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Published: September 24th 2008
And so it was on to the old US of A, I finally made it here after what seems like a lifetime of telling myself I actually would one day. Much like when visiting Niagara in Canada, lots of elements of the East coast were surreal, an almost feeling of you having been there before, based purely on what you know from TV, movies and your own stereotypes and generalisations. Reeling of the list of places conjures up images in your mind, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Los Angeles and San Diego, they trip off the tongue with ease and I have to say visiting each one was every bit as amazing as I thought they'd be.The first great bit of news about the US was that it was cheaper than Canada, and we, and my bank manager, heaved a sigh of relief. Still a world away price wise from Asia but I'm slowly accepting this and moaning less, sort of. The secondbit of news may surprise, Americans are actually quite nice....no really..hey I'm serious stop laughing. Another cultural stereotype I guess but I imagined after the ridiculous nice-ness of Canadians I wouldn't enjoy Americans, anybody
who votes George W in(twice!)can't be worth talking to in my eyes.We were surprised though, on the west coast at least,they are every bit as helpful, nice and friendly as their 'friends' over the border...honestly!
Seattle & Portland The first stop nearly contradicted this though, Seattle is the home of Kurt Cobain and Nirvana, and if you could ever sum up a city by linking it with a band then look no further than those two. The city oozed grunge from its pores,where 90%!o(MISSING)f the inhabitants seem to be males, with tattoos, beards and straight out of the 'Smells like Teen Spirit' video. We did the touristy stuff like the Space Needle which wasn't worth seeing, the famous Pike market which to me seemed pretty tame after Asian ones, and also a music gallery which had some interesting things like original Jimi Hendrix lyrics (he's from Seattle too) and lots of famous guitars and alike, Christophe was in his element and finally got to prove to me he can actually play a guitar. The next city on the list, Portland, was instantly much more appealing, and even though we literally did not one touristy thing there we liked
the place immensly more, its one of those travelling things that you instantly get a feel for a place. Portland was leafy, cool, arty even and abuzz, we chilled out and wandered around, had some nights out including a trip to a club where the bouncers all wore bullet proof vests and handcuffs. They assured us it was just for show and their 'uniform', probably after spotting the look of sheer terror on our faces as we entered, you'd have thought we had just seen a kitten slaughtered. Turned out fine though.
San Francisco Regular readers of my blog will know that my drunken antics and dressing up on this trip have turned me into some kind of one man band version of the Village People, so perhaps its no surprise that I loved San Fran. Here was the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, the 49ers, Yosemite Park nearby, and the general atmosphere, people, mix of cultures and vibe, it all added up to make an awesome city. The first day we went out on a wander, not planning much after a 17 hour overnight train with no sleep, but captivated by the place and the sights we ended up
walking all day and covered a seemibly marathon-esque distance. We did, however, simultaneously marvel at the place whilst cursing the stupidity of building a city based on massivly steep hills, luckily our near sucidal bike trek in Canada steeled us for this. Not to mention the fact that the place is built on a fault line, there was a 4.0 earthquake while we were here-although we didnt know until told the next day as it happened whilst we were getting ready for a night out, I don't think a volcanic eruption, tsunami or earthquake could stop me and Ev getting our mirror time. On this first day we walked through the centre of the cool CBD, over the hills and the iconic windy twisty roads, along the entire sea front affording great views of the bay and area,and finally across 'the' bridge. From afar I didn't think the Golden Gate Bridge was overly amazing, theres another larger and longer bridge across the bay I thought was better initially. As we got closer though we definetly became more enthralled and as the icnoic frame loomed into view it was stunning sight. It wasn't golden mind,more orange, nor was it a gate
for that matter. It was a bridge though, and as a mathematically challenged karaoke Meatloaf cover might sing 1 out of 3 aint bad. Beautiful views from it of the bay, Alcatraz on the water, San Fran nestled on the hills, and a couple of superbly sunny days from which to view the bridge-as opposed to its usual fog and cloud, made it all the more special.
