This is my second trip to Miami and the first time solo. I came here in 2012 with three friends for a week. I don’t remember much about that trip, it seems like a blur. Having planned to stick around Florida after cruising, I needed no excuse to come back.

I got on a bus from Tampa at 6:40 in the morning. It was plain sailing for the first hour or so until we got a different driver after the first stop. The new driver was temperamental towards passengers, eccentric and bizarre. Everytime he lost it with a passenger the bus sped up. There were times I was shitting myself and thought we would crash, but we survived the journey in the end.

Upon arrival, I went to an Irish bar to watch the Arsenal vs. Manchester United game. There was only 2 people watching the game. I assume this was the sort of place that was only busy in the evenings.

As a Manchester United fan, losing to Arsenal or any other team for that matter is never nice. The only upside to the time I spent seeing the game was getting the food I ordered heavily discounted thanks to the drunk barman.

I ordered burger with chips and was served by a lady who looked like the supervisor. I offered to pay for the meal straight away, she said she didn’t mind me paying after the game ended. Before the second half started, she left and told me to speak to her colleague about paying for the food.

I hardly noticed the guy because of the game. He was quiet and barely visible. When I got his attention to pay for the food, he was slurring his words and sort of swayed a bit. It took him a while to realise that I asked for the bill.

There was a group of people from Milwaukee sitting at the other end of the bar, they came with 10-15 minutes of the game left. I spoke to them and of course as many Americans will do if you are English, they’ll ask about England, where to see etc and the same with Europe. As if you’ve been everywhere in Europe!

I asked them about the barman and they thought he was drunk, at least it wasn’t just me. They mentioned how they were over charged for their drinks and it took 5 minutes for the barman to rectify.

The bill came and the bill was less than $5! I was expecting to pay around $15. I checked it over and decided to pay and keep quiet. Even if I flagged it up the barman wasn’t with it enough to correct it. I just paid and got out. You’re probably wondering why I didn’t walk out and not pay? That thought didn’t occur to me until after I left. Still, paying $5 for something that should have cost $15 isn’t too bad.

A couple of things confused me about the whole thing. Firstly, I arrived at the bar seeing the supervisor lady and the barman sat down going through something before I ordered food. She went back to the meeting before leaving. At a first glance he didn’t look like he was paying attention.

And secondly, surely she must have noticed something was up…Anything!? There’s no way she thought he was sober and fit to work. The whole thing was bizarre. Maybe it’s an unwritten rule or not frowned upon to work behind a bar drunk in Miami.

I checked into my accommodation and saw one of those big bean bag chairs in the public area. It was the best feeling relaxing on it after being awake since 4am and being on a bus for over 4 hours.

Fast forward a few minutes and there’s Brazilian guy who walks in. He’s staring at me and looks like he wants to fight. I thought it was best to avoid eye contact. He begins to approach me, so I starting talking to him, maybe I was being paranoid.

At this point I’m still sitting on the bean bag chair when we introduce ourselves, shake hands and chat for a bit. His handshake action was weird; he sort of turned his wrist and pulled my hand a bit close to his groin area. I didn’t think anything of it because I was sitting down when we shook hands.

There was less tension but he’s still acting weird. I got up to stretch my legs. Any movement I made, he mirrored it. He kept getting closer to me, to the point where he was breaching personal space. I have no idea if usually acts like this around people. I’m sure like most people, I like having a bit of space between myself and others.

I turn to go back to the bean bag chair and all of the sudden he has grabbed my arse!

Yes you read that correctly. Like what the actual fuck!?

It was already an uncomfortable minute or two before he groped me. I was pissed off. I turned back, feeling reactive and walking towards him, he’s realised I was the wrong person to grope. He puts his hands up and apologises several times in a panic.

He makes the situation more awkward by continuing to talk to me. He tells me to lock my stuff away because few guests have had stuff stolen. Well no shit, why would you not keep valuables locked? Here’s an idea, fuck off and leave me alone!

Because he was flying home in a few hours I didn’t see the point in making a complaint. Nothing would have come of it. Even if he was staying for a bit longer, what would have been done if I said something?

I debated whether to mention this or not. It’s all well and good blogging about the good times you have travelling, however we all have unpleasant encounters travelling. I’ve heard a fair share of horror stories from fellow travellers so the only thing I can take from this is what happened here I guess pales in comparison to the stories I’ve heard.

I got some rest and spent the evening walking around the beach area to clear my head. Miami seems to be a good place for that sort of thing. There is hardly anyone at the beach in the evenings due to spring break with the majority flooding to the bars and clubs.

I went to a bar with Laurie, from Boston, who was staying at the same accommodation for the sake of not wasting the evening doing nothing. There were many spring breakers in fancy dress. Some interesting choices from unicorns, suicide squad and WWE wrestlers to name a few. You can never beat anyone dressing up in a classic like the Mario Brothers.

