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After all the trouble of getting here, all the hassle of the last few days. I didn\u2019t know what to expect\u2026.<\/p>\nAfter all the trouble of getting here, all the hassle of the last few days. I didn\u2019t know what to expect\u2026.<\/p>\n
And yet\u2026the world sometimes totally surprises you in the best possible way.<\/p>\n
When you first step out into Havana the air wraps you up like a blanket, it\u2019s wet and sticky and laced with the taste of cigar smoke and you feel somehow like you should be able to take a bite out of it.<\/p>\n
And then you turn the corner into the Plaza, and your heart \u2013 if you\u2019re anything like me \u2013 skips a beat.<\/p>\n
I have never\u2026seen anywhere like this before\u2026<\/p>\n
Never.<\/p>\n
The guide books say that walking into Cub is like stepping into a time machine.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re right.<\/p>\n
Here, there is no doubt that we are the foreigners, and there is no \u2018stamp\u2019 of us on the place. No chain stores, no fast food, no over priced souvenir markets. I saw a grand total of one person on a cell phone. Here, we\u2019re the odd ones out. And it\u2019s wonderful. And no one cares<\/em>. The people are friendly and polite, but they don\u2019t go out of their way to harass you or even really speak to you. There is no noticeable tension, although I am always aware when I\u2019m in a foreign country, especially one where I don\u2019t understand a word of the language (well, I can say hello and goodbye in Spanish, but that\u2019s about it) \u2013 I never once felt in danger. Instead I just felt an overwhelming sense of \u2026fascination.<\/p>\n Old Havana \u2013 and I\u2019ve only seen a tiny corner of it \u2013 is a winding twisting maze of narrow alleyways and cobbled streets. Brightly coloured buildings shouldering up against crumbling churches like plants reaching for the sunlight high above.<\/p>\n And music<\/em> everywhere, people dancing in the streets. Everything smells different, feels different. There is a \u2026 vibration here that I simply haven\u2019t felt anywhere else.<\/p>\n The place is full of plazas and tiny hidden courtyards that spill over with fountains and greenery. And the whole city seems full of bells, small, enormous, cracked and whole, if they were all to sing out at once you would be deaf to the world ever after.<\/p>\n And then\u2026there the San Francisco Basilica.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a museum, which sadly is only open tomorrow, and we are only here today and this evening \u2013 I would give a lot to see the inside of it. Because the outside\u2026I couldn\u2019t stop staring at it. Nearly overrun with vines and crumbling in every corner\u2026but still, if these walls could speak. I could have sat there, on the sunbaked\u00a0 courtyard, surrounded by stones of monks long left this world\u2026and just\u2026stared\u2026<\/p>\n There is so so much more that I would like to say, but\u2026I don\u2019t know that I can even find the rest of the words.<\/p>\n But this place\u2026this\u2026is worth it. Something about this place is worth everything.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After all the trouble of getting here, all the hassle of the last few days. I didn\u2019t know what to expect\u2026. And yet\u2026the world sometimes totally surprises you in the best possible way. When you first step out into Havana … Continue reading