Tampa

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Tampa

Tampa, we realised whilst waiting for the bus from the airport, was going to be hot. Very hot, and very humid. After twenty minutes waiting, the air conditioned bus felt like the nicest feeling. A shower when hot and sweaty, a comfortable chair after a long days walking or a slice of pizza when drunk and hungry. The hostel was advertised as being musical, but this seemed to at first consist of a piano in the main room, and the remains of what might have once been playable guitars. I found a bass, but the strings had about as much flexibility as the regulations of Stamford School, such that it was essentially un-playable.

The second night though was an acoustic jam session, which was a nice bonus for a hostel to provide.... as was the free beer given to me from the four or so people who had their own personal supplies! There was a bit of a mixed bag of talent though. Some people could evidentially play guitar significantly better than others. On one hand, a few drunken (although surely that's a given) Scots singing a charming acoustic number called 'Jailbait' - O you say I've got to stop looking at your sister, but just how am I meant to resist her – to the markedly more civilised country or classic rock covers which generally tended to be accompanied by a much higher standing of playing.

Back in time though to arrival at the hostel, where we were told within minutes of arriving to avoid going more than two blocks west if we valued our lives, or wallets. The map pinned up in the hostel simply said 'US Government at Work: Keep Out', and speaking to Ed, who'd arrived a few days before, I told of a pawn shop on the edge of this 'project zone' which had a table full of car radios: classic. (incidentally I asked the hostel owner where this pawn shop was on the second day, but failed to pronounced the word properly and was sent in the direction of some more adult DVD's...)

The room was tiny, but had been cleverly themed to resemble that bastion of home comforts known as a railway sleeper car to avoid this being a negative thing. You had to admire the cunning. On top of this though the beds were about the same size, with no gap between them, as railway sleeper beds, so I ended up spending most nights there playing footsie with Ed who was sleeping in the bed at the head of mine. I'd go to sleep first, then wake up to find his feet taking up most of the space. I'd then twist to the left until he moved back. At which point I'd pounce and stretch my feet out again, and so on.

On the first day, we went in search of 'Historic' Ybor city, which seemed to be one of the nicest parts of Tampa, the 'latin quarter'. In all honesty, it seemed more set up for the nightlife, so we spent all day playing pool inside.

The second day, we got up early to board the Greyhound bus to St. Petersburg where all the top beaches were. This took an hour, as it went the long way, and then the public transport was appallingly slow, so we were left without that much time to actually do anything.

We'd wanted to hire a Jetski, but being under 21 were strictly forbidden from doing such outrageous things unless we took a safety test involving detailed knowledge of, amongst other things, weights for towing boats on the back of cars, what a no-discharge zone was and the precise regulations surrounding the use of chemical toilets. We'd taken the test online and printed out certificates, but apparently there weren't good enough for the fat, balding american who demanded we take another test (for a fee) or leave. Having just filled in the answers from Google for the online test, we decided discretion was the better part of valour and left it.

The beaches though, were stunning. Almost empty with beautiful clear water and unblemished, sun-kissed sand. Photos don't do them justice.

The last day consisted of some time at the Mall, which I had to do whilst in America. To their credit, it was a lot better than I thought it'd be – and I ended up spending far more money on clothes than I'd intended – but things were just so insanely cheap for good clothes it would have been foolish to stop. I now have to endure the extra weight of two large shopping bags worth of clothing in my backpack for the last three days however: doh!

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