using my inside voice

Day 50 - DC, Philly & NYC (or Museums, Cheesesteak & Pizza)

North American Travel | July 20, 2009

Washington DC was way cooler than I expected. For some reason I thought it would be ugly and boring. Instead, it was beautiful and interesting. It was even beautiful and interesting after spending the night on a bus from Savannah, with a 2 hour stop at 3am, and a line up of 80 people in front of me to get on the DC bus. Yes, we arrived 3 hours later than intended, but managed to check into the hostel immediately, dump our bags, and head off exploring.

The first day we went to brunch, a well-deserved treat after 17 hours on the road, then headed to the Lincoln monument and the reflection pool thingy. Depsite the milling 1000s it was quite an overwhelming and interesting experience, seeing the words Lincoln spoke at the outset of the civil war and realising the mammoth accomplishment of his reign. By the time we had walked all the way there, all the way through the National Mall, and all the way home, I was almost delirious with tiredness. But, we needed food, so sucked it up and headed to the supermarket, another 20 minute walk away.

The next day we wandered around town, checked out the Holocaust museum and the Whitehouse. It was all very informative, and we ran out of time in the Holocaust museum. One thing I was amazed to see was the level of security at the entrance to each museum. Some simply have metal detectors and check your bags, but at the Holocaust museum they have a full-on bag screening. We also found out, a little too late, that you aren't allowed knives longer than 2.5 inches in the museum. And, sadly for us, Luke had not one, but two, 3.5 inch blades (a Swiss Army knife and an leatherman). God knows why, but he thought it would be useful to carry both around for the day. So, we had to make a quick trip to a likely looking bush and surreptitiously drop them in. Lucky for us they were still there when we went back three hours later.

After DC we headed to Philadelphia. Of course, our first stop was for a Philly Cheesesteak. We must have gone to one of the most famous places in Philadelphia, because there was a line around the corner and it took a good 30 minutes to get the goods (I think there must have been about 60 people in front of us). But, it was worth it. The meaty, cheesy, oniony, bready goodness sure made up for an entire day of not eating due to unpreparedness on the Greyhound!

The next few days we spent wandering round Philly. It's not a very big town, but it's pretty, and we managed to once again find a decent coffee shop (which we went to twice). There are actually lots of museums and what not in Philadelphia, as the city is quite steeped in history, but, being an ignorant pleb, with the attention span of a gnat, I gave those a miss and instead decided to picnic in some parks, drink some vodka pineapples at happy hour, and head out to a pub with some of the hostelers on our last night (yes, once again, we were awake until the wee hours the day before we had to travel somewhere else...)

But, luckily, the trip to NYC from Philadelphia is only two hours, so a drop in the ocean compared to some of our horrific Greyhound overnighters.

We arrived in NYC at our hostel in Harlem around 3pm. We were both starving, and needed food asap. As many know, Harlem used to be quite a dangerous neighbourhood, but is now relatively safe. It does however retain some of it's former grittiness, with an in-your-face attitude and sass coming out the ying yang. I asked a couple of girls who had been at the hostel a while where we should eat, and they suggested heading into town because the neighbourhood was dodgy, with nothing much around. At first I considered it, then I thought, screw that, there must be some food around here somewhere! People in Harlem need pizza at 3pm too! So, Luke and I headed north to 125th St, went east a few blocks, and found the best pizza we had on our entire stay in New York City.

I actually really like Harlem. It sure is lively, with lots of folks hanging out in the streets shooting the breeze, it felt real and alive. It's palpable that what you are seeing is real life in New York, this is how these people live, and this is their neighbourhood. So, we just went with it, eating out at a few places, and frequenting the dodgy deli on the corner for the best BBQ chicken hero I've had. You can't really beat two coffees, a bagel with cream cheese and an egg/cheese/sausage roll for $5 total right???

On our first night in NYC we again somehow managed to get roped into a pub crawl (they really twisted our arms okay?) It was actually a bit of a let down. I guess Wednesday night and pub crawls aren't synonymous. I would rather have stayed chilling out on our hostel's rooftop terrace. It was amazing up there!

