Finally I am here. After dreaming about this country for about five years if not more, I am here. Lying in my bed. In arguably the best casa particulara in Havana, staring at the phosphorous stars glued to the ceiling, I lie here mesmerised by the atmosphere of this city, by beautiful people walking the streets, by my super lovely and welcoming hosts, by couch surfing (again! ), even by this old peeling window blinds that separate me from the ever beautiful, rough, romantic and incredibly sexy city- Habana…

I arrived on the 8th of March to Varadero, which is about two hours away from Havana. I had to wait two hours for my bus, during which I observed how thirsty for tourist money Cubans run around offering taxi’s, buses and tours and women dressed in a very revealing “sexy” fashion waiting for something… Havana met me with rain, amazing light and a big hug from a couch surfer David. He took me to the casa particulara of his friends, where we had a lovely dinner and a cin cin for the international day of women. Next thing- we went to visit his other friend Enrique, who is 44 and hosting travellers too. He studied in Moscow for 5 years, so we spoke in Russian. So so weird…and fun! I mentioned that Enrique is 44 because I can never believe Cubans, when they tell me how old they are. Lucky people with good genes. They all look wonderful and about 10 years younger than they actually are. Generally people are very very attractive here. I guess dancing whenever there is a free minute and smiling a lot helps. Couldn’t take my eyes off them. Had the urge to run around and take pictures of everyone. We picked up three french travellers and went for a sangria and cheeky wine on Malecon. Malecon is a road along the coast. Kind of a classic Havana place, where when the tide is high the waves are smashing on the side and splashing salty water all over the road, cars and unlucky people. When it’s quiet and dry there are always people hanging out, just like we were. Drinking, chatting, playing guitars and other instruments and of course dancing. Also a popular place for couples during day or night.

Next day started with me suddenly becoming very rich. In Cuba there is two currencies. One is sort of for foreigners (convertibles CUC) and the other is for locals (moneda national pesos). The exchange rate is about this: 1US=0.93CUC; 1CUC= 24 pesos. In Cuba you can get stuff amazingly cheap, like 10 pesos pizza, which is very simple and fatty, but delicious…or 2 peso glass of juice, 10 peso ride in a communal taxi etc. Also there is a lot of expensive stuff obviously only targeted at foreigners or rich cubans. Like Casa de Musica, where they play salsa every night, but simple cuban people can’t afford themselves to pay for the entrance let alone drinks in places like that.

After receiving 50CUC worth of pesos (in 10’s!!!) I went back home to leave a pack of money under the pillow, on my way to visit David at his place. It happened that this day his neighbour was celebrating his departure to Miami…. Chivas Regal at noon, continuing with rum, excellent home cooked food, cohibas and salsa in the kitchen in between. Later on me and a Canadian couple went for a stroll along Malecon into Havana Centro, where we enjoyed a cold beer in a local bar for 18 pesos and met a really nice old guy siting on his stair smoking a cigar. He invited us in and showed us photos of Havana 100 years ago or similar. Really interesting and lovely of him. His bicycle was of a similar vintage (of course a Russian one). I was surprised to see Obama’s picture on his wall. He said he likes him, because he is the first black president.Very lovely old man who just needs someone to talk to. Then we went to check out Callejon de Hammel, which is just a street in Havana Centro, where all the younger artists express themselves in form of graffiti or installations, using anything that they can find in this old city full of old objects.

Coming back home to Vedado we picked up David and went to see a drumming festival in Teatreo Mayo. One has to really love drumming to enjoy a concert like that. Eight very famous and talented drummers of Havana were playing solo for about 10 min each. Yes, they were incredible, but for me it’s a little too much of drumming, especially taking in mind that Cubans love their speaker volume very high – where are my earplugs?…To please me they finished the concert with a classic Aragon. For me it was incredible to see them, for most of the youngsters it wasn’t anything special, so they just stood up and left. No ethics!

