Story highlights Rep. Van Hollen: Alan Gross became "a catalyst" for next chapter in U.S.-Cuba relations Gross has been a guest of the Obamas, got to meet Pope Francis since release from Cuba He's also been to the dentist, watched a D.C. snowfall and indulged in some good food

It turns out a lot more than most of the rest of us.

Gross, 65, has started to make up for the five years he spent imprisoned in Cuba by traveling abroad, attending the State of the Union address as a guest of the Obamas and last week meeting Pope Francis at the Vatican to personally thank him for his role in helping to win Gross' freedom.

After five years of being disconnected from the outside world, Gross now frequently posts on social media, writing of family reunions, eating the foods he longed for in prison and the reminders he experiences of his time in Cuba.

"I can't get away from Cuba," Gross wrote after hearing a Cuban song playing in an airport on his travels. While visiting Israel, he posted a photo of Cohiba cigars advertised for sale in a Tel Aviv tobacco shop.

In 2009, Gross was arrested by Cuban state security agents and eventually sentenced to 15 years in prison for importing banned communications equipment to the island.

Gross said he was merely helping the island's small Jewish community get online, but Cuban officials accused of him being part of a U.S. government plot to destabilize the island's single-party Communist government.

Cuba has highly restricted Internet access, and most people are not able to access the Web in their homes or on their phones.

On December 17, 2014, Gross was freed, along with three Cuban intelligence agents and a Cuban man convicted of spying for the United States. It was part of a deal between the Cuban and U.S. governments to reestablish diplomatic relations after five decades of Cold War animosity.

Gross, his wife, Judy, his attorney and three U.S. congressmen flew from Havana to his home state of Maryland aboard a U.S. military jet, one of the smaller versions of Air Force One used to transport President Barack Obama.

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After years in Cuban prison, sweet freedom