Havana

It was New Year's Eve when I arrived at the exquisitely beautiful Plaza de Cathedral in Havana. The warm Cuban night softly embraced the entire city, and the colorful lanterns adorned the walls of 18^th century plaza where oval-shaped tables, covered in red, were still empty waiting for the guests to arrive.

My partner elegantly opened the door of our antique convertible Chevrolet (what a gentlemen he became in Cuba!!), I got out from the car and looked around. Wherever I could see, there were old American cars. Some were parked next to the plaza's main entrance with people still sitting inside. It seemed like they did not want to leave their cars; yellow, red, dark blue Chevrolets and Rolls Royce were brilliantly polished and looked so romantic creating the unique illusion of the scene from some old movie with Franc Sinatra. At one moment I even saw Franc lighting up a fine cigar, but then, it was just a poised old gentleman in dark tuxedo.

It was around 10 p.m. when the orchestra started playing Strauss, and everyone moved to their tables. The elegant crowd consisted mainly of European men and women who arrived to Havana as tourists; however, nobody looked like a simple tourist that night. Everyone was wearing elegant outfits; all men were in charcoal tuxedos, and women could easily compete with the most beautiful heroines from ''James Bond''- all in stunning dresses, with sparkling jewelry and dreamy smiles.