most even discourages it by saying 12-month minimum), it would seem like getting ppl to rent discounted price during winter would be better than having them go empty.*

6) "Internet is widely available in Paphos." hmm do you mean in apartments? because I can't find any mention of it in most websites, even yours (yours has no studio apartments so I probably won't be using it unfortunately but just as example) for example I just checked your 1-bedroom flats and they seem to be in paphos but none mentions internet, 
but maybe you mean like web-cafes? I would prefer in-house but webcafes might be an option, oh well I can do some more research on this forum about that I suppose.



Veronica said:


> Hi,
> 
> 1/ I don't know what would be the best way but my guess would be by packing the bit you want in boxes and organinsing to bring it with you as extra baggage.
> I beleive there are ways you can do it without it costing an arm and a leg. I am sure someone will come along who knows more about it.
> ...


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

RonJeremy said:


> thanks for the quick answers Veronica,
> 
> 1) ah ok I always assumed extra flight baggage had to be just like normal baggage-cases (which would be impractical to have like 3-5 of those) but maybe you are allowed to do box-style, I'll look into it.
> 
> ...



There is a company called Holitech who can give you broadband via statellite. They would probably do it for 6 months, I know someone who had it for 3 months through them.
So if you cannot find an apartment with internet you can get around it.


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## voltron (Aug 19, 2010)

Yo,

I like your plan! Only thing is that it is hard to get motivated in this heat.. my brain doesnty work until the air-con kicks in.. but as your over fo rhte winter you should be fine! 

Ok i would just leave everything in the UK and buy a few comnputers here.. ok its slightly more expensive but if you buy from dell or whoever you should be fine. 

People drive like... well they are bad inconciderate drivers and will not even see a bike so please for you own safety forget the bike... Unless you base youself on the coast near Mazotos as there are good cycle routes there and they are on the pavement not the road...


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## RonJeremy (Sep 17, 2009)

Dell's service to Cyprus is limited as "emerging countries" ( dells website for cyprus ) which seems really bad:
*you can't customize PCs.
*the PC's they have is quite slow (everything I looked at had no more than 4gb of ram).
but most importantly: *they go through resellers, not straight to Dell, which can mean it's slower to arrive, but also I did some search and there was this one guy who's PC's broke (dell tends to break unfortunately) and since he was in cyprus it doesn't go through the normal support channels, so in UK when my Dell broke a guy came and installed the new hardware in my flat the next day, whereas because this goes through resellers this guy had to send in his entire PC and wait months and months.
I think I'll maybe just bring a laptop with me, hmm.

But yeah I feel the same about too warm that's why I was thinking over winter.

Yeah, too bad about the cycling.



voltron said:


> Yo,
> 
> I like your plan! Only thing is that it is hard to get motivated in this heat.. my brain doesnty work until the air-con kicks in.. but as your over fo rhte winter you should be fine!
> 
> ...


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## voltron (Aug 19, 2010)

Ron i take it all back! i did see you on a site the otherday but you have moved into the niche mature market! Old farts... well im not sure i need to tell you anyway!! 

I work in IT out here and you can get anything you want but will pay 50-100 euros more here.. If i were you i would do the laptop thing! I brought 3 over in hand luggage.. I got a rubbish netbook for 200 quid in the uk and the guys here thought it was the dogs.. lol 

Screens will be no problem here either.. if you get really serious on your hardware needs then logicom is the biggest suppluer in cyprus but i dont know if they do direct sales to users.. anyway you will not be in a technology timewarp here and you can get everything it just costs more.

FYI they use standard UK plugs here and not the dodgy two pin euroopean ones.. However living here you become an expert at fitting the two pinned pulgs into the UK ones.. Biro in the earth pin, slightly streatch the liven and neutral pins (about 3mm) and bingo your in!


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## RonJeremy (Sep 17, 2009)

Ah gotcha so by phoning them (as stated on the websites) I might actually have all the options that regular dell has and the website is more of a samples page.

Thanks, atm it's probably leaning towards getting a new laptop in the UK with big enough screen to work as a all-in-one-solution, compact-living-style, I would be extremely proud of myself if I could pull off not packratting several computers around any more  



voltron said:


> Ron i take it all back! i did see you on a site the otherday but you have moved into the niche mature market! Old farts... well im not sure i need to tell you anyway!!
> 
> I work in IT out here and you can get anything you want but will pay 50-100 euros more here.. If i were you i would do the laptop thing! I brought 3 over in hand luggage.. I got a rubbish netbook for 200 quid in the uk and the guys here thought it was the dogs.. lol
> 
> ...