Next up was a long fufilled although random dream of mine, to watch my team, the 49ers, play American Football in Candlestick Park. It was a fantastic day out, and we bought the ticket outside off a scalper (like a tout, not a native Indian taking my beautiful head of hair) for just ten quid,bargain. The weather was stunning, a great stadium and atmosphere as it was the season opener. The Yanks are madly passionate, outfits, cheering, chants, cheerleaders(our particular favourite), foot long hot dogs, beers, we lapped it up and joined in with it all. The chants got us best 'lets go Niners' was great, the roar at every third down deafening,and the mad delirious rants of 'De-fense' (yup spelt that way) had us laughing every time, apparently scoring they are
indifferent to and theres no chant for that. The only thing missing was a 'USA, USA', but even that nearly happened when a team of Navy Seals parachuted onto the pitch at half time, the last with Old Glory attached to his foot, brilliant, you couldn't write it,although I just did. Sadly they lost.
Next was a trip to Alcatraz, one and a quarter miles off the coast of San Fran, home to famous inmates such as Al Capone, the birdman of Alcatraz, 'Machine Gun' Kelly, and basis of movies like The Rock and Escape from Alcatraz. The audio tour was interesting and informative and was cool to see inside the place, although no tour guide was slightly strange too. You have your own walkman kinda thing and heaphones with a story narrated to you-I felt like Cliff Richard in his Wired for Sound video. Although hard to escape from (5 did actually over time and are still unaccounted for) it was well maintained and easy to live in apparently, the swim across in my eyes would be very tough to survive.
Finally, we were meant to go and see Yosemite National Park on a one day coach
tour, home to such wonders as El Capitan and an intended highlight of ours. I say intended because we didn't get to bloody go.We booked online and were told to arrive at our pick up point for 8:45, so we dutifly turned up at 8:25, only to be told there had been a mix up and the bus had left at 8,umm you what?! They gave us a refund but that was it for the trip as we had to leave next day due to train tickets and accommodation being booked. This vexed me somewhat, I've had more reliable services and trips through Asia etc and yet the mighty USA can't organise a knees up at a brewery apparantly. Still, overall San Fran itself had a big tick from us, although its nightlife dissapointed us hugely, not a sailor or gimp suit in sight, tut.
Las Vegas Anybody who has known me a long time will know my previous mild addiction(I didn't quite resort to selling the house or anything) to gambling and slot machines,so it was with some trepidation that I made my way to Vegas, my dad was on standby to cancel my cards, Chris was to
be in charge of my wallet and I was to wear blinkers in order to keep me away from the flashing lights. Love it or hate it though Las Vegas is something else, it rises out of the middle of nowhere in the desert,a sweltetingly hot, neon enthused strip of goliath sized casinos and malls,all there to cater for the masses 24/7, people blowing huge fortunes, kids college funds and ruining dreams, it was hard not to be transfixed. We stayed 4 nights and although I did have a brief flirt with the tables I kept my habit under check and only spent about 50quid on gambling whilst there, I did pick up a raging cocaine addiction mind but the lesser of two evils right? (joking Mum). To be fair we mainly gambled simply to get drunk, there is a free waitress service brought to you(usually by hot women, shame), so we would simply put $1 into a slot machine, make it last about an hour, and lap up the free bottles of beer or vodka we requested. We weren't quite on the par of Oceans 11 but we got our money out of the casinos! We also ate like
kings, well more like King Kong maybe, as we indulged ourselves in the all you can eat Bellagio buffet for only $20 and believe me we got every cent worth of that, ate till we were sick,ballooned stomach wise and had to support each other home. We did this twice in four days, I now resemble a beach ball. We ticked off all the main spots and spent hours wandering the strip and main casinos, Bellagio, Caesars, Venetian etc, all with massive interiors and decors that defied belief.
