🇬🇧 How I ended up in Cuba

I wish I could tell you that I’ve been dreaming about Cuba since I was a kid. That to see the old americans cars, drink a moijito was my ultimate number 1 on my bucket list. No it really wasn’t. Actually I didn’t know that much about Cuba. I’ve read 1 book by that time and knew a bit about the Cuban Revolution. Why did I go than?

It was in 2014. I was working and living happily ever after in sunny Lisbon. Sometime around June we all found out that the hostel I worked at will be closing for a month in October, due to the roof renovation. Great I thought, another month of holidays. But I really didn’t feel like going to Poland. Also I didn’t want to travel all alone. I was living alone, I thought that on holidays I should have fun and meet new people. But I was really lost, I didn’t know where to go. Cabo Verde I thought or Canarian Islands maybe. And then my boss told me “Magda why don’t you book something with G Adventures, my daughter traveled half of Africa with them”. So I googled G Adventures, entered to the website, went to Best Sellers section and …there it was Cuba Libre trip for 699EUR. Why not, I thought. I looked for flights, visa requirements and the next day my Cuba Trip was booked. Just like this. I even managed later on to find a friend, crazy enough to go with me. So we met in Havana and started our Cuba Tour. And it was so good.

After coming back to Lisbon it took me 2 weeks to book another tour with G Adventures. 2 months later I was back. Stayed a bit longer in Havana and enjoyed every minute of it.

I don’t know what Cuba had, but somehow it made me feel like I felt in Lisbon 10 years ago. I just knew I had to keep coming back and that somehow my life would be connected forever with this Caribbean Island.

For the third time I had to wait for almost a year. I found two Polish girls, Żaneta and Magda who decided to go with me. We didn’t know each other. We just wanted to go to Cuba on budget. The only thing was we couldn’t get the time off at the same time. We decided I would go alone first and spend a week in Viñales to rest a bit and then we´ll follow the plan – Cienguegos – Trinidad – Camagüey – Baracoa – Santiago de Cuba and fly back to Havana. But when girls were preparing themelves for the big trip, I met Fidel. We met at his sister-in-law house. I was renting the room there as always. I love that house. We went out together for few days and I left to meet my fellow travelers. We did meet in Cienfuegos and followed our itinerary until we reached Camagüey and I realized I didn´t really want to go any further. I wanted to go back. Back to Viñales. So I convinced my two new friends to go back with me. We canceled our flight from Santiago to Havana and rushed back to the Cuban country side. I gained another week with Fidel and my friends their own Cuban stories.

After all this time I had to go back to my Portuguese reality. But we stayed in touch and were emailing each other like a pair of teenagers. After few weeks we decide I will be moving to Cuba. The rest of the story you already know. We got married, traveled to Poland and now have so many plans for Cuba.

I know there´s so many people out there who meet somebody on their holidays. How to make sure the person you´ve just met is the one? I have no idea. Just trust your insticts, have fun and don´t let love to slip through your fingers 🙂