The Chilly, Hilly City.

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Greetings from San Francisco, where yesterday, at 6am, I arrived after a night train and bus, looking less than fresh and functioning on two hours sleep. Feeling cold and pretty much like a bag of crap, I took a brief wonder around the Golden Gate Park and maybe slightly negatively began to wonder what all the hype re San Francisco was all about.
The surprising chilly air here soon saw me into my bed around the 8pm mark last night, where in my dorm, I met and proceeded to chat away with two very friendly Swiss girls. After a caffine injection coke and hot shower, they soon twisted my arm into a little tour of mission street to hit some bars. My mind was already starting to change as we found a lovely little bar serving any cocktail we wished for. It wasn't too late before we all came home and had a good sleep, fresh as a daisy (well sort of) for my day of being a tourist today.

Well, if my mind was beginning to be changed last night then by now it has been by 100%. It's amazing what a fresh perspective and little wonder over to a bridge can do. I decided that looking at the Golden Gate Bridge would not suffice and I would only really 'experience' it if I became part of it. So I gathered myself a picnic from the near Safeway and bused it over to the bridge's edge.
Similarly to Brooklyn, it made for a great people watching location, if it wasn't cyclists using their bells to usher everyone out of the way, then it was people from all sorts of life's walks, walking, taking pictures, leaning over the edge to admire the view, carrying take out coffee or like me - plainly obvious tourists carrying maps, cameras and questionable bags. Such a simple activity but one of the happiest and content moments of my trip. Looking over the bay area and out to the city and the opposite Bay bridge was a fulfilling moment, making me crave a similar city at home - can anyone think of one?
Since this, my day has only got better. Usually an annoyance, getting lost this afternoon was the best possible thing I could have done. Following the (incorrect) directions of a hotel porter in the street, having got off my bus from the city centre, I walked in the wrong direction on Bay street and actually wound up right at the other end, looking closely and this time far more directly to the Bay Bridge - perfect. I have one day left to maximise this hansome, hilly, charasmatic and classic looking city - I hope to cram as much in as poss tomorrow - I think I will have to catch a tour to see it all - I feel an open top plonker bus coming on... when in San Fran.

I have totally lost track of when I last wrote and got in touch but it feels a while - something tells me I wrote from Miami and my god have I covered some ground since then - I feel I deserve a Gold Card with amtrak for giving them so much business and company aboard their services. I have moved from state to state in what I have been calling something of a 'Zig Zag' movement and here I sit, at my last stop in America, bound tomorrow evening for a mamouth train ride to Vancouver.

I left Miami to board a very much dreaded Greyhound bus of a 22 hour duration. Joe Snowdon, your horror and scare stories certainly became reality (maybe not to the same extent) - I will have to tell you in detail over a bottle of white about the Sex pest on Seat 35 and the lady who got out of Jail that very morning on seat 46 (who might I add I moved to sit behind, before knowing she was an ex-convict, in order to escape the sex pest) fun times. I am here in one piece and have stories - what else matters?
So, yes a lengthy Greyhound saw me over to New Orleans and so very glad to be there, not least because I could finally exit the very grey Greyhound.

Tired and having slept for a total of 2 / 3 hours over night a la bus, I was a tad too overwhelmed for exploration at 5 that afternoon and settled for take out in the hostel. Watered and fed and just as I was finishing up and planning tours for the following day, I met a great girl; Angie, also staying at the Hostel as she was volunteering for the Red Cross - in hurricane relief work. The more I spoke to her, I quickly felt I wanted to meet the local people she described to me and as she was off the next morning to volunteer in a local community centre, I was very pleased she was willing for me to join her.

On the way to st Bernards ( a suburb outside of New Orleans - where the Lowest land is and therefore experienced the worst damage caused by Hurricane Katrina) - Angie pointed the many housing estates all boarded up by wood - some in the process of being re-built and brought back to a new life, others totally untouched, as their owners can't face coming back. The reality of life after the Hurricane statred to hit me and I imgained the grief, loss, distress and sorrow of the people I was about to meet. Anxiously I thought to myself. What could I say to them? How could I help? How should I behave around people who've suffered such grief and hardship?

Remarkably, the people I met that morning, made the above very easy for me as from beginning to end, they did nothing but make me laugh, chat to me and express positivity and hope through the telling of their stories. I met one lady who had five children and was pregnant during the hurricane in '05, she has since lived with her parents and all children under one small roof as she awaits the re-build of her home. she made jokes about being mothered again and commented on the great cooking, as I laughed along with admiration for her great and infectious positivity.

Another lady I met made a huge mark on me, having cracked several jokes as she looked through clothes for her grandchildren, she turned to me asking where my unusual necklace came from. having explained it was my Grandmother's, who recently passed away, with warm eyes, she turned to me and said she understood my loss as she herself lost her daughter to suicide just six months prior. I didn't ask too many questions but it sounded as it is a result of her reaction to the hurricane from what she told me. She is now looking after the six children left behind. The fact that this lady was able to stand boldly, energetically and fully functioning, being positive, making jokes and giving me all sorts of advice, (particularly about men and marriage! - players out there, she didn't rate you at all ;-) is amazing to me. These were two examples of many positive people I chatted to and saw and I was utterly humbled by my morning at the centre.

Angie had to work that afternoon and so dropped me back at the hostel, from there I took myself to the French Quarter and to sail aboard a steamboat along the Mississippi. A great contrast to the setting where I had spent my morning, this area was like a whole other world. A place it would seem much less affected by Katrina and still booming with life and soul - or maybe it thriving so as a result of the huge determination of the people of New Orleans to piece their lives and locality back together , particularly by keeping music, poetry, art and fun very much alive.