Then of course there was the Canyon, the Grand one..eventually. Please bear in mind we are two mid-late twenties adults,who are teachers and therefore in charge of future generations of society, God help them. We booked a day tour well in advance and got up at 4am, watched the first hour of Liverpool and Man Utd, then had to leave, which would later be a large slice of irony as we haven't beaten them in about 75 years and I had to miss it for no reason at all. We turned up at 6am for our pick up and alarm bells started when it hand't arrived by 6:30,the Yosemite escapade ringing loudly
in our ears. Panicked we rang the company and were told we had turned up a day early...neither of us had clocked the right date on the fricking email. I hear private schools are great these days by the way. So the next day we checked the email 563 times and made our way there and this time there was a bus,and am thankful as it was stunning. We had decided to go the extra yard and book a helictoper ride over the Grand Canyon, a fantastic experience that I can't describe well and the photos won't show. Just being in a helicopter for the first time was exciting enough, but the views we got from it were worth the price and amazing to see it from such an angle, it was a beuatiful and bewitching place, a visual feast for the eyes. It was quite amazing how such an impressivly massive wonder can be carved out by rivers, water is my new wonder. As is Mother Nature,we saw the Hoover Dam also on the way which to me was so-so and not that impressive, but it did serve to ram home a major point. I have realised that although
man can make some great wonders himself, Mother Nature always wins, the Dams, Bridges and towers are impressive, but its always the sheer beauty and majesty of the natural wonders that top my list, Mount Bromo in Java, The Rockies, Barrier Reef, Grand Canyon, Mother Nature is the best architect I know.
LA Los Angeles was next,and despite staying four days I feel like we hardly scratched the surface,it was massive. The size of the place was actually its downfall as it was too hard to navigate around and see everything. Initally we stayed right in Hollywood and later moved on to Melrose Avenue near Beverly Hills. We ticked off the cliches, the stars names on the pavements, Walk of Fame, Kodak Theatre, Mans Chinese Theatre show, the Hollywood sign,Melrose Avenue, Sunset Strip with the iconic famous bars like Rainbow Room, Whisky a go-go and The Viper Room. Again for want of a better word surreal will have to suffice. We only managed to spot two celebs though,whilst standing outside a bar the ridiculously hot star of Lost, Evangaline Lily, walked by (who by the way is in my top 3 hot women on the planet,I could've died) and
another day the Bride of Wildenstein drove past (who by the way is in my bottom 3 women on the planet,I could've died). We also went to the Universal Studios which wasn't great and was massively overpriced, but again overall LA was everything I expected and I enjoyed it.
San Diego Finally on the West Coast was San Diego, a placed bigged up to us by every single person we have spoken to,and they weren't wrong. Much like Portland we liked the place immediately, its laid back vibe, a bustling CBD with everything centrally located and some good beaches nearby to go and visit to work on the tan. We also visited the world famous San Diego Zoo which is probably the biggest anticlimax of my sights so far as I thought it was distinctly average and not even in my top five zoos I've ever seen. It didn't detract from the good times had in San Diego and a fitting way to end the west coast of US.
So next up we head to Mexico,not much time there but will see what we can, then Central America and on to South America. Although I'm pleased
and have really enjoyed Canada and USA I'm excited to get back to some 'real' travelling again. Minor bumps aside, and as great sights there have been, travelling the US is a bit like Australia, a little easy and a world away from say, Asia, so I'm now going back to my more favoured style, that which flicks my switch and puts a gay little skip in my step:
Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. Muriel Strode.
I must also say a quick thanks to my dad, for without him this would not be possible. My monetary funds ran dry due to the expense of Canada and to an extent the US, so it was either head home or lend some money from the Royal Bank of Dad. Thankfully and mercifully he has agreed to a loaner, and I'm not entirely sure he realises now much it means to be, to have gone home now and missed South America would have killed me so I am eternally grateful, round of applause for him please. I'll probably blog after Central America, and may I add
Me and Ev at Grand Canyon
We were happy to be there honest, and no not hungover, just a bad pic methinks!this blog is only 2500words, a new low record for me! Keep in touch via the comments and I'll be home before you know it.
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Sarah-Jane
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Another wonderfully crafted blog. The canyon looks amazing and i'm so jealous you got to see it before i did. How on earth can you miss an earthquake? A 4.0 too!!! Unbelievable call yourself a student of geography! :) loving you, missing you etc etc xx