Cuba - two trips in one

Me and the mothership ready to go!

Hello again all! As you hopefully saw from my instagram, normal service has resumed. I am back online with my own laptop & am aiming to write a blog post once a week about my travels, so stay tuned! (I'll aim to post near the end of the week) So, I managed to be an idiot and forget to put a request in for my birthday month of October!! My birthday month of all months for gods sake! For those who don't know, we're lucky & can put in 1 request a month, for a specific trip (doesn't mean we necessarily get it). However, I actually got a good pre-birthday trip - lovely little 4 nighter to Havana! One of my favourite destinations. Now I'm going to do something slightly unusual with this post, but as I didn't do lots on this trip, because I had to save money (think I can't actually afford my rent right now level!). I'm going to combine what I did on this trip, with what I did on my last visit to Havana. The last time I was in Cuba I was finally able, after 5 years of flying, to take my mum away with me! As I wasn't writing at the time, I was never able to say all the fun stuff we got up to, so I'm going to write about that this time. Just adding in the one main night I did something on my most recent trip. Hope you all don't mind! (otherwise reading about me chilling for 4 days ain't very interesting lets be honest!)

In Sia Kara

So once me and the mothership arrived we took our time settling into the hotel & sorting ourselves out. We were both pretty tired after the flight so I thought it'd be nice to go to a place nearby for some food and couple drinks. Just round the back of the Capitolio building is a lovely little place called Sia Kara. I don't think many tourists know about this place as it isn't in usual touristy area, which I prefer! It's a lovely little bar that serves tapas bites as well as main meals & really good, huge cocktails usually accompanied by some live music. It has a quirky mis-matched style decor with the drinks menu served on the back of a license plate & just has a lovely relaxed vibe. We enjoyed a tapas sharing platter made up of croquetas, cheeses, fresh fish tapenade, a few other deep fried bits & patatas bravas all washed down with fresh mojitos. If you come to Cuba & don't have at least one Mojito you are just cheating yourself! I'm not even a big fan of mint (genuinely used kids strawberry flavoured toothpaste well into my teens!) . I usually never have them at home but over here they're just made so perfectly & are so fresh you can't say no! We got to enjoy a live piano & flute player whilst we were there too which was a perfect first night.

We woke up lazily got ourselves ready & just had little nibble in our room for breakfast. Then headed out to wander the streets so mum could get to see a bit of what Havana's all about. I knew before I took her she'd like it here, for it's food, people, culture and because its just so different & I was right. Before we left the hotel we arranged with the concierge to hire one of the old vintage cars, so we could have a little tour of the city in a few hours time. Whilst you can hire them from the street, this way you know you'll have a driver who speaks some english & can tell you about what you're seeing & the price is already agreed too, so I tend to always book them like this. It was a pretty hot day considering the time of year & we spent a lot of the day just meandering through the streets, watching the vintage cars driving around, the beautiful old buildings & looking at all the little nick nack shops. Afterwards we went back to the hotel to meet our driver. We were in a sexy red vintage car & Mum got to see all the main sites of the city, from the Revolution Square, to the huge university, the Malecon & the residential areas of the city. Even though I've done these tours at least 5 times now, we actually went somewhere I'd never been before which was what our driver referred to as "Havana's Jungle". That's exactly what it felt like as we drove through thick forest with huge trees that had been there for hundreds of years, full of bird song with rivers running through. He told us that this is where a lot of Cubans come up to to have their wedding photo's taken and I can see why. After a brilliant few hours we were dropped back at the hotel, with enough time to have a little sunbathe & swim before getting ready for dinner. The night we arrived I had booked for tonight for us to go to a restaurant another crew member had recommended, and I'd never been to, called 5 Sentidos. So we glammed up a bit & walked there as was only 10 minutes or so away. It is definitely the most
upmarket place I've been to in Cuba, which you could tell once you came inside (and by the prices ha!) We both had some really nice food & if I remember we both had seafood for our starters and mains. It was tasty & the service was excellent and whilst by english standards it was a standard priced dinner out, I personally think I've had just as good tasting food elsewhere. However, if you're after somewhere that feels just a little more upmarket & special (and I guess it's quite romantic, if that's your bag) then I would say this restaurant is worth a visit. For me I love trying new places too, so this was a great excuse to go somewhere I know I never would with crew. On the way home we stopped off at a bar for a couple more drinks before calling it a night, Mum's not the drinker she used to be!

Rooftop Drinks

And posing haha

Santa Monica beach

Last night in Lamparilla

On the last day, Mum & me headed to Santa Maria beach for the day. We just hired a taxi from outside the hotel & it was about a 30 minute drive away. We arranged with the driver to come pick us up at a set time, which you definitely need to do as there's not always taxi's around & nothing worse than getting harassed by randoms to get in their families ride! Beach was windy, but lovely. Never managed to work out how to get a sunlounger though, it seemed we had to buy a full on meal to be allowed one, so if any of you can figure that out let me know! Beach day done & its back to the hotel to shower out all the sand that had been blown in everywhere haha! I took my mum to one of my go to faves Lamparilla for our last meal. Obviously more mojitos were required & we ordered so much food that we had to be moved

Lamparilla's chicken cocktails!

tables to fit it all in! On my quieter/birthday trip, we also went here. I can't recommend this place enough. The staff are so so nice, they have amazing cocktails (chicken or minion daiquiri is the one...you'll understand from the pictures!) & the food is delicious. I would advise you to at least try the croquetas, the tacos are really good too & the lobster was great! Havana is the only place I can afford lobster, so I'm always ordering it here trying to pretend I'm a baller!











All too soon the trip with my mum came to an end. We had a little breakie at a cafe across the road with the locals which was nice. I wish this trip could of been longer as I've wanted to take my mum away with me for such a long time - but hopefully this will be the start of many trips together... or at least one a year!

Inside FAC

    My more recent trip had an extra night so this was the one we went out, out on! Pre-drinks round the pool all day, followed by a room party to carry on boozing & I finally got to make use of the beer pong game I've had in my case for months, even if our team did lose! One of my friends on the trip and me had been banging on about this club, Fabrica de Arte Cubano, since we got on the plane to fly out for this trip. I'd only been here once before, on one of my first Cuba trips & absolutely loved it & had, had just the wildest night & I'm sure my friend George felt just the same. It's such a cool venue as earlier in the night its a modern art gallery with everything from abstract paintings, photography exhibitions to performance art. Then later on it turns into a club with this labyrinth of different rooms, some of which you have to climb ladders to get to, with different music in each. There's an inside/outside area, its just mad! Word to the wise at
the weekend this is the go to place for locals as well, so get there not too late or expect to be queing, literally, round the block! Or do what we did & pay someone 10 cuc to get us queue jump! Oh, and one more thing, be careful as here they give you a card that gets stamped every time you get a drink and you only pay when you leave. So if you're anything like me this can be dangerous when you start to get white girl wasted and can't keep tabs on what you're spending! But this is somewhere you can't afford to miss! I was pretty smashed before we got here, but not as smashed as one of the other girls it seems - who we actually had to take home in the end as she'd lost her money and was just a bit of a state! But it saved me some more much needed cash so hey ho & I'd had a good night anyway!

All in all, yet again Havana delivered with two very different, but equally great trips. I literally can't get enough of this place and would love to try to visit some other areas when I'm here on another long trip hopefully. or when I can next bring someone with me.

The famous vintage cars lined up