Day 6 - Central Havana & Vedado

We planned on spending most of our day in Centro Habana and making our way over to Vedado (I was hoping that more exploration of the area might increase it's appeal). The walk over from Old Havana was quite scenic and quaint (10 minutes?), and we  visited a small church on the way that was right next to the Presidential Palace.

I'm always a sucker for a beautiful mosaic or stained glass.

Our first stop of the day was to the former Presidential Palace, which now houses the Museo de la Revolucion. It cost $8 per person to get in, and the first thing we could see as we walked up the grand staircase was about two dozen bullet holes in the wall from a failed assassination attempt on the last President (Batista). A group of about 45-50+ revolutionary college students attempted to assassinate the (corrupt) Batista, but ended up narrowly missing him. As a result, nearly all of them ended up getting killed by palace guards.

The museum still had a number of beautiful rooms, but the crown jewel of the building is definitely the Room of Mirrors (which was designed by Tiffany's and meant to emulate the Palace of Versailles).

Artwork in the museum's gift shop

The view from the top floor of the palace museum...loved the line of ancient cars parked out front.

The Salon of Mirrors,..which is of course, under renovation. Because scaffolding greets my every arrival.

Che, Fidel and I think...Camilo Ciegnfuegos (Che's counterpart)? Let's just say after a spin through this museum, I was much better acquainted with the country's revolutionary heroes. I was particularly interested in learning more about Che Guevara...who was neither Cuban, nor an oppressed  peasant (he was a trained doctor from Argentina). 

The President's Office for 21 Cuban Presidents, and the same office where Fidel was later appointed Prime Minister.

It's not often you get to sit and touch a President's desk. So of course I had to get up close and personal and touch things. I even typed F-I-D-E-L on the typewriter, just in case it's the same one he used.

Some of the jeeps and tanks that Fidel and Raul Castro used in the Revolution.

The famous "Granma" yacht that Fidel and his band of revolutionaries used to sneak back into the country from Mexico and overthrow Batista (the same President who had previously released/pardoned them from prison...so I'm betting he later regretted THAT move). To this day, there is a famed "Granma" publication that Fidel writes opinion pieces in, and "Granma" artwork scattered throughout the country. The boat has become a prominent symbol of the Revolution.

The front of the Presidential Palace/Museo de la Revolucion

From the museum, we checked out the city's oldest hotel (Inglaterra), the old bakery attached to it (the line for pastries was too long), then went to the busiest pedestrian thoroughfare for local residents in Central Havana- Calle San Rafael. It was definitely crowded and bustling and filled with state-run shops and small, cheap peso restaurants. We hunted for nearly a mile before we found a place filled with local residents...and it was amazing!

Hey! Whaddaya know? Beans and rice! The price for this meal that would cost $3.85 in town for tourists? A single dollar per plate.

This chef became our buddy...handshakes and smiles when we visited him again (this time bearing gifts for him and the staff) a few days later.

After lunch we hit the streets again to hand out more toys, candies, hair ornaments, etc. and found some fruit at a market that was again, cheap, but meh.

We took that street all the way to the ocean, and straight across Central Havana over to Vedado. This is because I wanted to check out the historic Nacional Hotel.

The hotel still has the original underground bunker and cannons facing the bay on its grounds that you can walk and see.

The interior was classic, but simple. We lounged there for awhile reading about the history of the hotel before deciding to visit Coppelia.

From the Hotel Nacional, it was only 3-4 more blocks to the famed Coppelia Ice Cream Parlor. I'd read in not one, but two guidebooks about this unique place and thought it would be an interesting experience. If you have a moment, check out the Wiki link above. It's pretty unbelievable.

I'll try to keep this story as short as possible, but it's tough because it's just so bizarre...

Okay...so Cuba is hot, and possibly as a result, Cubans love ice cream. However, there is a shortage of dairy cows in the country (slaughtering a cow in the country is illegal), so finding affordable ice cream (that is not the pricey imported brand for tourists) can be a challenge. Enter Coppelia. 

Coppelia is the name of a state-run ice cream brand. Though it is not nearly the institution it once was (and was envisioned to be), it still occupies a mammoth-sized structure (I'll call it a small stadium) that serves roughly 1,000 people at a time. 

The stadium is located in a park, and has about 4-5 separate lines to get in. We'd read that Coppelia caters to its local residents and charges very low prices...but that it required a significant time commitment to get some. First, we had to find one of the lines to stand in. We were there on a hot day, but not a hothot day, if you know what I mean. On those days, I'm told the lines can be evn longer. We stood in the sun with perhaps a hundred other people (in the picture below, you can see the line curves to the right and is about 100 yards long). Every 15-20 minutes, they would let about 15-20 people in to the parlor. By our calculations, we estimated it would take us at least an hour and change to get in (and it did, since there were a few inevitable sneaky line cutters).

Once we impatiently shuffled in, we got lost. The place was massive, and had various different large covered tent areas, and even a second floor! We tried to find the section we were supposed to sit in, but nearly got kicked out for entering through the wrong way (I would've wept if they had insisted we get back in line). Thankfully, we found the family who had been in front of us in line and sat in their general vicinity. 

And then...we sat. 

We sat and we sat and we sat. We saw various servers casually strolling around, occasionally taking and dropping orders, but by no means in any rush. They probably walked by us for a solid 15-20 minutes before someone ambled over and took our order. At this point, we'd spent well over 90 minutes waiting for ice cream. But deep breaths, deep breaths...it's part of the Cuban experience, right? When in Rome and all that.

So after placing an order for three scoops each (we were never asked which flavors we'd wanted, because its clear that you get what you get). We were prepared to spend another year of life waiting for our ice cream, but it appeared in a positively zippy 10 minutes. We each had a scoop of vanilla and two scoops of what appeared to be strawberry. The ice cream was neither good, nor bad. I'd compare it to the generic brand you'd buy at any major grocer.

While we ate, we observed that the elderly woman seated behind us (she's the one just over Rich's left shoulder) ordered roughly ten bowls for herself. Once they arrived, she dumped all of them into a plastic grocery bag to take home. We also noticed that the average family or group ordered 1-2 fully loaded bowls per person. We must have appeared anorexic ordering a paltry 6 scoops.

After inhaling our ice cream, we only waited another 10 minutes or so for our tab (because we practically corralled our server into giving it to us). For our six scoops, we paid a grand total of...(drum roll please)...six cents!!! 

So as painful as our two-hour visit to the ice cream parlor was, we had to chuckle at how unbelievably cheap it was. Would I go back and do it again? Not even if I had a 50% off coupon. But I'm so glad I did. It was definitely worth the experience. 

So remember this, if there is one upside to socialism, it is this- one cent ice cream.

We decided to walk back to Habana Vieja (Old Havana) from Vedado (about 3-4 mile walk) along the Malecon (seawall). It was interesting...in any other country, waterfront properties are prime real estate, and tend to be aesthetically pleasing and well maintained. In this case, it looked like any other neighborhood. I suppose it shouldn't have surprised me, but it did.

While passing through Central Havana, we saw these images of Fidel, Camilo and Raul(?) on a building fronting the Presidential Palace.

We also noticed media tents had sprung up for the upcoming Obama visit and lined the front of the palace. We hoped we'd be able to somehow to see him there, but had no idea when he was coming, or where he'd be (since his trip dates had already changed a few times).

For dinner that night, you might be surprised to know that we had chicken with beans and rice. But we supplemented our dinner with some delicious pastries that we'd found from an amazing bakery a few minutes walk from our apartment. We figured our next day would be pretty chill, but little did we know...