Miss Euro Blogger - Bursting the Bubble

New Year's Eve is once again upon us. My expectations on how to spend that evening have changed tremendously over the decades. As a child When I was little, the most exciting part about New Year's Eve - and also the only expectation I had about that evening - was being allowed to stay up late. A staple in my childhood for that night was to watch 'Dinner for One'. Other than that it was all about watching TV, trying to stay awake until midnight and if I made it, shoot off some cheap fireworks in the backyard. As a teenager Growing up in the Austrian Alps, going out to a club wasn't really a thing. What the kids in the countryside did was meet at a hut in the mountains where we were surrounded by snow. Someone's uncle always had a hut and we would meet there in the early evening to get started on the bags of alcohol we dragged up there. One by one, we passed out somewhere on the floor or if you were lucky on a chair. It was a simple time. In my early...

My most recent trip over Christmas and New Year’s took me to the Caribbean and Miami. One place was good for the soul the other... well, we were in South Beach - ‘nuff said. In the late summer of last year, my friend Atilla told me about a trip he was planning to Miami for New Year’s and that he wanted to take tack on a few days in the Virgin Islands - since he was in the area and all. He said he was looking for a travel buddy. My ears perked up. Travel you said? I’m in!! And so the planning started. We had evening meetings, weekly phone calls and daily emails. Where are we going? What are we gonna do? What hotel are we gonna stay at? Do you snore? Do you have some weird habits I should know about before we embark on this adventure. No? Well, we’ll see. The excitement was building. Takeoff was December 24th. Atilla was already in Miami. We met up at the airport. On my way to meeting him, I caught a glimpse of a ‘new’ destination on the departure announcement screen: Havana, Cuba. F...