Cuba has always been a dream.

I bought my flights to Cuba in October 2015, traveled in May 2016 and now I’m finally writing about it in March 2017. Part of the reason I’ve put it off for so long is because I struggled to find the words to describe this magical place. Eventually, I’ve resorted to my photos, of which there are 1800, to show how beautiful Cuba really is.

My partner and I had a convoluted trip to Havana. We booked our tickets with the itinerary Cologne-Amsterdam-Panama City-Havana. This saved us TWO HUNDRED EURO! But we also found out three months after booking that KLM has decided to give up on flying from Cologne completely. So we got rebooked through Dusseldorf, which was equally convoluted.

We met up with our favorite travel buddies, Ralu and Cip, at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, as they boarded a direct flight to Havana. We would arrive a few hours after them. Upon arriving in Havana, we handed over our tourist cards. Tourist cards are little pieces of paper that grant you entry into Cuba and can be purchased for EUR 30 from your travel agency, airline or car rental company.

Havana Airport was chaotic, hot and confusing.

It felt like being back in Dhaka Airport. It felt like home.

We finally made our way to our casa particular, a homestay we had booked in advance. Next morning we woke up and had breakfast with Ralu and Cip, who were booked in the same homestay. After a breakfast of sumptuous fresh fruits, eggs, bread, juice and coffee, off we were to explore Havana.

Havana is full of life. If you look closely enough, you can see beyond the fancy old-timers and the beautiful architecture, and notice everyday Cubans going about their business.

I will let the photos speak for themselves.

This post is part of a photo series covering my trip to Cuba.