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Published: February 23rd 2011
My New Home For The Next Few Weeks
But that's not my car parked outside and those aren't my pants on the line!Old Dog, New Tricks
Cuba At Last!
I’ve been wanting to go to
Cuba for quite some time, but somehow it’s never worked out.
It’s become more of an urgent need recently because I’m sure that the isolation of Cuba won’t last much longer. And when its isolation ends, Cuba will lose a lot of what makes it unique and it will become like a lot of other Central American and Caribbean countries.
I guess it’s quite hypocritical of me wanting to see Cuba in its current state. Whilst a lot of tourists might enjoy the sight of the 1950s cars still on the road, I’m sure many Cubans would like to buy a new car!
Bk 2 Skwl
I shall be staying here for seven weeks all together. I really need to do something about my Spanish so I can be more independent before I venture out into Latin America again. I’ve signed up for a fairly intensive course of Spanish lessons and I’m going to be living with a family in
Havana. I don’t know anything about my host family yet; I wonder if they know
anything about me? They are probably used to hosting teenagers on a gap year – I reckon they’re in for a surprise when they meet me!
Off To Havana
The start of any trip always seems to be the gruelling bit – getting to the starting point. As always I seem to have added to the time. I set out early on Saturday afternoon but take a slight detour to go and watch my football team play. I arrive in
Havana about 36 hours later.
My choice of affordable flights had been narrowed down to 1 when I found out that all the other flights advertised on the internet didn’t exist at the price they were advertised at. I found myself having to get a flight from
Gatwick early on the Sunday morning with
Air Europa, an airline I had previously awarded the “Worst Airline I’ve Ever Travelled With” Award to. I get to Gatwick very late on the Saturday night and actually manage to find a space to get a couple of hours sleep and still be near the front of the queue when the check-in opens – I don’t trust Air Europa to issue
the same number of tickets as they have seats on the ‘plane!
As it turns out my experience of
Air Europa is much better this time. The check-in is reasonably efficient, I have a seat, the plane is clean, the staff smile occasionally, we don’t need armed police on the plane this time, and in another throw-back to my younger days {
sleeping in airports and train stations} we get served an airline meal of “spag bol”.
I Really Must Learn Some Spanish
My need to learn Spanish is re-enforced on the flight as I struggle to read all the questions on the customs form for
Cuba. The form asks all the usual questions. I can’t believe that customs authorities think that anyone is ever going to answer “yes” to the questions that ask if you have any firearms, live animals or pornography in my case!
I also find myself sitting next to a Cuban on the flight from
Madrid to
Havana and this is really frustrating because I want to strike up lots of conversations about Cuba, how easy it is for her to travel abroad and why she’s drinking P G Tips instead of
The Neighbours
There's amazing architecture everywhere you look in Havana coffee. Unfortunately neither of us has enough of the other’s language to communicate properly!
Havana
36 hours after setting out to watch my football team I arrive in Havana. Getting through the airport is reasonably straight-forward although I’m disappointed that one of the customs officials seems to think I look like a businessman! Everything at the airport is open and, even though it is quite late on a Sunday night, I have no problem changing money.
I’m extremely tired by this point and a nice straight-forward taxi ride to my accommodation would have been nice. Unfortunately there only seems to be one taxi left at the airport and only one of the drivers has the knack of opening the boot. I find myself sharing my taxi with a young female Spanish traveller and an old, drunk, randy, Spanish businessman. I’m not sure how long the drive from the airport to
Havana was but it seems to have taken for ever with the drunk businessmen hitting on the young traveller for the entire journey. The first Spanish I learn in Cuba is a succession of cheesy chat-up lines!!
Fortunately the drunk businessman is the first to be dropped off – the girl ends up paying his share of the fare just to get rid of him. But we still have to make another 3 stops before I finally get to my accommodation and almost straight to sleep. I seem to have been driving around for ever – I guess that I’ve been driving round in circles, though, and Havana probably isn’t as big as I think it is.
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Heather
non-member comment
ay caramba!
Que peudo decir? Estoy enviosa, pero espero que tengas una muy buena vacacion. By the time you get back you should be able to do much better than that - there will, of course, be a grammar test on the flight home (I've just arranged it with Air Europa).