St. Louis - The arch and Huckleberry Finn

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The bus journey to St Louis has some good and bad sides. The good side is meeting Stefan who I have coffee with at the station before he heads on to Kansas City. The bad side is not getting a whole lot of sleep due to snoring co-passengers and the unfriendly Greyhound woman who will not keep my backpack until the evening bus leaves, hence forcing me to either walk around hot St. Louis with my backpack all day, or staying overnight. I choose the latter and take a cab to the Huckleberry Finn Hostel (the cab is necessary as the area is, according to the owner, not the best to walk around at alone). People there are just extremely nice and I walk to the city with a John, a British literature student who is also going to study in the states for a semester or two.

Downtown St. Louis doesn't really seem to offer much apart from the arch, which has a certain oasis touch to itself: You can see it from miles away and it just won't come any closer as you walk and walk and walk towards it. Why an arch you, honored reader, may ask: To symbolize the gateway to the west, which also explains the location of the museum of westward expansion beneath the arch (yes, underground). Followed by a visit to the city museum, my need for museums and attention span for civil rights is exhausted. Walking home, this time alone, is a very hot affair. The evening is spent with the guys from the hostel (I am the only girl there and have the whole dorm to myself, which is a little creepy) and the girl who takes care of the place. She shows us a Hippie hangout and the more or less unwelcome overnight stay in St. Louis turns out to be a great time.

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