Havana
January first, arrival in Havana. Smell of frying fat and auto gas. 25°C, streets full of people, strolling, hanging out or trying to get a hitchhike. We arrived late so we had to wake up our first host family. They took it with charme in pyjamas. Sleep after a long flight.

Breakfast, long walk from Vedado, our neighborhood (best in Havana imho) to the centre, through the newer one (Centro Habana) to the old (Habana Vieja). Havana has beautiful colonial villas, mixed with 70s and 80s skyscrapers and small simple family houses, but hardly any new buildings. Many of them are run down, but some in good shape. Some are actually falling apart. The vanishing beauty has a certain kind of melancholy to it.

Cuba is one of the last countries with a socialist political system. Only a few months ago it became possible for people to sell and buy real estate. Shortly before, one-person businesses were made legal. Internet is very expensive and rare, there is only one newspaper which consists of 10 pages each day. There is no product advertising since every product exists only once. On public displays you will instead read life instructions like to defend socialism, watch out for enemies and to enforce the revolution within yourself everyday, illustrated by numerous paintings of Che and Fidel. Travelling is only possible for a few people.

There are two currencies: the “moneda nacional” to buy local products, pay for electricity etc. All imported products are paid in CUC, or “convertibles”. If you pay in local money, it is very cheap, but most things for tourists (hostels, gasoline, food at the families) are in CUC and pretty expensive. The money families make with hosting tourists goes to a big part to the government as tax. Still, it is a good way for Cubans to earn something extra.

People don’t have much and they have to get around many difficulties, like public transport, fixing things over and over again and having “more time than life”, as a Cuban saying goes. But somehow, most seem to get along with it somehow, in a stoic, relaxed and ironic way. Maybe socialism works better on a Caribbean island than in Siberia. You don’t want to wait for a hitchhike for hours in Siberia. But let’s go back to Havana.

We strolled around in el centro for a little bit, looking at empty shelves in stores and beginning to feel the relaxed buzz of the city. Somebody offered us to be his driver, because he knew his way around plus we could drink all the time. He seemed more of the kind that we had to take care of later so we said no. Finally, we had a glas of 15 year old rum, which was good but shockingly expensive. My advice for rum: 5 years is old enough, it’s good but it does not get much better.

We took a cab home and experienced a highlight: the kick with the boys from the block on the streets, thanks to Andi, the son of the family who took us there.

Havana was fine, but it was time to get on the road. Next day we were about to meet our car. I was relieved we actually got it (we had paid for it in advance) but there it was, a brand new Geely.

We called her Margarita. She had a tough time with us on the Cuban streets with potholes big like bathtubs which turn to mudways all of a sudden sometimes. But we always spared a caring clap and a “sorry” after painful bumps and so she took us all the way around Cuba from the far west to Santa Clara in the middle.

Our road trip started with travelling to Viñales via La Teraza, a beautiful region with many tobacco fields. We picked up a hitchhiker on the way who showed us the cigar production he works for. We learned all about different shapes and leaves and how to roll them. It looked easy. But only because the man had 15 years of experience, I guess.

Next day we somehow got lured into a horse ride. Sitting on a horse called Moreno I got carried around the valley. We visited a cave inside a very peculiar hill which looked like it had fallen directly there from space. But next time I prefer to walk, it felt like sitting on a pony at a fun fair.

Still, sun in the face, surrounded by landscape, holiday started to kick in on Moreno’s back. Pretty place, but we had to get back on the road. So we left Viñales after only a day to go to the west where we ended up in a little town called Sandino.

Sandino consists almost entirely of run down socialist buildings from the 60ies which give the city a very Eastern European look. There is only one house where tourists can stay and the owner already waited for us, waving in the street. The house’s food was far more than generous, and featured a tasty chicken and rice. The sunset was amazing and bathed the blocks in a fruity, violet golden glow.

Next day we went to see the lonely beach towards Maria La Gorda and it certainly was very lonely and virgin and end of-the-world like. Our first Cuban beach. Flipping stones. Reading Cuban short stories. Great.