Quirky, charming, poetic and vibrant, full of whacky shops and fun activities, I can see why New Orleans and in particular the French Quarter is so famous and highly recommended as a place to visit.
I purposefully got lost, drank coffee and wondered with no rush or aims - apart from enjoyment. This was until, I stumbled accross a bar serving Hand Greenades - a drink I discovered upon finishing it that comprised of 95% alcohol content and some sort of sticky syrrup. Oh dear, a little to late, I was back wondering the streets again, only this time with a hand grenade in my stomach.

Tipsy shopping certainly brings results of an interesting nature. Within the space of an hour, I had bought a charcol piece by a local artist, showing a jazz scene in New Orleans, through my purchase befirending the shop keeper who shared my sirname and told me all about the artist responsible for my new wall piece. She was so very lovely and after chatting, and put a pendant in my hand as I left, uttering "a present for the Welsh girl, Goodbye and be safe Lisa Young".
I left the shop blown away by how generous hearted and genuinely magnificent some people can be.

No sooner had I left with my new and precious gift, did I find myself pondering over a little fortune reading shop - something I have always been curious about but firghtened of having done incase it's all bad news. Screw it - the ever growing hippy in me (oh and the greenade) decided to go for a full on psychic reading.
God only knows how real or effective it is - it doesn't really bare resemblance, it was such a mysterious and curious half hour and in some ways as if the teller had known me years. Amougst several 'findings' (some exciting some a tad freaky) he picked up several characteristics and experiences of truth to me - the one sticking most in mind right now being that I sometimes get (apparently) 'disgusted' with life and just up, pack and leave on trip - this one being no exeption. The man is a genius - or perhaps he rang one of you for some background first?? camon - fess up.

A few other quirky purchases later and it was time to go back to the hostel to meet Angie for some local food and live music. After consuming amazing local Gumbo, it was time to make for the French Quarter to hear some live Jazz and blues. Perhaps not the first choice I'd turn my i-pod wheel to subconciously, but a succession of true talent from bar to bar and street to street. These guys are good, not only can they play, sing and get people to their feet dancing the night away, but they have passion leaking out of their entire being.. entertaining and inspirational to watch - once again it's hard not to stand green with envy at the things I wish I could do like sing, dance and play music.

Since New Orleans have been trips to Chicago where Anna and Dai's friends more than looked after me, very kindly putting me up and showing me local sights including the very scenic lake Michigan.
I took an architecture tour, trying to educate myself as to the hansome, charasmatic buildings of differing heights, shapes and sizes. The city is tall, pretty and has a great feel to it - bustling with life, people and activity. My only let down was failure in my quest to see 'Chicago' so I could say I saw Chicago in Chicago, I realised I was a month early - I might need a companion for my summer holiday next year to suceed in this mission - volunteers?

From Chicago down to bright lights and several thousand slot machines of Vegas, I there met uni friends who I joined on a trip to The Grand Canyon by transportation of a (wait for it)........ a helicopter! To quote Lex, this mode of travel is 'not for the faint hearted' and as the copter lifted off the ground generating more wind than a high force gale, my stomach began to turn and a few nerves came over me, I had to have strong words with myself before then proceeding to look, from the front of the vessel out at the most stunning scenery I have seen yet this trip. As we talked into our speakers and through headphones, I observed the mysterious, magical and mamouth rocks that fell and rose to differing levels as we flew in and out of them. Whilst passing a beautiful, turquoise lake that sat calmly and beautifully next to redness of the Canyons, a feeling of luckiness washed over me, getting to do something that really is the adventure and experience of a life time. It honestly didn't feel real being there, but I guess visiting such famous sights does always feel a bit like a dream. A dream I hope will stay vivid in my memory forever more.

A little hang over and a quick flutter passed and before I knew it I was bound a la amtrak to San Diego. However, in true impulsive style, I made a last minute decision that I felt too tired for too mnay more stop overs and that San Diego will never vanish. I changed my train there and then to come through the night up to San Francisco where, sort of up to speed I sit and type.


Where has this trip flown to? Right the fortune teller may be - I up and leave suddenly, fears over the future or general feelings of pissed off-ness coupled with a craving for fun and adventure have seen me on many a trip in these last years. I feel gratfeul for whatever it may be that drives me to the travel agent, because without taking these trips on a whim, how would I ever see all I have been so lucky to see, meet the nice people I have been able to meet and challenge myself, collecting stories and memories, experiencing these cities and learning new things - particularly about myself and where I stand in this magical, mysterious world.

As she liked to read my accounts on here, I dedicate not only this account but my trip as a whole to my dear Nana, who even though I have found myself teary at lossing her so suddenly rather regularly on this trip, have also smiled from ear to ear when thinking of her and her travelling. I wish I could have heard more of her tales and that she was here to read these new ones of mine, but I take great pleasure in knowing how much she embraced travel and relished in adventure. I can only hope that I keep these genes she seems quite clearly to have passed on to me, maybe not in the form of long long trips anymore (being grown a responsible grown up and getting a career should perhaps feature somewhere I guess? - zzzzz) but hopefully to keep an openess to exploration, new things, excitment, adventure and always learning, wherever I may be in the world.

That seems a good spot to draw conclusion. Not sure I will manage another. I will tell any more tales I conjure when I next see you in person, which is approximately in one week's time. I hear Vancouver is absolutely AWESOME and am looking very much forward to my visit and catching up with my family friend there. I hope meanwhile you have a great week at home or wherever you may be and hope to catch up very soon.

Loads of love and hugs -
Lisa xxx

Ps - If you have reached the end, thanks so much, they are lengthy I know - it means loads that people read them and even more so because if I am ever lucky enough to be a parent or gandparent myself, then I have a little something to share - (and huge tips on what not to do when travelling - ie don't drink hand greenades and then shop!) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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