Spring break in Miami

Living in cold and windy upstate New York, and even though we really wanted to visit Chicago, we also wished for (or should I say needed...) a sunny getaway for Spring break. After a lot of hesitation and without much conviction, Sara and I booked flights to Miami. And god we didn't regret it at all.

We both had whereabouts about Miami, we're not fond of superficial cities or parties and we assumed Miami was all about that but we were wrong. As soon as we stepped out of the plane, the atmosphere, the palm trees, the sun made me feel like I was back in Australia and it was such a great feeling. Our very first stop was naturally the iconic Miami beach. Getting there in the evening was absolutely mental. Most people were half-naked, had snakes around their necks and were completely drunk or stoned. Police was at every street corner and it smelt like week everywhere. The music was loud and bars were packed. The beach on the other hand was almost empty so Sara and I took advantage of it to go and take some (blurry and dark) pictures. It was amazing to touch the sand and the water.

We made the most of the three following days...

On the first day we went back to Miami beach to see it during daytime and to hopefully tan a bit (we outdid ourselves here because we had the worst sunburns EVER). We went all the way up from South Miami beach to Middle Miami beach on a bike, took many pictures and had lunch on the beach before spending the afternoon in Wynwood. It was probably my favourite part of Miami, it's very colourful, hype and artistic. You can find many nice cafés and the cutest shops but the main attraction there is The Wynwood Walls spot. This place has brought the world's greatest artists working in the graffiti and street art genre and it looks so cool inspiring.

We had pouring rain on Tuesday but we managed to keep entertained all day, first of all with a brunch, we had the BEST pancakes ever, then a visit at the Museum of Contemporary Arts where we saw a striking exhibition on Black American lives, and we ended up going shopping in a huge mall in Miami north.

On our last day, the sun was out again so we decided to walk to Little Havana which was so colouful and the atmosphere was very uplifting, Sara tried some Cuban coffee and said it was even stronger than Italian coffee. In the afternoon we went on a boat tour to see alligators in the Everglades (and at least we saw some, not like in Louisiana where they were playing hide and seek) and then we spent the rest of our day at Bayside Marketplace which is a big port full of restaurants and souvenir shops. We decided to have a rest there and drank a pina colada listening to live Cuban music. And right at this moment I thought: "what a life". Because moments like this really remind me of how lucky I am to get to experience all of this.

Miami, just like Australia, has a very cool and laidback lifestyle. The weather definitely helps, the sun makes people want to dance, drink and wear light clothes all the time and it was just so nice to experience it after months living in a place up north. With 60% of the population speaking Spanish (some people didn't even speak English), it actually really felt like we were in another country, but this is America, it's so big that it's so diverse and very different from North to South and West to East. I'm really glad we got to discover a place that's completely different from where we live.