Holiday kicked in a little more with a bit of excitement. And we left in the afternoon to go towards Santa Clara.

The big mistake was to believe we could actually take a detour and avoid the motorway which by far is the fastest way to go towards Cuba. But we had gone there already and wanted to see something else. Only that we ended up in a totally lost spider web of sandy paths while the sun was going down.

On the map it looked like this were actual streets, in reality you would need a traktor. There was no way to go any further so the only alternative was going north to San Antonio, a small town, influenced by the military force which has barracks and an airport there. Listening to the jets start and land above our heads was kind of creepy. But also kind of cool. The room we stayed in was funny, I like the suggestion of a wall between bath and room there.

Santa Clara
Next day we arrived in Santa Clara, a university town and place of Che Guevara’s decisive winning battle during the revolution. After asking around, we were lucky to get to know Jorge, our host for the next four days. In his place we felt very comfortable, the food was great and Jorge had very good advice about what kind of things to do. After all that car and horse riding it was like coming down and being home.

We watched baseball and an American movie on tv. A mistery I could not solve: how did this very badly scripted and even worse acted Californian business thriller end up on Cuban tv? Anyhow, bed, tv, relax, diner, we recharged. Then it was time go out. It was friday night and the town full of young people, we asked Jorge for advice and he sent us to “El bosque”.
A place which was going to be called “muy problematico” by anybody we would ask later.

But what a place! Open air, heavy Cubaton (listen above) from a massive soundsystem, dancers on stage, filled with well dressed party hungry people. The air seemed somewhat loaded with energy but hard to tell where that energy was going to. All eyes on us, the only Westeners around. Smiles, curiosity, hellos, almost a bit intimidating.

Until we knew what to do, we had a guy on our side who looked like Mike Tyson and would not let us alone for the rest of the evening. He was clearly a “jinetero”, trying to get drinks, trying to make friends, trying to make business. Friendly until the point we tried to get away. He was very annoying and intentionally scared everybody away who would come near to us, like we were “his victims”. That kind of spoiled the evening. We should have just been unfriendlier probably or even threat him with the security or police as we were told later by Jorge.

That’s a side of Cuban culture you have to accept as a fact also: there will always be somebody who will try to make business with you, get you a house, cigars, a horse ride, a girl. It’s annoying because you don’t know if a person is really interested or just wants to make a dime and you cannot really ask for advice since everybody will always know “the best place” which surprisingly is the one which grants him a commission. Anyhow, we had to learn how to live with it and became quite good in ignoring people in the end. The first line always is “where you from?” so in the end we had a little challenge who would come up with the best place. “Ucraine.” “Hell.” Mars.”

Our basecamp Santa Clara is in the middle of Cuba between north and south coast, so it was perfect to make trips in any direction. The first one took us to Cayo Las brujas which has some famous beaches which were not easy to find and are very stony, but also very lonely. And it also has some infamous tourist resorts. We took the chance to walk around in one of them which looked like a total fake colonial town and had all the wonderful things you would expect: Pools with water ballet, all inclusive buffet, volley ball, a beach crowded with people wearing wristbands. And who probably won’t see anything else of Cuba.

What a contrast to the rest we had seen, it made me feel like being in a zoo. We were happy to get out. On the way back to Santa Clara we we passed the very old and quiet, almost deserted town of Caibarien whilst enjoying another of this magical sunsets all red and intense.

Back home, we had some drinks in the street with guitar playing students. That fortunately rebuilt our trust after the Mike Tyson episode.

Next day we went south to see Hanabanilla, Cuba’s biggest storage lake and took a long hike around its coast.

The highlight was finding a wild orange tree loaded with fruit. Eating it was quite a disappointment, hours later it still felt like I had had a drink of pure acid. Hey, that’s nature! Another highlight was seeing these little fellas:

(in case you don’t see it: It is actually a socialist robot army, ready to fight back at any time.)

Back in the house we overheard baseball on the radio. It was live and it was in Santa Clara so we went straight there to see a game of Cuba’s most popular sport. The game was not very good, hardly any batter hit the ball and Santa Clara won the game with only three points in total. But the whole atmosphere was cool and the sandwiches with ham were amazing. Here, all was paid in pesos nacional, the baseball ticket equalled 8cents, the sandwich 20. And we won!

