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 -

Norway

In the latter part of 2000 I visited Norway for initially 6weeks - this grew to a few months, then on to christmas, then for a few months in 2001.
I travelled a little bit within Norway perhaps not as much as I should have - it allowed me to venture to Sweden and Denmark a bit as well.
Bergen is Nice but it rains almost as much as Ireland!
Oslo is a nice compact town - Aker Brugge is a bit weird like the IFSC. The park in Majorstuen is kinda weird - with some holocaust memorial with all these statues of Fat Naked people.
I recommend the ski jump in holmenkollen and the tryvann ariel tower which you can go up for 50 or 60NOK good exercise.
Places we went out to, Cafe Opera, Studenten, Barons... Smuget, the obligatory Irish bar Killkenny Inn(there was a dublinner and dirty nellys as well), and Odeon, Grappe out on the way to majorstuen.
One of the major benefits was that my stay in Norway allowed me to learn to ski (well sort of) I even had an abortive attempt and snowboarding and cross-country skiing- suffice it to say snowboarding I kept fallin on my bum (so much so I thought I would get nappy rash!), Cross country was one of the most exhausting things I have ever done! I was so sore after it I spent the next week walkin like John Wayne!
But when I settled I caught the downhill bug - when you spend a day trying to stay on your feet you forget about nearly everything.
Over all Oslo and Norway are nice places, the country side is lovely the mountains, the people while teutonic and insular are friendly when you get to know em.

Corfu Greece

With my able accomplice Ivan -
A Ipsos was ok perhaps too late in the season for much fun and frolics, weather was fine ok could have been better, Corfu town just a commercial port not mych to it.
The bus trip exposed us to the driving techniques of the greeks! and the commentary of "Panoramic view"over and over again....
We were denied a trip to Albania by political sensitivities due to the war in Yugoslavia.
Cycling was difficult but good fun in a masacistic kinda way - up to the celestialnamed Kassiopi
The boat trip was good as well got a chance to try a few knots when docking - the clove hitch!
When the US Aircraft carrier came to the bay it was full of yanks loud and broke the restfulness

California

Autumn 1998 I ended up in California,my first time in the US, went to San Francisco and LA with BT and Ronan. Landing in the US was interesting, especially since I was the first not to get "Incorrecto" shouted at me by the customs official, he made some quips about shamrocks but nervously i didn't know where to walk, since all i could see was the incorrecto queue, then folding doors opened Get Smart-like and I was in America. Strangley I enjoyed LA more than San Fran, contrary to my expectations.
San Franscisco was good for Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge and Park, street chess players and the cable cars. Felt awkward when followed by beggars, which was annoying.
LA - There was lots to do, I liked the tacky tours, Universal was good disney not so much, Manhattan beach was nice and close to the sea - i enjoyed a dip each day we were there. Hired bikes and cycled round the airport and up to Venice Beach which is a freak show and worth a visit.
Drivin up the ventrura highway with Julio and Ronan in a pontiac was also memorable. I couldn't convince Ronan to visit the Ronald Reagan museum alas. On the Bus tour with the Persian driver who photographed any celebrity he gave a lift to was interesting, especially when there was a traffic jam due to a shooting! Still a good trip.