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How to Get to Italy 2021
Why Italy? I finally made it to Italy in October of 2021! How did I get there? Here’s my story….. I had booked a trip to Chile and Argentina in April of 2020 with G Adventures, a Canadian small group adventure travel company. I’ve travelled with G Adventures many times and highly recommend their trips. I had booked flights through Air Canada (which is my only choice for international travel from Regina). Then covid came. Just a few weeks before I was to leave, G Adventures and Air Canada informed me that the trip was off. Both companies gave me credits. This made sense to me, since if travel companies…
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and more Havana
Today at dance class my Ahmed was booked so I had a new instructor, Abelardo, who couldn’t remember my name so called me Baby. (no one puts Baby in a corner – Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing). For the second hour we did Casino de Rueda with all of us, it’s a circular dance where a caller decides the moves and you switch partners all the time. The guys were performing, sliding into the middle like into home plate, shouting and singing, it was lots of fun. Back on our patio with a beer to recuperate, then lunch at a great paladar named 304 O’Reilly (pronounced oh rrelly), and a…
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more Havana
Back at the dance studio, another 2 hours of casino (Cuban salsa, named after the dance halls where it originated in the 1950s). I’m starting to get it, and got a bunch of thumbs up, Eso!s (that’s it!) and Agua!s (water?? or also good, or that’s it, apparently) and even a few I love you Lynn!s from Ahmed. Back at the casa again, we sat on the deck for a bit of sun. It was kind of cool and cloudy for the first couple of days after the tornado, but now it’s perfect sunny weather. We had lunch at a cheap corner bar, with a great salsa band, and locals…
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Havana continued
In the mornings we had breakfast on the patio. Rooms are 35 CUC per night, plus 5 CUC for a hearty breakfast. We walked a few blocks to Casa del Son for our lessons. I’m with Ahmed, and two of the others and their instructors, all in the same room. So fun, the instructors are all great, very well trained. I had to make several adjustments to my LA salsa style. After that we went back to the casa to regroup, went for a nice outdoor lunch, and stopped in the Revolution Museum and Granma memorial (the Granma was the yacht that was used by Fidel Castro to transport 82…
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Havana
I’ve been to Cuba and Havana twice before, 10 years ago and 3 years ago. I found it to be a strange place, with reliable disorganization, some really bad food, and dancing everywhere. When asked about returning, I said well it’s not my favourite place….but this time it’s a dance trip! My connecting flight to Toronto was delayed, then the flight to Havana was delayed a couple of hours, so I arrived with two friends around 3:30 am at the airport. After waiting for bags and changing money (Cuban pesos aren’t sold outside of Cuba) we found a handsome cabbie who drove us through strangely dark streets and fallen trees. …
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Bucharest
We travelled by train through the Carpathian Mountains to Bucharest, a city of 8 million. It’s quite a contrast to the other places we have seen in Romania. It’s unkempt and uncared for, with angry graffiti and parks filled with weeds to complement the massive Communist era buildings. We went for a tour of the Palace of Parliament, the second largest government building in the world, after the Pentagon. It was built under the direction of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in the 1980’s but has never been finished. It has 1100 rooms decorated with chandeliers and gold. A palace nearby was also built for his wife and second in charge Elena.…
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Bran Castle and Brasov
We left a previous century in Viscri to join a traffic jam going to Bran Castle. Vlad the Impaler may or may not have stopped here once, but it’s known as Dracula’s castle. It’s very popular, with tours for Halloween and princes from the Middle East renting it for parties. It was hard to move inside the castle for all the tourists, and even in the many shops outside. We got through the traffic to the nearby town of Brasov. It has a beautiful town square where our hotel is located. There is a funicular up the hill to the Hollywood style town sign, and the area where Vlad impaled…
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Sighisoara and Viscri
We travelled into the Transylvania area, through hills and forests. We stopped in Bistrita for lunch, where the Roma or gypsies were making themselves known. They were the last of the Asian people to migrate to Europe, were originally enslaved, then freed with nothing and nowhere to go, without status or citizenship. I bought a pasty for lunch while a gypsy with babe in arms touched my arm to beg for it. On to Sighisoara, a picturesque medieval hilltop town with pastel homes and cobblestones. Its claim to fame is that Vlad Tepes, of the Dragul family, was born here. He became known as Vlad the Impaler, sticking his enemies…
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Eger and Maramures
We took a tram then train to Eger, in wine country, and stayed in a pension, a local home made into suites. I lost the coin toss, so I could choose either the bed in a dark cubbyhole behind the bedroom door, or the bed in the kitchen by the balcony. Kitchen it is! We walked around the town, which is the centre of traditional Hungary, where the first Magyars came from Asia and settled. The Hungarian language is known as Magyar. It’s a small city but has massive churches and a castle. Lunch was goulash and lemonade, which is made with many flavours in Hungary. After a supermarket dinner…
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Budapest to Bucharest
Budapest in September is beautiful! I was last here in May 2010 and didn’t see much because of driving rain that turned your umbrella inside out. This time it’s around 25, sunny and green. After a day to get on the right time zone, I met my tour group. We went to a street festival with dozens of food trucks for dinner, then to the Jewish quarter to a ruin bar. Szimpla Kert was the first of these popular clubs, built into abandoned buildings and decorated with thrift store furniture, cars, or whatever, then just add a few bars and bouncers at the door to control the lineups. The next…