The first official NYC day saw us meeting up with some friends from San Fran. That's probably one aspect of our trip that is dramatically different to the camping tour of Europe. On this trip we have met so many people, some of whom we've stayed in contact with and met again in another city, and even other countries (we are hopefully seeing another San Fran buddy in Antigua, Guatemala). After hot dogs in central park and pizza at Ray's near Times Square we hopped a subway to Brooklyn. We were intending to walk over the bridge at sunset, but as we were a little early, we took the opportunity to hang out in a lovely park. The boys threw tennis balls and had nose bleeds and I napped on the astro turf in the shade.

Our walk over the bridge was really amazing. It provided some excellent photo opportunities and was just a nice stroll. We invited the boys back to our place for some pasta and drinks on the rooftop, ending our first very successful day in NYC.

Day two saw me venturing out alone for... SHOPPING. As we all know too well, taking Luke shopping would be about as much fun as sitting on an overnight Greyhound with someone smoking in the toilets... So I headed off alone and had an incredibly successful day. I did plan on removing thing from my backpack to accommodate the new purchases, but so far I have managed to stuff it all in. I'm finding it very hard to part with any of my meager belongings for some reason, so now I just have an even more crowded and heavy backpack.

Day three was a stroll through East Village, Soho, West Village, and Chelsea. We walked High Line, a new urban park that saw a train track converted into recreational space. It's really cool and required some good sitting, eating and resting time to fully appreciate the achievement. East and West Village are really funky areas of NYC, with so many shops, cafes, restaurants and the like. Soho is far more upmarket, with designer stores, fancy gourmet grocers (e.g. Dean and Deluca) and posh looking people stomping around in their 4 inch heeled ankle boots. Chelsea is somewhere in between all that. The highlight for me in Chelsea was the Chelsea market with loads of artisan vendors selling everything from fruit and fish to bread and big bird cupcakes. We purchased our food for the High Line picnic here and I tell no word of a lie when I say that the cherry tomatoes were so sweet, red and delicious I almost vomited from the excitement of it all...

Some sore legs later and we decided on a quiet night in, with deli treats and diggnation.

Our fourth and final day we went in search of a coffee shop in the Financial Disctrict, only to find it closed. Sad. So instead we went again to East Village, followed our noses, and found the second Ninth Street Espresso location (thankfully on Ninth St, so we didn't head too far in the wrong direction). The afternoon involved chilling in central park at one of the free concerts. Lee "Scratch" Perry was performing with dubblestandart on the summer stage. Lee "Scratch" Perry is one of the founding fathers of dub music, but I actually found the set rather dull. It's like they chose a riff, stuck with it for 5 minutes, said a few words about ganja, mary jane, and marijuana, and called it a song.

To make up for the slight disappointment we decided on overpriced Italian Ices, sat on the grass outside and just chilled out for a while. A quick bite to eat in West Village rounded off our stay in NYC, and I have to say, I'm pretty sad to leave. New York is definitely one of my favourite cities so far. I could even imagine living there for a period of time (so long as the rent didn't render me penniless).

Now we're on a bus, on our way to New Paltz (yes, the bus has WIFI!!!) to visit with the two girls we met in Savannah. They were kind enough to invite us up for a visit and who were we to say no?

More soon...

Day 39 - New Orleans, Miami and Savannah Sorted

North American Travel | July 9, 2009

So, it's been a bit slow on the old bloggy front, but I have written some articles to tide the hungry crowds over. Our time in New Orleans was interesting, it was not really what I expected in the sense of the city itself, but once we'd found a few bars and some live music I was starting to get the gist. New Orleans is really all about food, drink and music, and I've fairly well summed up what we did for the 6 nights we were there in this article.

One thing that was intensely difficult for me in New Orleans was the weather. I grew up in a country that certainly has it's fair share of heat, but 36 degrees, 80% humidity, and no real breeze to speak of is something I had not bargained for. It is completely stifling, sapping your energy, and making you crave air-conditioning, which is something I generally shun. Our hostel, reviewed here, while moderately disgusting, was also an oasis because our shoddy little cell of a room did have an air-conditioner. So, we spent uncountable hours during the day holed up in its multi-coloured, cramped interior, venturing out closer to sunset to see music, eat food and drink the intoxicatingly strong drinks served up at most bars in NOLA (which stands for New Orleans Louisiana - something I'd never heard before).

