Another in the New York Times series 36 Hours In… This time we’re visiting Havana, Cuba. Damien Cave writes:
Havana is no longer frozen in time, at least not completely. With Cuba’s guarded openness to private enterprise grabbing hold, classic American cars and salsa singers now share the cityscape with new and inventive offerings in food, culture, night life and hospitality. No other city in Latin America, or perhaps the world, can claim to be having just the kind of moment that Havana is experiencing now after so many decades gasping for change.
For visitors, the capital is a mash-up of past and present, freedom and restriction. It’s a city of architectural decay, but also creativity, where artists have turned a defunct cooking-oil factory into a performance space, bar and music venue that on any given night makes Brooklyn look as cool as a suburban Ikea. It’s a city where finding ingredients for a stellar menu requires feats of Promethean ingenuity; where opera is subversive, and kitschy too; where the Internet is just arriving, fully formed and censored; and where young Cubans without money are fleeing, while those with connections and ideas await great success.
Officially, some limits for Americans remain in place. Despite restored relations with Cuba, tourism is still banned by the embargo. But for those who reach Havana under the 12 categories of legal travel, or without permission, and for the rest of the world, the city is ready to entertain and confound.
~ At 3.15am on Saturday, 23rd January 1869, a group of market
gardeners made their way to a site between Gouger Street and Grote Street,
Adelaide and started to sell their produce. Over 500 people are said to have
attended that first market day with all stock selling out by 6.00am!
From such a successful beginning, it was not long before the
Adelaide Central Market officially opened one year later in January 1870.
Thirty years later, in 1900, the first stone was laid to build the Central
Market façade, which still stands today.
I have been going to ‘the market’, as most people call it,
for as long as I can remember. First, as a child, along with my parents who
shopped there every week, and then as an adult, either on my own or with other
family members. Currently, Friday evenings are my preferred visiting hours, and
shopping is always preceded by a meal in the Asian food hall close to the main
market.
Originally known as the City Market, the facility was
officially named the Central Market in August 1965. Despite two major fires
(one in 1925, and the other in 1977), the market continues to offer almost
every variety of fresh fruit and vegetable available in South Australia.
Also available from more than 80 stalls are a wide range of
fresh and processed meats, continental deli’s and cheese outlets, seafood
stalls, and others specialising in nuts, confectionary, coffee and other
specialty foods. And of course, let’s not overlook the bakeries, patisseries,
and numerous cafés and restaurants,
For more than 140 years, the Central Market has been the
food Mecca for multicultural cuisine and fresh produce in Adelaide, and today
the Central Market is South Australia’s most visited tourist attraction.
For those of us who live in Adelaide and shop regularly
there, the market is more than a tourist attraction, of course. This is the one
place were all classes of people meet and greet each other, rub shoulders with
celebrity chefs, indulge their love for fresh fruit and vegetables, and soak their
senses in the myriad aromas that waft around the cheese stalls and coffee
stalls, and the many other outlets. The market is also a great meeting place
for families and friends. Getting together for a meal at Lucia’s, or a coffee
and cake at Zuma’s Café, or maybe a cheap, freshly made Won Ton soup in the
Asian food hall is a standard occurrence among regular market aficionado’s.
Events & Activities
A wide range of events and activities are scheduled each
week at the market. Some traders offer product samples in ‘try before you buy’
promotions, while others present short classes, and product/produce
demonstrations each week.
Central Market Tours
With a 30 year background as a chef and 20 years as a
stall holder in the Market, Mark Gleeson conducts Central Market Tours that aim
to provide participants with an exclusive experience interacting with
suppliers, producers and retailers of South Australia’s vibrant food industry.
Tour guests receive a level of history and product knowledge of the Adelaide
Central Market, not available by others. For more information or to book your
tour, visit Central Market Tour…
Top Food & Wine Tour
There are several tour operators in South Australia that
also offer tours of the Central Market for your enjoyment. For more information on tours of the Market,
visit Top Food & Wine Tours… www.topfoodandwinetours.com.au
~ I’ve never been to South Africa, but with interest in the country building as the Fifa World Cup Soccer competition gets closer and closer (11 June-11 July, 2010), now might be the perfect time to think about travelling there and seeing if South Africa has more to offer than soccer and safari’s.
For those who seek meaning, connection, and want to make a difference as they travel, a San Francisco-based cultural and philanthropic tour company, is offering a one-of-a-kind Zulu ‘empowerment’ volunteer tour into Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa.
This three-week trip in September 2010 (September 4-25), organised by The Cultural Explorer, gives volunteer travellers the rare opportunity to immerse themselves in the vibrant Zulu culture while participating in a variety of service-oriented projects. Travellers will be encouraged to design a project based on their own interests and skills: for example, volunteers might want to refurbish a school or to tutor students in math, science, English and art. Other volunteers might choose to work with children an orphanage or teach in a creche (day care centre). And still others might want to teach marketable skills to Zulu women and young people or assist rural businesswomen with marketing ideas.
Volunteer travellers will stay in a lovely hotel in the small rural town of Eshowe. There will be excursions daily into the numerous nearby Zulu villages -- with opportunities to observe traditional and contemporary life, attend a Zulu wedding, birthday, or healing celebration. Volunteers will visit with the local sangomas (traditional healers), the only white sangoma in South Africa, and attend meetings with Zulu educators. Travellers will also enjoy lively dinners with local activists, politicians, and entrepreneurs who are invested in making positive change within the Zulu community.
Volunteer travellers will also spend a weekend on a safari in the Hluhluwe Umfolozi Game Reserve, the oldest game park in South Africa, looking for the Big Five: lion, leopard, rhino, elephant and Cape buffalo. Also planned is side trip into the city of Durban and a chance to visit the beaches along the Indian Ocean.
The Zulu Empowerment trip starts in Johannesburg, South Africa's largest city, with an in-depth history lesson and an excursion to the Apartheid museum, Origins Centre, the thriving township of Soweto, and downtown Johannesburg. Travellers will be treated to authentic South African foods and music. The volunteer portion of the trip will be based in Kwa-Zulu Natal, about 7 hours south of Johannesburg, an area known for it's large Zulu population and diverse terrain.
Pat Walker, founder of The Cultural Explorer, has spent several years cultivating contacts within the Zulu communities in Natal. Her company offers both group and individual trips, and specialises in authentic cultural, volunteer, and philanthropic travel experiences.
Travellers will meet with her personal contacts and colleagues. "This is a one-of-a-kind volunteer trip," she says. “We have teamed up with a local family-run organisation that has been working in this area for several years. We find and their projects to be authentic and they really do make a big difference in the lives of the Zulu community. We are pleased to make this volunteer trip available to adventurous travellers who want to go beyond the ordinary travel experience."
About the Zulu: The Zulu are the largest South African ethnic group of an estimated 10–11 million people who live mainly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. Their language, Zulu, is a Bantu language. The Zulu Kingdom played a major role in South African history during the 19th and 20th centuries and the Zulu were known as fierce and determined warriors. Under apartheid, Zulu people were classed as third-class citizens and suffered from state-sanctioned discrimination. They remain today the most numerous ethnic group in South Africa, and now have equal rights along with all other citizens. The current president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, is a Zulu.
Speaking of South Africa. Recently, I became aware of some amazing footage currently online via YouTube. Titled, Battle at Kruger the video shows a pride of lions attacking a young buffalo at Kruger National Park. What is really incredible is the fight the young creature puts up to survive and the even more amazing footage of the buffalo herd fighting off the lions in an attempt to save the calf. Warning: Not for the faint hearted!