I got up early and made use of the sun and spent most of the day at the beach. Not to knock Miami Beach but as far as beaches go in Florida, I prefer Clearwater Beach or St Pete Beach in Tampa. But you wouldn’t go to Miami without spending time at Miami Beach, otherwise if you didn’t go to Miami Beach, did you really go to Miami?

I went for food at a Cuban Restaurant opposite the beach, 1957 Havana. When I looked into places to eat at in Miami, this place came up several times. The inside has old fashioned décor to replicate Cuba in the 1950s.

While the Cuban sandwich was nice, it wasn’t worth what the money I paid. The restaurant was more catered to tourists which are places I usually try to avoid. This was confirmed by a few people I met during my stay here. Each of them kindly telling me about other places to eat Cuban food sandwiches.

It was happy hour at the accomodation which means unlimited (watered down) cocktails. The good thing about happy hours is how chilled they can be and the social aspect with other travellers.

You tend to meet people with interesting backgrounds. There was Ryan, from Massachusetts who was in the army before becoming a cross country skier. I’ve never met anyone who did cross country skiing, it looks really cool. With my balance being so poor I think I would become a regular hospital patient if I attempted it.

And there was Joe, from Chicago. Before breeding racing horses he worked for an airline and travelled extensively. Not a bad life by the sounds of it, at least it sounds cool in my head.

The good thing about meeting people with different backgrounds and/or what they’re currently doing is the interesting stories they share. I enjoy listening about other people’s experiences because you never know what you can learn.

And just like that happy hour can turn into several hours!

Now on to the day I was looking forward to. I went to Wynwood, one of Miami’s popular districts to check out the well known street art scene. I say well known, I didn’t know about the street art scene in Miami until a couple of days before arriving here.

There are old factories and warehouses which have been converted into art galleries and craft breweries, stylish bistros, chic clothing boutiques, cafes and bars. Walking around Wynwood you can see the influence of the art community, and how it helped revive Wynwood into becoming one of the largest, prominent creative communities in the USA.

I left Wynwood Walls till last as it’s like the crown jewel of the district. If you are taking an Uber/Lyft to Wynwood, make sure you request to be dropped off on 25th street near Wynwood Walls because it’s a good starting point. You can decide to go there first or leave it till last. Either way, which ever option you choose you will see a whole lot of creative talent on display.

The Wynwood Walls is an outdoor museum of art, with murals from artists around the world which was established in 2009 by legendary place maker and visionary Tony Goldman. If you don’t see people walking around the streets of Wynwood admiring the murals, shopping or in a bar, they will be at Wynwood Walls.

It’s a good sized place so you don’t feel like you are being swamped at a popular tourist destination which is limited space wise like The Christ of Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro or The Trevi Fountain in Rome. Since opening in 2009, Wynwood Walls has been open to the public and free to enter.

You will likely spend 1-2 hours at Wynwood Walls. If you love street art I would give 1-2 hours to see the other murals around the area. That’s before considering whether you decide to stop off to look around the shops or chilling in one of the bars.

It took me 5 minutes walking through here to like this place more than South Beach. It has a cool quirky vibe, colour, variety and not forgetting that it’s a good alternative to South Beach.

You get a real sense of a community feel around Wynwood. Regardless of whether you are a local or a traveller, people here are welcoming.

The Wynwood Walls is a place to appreciate the work that has been put in by talented artists, the founder Tony Goldman, and the work Goldman’s Daughter Jessica Goldman Srebnick (CEO of Goldman Properties) has continued to do since the passing of Tony Goldman in 2012.

I took a shared Uber to Versailles, a Cuban restaurant in Little Havana. On the way the Uber driver picked up a woman on her way back from work. She gave me tips on Little Havana and even went as far as to message her friend on WhatsApp because she said her friend knew more. When you think about it, it’s really cool what can come of a 10 minute journey in an Uber with someone you’ve just met.

It got me thinking, for all the talk in life, mainstream media, social media and the world in general about how awful life can be, how bad certain places are, and how bad people can be, there are good people out there willing to help when they don’t have to. It might be helping with a small gesture or going on a mission to make a big difference. There’s nowhere near enough coverage on the good things as there is on the crap we get shoved in our faces.

Appreciate the good gestures, and don’t always believe the shit you get shown. Of course be vigilent and careful, but go in with an open mind

Back to Versailles, I was told about this place by a couple of people in Tampa while eating at another Cuban restaurant, Columbia. Next to the restaurant you have a Versailles Bakery which has a pop out section for people wanting a take away.

Having fallen in love with the Cuban sandwich I had in Tampa, I was more than happy to live off them in Miami, especially here, in a place with a big Cuban history.