One of the highlights was the hours we spent at d.b.a., a jazz bar on Frenchman Street, nursing a few pints of cider and listening to a six-piece bluegrass band (sadly I wrote down the wrong band name upon leaving, so I can't tell you what they were called). The thing that amazed me most were the young people (maybe 25 - 40 year olds) partner dancing to the music. I was almost compelled to get up and try myself, as they mesmerised me with their speedy, neat steps, but alas, my partner dancing skills are not what they should be.

Onto Miami, South Beach, centre for all things ostentatious, over the top, and artificial. The number of fake breasts, tans and hair colours roaming the shores was innumerable. People there seemed to spend all their money on creating an illusion of wealth, prosperity, 'beauty' and the ultimate in a relaxed beach lifestyle, when in actuality they were all bussing tables, serving fries and working at the hostel's front desk. Yes, this is a generality, but South Beach was very far removed from any real lifestyle I can imagine myself having, especially coming from 3 years in Vancouver where Lululemon makes its way into the best restaurants, and goretex is not just tolerated, but embraced.

We were supposed to stay at a hostel that was only 1 block from the beach, but were 'upgraded' to an apartment... 5 blocks further away, with no wifi, no kitchen equipment to speak of, and only two double beds and a table with which to make ourselves at home. Two hours back and forth with the hostel later and we at least had basic kitchen necessities, so we poured ourselves a tumbler of wine and let it be.

Having said all that, the beach was delightful, with crystal clear water, small fish swimming by and some nice white(ish) sand on which to lie our towels. Every day was spent lazing on the beach for a few hours, reading books for a few hours, napping for a few hours, then drinking wine for a few hours. Not much to complain about right? We were also in the heart of the art deco district of South Beach, surrounded by beautiful 1920s - 1940s buildings, painted shades of pastel, white and blue.

Luke and I also had the unique experience of witnessing first-hand a July 4th celebration in America. The crowds at the beach that day were purely ridiculous, drinking booze, swimming, running amok and generally having a blast. In the evening there was a fireworks show on the beach, and this was definitely the highlight of our stay. We arrived at the beach around 8pm with some beers and wine, sat on the sand in the sea breeze and chilled out. It was absolute bliss, I really can't imagine anything better, the beach and wine have to be two of my most favourite things in the entire world, and combining them is the ultimate double-whammy. When the fireworks started I was totally blown away, not because it was the best fireworks display I have ever seen, but because we were so close the impact and the noise enhanced the show incredibly.

After the real fireworks ended, all the revellers started setting off their own small (and actually some not-so-small) poppers. It was insane, things were going off all around us, and not all of them straight up in the air. I can now see why Australia bans the sale of fireworks, it was nuts, we saw people running for their lives from ill-placed crackers. For us it was hilarious and entertaining, seeing fireworks blasting off in all directions. But, I suppose it's not so funny when you're the victim of an erroneously planted skyrocket.

July 5 saw us on an overnight bus to Savannah, Georgia. We were fortunate to be able to check into our Pensione at 10.30am, so we got ourselves some lunch, ate, then promptly fell asleep for the entire afternoon.

Savannah is a beautiful city; imagine oak trees dripping with Spanish Moss, lush parks and squares at every turn and wonderful colonial mansions to ogle. However, Savannah is also incredibly small. So, after about 2 hours of wandering on our first day we had seen most of what the city had to offer. Luke and I aren't big into tours, and other than tours and museums, there isn't all that much to do in Savannah.

We, of course, found a coffee shop in which to while away a few hours, and on our second day a Scottish Pub and a pint (or two) of cider. We also took many photos of all the wonderful houses and squares (apparently there are 24 in the historic district, which is a mighty small area).

We were staying in the carriage house, out the back of the main building of the Pensione, sharing with two girls from New York State. We'd spent a few hours each day chatting with them, and on our last night, as we were planning to make a salad and stay home, we got to chatting again. Over a few glasses of wine we decided to go out with them for the evening and ended up having an amazingly fun night.

First stop was Vincent Van Go Go's for a New York slice. Then, onto a few divey bars around town. The second bar we went to, Club One, is featured in the movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. And, with free pool, $4.75 scotch and dry doubles, and a karaoke night happening, we were pretty much set until the call of bed found us at 2.30am. I won my first game of pool EVER, sinking two balls and the eight ball in the space of about 30 seconds. From there on in it was all downhill, but that initial win sure felt good.

As a bonus, we also made two new friends, who have asked us to come and visit them in New Paltz, New York, for a few nights after we finish up in NYC. YAY for spontaneous adventures!

