Cuba

hey all, just got back from cuba this afternoon and where do you start or try to explain that place, its absolutely nuts!!!

I could just give a reference to a Jeremy Clarkeson book which he wrote a chapter on cuba, it describes it to a tee, we read it the other night and were in stiches about how true it is.... ill put the refernece up some other time, you must check it out!

Part 1.

We flew from cancun airport, we were there in good time, got to relax. just the way you want to be at the airport. After sitting at the gate for 2 hrs, the flight was then delayed for an hour, thats grand sure its only an hour (and my book was getting good..."star of the Sea" by Joesph O Connor). So finally we were allowed to board, this invlolved getting a bus to the plane which was situated about a mile away (we further realised that the airline was probably too embarissed to park their plane beside the shinny American Airlines planes and the like). We eventually arrived to the plane where there was a que to work up the steps to board the plane. we remained standing there for about 15mins barely moving. Looking at the plane, it looked a tad worn, you could see where the external panelling was fixed (from most probably rust) and didnt look too exciting (would make ryanair look like airforce 1!!!). we eventually made it up the steps. You had to see this, the door was about 3 foot high, it should have featured in lord of the rings or something (would suit a hobbet), i had to practically get on my knees to get into the plane. Hilarious!! Once inside we just looked at each other, we couldnt believe it! it was like something from 1940 with russian signs everywhere (obviously cuba got it off the soviets about 100 yrs ago). I have never seen a plane like this, there was lots of people like us who couldnt believe it. you though ryanair was bad for leg room, there must have been like 10 inches leg space. we got to our "assigned seats" but somebody was sitting there, they wouldnt move so they said it was freee seating so me plonked ourselves down! These abnoxious americans came and moved us on! so we were left with no seats, we eventually got two seats together and that worked out fine! Then here is for the good part, we seen smoke rissing from the seat in front (never a good sign), we started to panic and asked whats going on but never really got an answer, loads of us just looked at each other and were amazed! then we were told that it was the air conditioning(????), it was like a cheesy smoke machine at a club where you can not see two inches in front of you. They gave their "safety" announcement which was not much and off we slowly went down the runway.., it was a bit wierd because it felt the plane was really struggling to get up and the plane was full of this "smoke". It was all just really weird. the rest of the flight was ok and landed in havana. We had to go through customs first which took an hour and the customs were sooo rude. i had to take my glasses off and turn my head at different angles, he didnt really believe that it was me, suppose i had not shaved in nearly 3 weeks and am 16 in the passport photo!!

With that done, all we had to do is get our bags then hit the town, we might even get a walk around before bed.... oh cuba had other ideas!!!

Waiting patiently at baggage claim, one bag from the flight would be put on, that would go around for about 15 mins then they would but another bag on, and another 15mins would pass before another one would be put on... an hour passed and no sign of the back, and somebody said to us that this was going good, god i wonder what bad would be like???

we ended up waiting 2 hours to get our bags, and we were one of the first to get them... thats cuban efficiency for you!!! part 2 to come.....