Cuba

September 2001 was spent mostly in Cuba - Havana, Pinar del Rio, Vinales, Playa Girón Cienfuegos, Trinidad, Bayamo, Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo, Camaguey, Santa Clara, Havana.
By that time I was sick of hearing Chan-Chan, but the music was great.
Very Interesting! I wish my languages were better but just say someting like No ABLO
I didn't like Havana, Vinales was lovely, as was Trinadad. Trinadad was perhaps my favourite place in cuba, I escaped and went to the beach for a day which was nice and then back to the town to hear some afro-cuban rythmns and chill in the UNESCO designated town.
Crushed a few crabs while driving down to Playa Girón they are hard to miss on the road, although some native nicked my favourite runners whilst out on the window dry..
Cienfuegos with its half finished Russian Nuclear reactor! and the Thomas terry theatre....spiffing.
Santiago de cuba and driving to Guantanamo with Richard Neill who was writing a book on his experiences of trying to learn the Bass in cuba... must get that book sometime.
Ah driving on the autopista
Going back to havana via Camaguey (having to get a punctero fix the puncture in the tyre was a lesson in how Cuba works...) and Santa Clara with the Che "shrine" was an interesting gradual end to our travels - was that Ernesto Che Guevara playing golf!!
Havana 2nd time round was none the better, ok the museum of Idiots Batistas palace was an endurance test, and we did the cigar tour thingy, after much reading I think I can now tell the real thing from the banana skins....
Of the many surreal moments, the Fashion show in Hotel Ingalaterra, the thunderstorm and th e band started to jam to Smoke on the water I shall always remember.

Copenhagen - Denmark

Well I stopped off here a number of times so I better take a look. Not impressed with the little mermaid - ok ok - it is little not really worth the hour walk out to it.
Surprised to see a number of drunk people on the streets in the morning, although a Danish associate claimed they were all Swedish!
I always found Denmark a welcome respite to the very high prices in Norway, Sweden and indeed Ireland! And the danish krone I still have some somewhere, and the coins with the hole in them!
I never minded passing through Copenhagen (Shopping haven) airport, I had a shower there once on a return home journey and it refreshed me to go straight out when i arrived home.

Stockholm - Sweden

A trip to sweden was fairly easy - well it was so close to Oslo. The most memorable trip was the one via train, you could pull down bed and have a kip. Strange people who would avoid eye contact at all time.
Stockholm itself was much more cosmopolitan than Oslo(Norway) and indeed Goteburg(sweden), however it is a nice city - I did the tourist thing visited the Palace and its extensive buildings, visited Gammel Stan(Old town) which was quite nice. Again as with every nordic place i Visited the t-bann was very impressive in its punctuality and efficency.

My first trip to Stockholm was to meet up with Doug (he had headed their earlier) I was on this oldish train with compartments with 2 seats parallel and you could pull down "shelves" for beds so there would be 3 beds either side. It was like a train during the 2nd world war and I was expecting some soldier to knock on the door and demand to see my papers!
What amazed me was the fact that I shared this compartment with a few swedes and they would refuse to make eye contact with you... in case they would be forced to speak to you, so I was stubborn and wasnt gonna start! so we had this wierd silence - thankfully they got off early and I was able to hop up and have a snooze!

One trip to from Oslo to Stockholm I got a modern train with airconditioning and comfy seats, I got pestered by a car mad guy who wanted to practice his english talkin to me but since i was just hoppin on the train after work I wanted to sleep - i felt jez I am not turnin into one of these insular nordics, so I reengaged the Irish part of my brain and chatted aways to him.
I also thought it weird to have a metal detector on entering a Nightclub -