At the moment we are spending a few hours at a coffee shop in Savannah before another overnight bus that will take us to Washington DC for two nights. The bus leaves at 4.40pm and arrives in DC at 5.05am, with a transfer at 2.30am in the morning - good times! We have 1.5 whole baguettes lathered with mayo, chicken, cheese and lettuce to tide us over for lunch, dinner and breakfast, then hopefully we can check in a bit early and wash an entire backpack full of dirty clothes. Ah, the romantic life of a traveler!

As a side note, part of the fun of all this blogging and article writing is hearing what people think about my adventures, opinions, ramblings etc. So, if anyone wants to comment at the bottom of the article, I would love to hear from you! Especially since I'm on the whole other side of the world from many of you :)

More soon...

Day 24 & 25 - VIVA Las Vegas!

North American Travel | June 27, 2009

I had heard lots of things about Las Vegas, most of them negative. I'm not a big gambler. As most people know, I've never been willing to live my life on a roll of the dice. In actual fact, I'm the complete opposite of that, organising my life to the nth degree (and sometimes the lives of anyone who happens to be in the vicinity). So, I was definitely not in Vegas for a quick hand of black jack.

All other reports had been of ostentatious architecture, obnoxious crowds of revelers with drinks in glasses resembling the Eiffel Tower, a guitar, a pineapple, or any one of a multitude of over-sized, brightly-coloured plastic shapes, gambling, pokies, bad buffets and bad dress sense.

So, needless to say, my expectations were low.

But, as I hiked from the Greyhound Station in the stifling 40 degree weather, that was so dry my eyelids started sticking to my eyeballs, I had high hopes. Sure, my tongue was as dry as a dessert in the noonday sun, and sure, there was a backpack-shaped sweat mark on my back, but I was not going to be deterred, surely Vegas couldn't be as bad as all that?

We got to the hotel, and after a 30 minute wait in the check-in line, got the keys to our room. It was a palatial suite, two queen beds, a sink, bath, toilet, TV, table and chairs, and even a modestly sized window. I shouldn't really jest, because compared to most of the hostels we'd been staying in, it was paradise. We dumped our bags and went in search of food. We'd been told there was a $20 all-you-can-eat-all-day buffet, but that would have to wait until tomorrow. For the time being we just needed a quick bite of dinner.

Cruising through the retail section of the Stratosphere hotel we were bombarded with tacky tourist souveniers, over-priced handbags and clothes, tacky jewellery and a foodcourt that included Micky D's - all class. We opted for more Mexican - you really can't beat it for value, even in Vegas.

The next day we arose and plunged headlong into the all-you-can-eat-all-day buffet. For $20 it really can't be beat (our meal the night before had cost $20). So, we took our table, had a sip of the ridiculously large juices we were served, and perused our options. I settled on some French Toast, and biscuits (scones for the Aussies) with jam. The French Toast was passable, but since it had been sitting in a bain marie for quite some time, it was also cold. The biscuits were actually delicious, and with a cup of coffee, set my morning off to a good start.

We were both pleasantly surprised with the quality and selection at the buffet, and left overly full (an unavoidable outcome for me when I dabble in the finer arts of buffet dining).

We then hit the streets, and boy oh boy, it was HOT! Once again, my eyes and mouth dried out in an instant, but I soldiered on, reapplied suncream, and made sure to drink lots of water (which was difficult given that water in Vegas tastes a little like baking sode mixed with saline solution).

Stratosphere is a little way down the strip, so we had to walk for about 30 minutes before we encountered anything of note. We were so hot, we decided to seek solace in the Wynn Hotel, and boy did we pick a doosey. The Wynn is magnificent, I was amazed at the granduer of the interior, especially when the exterior appears so plain. It's like something from a movie (and probably does feature in many a movie) and Luke and I revelled in wandering around. I could only imagine being able to afford to stay somewhere so luxurious, but for the time being, the glory of soaking it in as a visitor was enough. One thing I had to do was use the ladies room, I just HAD to see what it felt like to pee in style. And let me say, it felt good. I had never seen a washroom so beautiful, until the next day, when I went to the sister hotel, Encore, and amazingly it's facilities were even more impressive.

