CULTURE SHOCK
The flight here was pretty uneventful and about what I expected. The airport here however is another thing. You line up for migration in a big hall. To be fair they got through fairly reasonably. Then we were packed in a space 1/4 the size to line up for them to X-ray our hand luggage. We have just come off a flight and might have stuffed something dangerous in our hand luggage so they scan it again so I can go and pick up my check in luggage. This line is soo slow. Then we line up for luggage collection and that seems to take forever. Then head for the exit and straight through, no customs check just leave.
I am staying in a Casa particulars in Cuba. Hotels are crazy expensive so people rent out rooms, sometimes they have a whole floor of an apartment block and they rent the rooms out like a hotel but cheaper. I don't know how easy it is to find these places so I booked airport pickup from them. Well when I left the airport there was supposed to be someone waiting for me holding a sign with my name on it. There was no one. I spent 20 min walking around checking every sign and not here so i got a taxi. Lucky he found the place, there is no sign and it is on the sixth floor. The place is dodgy as. He phoned the taxi and he said he thought pick up was pm not am. Then he showed me my "room".It is a cupboard with a bed in it. If I put my bag on the floor I can't get into bed? Two months ago I would have grabbed it for $8 now I got it for 25euro? I said just put me for 1 night and I will confirm later. I sussed around the hotels in the area an the cheapest is 68E so I will probably stay.
The place is really stuck in the sixties. The women working at the airport wore mini skirts and stockings and the me safari suits. The school girls wear mini skirts and long sox. There are lots of old sixties cars here. It is well known about the embargo so I won't go into that. I think between 10-20% of the cars are old American cars. Most of them are colectivo taxis. Mostly Chevs with a few Dodge and Studibaker, I havnt seen any Fords yet, they prolly on the scrap heap years ago. The newish cars are Jap, Korean and a few Chinese.
No one has WiFi here. I have to get a card and pay for it at the dodgy hotels. It is about 2euro/ hr and it only works in the hotel. I can't go home and use the net. You not going to see pics today cos I forgot the thing to download them.
So far I hate Cuba. Let's see what it is like after a nights sleep and a bit of a look around.

I sey off at 7.30 this morning with a plan to see a fair bit of the city. I was going to walk to Central Park and take the Hop on Hop off bus. First I did a little detour cos there are a couple of interesting hotels just up the road.
The Habana Libre is where, in 1959, Fidel and his mates commandeered the holes during their coup. Fidel then ruled from his luxury suite on the 24th floor. Imagine if you had just booked in and ya get chucked out by revolutionaries?
The othe one is the Hotel National. In 1946 Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano hosted the biggest ever gathering of the North American Mafia. They got together to see a Frank Sinatra show, so he was always said to be friends with the mobsters.
From there I walked down the Malecon. That is a boulevard along the waterfront that most cities seem to have these days. I took the hop on hop off bus. It was no where as good as others I have taken in other places in the world.
Part of the tour went to Plaza de Le Revolution. There is a huge tower, the tallest structure in Havana, and memorial for Jose Marti. There are a couple of murals to Che Guevara, with the saying"always toward victory" and Camilo Cienfuegos, with the saying "your doing well, Fidel"
I stopped at the supermarket on the way home to get some drinks. I bough a box of juice and they have no straws so I asked the woman if she could cut the top off. She mumbled something then turned back to talk to her mate. I said "I'll take that as a no then" she turned back and stabbed it with her pen and put it back down. I said "gracias " and got out while I still could.

I have done this post twice cos the dodgy Internet dropped out and the ***** here lost my work.

I had a quiet day today. I walked down to Havana Viejo (old town) and had a look around. It was pretty cool to see the places done up like they seen to be doing all over the world.