Next day we left Santa Clara for good and went to the south coast to Trinidad, one of Cubas oldest colonial towns and touristic pearls. We took this sleepy dude along on the way there:

Trinidad has some very nice beaches around and it was time for some swimming and beach fun. Like reading, getting a tan, snorkeling, swimming in the warm Caribbean water. It could have been perfect. But no heaven without hell, in the nicest of moments I stepped into a nasty sea urchin and had a massive sting in my foot. I can tell you, that hurts! Good thing, the pain goes away quite fast, next evening it was gone. But I’m quite sure I still have a piece of that urchin in my foot. Don’t know what to make of that yet. Did I say the sunsets are amazing?

Our day trip on the next day took us to Sendero Vegas Grande which ends at a huge waterfall with very, very, very cold water so no way to swim over and get a natural water massage. But very cool for a hike. The afternoon was long enough for more beach action and after that the party could begin.

Downtown we met Julian, a guy we had given a hitch hike the day before. He is a wrestling coach, greek roman style and lives in Budapest. He actually did train some olympic medal winners and was in Cuba to see his family. He took us around in the town, we had drinks, met his friends, bought some music and street food.

Finally, we ended up in a club which is built in a cave, called “La cueva” or Discoteca Ayala where you walk down many stairs and dance around in between stalactites covered by a high ceiling of stone.

After some sort of acrobatic show with fire and chairs (I can’t quite remember) the people were ready to dance and so were we. The lady in the centre of the show certainly has a good time also:

Good mix of Cubans and tourists and after the last rum we took the most impossible taxi home.

The next day was the day we had to go back to Havana via Cienfuegos. Another famous colonial quite well refurbished town but somehow it lacks the charme of the other morbid and half broken cities. But to be fair: with the hangover from the day before we were not so into sightseeing, did not really give it a chance and decided for another beach to enjoy one last of these amazing.. ah you know.

And that’s about it almost. All of a sudden this trip was going to end, just in the moment we started to understand things. It took us half a day to get out of Havana in the beginning because we did not know the streets or the map. On the way back we went straight to our house like it was nothing. We had passed many tests. We were ready for the next level!

To sum it up: I have definitely not seen enough of Cuba. It is a country which you have to learn to deal with and which has a lot to offer. I have only seen small bits of it and it seems like there is way more to discover. We had to give Margarita away the next day which made us feel pretty sad and incomplete. Then spend another last day in Havana with museums and surprisingly good food. And then: back home..

Drop me a comment if you want to know more details.

It all started with a weekend trip to Copenhagen, to see the exhibition opening of my friend Robert McNally. We had a great time, his gallery owner David showed us around and made us feel really welcome. The next day was strolling around in the center, the harbor, next to the opera, seeing Christiania and the sunday a trip to the famous Louisiana, museum of modern art with a beautiful sculpture garden. So lots of culture, impressions and great weather even!

This week will all about preparing new business for P3000 which I still enjoy working for every day. I am also helping to organize the main event of Social Media Week 2011, we are going to have a conference with the motto “Everything is amazing and nobody is happy”.

Next weekend I will work at Berlin festival, taking care of artists just like at Melt festival. I have amongst others Public Enemy, DJ Hell, Mr Oizo, Feadz, A Trak, Diplo, Kruder & Dorfmeister, Skrillex. Wow!

The week after will be Amsterdam at Picnic festival. I went there last year already and had a good time, here is the video from 2010.

I already have some interesting appointments in Amsterdam, obviously the idea of “The box” a european network of independent social media agencies does provoke some interest.

The week after will be Social Media week with the main event on tuesday and an app circus on thursday which I will take part in. Originally I planned to go to Cologne to Demexco too but I guess that’ll be too much frankly. Looking forward to seeing you on some of these events!