After that, we wandered through the Venetian, and I couldn't help but ogle and smile when we entered their replica of Venice. It kinda even felt like Venice (in a really perfected, dark, and air-conditioned kind of way). We wandered all the way up the strip to MGM Grand, and were amazed to see real live lions in an enclosure inside. It seemed a bit cruel to keep those wild animals in a "climate controlled", glass cage, INSIDE. They say the enclosure cost $9 million, but I find that hard to believe, it looked pretty cruddy.

By the time we had finished at MGM we were both knackered, and decided to get the bus back to our hotel. Right about then, a giant storm set in, and gargantuan drops of rain hammered the pavement and us. Everyone was ducking for cover, which I found almost unbelievable given the stifling heat. The rain drops were cool and fresh, and given that Vegas water tasted so bad I was tempted to open my mouth and have a drink. As the water steamed and fizzed on the hot road the smell was unmistakable, transporting me back to hot childhood summers when afternoon storms galloped in unexpectedly to relieve the heat. So, Luke and I stood and got wet, and it felt great.

For those that are unaware, Stratosphere has a giant tower as part of the complex. You can ride a lift 109 stories up and partake in amusement park rides that teeter over the edge of the structure for a mere $12 a piece. I can't think of a better way to spend $12 than to put my life at risk by dangling precariously over the side of a building 900 feet in the air. But, this time around, I gave it a miss. Instead, we watched the sun set over Vegas and the lights of the strip brighten the night sky, reflecting off the clouds, and illuminating the partygoers as if it were day.

The next day was spent in a far more leisurely fashion, relaxing by the pool and doing laundry. What more could you want from a trip to Vegas I ask you? We got suckered in to doing laundry because the machines were free. But, 5 hours, two attempts at washing my clothes, and three attempts at drying them later, I realised that the reason the machines were free was because they sucked. In the end I did come out with clean clothes, but also lost 5 hours of my day trying to complete the task.

We also realised on our second day that the all-you-can-eat-all-day buffet isn't really all it's cracked up to be. After stuffing ourselves silly on the first day, in the excitement of unlimited, already-prepared food, the lustre had somewhat worn off. We began to realise after a while that everything on offer tasted a little the same. The fajitas resembled the pasta, which tasted a little like the roast beef, and somewhat akin to the fried chicken. By the time it came to heading down for dinner it was almost too much to bear. But, I stuffed in one more serving of the lasagne and made my peace with the chocolate brownies.

That night we ventured onto the strip to check out the real Las Vegas, when people come out to party and the scene truly comes to life. Our first stop was to watch the fountain show, giant spurts of wavering water lit up and set to music, in front of the Bellagio. This was one of those times when, even though I knew it was totally uncool, and even though I wanted so badly not to like it, I couldn't keep the cheesy grin off my face. And, given that they chose "Singing in the rain" - a musical classic - as the first song of the evening, I as well and truly sucked in.

Next on the agenda was stopping at one of the dodgy 'convenience'-type stores for a little drinky drink, just because we could. As it turns out, it's not as much fun as you would think being able to drink legally on the street, but we just had to give it a whirl.

By the time we fell into bed at 11.30pm we were absolutely exhausted.

Did I have fun in Vegas? Yes. Would I go back to Vegas? No.

There is just too much waste. The buffet alone would go through enough food to feed at least three times the number of patrons it serves each day. Combine this with the tacky plastic guitar-shaped glasses that get used and thrown out 1000 times a day, all the towels, bathmats, and half-empty mini shampoos that get washed or ditched, and the air-conditioning that is pumped out 24/7 and we really were dealing with a small environmental disaster.

On top of that, there is the gambling, and the tricks and 'deals' the hotels offer to get you to spend, spend, spend. Luke and I were each given $5 free money to use at the slot machines in our hotel (for giving them our email addresses of course - note to self, mark as spam). We did use the money, but the joke's on them, because Luke won $27.34 which we took and ran!

The next morning, as we headed downstairs at 6.15am to get our shuttle to the airport, and I saw the remaining stragglers from last night's gambling efforts, ordering drinks in plastic cups, and smoking their ciggies at the slot machines, I realised that Vegas is actually a really sad place, where more dreams are likely torn to shreds than made come true.

More soon...

Day 22 - A Macaque for the road

North American Travel | June 27, 2009

There is a mascot in our midst, and his name is Monty.

