By Giorgos Tzivas
Grandmother’s cupboard -
On July 20, 1969, when humanity set foot on the moon, I was left in awe. How, I wondered, was it possible to walk on another celestial bodytz?
I marvelled at the fact. July 20 was etched so deeply in my memory that I thought nothing else could ever overshadow it. I took my grandmother’s cupboard and turned it into a lunar spaceship. I transformed the entire room into a dark “universe” … I decorated it with silver stars and locked myself inside the cupboard, playing the role of Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the moon, who said the phrase we still often hear today: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
That phrase marked me, and from then on, I swore that whatever I pursued would be one small step for man, but one giant leap for me…
Youthful exaggerations? Why not. I devoted myself to the study of space. Incredible fascination and excitement…
But life has a strange way of unfolding. Five years later, on another July 20, this time in 1974, Turkish forces landed in Cyprus, and I was left hanging between the craters of the Moon and the harsh reality on Earth. I stepped aside and turned my attention to the situation in Cyprus. From ’74 until today, not much has changed. Only memory resists.
Entering the Cyprus Planetarium in 2023, I remembered my grandmother’s cupboard. Now, a state-of-the-art Planetarium adorned the whole of Cyprus. The best in the Middle East. A thousand times better than any dream of mine.
I remember more things happened… but those are for another time.
Two years of the Cyprus Planetarium in Tamasos, and the impressive project continues to grow. Everywhere you look, you see changes that create a sense of optimism, that everything is moving steadily and surely toward making the Cyprus Planetarium the best in the Mediterranean!
A few days ago, I visited the Cyprus Planetarium in Tamasos for an interview with its Director, Christos Triantafyllidis.
