At the same time he started writing to Γαλάζιο Λουλούδι (the Blue Flower) under the influence of Maurice Maeterlinck and the Symbolist movement, then spreading among contemporary dramatists.
Nicolaides was able to extend his experience of theatre (he had already had an introduction through attending performances given in Cyprus by visiting Athenian companies) when he became acquainted with Christomanos and theatrical circles in Athens.
The art of theatre became for him a third career (literature being his prime interest and painting second), in which he engaged at various times throughout his life in various capacities—as author, researcher, producer, scene-painter, actor and even, on at least one occasion, accompanist.
In a Bohemian existence, he travelled on foot through nearly all the countries of Europe and a good many in the Middle East and North Africa, usually sleeping in lodging houses provided for vagrants and eating food that had been discarded by restaurants.
In those two genres, he rapidly developed a distinctive personal style that established his reputation in literary circles in Egypt and Athens.
Some of his short stories made great impressions: "O Σκέλεθρας" (The Skeleton), "To Μυστικό" (The Secret), "Η Κούκλα" (The doll), "Oι Υπηρέτες" (The Servants), and "Μεταθάνατο" (After death).
Such at least is the testimony of a young compatriot, Glafkos Alithersis, who had returned to Cyprus before him and was preparing the ground for his teacher by spreading publicity in his Limassol newspaper Aletheia (Truth).
There he was welcomed by a band of enthusiastic young friends who were willing to campaign on behalf of art and literature, including Emilios Hourmouzios, Giannis Lefkis, Giangos Eliadis, Christodoulos Christodoulidis, Antonis Indianos, Dimitrios Demitriadis, the brothers Banos, and George Fasouliotis.
In 1923, disappointed at the limited impact of his books in Cyprus, Nicolaides had returned to Alexandria, where he produced, painted the scenery, and provided music for a performance of the play The Blue Flower.
His intellectual and creative needs were satisfied both through his many-faceted work and through the society of a group of local Greeks who met on the premises of the sponge vendor and well known socialist Sakellaris Yiannikakis.
Besides Yiannakakis himself and the lawyer Yiannis Lachovaris, the company consisted of young graduates of Cairo's Ambetions College with a strong artistic bent and interested in the pursuit of social justice and direct political action.
Nicolaides' relationships and contacts with the "cultural elite" in Alexandria were slight with Kavafis and his circle, but much closer with Timos Malakos, Maria Roussia, Alithersis—who had been his associate in Cyprus—and others.
He visited Cyprus at intervals, contributed to Kypriaka Grammata (the Cypriot literary journal), published in Nicosia, corresponded with friends on the island, and provided financial assistance to his sister and her two daughters, one of whom he enabled to study at Harokopeion College in Athens.
He participated actively in peace movement rallies and other events in the Greek community (in favour of democracy in Greece and independence for Cyprus).