By Alix Norman

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Living in Cyprus is like being in a bizarre dream

Donkeys consumed by glitter. The massive cat of Varosha. A mirrored moon on Larnaca’s Salt Lake. A surreal picture of our island can be found online

“Cyprus is completely surreal – a weird, fantastical dream!” We often think of surrealism in art: Dali’s melting clocks and Magritte’s Son of Man, where the familiar meets the bizarre. But in dictionary terms, ‘surreal’ is slightly more precise; it’s anything that’s ‘marked by the intense irrational reality of a dream.’

“Isn’t that just what it’s like to live in Cyprus?” asks Alex. “Everything here feels kind of a bit fantastical: ghost towns next to luxury resorts; silent buffer zones beside riotous nightclubs; ultra-rich investors mixing with impoverished immigrants…”

A well-known graphic designer, Alex (not his real name – we’ll get to that in a bit) is the man behind Cyprus Surreal. An Instagram account that’s wildly different from the ubiquitous ‘I’m hot and so is the weather’ pics, Alex’s imaginative posts turn Cyprus on its head…

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