Pridefest 2006

---

Well, after having spent the day in San Francisco, we decided to go out for the night.

I did the incredibly stupid mistake of leaving my camera behind at Alex'(an american colleague of Svein Magnus) appartment, obviously a dumb idea.

First we headed out to find something to eat in the North Beach area where Alex lives. I was just in the mood for a quickie, but Alex led us to a place called Calzone's.

Anyways I ordered a calzone with pesto-marinated chicken. Carina(PeerMe intern) decided on having some sort of Hawaiian fish, while Svein settled for a pizza.

Alex went the whole way and ordered apetizers and wine and an expensive meal. I was kind of frustrated later when he just wanted to split the bill in 4, since he obviously should account for more of it than the rest of us. Well, anyways, I'll keep that in mind for next time.

While we were eating, Jessie(another norwegian intern, but of chinese heritage) joined us. We called Martin, the VP of Games Development at PeerMe, and asked him if he knew any parties. Obviously, he knew of the Castro/Market street party, where the gays and lesbos where charging their batteries for next days pride march.

Alex was VERY reluctant to head over there, but we finally went anyways. We first went to this dive bar called Expansion. I wasn't in the mood for drinking, so I just had some Coca Cola. The others grabbed various drinks, and Jessie ordered a Long Island Ice Tea. Bad idea for an asian. The drink comes in a high-ball glass, and is almost pure alcohol.

In the mean time, I went to meet Martin. I was waiting on the corner of Market and 14th, and I had to wait a good 20 minutes. This gave me an opportunity to just watch the flow of people. I wish I had my camera. There was all sorts of whacked people passing by. Everthing from butch dykes to girlie boys. There was also a few drama queens making fuss and arguing in a very gay way. Well, what can I say. A tranny was standing in the middle of the street, yelling for a cab(good luck with that one), in a fancy dress. No shoes though....

The whole scene was surreal. Anyways, after 20 minutes Martin called, he had arrived at Expansion, so I went back up there to team up with the others. The others were just finishing their drinks, so we headed over to Castro, to have a look.

The cops and the DPT were already breaking up the party(this was around midnight). Instead of chasing people, they just brought in the cleaning equipment and soaked the place. People moved voluntarily to avoid getting drenched in whatever was floating on the ground. It smelled kind of, well, lets just say it didn't smell like roses....

We went over to this kiosk to get something to drink. They refused to sell glass bottles, in order to keep people from throwing them at the cops, probably a good idea. The guys grabbed a few cans of beer, and went outside. While we were waiting for everybody to come out, Jessie suddenly became totally apathetic and "gone".

We suspected roofies or something, but it was actually just the Long Island Ice Tea. It seems around 10% of asian people have almost an allergy to alcohol, and become totally wasted in just one drink. We gave her some water, and she cleared up literally in seconds. Strange thing.

We proceeded down Castro, with all kinds of freaks around us. Well, maybe we were the freaks in this place. The police finally decided that enough was enough an hour later, and started chasing everyone. We finally managed to grab a taxi, and headed back to Alex' place. I actually managed to get through the whole deal without having my ass pinched or anything. This proves one of two things:

A: I carry an invisible sign with "heterosexual" on it.
B: I am so inattractive that even shitfaced gays don't bother.

I'm hoping for A.

Alex didn't have nearly enough beds, so me and Svein had to draw lots on who would use the couch, and who would be sleeping on the floor. I lost, but luckily, Alex had a very thick carpet, so it wasn't as bad as I feared.

I was only aching a bit when I woke up the next morning, ready for yet another day of strange creatures....

---

Photos

Street car
A street car close to Alex' appartment.