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Published: February 2nd 2008
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My trip through America consisted of four days in New York, flying to Denver, then catching the California Zephr train to San Francisco, where I had a couple of days before flying home to Auckland.
New York was choice! Much grittier and grungier than I had imagined it. It all seemed so familiar yet so, well, cool. I've never seen such tall buildings and long streets. It definitely worked it's charm on me. I ate bagels and coffee (regular please!) with gusto for most of my time there, and between bagels I managed to catch two gigs - The Clean and Andrew Bird, which were both brilliant. Ordering food in America is hell. There are so many options! So much choice! Would you like ____ with that, what size _____ would you like mam, what KIND of salami? Just a bagel thanks! The subway in New York is something else. So much atmosphere - so dingy and slightly crazy down there. Really good. On my last full day there I woke up to snow - Pete had gone back up to New Haven so I spent the day wandering by myself through the avenues towards downtown absolutely buzzing from the
great time that snow in a city gives.
Denver was great - all I saw of it was a hostel run by a drunken Hawaiian surfer dude, what he was doing in land locked Denver God knows... I left to catch my train the following morning at 7am, but from what I saw from the little square patch that I trapsed on round the train station, I liked it. Never fly in America. I made that mistake when I flew from NY to Denver and they lost my bag. I knew they were going to loose my bags the minute I walked into the airport and was greeted by a nicompoop. I just knew it. This didn't make me any less angry when they told me what I already knew at the other end. Anyway, in Denver I had to get a toothbrush and toothpaste at 7am in the morning. I knew that if I didn't get it then, then I would be riding a 35 hour train with furry teeth. After asking the girl who worked in the cafe where I got my bagel and coffee (I was still coming down off the NY city buzz), I was
sent to the hotel across the road. A porter kindly did some dodgy things with the toothpaste books, and came back with a toothbrush and toothpaste for me. Gosh I like Americans.
My train trip was the best train trip I've been on. We left Denver and climbed up through the Colorado Rockies, then passed through Utah, Nevada and into California. Americans really know how to travel in comfort - I booked a single seat, no berth, but the seat tilted right back and was the size of a double bed anyway. I spent most of my time in the 'observation car' which was a whole carriage in the train with floor to ceiling windows and tan coloured leather arm chairs. The scenery was fantastic - bear-salmon fishing rivers, snow covered mountains, scrappy desert that would stretch on for miles and take on the colours of the day, and the pine covered Sierra Nevadas. We passed through strange little scary American towns and the vast expanses of space between them... that feeling of being right in the middle of America was be. Most of the people on the train were American and they conducted some great conversations that I
eavesdropped in on. Trucker capped dudes talking about the fish they'd caught in the river we looked down upon from the train... all fish were personified to the hilt and each catch an epic poem. Americans know how to talk. I had a conversation with an old guy who looked like he was with his young mormon wife until I found out it was his granddaughter. He was a farmer from way back, and talked about how 'ev'ry body wan a be riach, but they caain't be riach'. We talked about greed and the land. There are some real stand-up Americans, for sure.
San Francisco was a lovely city - much more towny compared to New York. I spent my time wandering round the different districts, popped into City Lights, got buffeted on Golden Gate Bridge and generally felt like I was on the other side of America from New York. On my last night I went to a little divey dirty Vietnamese outfit for dinner and felt like I'd come full circle.
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