As always, trying to go to bed a bit earlier never works, because I talk with Ernesto until the wee hours on the balcony.

Next day wasn’t less amazing- we went to check out David’s sister’s place and stayed there for pretty much all day. We were cleaning, drinking rum, of course dancing and hanging out with their kids. Afterwards we walked back home, which took us about 1,5 hours, but it was great to see a different part of Havana with it’s ancient buildings, so beautiful and so sadly slowly disappearing under the heavy hands of time…

Failing to wake up early due to never-ending conversations and debates with David and Ernesto, I managed to gather myself and go together with Ernesto for an exploration in Havana Centro. The plan was to take pictures, but my battery went flat and we were just walking and trying out peso pizzas, which was alright. Have seen China town, which is kind of bizarre to see in Havana, Capitolio building, Central park, tourists (finally I know where they are!) and a bit of the University. In the evening I was invited to come to David’s Dad’s birthday party. It was a blast, as it always is with David. His family is amazing! There was lots of talking, discussing (I surprised myself with ability my to discuss stuff in Spanish), really good food and of course dancing dancing dancing. His Mum was the first to jump up and show us how to do some boogie and on it went- salsa, son, rueda and even a bit of reggaeton. Wonderful night, wonderful people. I felt happy! It’s never an early night for me here in Havana…

Saturday we went to the cemetery. No, nothing sad about it, the contrary- it is so beautiful. Apparently the third most important in the world. The first two are in France and Spain. It is huge and most of it is white marble graves with amazing sculptures and church like graves. A lot of stories and legends to be told by a local very articulate guide. Recommend to get there early because there is a lot to see and hear. This night we agreed not to go crazy and have an early one. We even sacrificed going to a local rock concert, which promised to be good. Nevertheless, the early night never happened. Endless conversations on all sorts of themes wouldn’t let us go to rest.

I had an easy Sunday. Since everything closed I just strolled to Revolution plaza. A wide road leads to a high tower. One can just imagine what parades they’re having here on 1st of May. We missed a salsa concert this night as well, but had another long discussion with David and Ernesto over the beers…a very long discussion. I got home at around 3.30.

Next day I drag myself out of the bed to get to the bus station, where I met Curly. He flew in to Santiago and took an overnight bus to Havana. This day we went exploring Havana Centro. Which was nice, but quite touristy. So to get rid of a touristy vibe we ended our evening over a rum with coke and game of domino with Ernesto and his friend. Who said that Europeans/Australians don’t know how to play domino? Even though it was tricky because we played with 9 dominos instead of traditional 6’s,  playing as a pair, we still came out winners!

With a late start to the day we managed to cover the whole of super touristy Havana Vieja, which isn’t that big. The walk through architectural beauties of old part of Havana was broken in two little bits with stops for mojitos, beers and hot chocolate. As the travellers bible recommended we went for a cheap feast to Los Nardos, where they served us a huge portion of chicken and fish for a reasonable price. It was very pleasant walking through Havana at sunset hours. Golden light and people coming back from work or school filled up the streets. We didn’t manage to check out museums so we came back the day after. Museo de Revolucion is quite interesting though overflowed with info about post revolution. I recommend reading about the revolution beforehand as well or watching a movie about Che. Museo de Artes belles is worth checking out as well, filled with paintings by Cuban artists.

It took us almost two days to try to find a bank where we could withdraw money. So not much to say about those days. We had a nice afternoon drinking beer in a local bar and tried a flying peso pizza, which was deliciosa!

The last night in Havana was spent with David and his extended family in Teatro Nacional, where we danced a lot of salsa and saw a local gig by a quite cheesy band. The night was awesome. We had lots of fun and even Curly was dancing. It was sad saying goodbye to someone like David. Without him, his help and his big big heart I would never have had such an awesome experience in Havana. He is a special special person in this hectic crazy incredible country.

The rest of the pictures, which I like immensely are here.