Du sitzt in der Sonne auf einer Bank. Die Wärme tut gut. Du streckst dich aus. Du legst dich hin, machst die Augen zu. Du willst einschlafen. Du darfst nicht einschlafen. Du bist so müde. Du atmest ein, du atmest aus.

Du liegst mit geschlossenen Augen in der Sonne, die Sonne tut gut. Sie wird dich verbrennen. Du stehst auf, alles dreht sich. Das Blut pocht in deinen Schläfen. Es gibt etwas in deinem Kopf. Du atmest ein, du atmest aus.

Deine Glieder tun weh. Deine Knie tun weh. Dein Rücken tun weh. Deine Fingernägel tun weh. Du gehst weiter. Du hast keinen Durst. Du kaufst eine Flasche Wasser. Du trinkst sie aus, in einem Zug. Deine Lippen sind zerrissen. Du atmest ein, du atmest aus.

Du setzt dich auf die Kante eines Brunnens. Du setzt dich hinunter, vor der Brunnen. Dein Nacken tut weh, deine Haare tun weh. Du gehst in ein Bistro, kaufst einen Kaffee und legst deinen Kopf auf den Tisch. Du unterhälst dich ein bisschen, mit trockener Zunge. Du atmest ein, du atmest aus.

Du musst gehen. Dein Körper hat noch etwas Adrenalin übrig. Es ist schön. Du bist euphorisch, alles geht einfach, auf einmal. Du musst lachen, du musst gehen, du beobachtest dich, wie von aussen. Dein Rucksack ist ganz leicht, du nimmst noch einen, von jemandem, dem es nicht gut geht. Ihr steigt in den Bus. Du setzt dich hin. Du atmest aus. Und schläfst sofort ein.

Natürlich war New York auch wieder schnell, aufregend, wuselig, aufgekratzt. Ich war dieses mal fast nur in Brooklyn, wo ich, wie beschrieben, bei Anna wohnen und einige ihrer Freunde kennen lernen durfte. Einen Abend habe ich ein Risotto gekocht, das gut ankam, anschließend waren wir Bier trinken in der Tip Top Bar, die, wie ich erfuhr, schon seit vielen Jahren existiert und in regelmäßigen Abständen den besten James Brown Impersonator zu Gast hat. Die Bude platzt dann aus allen Nähten, es ist legendär. An jenem Donnerstag abend waren wir aber die einzigen, nichtsdestotrotz konnte man die Patina des Ortes spüren, Aaron bediente die Jukebox und wir trafen einen Nachbarn. Ein richtig normaler, gemütlicher Brooklyn Abend also.
Während Anna tagsüber Modeshows von hinten shootete, fuhr ich nach Manhatten um das geschlossene Guggenheim zu bewundern. Donnerstag ist das Museum zu und auch kein Presseausweis konnte daran etwas ändern. Mist. Wieder was gelernt: du sollst immer vorher checken, ob der Ort deiner Wahl auch bereit ist, dich zu empfangen. Sehr unglücklich, und da ich Metropolitan und Moma schon kannte, ging ich ins jüdische Musem, das gelinde gesagt, ziemlich langweilig ist, in Berlin ist es besser, nur der Houdini Ausstellung konnte ich einges abgewinnen. Was nicht zuletzt an der Gruppe Kunststudentinnen lag, die sich dort für die Plakate des ersten globalen Magierstars interessierten. Ich konnte einige pikante, erfundene Details aus der deutschen Perzeptions Houdinis beisteuern.