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## squishy (Sep 8, 2010)

Hello, now that my UK workplace has gone bust I'm thinking of taking a half-year off from employment and just spend on creative projects for fun as opposed to straight away to for another stressfull job whoring out my creative skills,

So 1 or 2 months from now when all my redundancy payments reached me I'm thinking of signing a 6 months long-term lease in Cyprus (i.e. around October to April) and just staying there for a while sitting at my computer making stuff, use mondial forwarding, cosrs are very reasonable
I'm planning on living purely on my savings (I have about 31k euro in the bank from my last job), tho I'd prefer to spend as little as possible and I won't be needing much if any entertainment, I've seen good studio-apartments for 250 euro a month).you can live very cheaply here if you eat healthily and eat local food, don't buy english brands, it will cost you a lot more. shop at elomas-cheap for everything

Right now I'm not too concerned about asking specific questions I just wanted to get the topic written and see if there's any general oppinions and information I've overlooked here.


1) How do I move stuff there if it's medium size? most information I can find is about big families moving furnitures there, but for me I'm looking only for furnished apartments and thus all I need to bring is:
*Computer(s), a couple of them would do + one 22" monitor, tho I might consider going compact-living and just bringing one really good laptop.bring it with you on plane in handluggage
*computer chair, a good one is very important, tho the one I have currently is not super expensive (£60) so if moving-costs are expensive I might just buy one there instead and then throw it away after 6 months.sit on an ordinary chair or get one from ikea here
*one of those door-frame pullup bars for working out.rent an appartemtn that has a gym complex on the premises
*maybe my steam-cookerget a cheap wok from ikea instead

In other words I'm right at the place where I'm not sure if maybe going super-compact living would be best (1 bagage of clothing, 1 backpack with laptop), or if there's any way to cheaply/easily move some boxes of stuff.mondial forwarding, speak to andreas, they are far cheaper than the others. £75 per square metre in height on pallet, thats a lot of stuff!


2) I've heard grocieriues is pretty expensive, is there any types of food that's very cheap? I don't care the slightest about taste altho I need quite a lot of calories so noodles isn't an option. For example here in UK milk and carrots are very cheap and high quality so I've been using that as my main source of energy.get your veg in a vegetable market and shop at elomas, the main supermarkets are much more expensive, buy meat at the local butchers, don't by from roadside stalls they are very expensive, eat local produce as much as poss, english brands cost more so avoid


3) Do I really need a car? I read somewhere you need one because of lack of public transportation, but cars are expensive and bad for environment I was hoping to just have like a bicycle, (and maybe just rent a car for my first couple of days when moving in)in the summer biking would exhaust you in the heat, get a cheap little moped or live in the city so you don't need transport


4) Music.. number 1 annoying thing with UK is that it's socially acceptable to blast your music on nightclub level in a apartment block, which is obviously bad for someone wanting to work at his computer at home all day, is it similar in Cyprus?no, you get the odd car going past with it blasting, but people generally do not make lots of noise. if a neighbour is making lots of noise after 11pm, you can call the police and have them tell them to turn it down and they will also break up the party
I was looking at some studio apartments for example these:
Cyprus Property Rental Sales - Apartments, Villas and Townhouses :: Long term property
Cyprus Property Rental Sales - Apartments, Villas and Townhouses :: Long term property
but I couldn't quite guess who would be living as neighbers in such a place.. expats? locals? turists? .. and what their relation with music might beprobably a mixture, cypriots, hungarians, russians brits etc


5) 6 months lease.. so far all the websites either says 12 month lease minimum or they don't say anything at all. do you think there are 6 months leases?haven't heard of 6month lease here
Do you think it might be even cheaper during winter because it's off-season? a few websites has "winter rentals" catagory but that catagory is always empty, strange..come over first and stay in cheap hotel for a few days whist you find an appartment, use a local estate agent, rents can be very cheap, so shop around as there are loads of furnished properties available


6) Internet.. is important, I was hoping some apartments would have broadband, tho one of those sticks might be ok idunno.sign up for a telephone service, cablenet is very cheap


7) Bank account. It would be great if I could have a Euro-currency bankaccount, tho I'm not entirely sure how that would work, since if I'm there for 6 months it's probably too short to justify trying to be a citizen, but I'm still planning on terminating my UK rented-apartment, and not sure if they would allow me to use my parents address (they live in sweden)take your rental agreement into bank of cyrpus and open an account there


Anyway don't worry too much about the exact questions I would just love to hear your comments in general. be aware that when you are a brit, you can often get charged more here for things, so barter! phone up for info saying you are cypriot or get a cypriot to do it, you will get a better price hope this helps, if you need help when you get here, send me a message

Hi,


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