We spent Monday exploring the San Diego zoo. It's a massive area of winding paths, walkways and stairs, with animals from all over the world barking, tweeting, squawking, roaring and making a general ruckus. The highlight for both Luke and myself was probably the Bonobos. These are a type of monkey that, according to a somewhat overly-informed English backpacker we met, are the only other animals that are self aware, and that have sex for reasons other than procreation. He claims to have watched a documentary on them in high school, but from the way he was ogling the monkeys, I'm starting to think it was something more...

Anyway, the zoo was quite fun.

On the way out, as we were walking past the gift shop stacked to the gills with a plethora of soft toys, plastic nick-knacks, and garishly printed t-shirts, a wee monkey caught my eye. His black face and fuzzy grey chest looked like they would provide hours of comfort and entertainment on the long greyhound rides, and his little black hands were practically begging us to help him escape the zoo and make our backpacks his home. Really, this little guy just needed to see the world, so what was I to do but cough up $10 + tax, strap him to my handbag and make our escape from the zoo.

The tag on his ear informed us that he was a lion-tailed Macaque. Okay, sure. So, we promptly named him Monty, started talking to him as if he were real, and taking pictures of him on every monument we walked passed, documenting his escape from the zoo like the momentous occasion it surely was.

Monty is going to be our mascot and traveling companion for the rest of our journey through the USA and beyond. Happily, his hands and feet have little velcro pads attached, which make him much easier to carry around.

Say hi to Monty!

More soon...

Day 20 - Another Burrito Down

North American Travel | June 20, 2009

Do you know that San Diego is about 27km from the Mexican border? Interesting fact. Also interesting is that they have a Mexican restaurant on almost every corner, which suits me just fine, since Mexican is one of my favourite things to eat.

Today we walked from our hostel to the South Park then North Park disctricts, basically a random wander that ended at a pre-determined destination discovered on espressomap.com. It's the only decent coffee shop marked on that map for San Diego, and I always figure that walking somewhere randomly will allow me to see a lot of a city and get a feel for some different neighbourhoods. If it ends with an amazing coffee, then that's just a bonus right? For anyone interested it was Caffe Calabria in North Park (at 30th and University).

Another interesting fact is that they don't provide transfers when you ride the bus in San Diego. It's either a $2.25 ticket for one trip or a $5 day pass. Luke and I had seen a Mexican place we wanted to eat today that was about half way into our 2 hour walk to the coffee shop. We got the bus back and because we are stubborn and tight, we decided to walk again for the rest of the way home after we had lunch. Even though this took us another hour, it was probably a good thing, since the portions were king sized. I ate about 2/3 of my burrito. I must remember not to order the rice and beans. The problem is that you get in there, and it smells so good, and it's all so cheap, that you want to try a bit of everything. So, you go with the combo of burrito + rice + beans. Then, you get served and realise it's way too much food. Plus, the rice is bland and the beans are so so. The burrito is the main star, but you always forget that in the excitement of ordering. So you hoe down and what happens? You get partway through and realise that you have enough food to sustain you for an entire day and you have to give up (unless of course you are Luke who ate all of his plus some of mine...)

Anyway, we walked home and now I'm knackered.

Interesting fact. Apparently when I was little I hardly ever used to cry, only if I was hungry, and as soon as I ate something I was okay again. I realised today that this habit has not really gone away. I was so cranky on the bus on the way to the Mexican place, then after I ate I was happy as a lark. Luke should really be paying attention to this, and keep an ham and cheese sandwich in his bag at all times, and maybe some M & Ms. As soon as I get cranky he should give me a snack and all will be well in the world.

Tomorrow we might go to the zoo.

More soon...

Day 18 - Yosemite Conquered and onto LA LA Land

North American Travel | June 18, 2009

As a bit of a spur of the moment adventure, Luke and I decided to go to Yosemite on one of the Green Tortoise tours. I will write a review of the tour soon, but basically, the deal is that you head somewhere on their bus, that sleeps up to 36 people. And, when I say sleep, you really do sleep, flat, like in a normal bed. It's amazing.

There were only 18 people sleeping on the bus with our tour, including the drivers and cooks, and I'm not entirely sure how I would cope with double the people. To me, 18 seemed perfect.

The tour consisted of a gang of travelers from our hostel that we'd met previously. This was incredibly fortunate as we all got along really well already, and, speaking for myself, I was stoked to have such a fun group of people to hang out on the trip with. On top of that, there were 6 extra travelers all from a university in San Jose - a pretty cosy group.