Weiterhin erstand ich in Manhattan bei einem netten Pakistaner ein Netbook, auf dem ich nun pflicht- und auch etwas schuldbewusst tippe, denn nur für Facebook und Fotos hochladen sollte ich diese schöne Gerät nicht erstanden haben, was bisher allerdings die Hauptaufgaben dieser kleinen Wunderkiste waren. Die Vision sind natürlich ausgedehnte, blumige Texte, in Hostels und auf Busfahrten fieberhaft getippt und also sitze ich und tue nun mein Bestes. Dann hing ich noch viel in einem Café namens Outpost herum, stand früh auf, denn die Sonne schien mir ins Gesicht, wie überhaupt bisher jeden Tag in unanständiger Regelmäßigkeit die Sonne scheint, im kalten New Yorker, wie im heissen argentinischen Himmel. In Salta, meiner zweiten Station in Argentinien, soll es im Übrigen noch heißer sein, aber keine voreiligen Sprünge, sondern zurück nach New York. Dort ließ ich mir außerdem in einem Staples noch Visitenkarten drucken mit meinem Namen drauf, damit man sich erinnern soll und für „das Foto musst du mir unbedingts schicken!“-Augenblicke und beriet eine junge Unternehmerin, die sich ebenfalls gerade Karten machen ließ über die richtige Nischenstrategie im Social Media Marketing Bereich. Was man eben so tut in New York. Schließlich verfasste ich noch meine Darauf-muss-ich-beim-Reisen-Achten-Liste, die zu befolgen mir bisher gut zu Gesicht steht, denn, und ich klopf auf Holz, bisher ist nichts passiert. Bis auf das mit dem Fahrrad.

I wrote this in German since it kind of flew out of my fingers until now. Maybe I am going to write a text or two in English, we’ll see.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

New York

1. Most important, but always done wrong: Don’t take more with you than absolutely necessary. You have to carry all the shit around and a shirt more or less can make a difference.

2. Put your stuff always in the same pockets so you know where to find it. And that something’s wrong when it’s not there.

3. Never put all the valuable stuff in one place so if get stolen or robbed, it’s not gone altogether. Always keep a dollar in your pocket, for tips and robbers.

4. Remember key features of your environment like shops or houses.

5. When riding a bus or the train, make sure you’re going in the right direction and you get off at the right station. Sounds easy. It’s not.

6. When entering a store or coffee shop, make sure which direction you came from so you know where to continue.

7. Turn around once in a while to see what the way looks like you came
from so you’ll recognize it coming from the other direction.

8. Information in emails is fine but useless when you cannot access it. Write the important stuff like telephone numbers, flight dates or addresses on paper.

9. When in need for some advice for the right way, ask women who could be your mum. In terms of age I mean. They will help you.

10. With all the caution it’s also ok to trust. Trust yourself, trust trustworthy people, trust your luck and fate.

I got tons of tips from friends what to visit and to see, I have adresses to tango bars in Buenos Aires and to surfer beaches in Ecuador, hostels in La paz and trails in the Andes. But even more important, I have people to meet, friend’s cousins in Argentina, a friend in Lima, friends of friends in Quito and so on.

Größere Kartenansicht

And here is the route I’ll be travelling: To NYC on the 8th of feb, stay for three days, fly to Buenos Aires, stay for a week, than a long trip to Salta, Atacama desert, Potosí, La Paz, Puno, Titicaca, Cuzco, Inka Trail, Lima, stay for some days and travel slowly north at the coast line to Ecuador and finally to Quito from where I fly back via NYC again after two months. Back in Berlin in april when the weather should start getting better slowly.

So, the excitment grows every day! I don’t know how much internet I am going to allow myself, but I will sure post some updates about the trip from time to time. Also, I want to thank all of the people who help me with advice and lend me stuff, my flatmates who are going to take care of our place while I am away and last but not least, the PANORAMA3000 team who make it possible for me to leave the office for quite a long time. It’s going to be great!

Von Matthias: “Der Nazi und der Frisör” von Edgar Hilsenrath- laut Spiegel “eine Satire über Juden und SS. Ein Schelmenroman, grotesk, bizarr und zuweilen von grausamer Lakonik …”

Von Verena: “Die Welt ist nicht immer Freitag” von Horst Evers : “Horst Evers’ schrägen Geschichten ist ihre Kneipenherkunft anzumerken” meint Klaus Bittermann via Perlentaucher. Schräge Kneipengeschichten, das klingt wie gemacht für mich.

