Wednesday

One of the unwritten rules of long haul flights is that the person sitting in front of you will wait no more than two minutes into the flight before pressing the recline button on his seat and throw himself into your anterior personal space with the velocity of an Olympic diver performing a backward somersault. Luckily it is still too early for gin and tonics so you just end up bruised instead of wet and bruised. Unless you are now bleeding.

Then, just as you are getting acclimatised to the proximity of the front seat, the person behind you will start pounding the "Ride of the Valkyries" theme on his unresponsive in-flight entertainment system, rocking your head back and forth like a chicken pecking corn.

But, this was all forgotten the next morning when we woke up in the soothing atmosphere of the Hotel Nacional -- ready to take Havana by storm.

First we had breakfast served with loads of aromatic Cuban coffee and all the varieties of white bread and fiber-free pastries known to mankind. Then we discussed the plans for the day and decided to do some more discussing while laying horizontal in our comfortable beds.

Soon it became time for lunch and we were still discussing in our room while devouring the total collection of salty snacks which was planned to last for three weeks. Soon we were so thirsty that we were forced to leave the Hotel Nacionale to buy some water at the local supermarket.

In the streets we noticed the old American cars and discovered that the smouldering look, which now has become extinct in Sweden was still very much alive and thriving in Cuba. I am talking about the sort of look that James Dean had when he was looking at Elizabet Taylor in "Giant". A very hot look that would make anyone melt. That the look was actually meant for Rock Hudson is another detail.

After all the hot looks we arrived at the supermarket where they sold both frozen chicken and rum and not much in between. The people were very friendly and asked where we came from. Kirsten answered in fluent Spanish that we came from a frozen country at the edge of the map.