We headed off to Yosemite on Friday night at 9pm. After some initial excitement about being on a bus with proper table and chairs, I ended up going to bed relatively early (11pm). This was lucky, as we stopped to cook breakfast at sparrow's fart - 6am... But, it was an awesome breakfast in a breathtaking location. There were towering granite mountains on all sides, and a stream running past below.

After breakfast we headed into Yosemite National Park. There were about 10 of our group that decided to take on the challenge of hiking to Upper Yosemite Falls. This is not a hike for the feint-hearted. We spent about 3.5 hours going up the hill, and while it was relatively easy going, it wasn't a walk in the park (so to speak). We got some great views out over the valley, and got a nice bit of spray from the lower area of the falls.

Once up the top, we all stopped for a picnic lunch, and boy were we hungry. Two sandwiches later, we decided to head down. It had rained a bit on the way up, and I was pretty cold after sitting still for a while. Unfortunately, it also rained on the way down again for quite some time.

I'd been hoping that the hike down would be much easier than the hike up, but it turned out to be not quite the case. I fell over three times, literally on my bum on the ground, as the rocks had gotten mighty slippery after the rain. And, by the time we finally reached the bottom (about 2.5 hours later) my thighs were burning like nothing else.

The entire group was pretty knackered from their various hikes, and were pretty subdued as we drove to the campsite for the night. I tried to have a wee nap, but ended up jumping out of bed to see my first real life bear. It was a cute little black bear, that had made its way up a tree to avoid all the scary humans.

Once at the campsite, we set about making dinner. But, first things first, Luke, Mia (a new friend) and I cracked a bottle of wine and toasted our energetic day.

The food provided during the entire trip was amazing. The group preps and cleans up communally and there is a cook on site to take care of the hardest part - making it taste good! It's actually a really great experience sitting around preparing food with people. I hate eating on my own, because I feel it's a social event, so I guess the preparation is just an extension of that.

After dinner and a shower, a game of "bite the bag" ensued. Which basically involved standing on one leg and trying to bit a paper bag, lifting it off the ground. This sounds easy, but is actually incredibly difficult. More than on participant ended up with their head in the bag, sprawled on the dirt (Luke included).

The next day we were back at Yosemite for a less strenuous hike to Vernal Falls, along the mist trail (which is appropriately named, given the 10 solid minutes walking through a deluge of spray from the falls). It was still about a 2.5 hour round trip, so nothing to be sneezed at. But, the falls were very impressive, possibly even more than the Upper Yosemite Falls, and it was probably a wise move to keep the old muscles moving after our giant hike the first day.

In the afternoon we headed to the giant Sequoias (a type of Redwood). They were pretty impressive, but after 3 days with minimal sleep and maximal hikes I don't think I appreciated it fully, but got an obligatory picture, and had a few laughs along the way.

We set up our portable kitchen that night in a park and made an awesome pasta meal, before heading to the oldest bar in Califonia. It was okay, but I actually think it was just a ploy to keep us entertained until the bus left at midnight.

We arrived back in San Fran at the ungodly hour of 5.30am. I was none too happy to be awoken so early, but didn't have much choice. We spent the entire day until 1pm sitting around the hostel's dining room, talking to some of our new friends, writing and surfing the net. We got into our room at 2pm and slept for a good 2.5 hours.

The next day we left San Francisco and all our new friends. After so recently saying goodbye to all our friends in Vancouver, it was much harder than I expected to leave behind these new friends. And, on our first day in LA, I was feeling mightily depressed about the whole situation. But, two days and 6 burritos later, I'm starting to come to terms with it. I think we were just lucky to meet such an amazing gang of people and get along with them so well.

We have been a little anti-social in LA, probably partly due to tiredness and partly due to over-socialising in San Francisco. We head out of here tomorrow for San Diego. There haven't been too many things to write home about, but we basically saw the areas between Hollywood and Rodeo Drive (walked about 3 hours yesterday), walked up to a lookout in Runyon Canyon yesterday evening, and today went to Venice Beach and Santa Monica. I'm not too fussed on LA and am glad we spent an extra day in San Francisco.

More soon...

