Covington Sq Apartments Havana

... br>Walking into the bar 'La Floridita' we did not realise that this was one of the favourite places for Ernest Hemmingway to spend his evenings and it soon became apparent that the place capitalised on this with drinks 15 pesos (£10) each!

After a walk around, we went to a cheap state owned café where we were greeted by a 7 piece Samba band who played for the whole ...

... stretching for miles from Old Havana in the east to Miramar in the west. We walked west; our goal, the Hotel Nacional, former hangout of American gangsters Lucky Luciano and Myer Lansky who ruled the corrupt casino business in Havana before the revolution kicked them out permanently.
The walk over allowed us to see much of Havana's "waterfront properties". All along the Malecon, old colonial buildings stand. Well - some still stand, others are crumbling. The architecture of ...

... the opportunity to film it but I did get a little piece to record. There is a cement step below the wall by the water that they have to have enough inertia to pass over and hence the crossing of the boulevard to pick up speed. It's the dodging of traffic and the climb up the wall without slipping to get a good jump that is the challenge. On the way back meandering through the streets I came across a fiesta with a stage set up and bands playing to a couple of ...

... as they want during a working day and can take two cigars home every day. The cigars which are smoked and given to employees are the ones which did not pass the quality check or is rolled in the cigar rolling school and cannot be sold commercially - same quality tobacco leaves, but probably not rolled 100% correct. We guess these are the cigars which make it to the black market and are sold on the streets of old Havana for as cheap as a dollar for a Cohiba. On our last ...

... disposats a deixar-vos si finalment es posen els misils de defensa a Polònia!" Si a Rússia se'ls ocorre intentar contactar amb els cubans i aquests s'alineen amb ells com ja van fer en el passat, pot produir-se una batalla diplomàtica de les que valen la pena de seguir de prop... Deixeu-me citar algun estudiós del tema de la hipoteca, amb el qual comparteixo opinió i anàlisi: -"La crisi del deute a l'Amèrica Llatina als anys 80 va ser creada per un augment extraordinari de ...

... sipping Mojitos to a background of samba sounds. Just on from the square, the impressive fort guards over the city, another reminder of the conflicts of the past. With the only hotels on the island being state owned, they are obviously expensive and as such we stayed in a Casa Particular. Everyone raves about how cool it is to stay in someone's house whilst in the country rather than in a hotel, in all honesty a Casa Particular is no different ...

... as not to miss the train. I'm a little disappointed in myself for not allowing more time to get to the station. As I round a corner, I can see the station, and can hear a train whistle miles off in the distance. "Oh great" I think, "Late as usual and you missed the train". Oh well, maybe I'll take some photos of the depot. Walking toward me is a man who is obviously an American. His skin is pasty white like mine, but that's where the similarities end ...

... paa. Det f0rste stedet vi kom til var en leilighet i en vanlig gate i Habana (altsaa en falleferdig, sp0kelsesaktig nedslitt bakgate) Prikk lik alle andre gater der folk bodde i hovedstaden. Likevell er det ogsaa noen utrolig fine strok i Habana. Med kjempefine bygg og nymalte husvegger, men disse finner man i turistgatene, ved museenem restaurantene og butikkene. I "Casa Novo" ble vi godt mottat av et eldre ektepar. Rosie og ...

... big bag (always keep the small bag with camras and inportant things in hand) and walked down someones drive, so i followed (you must understand this was not the sort of place i wanted to be!), he walked in shouted in spanish and then dumped my bag on a bed said 25 cuc´s to me (agreed 20 at the airport) so i said no 20 he said no i said we agreed (his english got much better when money was involved) he picked up my bag and started back to the taxi, so i gabbed it and gave him the ...

... lot of taxes so... By the way, the amount of the taxes is 120 $ a month for such a little legal restaurant, the have to limit the number of sits to 20, so many of them close and re-open illegally. The thing is they turn it into a normal house, and hire beaters to catch tourists in the streets and make them in. That's often quite funny then, since you usually visit half the house before being in the dinner room ...