Von Hans Inherent Vice von Thomas Pynchon (“leichter Brocken”) und Infinite Jest von David Foster Wallace (“schwerer Brocken”)

Von die_anderen und gawd668 Matt Ruffs “Fool on the hill” und “Ich und die anderen”
sowie von Tom Robbins “Völker dieser Welt relaxt” und “Halbschlaf im Froschpyjama”

von @nilzenburger Dave Eggers – Ein herzzerreißendes Werk von umwerfender Genialität

von @herr_kiebig Im Wald der gehenkten Füchse von Arto Paasilinna

von @SPD_amin Christian Krachts Faserland

Von @reen3000 “Die Zunge Europas” von Heinz Strunk oder “Kill your friends” von John Niven

Von nordfischbaby “Hard Boiled Wonderland” von Murakami, “Und im Zweifel für dich selbst” von kumullus und “Ein perfekter Freund” von Martin Suter

Und dann kamen noch:

Von Julia: Hairstyles of the Damned von Joe Meno

Von Anne: Das Buch der Illusionen von Paul Auster

Von Maria: Siri Hustvedt – Sorrows of an American oder What I Loved

Von Benjamin: The Road von Cormac Macarthy und The Terror von Dan Simmons

Von Imran: Rawi Hage: Als ob es kein Morgen gäbe und Junot Diaz: Das kurze wundersame Leben des Oscar Wao

Damit nicht genug, ich musste die Geschichte natürlich abends auf einer Party erzählen mit dem Effekt dass ich noch mehr Autoren und Bücher empfohlen bekam: Neil Stephenson, Bräuning, Alexander Osang, Bruce Sterlin, “Ich schlage vor dass wir uns küssen”, Basil Davidson, Tiziano Terzani, Gregory David Roberts “Shantaran”, Fabrizio Gatti “Bilal”.

Ein Buch habe ich schon, das ich auf jeden Fall mitnehmen werde: “Generation Porno” von Johannes Gernert und ich jetzt gehe ich los und besorge mir noch ein paar andere. Toll! Das wird mich sicher auch über den Urlaub hinaus vom Fernsehen befreien. Ich danke euch allen sehr und vielleicht schreibe ich anschließend noch die eine oder andere Rezension.

Die Wohnung war auch irre (gefunden via Homelidays, danke für den Tipp, Lisa!), denn sie hatte 4 Etagen. 4! Dafür aber auch nur ca. 15qm Grundfläche, aber alles war drin was man brauchte. Wir durften sogar die CDs hören und die Comics lesen, die in der Wohnung waren, normalerweise wohnt dort nämlich ein Fotograf, Lehrer und Kletterer, das merkte man an all den schönen Büchern, der Fotokunst und den Kletterhaken die an die Wände geschlagen waren. Kochen konnte man dort auch sehr gut, einmal haben wir uns aber ein Diner in einem kleinen gemütlichen Restaurant im Marais gegönnt, dort wird mit viel Liebe und ganz einfach gekocht, dazu gab es lockeren Jazz von zwei Gitarren, der Tip: L’attirail in der rue au marie.

Und hier: Fotos!

An old industrial building with several rooms, the walls covered with handwritten paper and plans and rooms and talks, with small wooden chairs outside and a 3d printer which can repair its 3d printer brother and a supercreative crowd who didn’t care about business cards and seemed to be really interested in answers (not the kind of people that ask “so, what do you do?” and then look the other way).

And: Whenever talks mentioned the word “crisis”, they never meant the financial crisis but were talking about the climate crisis ahead and how to adress it with smart technology and will. Most of the sessions I found interesting, but I was surprisingly dissapointed by two internet legends who seemed not to care so much about inspiring people: Dave Winer who just let the audience talk and produced a lot of unstructred noise (nothing against open mic but without some outlines there will be nothing of substance) and Stowe Boyd who told us to use our rights on the net. Yeah, thanks.

But some stuff was truly amazing, there was a hellride through all sorts of geo location examples and tools by Andrew Turner, a very dark yet humorous speech by Bruce Sterling (“get the best bed you can get!”) and again, the Placebo of tech festivals, David Weinberger about Cyberutopianism. Not to mention Tor Nørretranders who showed us how literally sharing your shit makes things better.

Look for more posts about reboot11, thank you again Peter for suggesting me to go!