The essensial toilet guide to Cuba

Survival tips:

1. Always, and I mean always, bring toilet paper into the bathroom. There will most likely be someone outside the toilet selling toilet paper, but you'll be stuck with three small pieces. This means that you will not have enough to clean the toilet bowl before sitting down, and not enough if you're going to do anything more than peeing.

2. Know your toilets. Some toilets in Cuba are less dirty and horrid than other, so keep in mind where you are, and where the nearest decent toilet is (there is not a lot of these though).

3. Leave your shame behind. As already mentioned, you will be sitting down on dirty toilet bowls with no toilet seat and probably too little paper, not to mention an obvious lack of doors.

I will now tell you which toilets are acceptable, and which aren't. Since I have a small bladder, I have been to a great deal of Cuban toilets.

( the horrid truth )

The Cuba trip (the things not concerning toilets)

So, now I've been over about half of Cuba by car, and seen most of Habana. I'm truly in love with the people and the spirit of the country. I will be posting pictures (as soon as I bother to load them onto my computer).

Highlights of the trip: The cute guys. The fact that it was impossible to be stressed because it was too hot to do things quickly. All the sights. The propaganda posters professing to revolution. All the people who discussed politics with me. The food (somebody told me cuban food was dull, they had not eaten in the right places. The food was spectacular). My father and his stories, I thought I knew the guy, but now I'm even closer to him. The taxidriver. Just about everything.

Sad to see that they had food rationing though, and to learn that about 17 percent of the population are unhappy with Fidel, and to find out that if people criticize Fidel they get thrown in jail, some people were unwilling to talk to us about it, or hid their meanings by using phrases like "some people". All in all it was a great trip, and I almost cried when I was going home again.

The project

I call this a great story, even though the project was unsucessful.

I went to Cuba, and found out that Fidel was not going to appear publicly while I was there, obviously something had to be done so that I could meet him. Not one to be stopped by simple warning lables, like signs saying "no trespassing" all over the place, I bravely tried to sneak into the government building in Habana. Turns out, they have armed military hidden in their gardens. Four steps left to the door, I considered making a run for it, but since the guards looked quite ready to shoot me down, I meekly let myself be taken into custody. With two armed guards who did not speak English I was placed in custody outside in the sun for more than an hour. And I didn't even catch a glimps of Fidel. But noone can say that I didn't try. I was after all almost arrested, and they took my name down to put in some registry. I did drive by his house later, but the cab driver refused to stop or even let me take pictures. Turn out they have armed military guards and police there too...