greyhound...the real america

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and so the adventure begins!

It was a smoggy Sunday evening and suddenly I found myself sitting in the hostel room by myself. For 2 weeks, and well 8 months I'd been surrounded by my girls, partying it up in Banff, singing and driving through America, not a care in the world and friends by my side... and suddenly here I was all alone...(que sad music here)
It took at least 2 days to get my head around the fact that yes this is the travel I had been waiting for, the solo travel, the adventure of a life time. It had snuck up on me without warning and to be honest scared the hell out of me, but it was time to 'suck it up' and embrace whatever it was that lay ahead.

Within a couple of hours after my near breakdown I had booked a 30 day discovery pass with greyhound!! ' pointed to texas and said 'lets go' (in a really cool voice...think ben stiller as starksy....do it!)
......and so the adventure begins

I woke up on time Tuesday morning!! even though I'd woken every hour on the hour throughout the night, ate my very last bagel in the ballroom at the green tortoise hostel (for those going to san francisco, young or old, you must go here!) reminisced about the naked gypsy anarchist punk rock band the night before and made my way to the greyhound all by myself.
Here I was thinking I was in for a wonderful day, a brand new state of the art wi-fi equipped leather seated bus with outlet plugs and a seat to myself....maybe this 2 and a half day trip wont be so bad after all?!!
Unfortunately my luck ran out when I got to L.A and had to change buses, line up with 50 other...what shall I say... impatient passengers and hope to god my luggage wasnt stolen as I attempted to make my way to the bathroom.

After waiting for an hour it was time to board the bus...oh the lovely feeling you get when you board a bus only to find everyone has taken a seat to themselves, spread out as much as possible and looks up at you as if to say "do you really want to sit next to me?"
I found the most sane looking person I could...a young blonde girl who at first seemed completely innocent, but who turned out to be possibly one of the worst choices of day....filling in the entire bus on her std status isnt exactly the kind of story that puts one to sleep. In fact I think sitting next to the three criminals, fresh out of county jail in the back hallows may have been a better decision!

So to cut a long, in fact to cut a very very long; 2 and a half day, 31 hour bus trip short, I met some very interesting characters, experienced some of the most intense frustration of my life, failed to sleep more than half an hour at a time, and heard some very interesting and extremely entertaining stories.

Thursday morning at 7.30 I arrived in Dallas only to miss my connecting bus to Austin. It was at this point I was thinking something along the lines of FML really loudly in my head and wondered if I was ever going to make it to the live music capital of the country!

....you'll be happy to know that I did make it in fact I made it in perfect time for the mid afternoon sun where I was greeted by a very nice, Texas born taxi driver who proceeded to give me running commentary of the greater city of Austin. He even threw in some recommendations for dinner and lunch and so I felt it more than necessary to throw in a couple of dollars tip...wouldn't you?!

I was lucky enough to get a room for a couple of nights at the H.I Hostel and what an awesome couple of nights they turned out to be! Tune in to the next blog for details...

written from memphis with love, hannah

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Comments

[Leaza]

Wow
Wow great Blogs Hann....sounds like you are really making the most of it....Great to hear...Keep the interesting Blog coming great to read. Except for the std blonde girl bit...sounds like you may have been better off with the jailbirds...lololol Take care Cheers Leaza....xo

[cynthia]

missing our 4th daughter
Awsome blog Hannah, waiting for some more please, great photos. Cheers LOve Mum xxx