In Cooba? Is no problem!

I don't know where to begin to be honest. I don't think I've ever been taken by a place quite as much as Cuba. I suppose the best thing to do is give a blow by blow account of our time in the Socialist paraadise. I use the word paradise loosely - but not that loosely!



Day 1-3 (Havana)



Ah, there's nothing quite stepping off a plane and feeling a gust of hot holiday air blowing in your face. It's like a signal that the fun has begun. Always makes me feel quite happy. 45 minutes later I was feeling decidedly less happy when it was revealed that my bag had decided to stay in Amsterdam for the weekend, perhaps to solicit prostitutes and smoke spliffs. Hey bag, that's my job! Oh I jest now. At the time I was gripped by the cold fingers of panic. But once things are out of your hands I reckon the best thing to do is say "Feck it!" and get smashed. Which is precisely what we did, much to our financial misfortune. Not only did we spend a bloody fortune on our own drinks (a mistake never to be repeated what with 4 peso bottles of rum in plentiful supply) we spent a fortune on Cuban strangers drinks. Oh, such naive, drunken tourists. Never mind eh? I think it's fair to say we had some banter although the night ended with a drunken Jeremy Kiely shouting "FUCK CUBA!" to our fleecers. Mistakes were made but fun was had. It was a microcosm of my life thus far.



The next day we decided not to fuck Cuba and instead spin round Habana and have an ould sconce at the local scenery. The place is frankly unbelievable. It's as if someone plonked a Spanish colonial town in the 21st century. It really is a beautiful place. We went the the Capitolio Nacional (Jeremy is going to have to furnish the pictures) and I must say it's one of the most impressive buildings I've ever set foot in. The rest of the day was spent wandering around, taking in the local sights and sounds and trying to avoid being fleeced by the local jineteros (we succeeded). We had a reasonably calm night until we got absolutely plastered - but this time on the cheap! Day 3 was a little more laid back, we explored Old Havana. Old Havana has been completely restored by a joint Cuban govt/UNESCO project and it really is pristine. Certain parts of Havana are very dilipidated but Old Havana is another world. I must say that the dilipidated parts have a certain idiosyncratic charm though - seeing a Cuban family living in a giant colonial house that's falling to pieces is quite something. There is a definite beauty in the dilipadation. And we definitely had our best night out up to this point - we wandered down the Malecon (a sea wall which runs from Old Havana right down to the marina, about 8km) with a bottle of rum chatting to the locals. We encountered a giant street party and some very vocal and banterful Cuban youngsters. It was probably around this point that I really began to fall in love with the place. But the next day we were off to Veradero.



Day 4 - 7



Let me get the most important thing out of the way straight off the bat - Veradero has without a shadow of a doubt the most beautiful beach I've ever seen. Perfectly clear waters with a constant 28 degree temperature. You'd have to see it to believe it. The problem was there is feck all else to do there. We met an Austrian girl called Barbara as we checked into the hotel the first night. After consuming our weight in rum we decided at circa 4am that it would be a perfect time for a dip. Even at that hour the water was lovely. Nothing quite like jumping in the sea under a perfectly moonlit night I think.



We spent the next day lounging on the beach. Unfortunately the sun hardly poked its head out of the clouds for the whole afternoon - it was still warm but not quite suntan weather. Probably explains why we're still as pasty faced now as when we left. It's hard to overstate how amazing this beach is but there's not much more to say. After a few hours of general mischief and a few beers we hit the hay so we'd be refreshed for blowing 75 quid on a shite boat trip the next day.



Now I'm sure in the right weather conditions this boat trip would be wonderful. However, it rained all fecking day long. Well, not quite, but it was not the day for taking a boat trip. We decided to go for it because it was our last day in Veradero but to be honest I'm not sure it was worth it - I think Barbara regretted a bit because she was quite low on cash. We went out snorkelling (well the lads did, I think I went for about 30 seconds before swallowing a lung full of water) and then out to an island. Still pretty overcast. Myself and Paud decide to earn our money back by drinking copious amounts of free rum. I managed to maintain myself with what I think was a reasonable degree of decorum. Poor old Paud on the other hand - let's just say he fell off the boat and almost drowned. Still, what a laugh! The day ended with a dolphin show that last about 15 minutes because it pissed rain. I was too drunk to appreciate it anyway. But at least I remembered I was there, unlike a certain P. Ahern...no no, too obvious. Patrick A.



Well that's the heavily edited highlights of week 1. It's now 1.26 am so I'll do the rest tomorrow. Good news today - we've managed to blag free internet off our neighbours. Hopefully they won't password protect their connection. Fingers crossed eh? Here's a good little docu about Cuban hero Fidel Castro...enjoy!