Day 12 - University Flashbacks, Seals, Sights and Sore Feet

North American Travel | June 12, 2009

I had been previously informed that San Francisco was an amazing city to visit, after my brother's trip he declared that it was a city that he could spend two weeks in without any bother. So, I had high hopes, which can be a dangerous thing. Luckily, San Fran has been nothing less than awesome so far.

Our first day was spent wandering through the Mission, Castro and Haight Ashbury areas. We of course had our obligatory coffee stop at Haus Coffee on 24th street, a new venue that has been open only a month that serves entirely respectable coffee. Then onto Castro Street which is the centre of the gay area and has an awesome vibe, lots of colours, funky shops and good places to eat. Feeling mighty hungry after already walking for around 2 hours, we stopped for a slice, and it was some of the best pizza I've had to date.

The Haighty Ashbury area is renowned for being the "hippy" area of San Francisco, and is lined with smoking paraphernalia shops, cafes, second-hand stores, and the like. Personally I felt the street was a little contrived, with people walking up and down to pose and be seen. But, I did stop for ice cream at Ben & Jerry's and it was some of the best chocolate ice cream I've ever had (and for $4.50 for one scoop it really ought to be!)

We spent from about 11am - 7pm walking around the city, and needless to say, by the end of the day I was practically delirious with exhaustion.

The next day we hired bikes and rode across the Golden Gate Bridge. There were loads of other tourists doing this, and it was kinda expensive ($65 altogether for both of us) but I couldn't help having a ridiculously fun day. I was pretty much grinning the entire time we were riding across the bridge. We ended up in Sausalito, across the bay, and had a picnic lunch there. We rode on for a little more, but ended up deciding to catch the ferry back to San Fran from Sausalito. It was another exhausting day, finishing up at about 6pm back at the hostel.

Yesterday, as the title of this blog post suggests, we went and saw the seals at Pier 39. We were going to visit Alcatraz, but there was such a horrendously long line we decided to give it a miss. Luke figures we can read the Wikipedia page and pretty much get the gist, and I tend to agree, so we're not going to do the whole Alcatraz trip this time around. After the seals, we wandered up Lombard Street, purported to be the windiest street in the world. There were loads of people taking photos and walking up and down the street, the residents of the street must actually get a little sick of all the attention and traffic. It was kinda cool, but on our way back to the hostel we wandered through some streets that I thought were prettier, and were of course much quieter. Rather than roads, some blocks in San Francisco have steps and gardens, so only pedestrians can get through. They are really a sight to be seen, so beautiful, cool and picturesque.

That night at the hostel they were holding a "Beer Olympics". Now, as most of you know, I don't drink beer, and Luke said he wasn't too keen to participate, but we got caught up talking to some other travelers in the common room, and ended up being around when the games started. So, what could we do but go with the flow and partake in the festivities.

There were two main games over the evening - beer pong and flip cup. The first involves a traingle formation of 6 beer cups at either end of the table (similar to a ten pin bowling formation). Teams of two stand at either end and try to get a ping pong ball into the opposition's cups. Each cup has a small amount of beer in it, so when the ball lands inside they have to drink. The winning team is the first to make their opposition drink all their cups of beer. It's actually quite nail-biting stuff, and some English guys we'd befriended ended up winning the tournament (no surprises there really, the English sure know how to drink).

Flip cup involves two teams of around 5-10 players on either side of a table. Each team member pours a small amount of beer (or for me, vodka and coke) into a plastic cup. Starting at one end, they drink their beer, then put their cup the right way up on the edge of the table. They then flip the cup from underneath and try to get it to land upside down on the table. Once they have succeeded in this task, the next person can do the same. Obviously, the winning team is the one to have all it's members finish this performance first. The one game of this I played, our team won (which is awesome since I'm incredibly competitive) and I flipped my cup on the first attempt - who knew I could be so coordinated!

At about 2.30am I hit the hay, exhausted, and feeling like a 20-year-old again. Apart from the fact that all these drinking games are reminiscent of university days, most of the people we're hanging out with are at least 3-4 years younger than us. And, the English guys we became friends with are all 19, and just finished school... makes me feel old!

We're heading to Yosemite tonight on the Green Tortoise bus, a proper sleeper bus that has mattresses which actually lay out properly so you can sleep. The English guys are also coming along, as well as a South African girl we've met. It should be a fun time. I'm pretty excited to go, as we wouldn't have been able to see any national parks otherwise. We're back in San Francisco on Monday for one more night before we head to LA.

More soon...