In case you didn’t read the Tampa blog and you are not familiar, a Cuban sandwich is filled with ham, roast pork, Swiss cheese, pickles and mustard on Cuban bread (yes I moan a lot about pickles but minus that and the mustard and you are on to a winner). In Tampa they add salami to the sandwich whereas in Miami and the south of Florida they don’t.

Be aware that you’ll need to order a taxi if you’re looking to go to the main popular spot of Little Havana because it’s not within walking distance of Versailles.

On my way to the heart of Little Havana via another shared Uber ride, my tip earlier about providing a specific as drop off point as possible comes from this journey where I learnt this lesson the hard way.

Rather than putting the precise location, I just write Little Havana and get dropped off in the middle of a main road, around 9 or 10 blocks away. With it being a shared ride it’s unlikely the drivers will divert to your desired location if you haven’t specified on the app because of the route they are given on the GPS.

One tip to note is to start from between 22nd-17th street and keep going till 8th avenue to explore the famed Calle Ocho strip in the heart of Little Havana. Here you’ll see Latin cafes, restaurants, hand rolled cigars, live music venues, markets and Miami Cubans playing dominoes at the Maximo Gomez Park which is known as Domino Park by locals.

Domino Park was popular with tourists. In a way I understood the fascination of watching Miami Cubans playing as they chatted amongst themselves. I can’t really explain it, you have to be there to see what I mean.

I never knew a game of dominoes could get competitive. You saw a domino piece slammed down on the table aggressively by one player, followed by another player aggressively slamming down their piece. It was like their way of calling check mate.

Little Havana is full of life and character. There are lots to do, like rum tasting or a movie at the Tower Theatre, or you can grab an ice cream at the well known Azucar. Ironically I didn’t know about Azucar until after visiting Little Havana which was unfortunate for a huge ice cream lover like myself. No doubt I’ll be back visiting in the near future and you can be sure that I’ll update this post with ice cream pictures saying how good it tasted.

As with Wynwood, the more time I spent in Little Havana, the more I loved it. Next time I come back to Miami I’ll stay nearby Wynwood and Little Havana so I can spend more time here and experience them for longer than a day.

I don’t know if any of you would agree that a lot of what is promoted on Miami for tourists is mainly in the South Beach area. Usually when booking to go somewhere I’ll research things to do and a lot of the suggestions I found were based in the South Beach area.

I only found out about Wynwood and Little Havana from people I met during the trip before coming here. At least this taught me to delve deeper when looking into places. In a way it was a nice surprise to be told about other places which I turned out to love.

Don’t get me wrong, South Beach is nice and all but there is much less on Wynwood and Little Havana in comparison.

I spent the majority of the last day with my friend Darren watching the Bayern Munich vs. Liverpool game in a Brauhaus in Coral Gables with his friends. I met Darren on a cruise I went on before travelling round Florida. He works with one of the partners of our travel company and being one of the few Brits on the cruise and a sports fan, we got on as soon as we met.

Unfortunately he’s a Liverpool fan, and being a Manchester United fan it’s never nice seeing your big rivals win, especially when they’re playing well. Regardless of football allegiances, it was a good catch up over a few beers.

After a walking through Miracle Mile, the downtown business district of Coral Gables, I got an Uber back to South Beach and went to Puerto Sagua, a Cuban Diner which was a block away from where I was staying. And yes for another Cuban sandwich.

Ordering my standard sandwich with no pickles or mustard got a few raised eyebrows from people around me, including a lady next to me who pointed out that pickes and mustard are what makes the Cuban sandwich. It was a friendly back and forth and a somewhat civilised debate.

The locals around me couldn’t comprehend the idea of someone asking for Cuban sandwich with no pickles and mustard as much as I couldn’t contemplate the idea of eating them.

The lady suggested I try fried yuca. I had never heard of it before, but the way she described it made me tempted to give it a go.

Fried yuca is a Latin American side dish which comes from the root of the cassava plant, and is cut and fried similarly to chips. The dish can come in different variations depending which Latin American cuisine you eat.

It tasted crispier and slightly sweet, and the mojo dipping sauce (garlic, olive oil or pork lard, and a citrus juice which is usually bitter orange juice) it came with was nice.

I liked Puerto Sagua so much that I went back the next morning for breakfast before catching the bus to Orlando. If you’re in South Beach and you’re looking for a place to eat Cuban food, go to Puerto Sagua, it doesn’t try to be anything fancy, it’s cheap and the food is good. It’s rare to find somewhere to eat that’s good and cheap in a touristic area. It looks like a popular place judging by how busy it was in the evening and breakfast.

As far as comparing to other places in Florida, Tampa is my favourite. Nonetheless Miami is a good destination for a short break. Otherwise there is so much more to see apart from South Beach. I can’t emphasise enough how much better Wynwood and Little Havana are. And then there’s Fort Lauderdale if you feel like a day out of Miami. If there’s anywhere nearby that’s worth checking out, please feel free to message me your suggestions.