A Concise Account

Wow- Things have been quite hectic. BUT, it looks like ive made it to San Francisco! It was pouring with heavy grey rain in manchester when i left, to see me off, you know. Checks at the airport flagged me up as being here for more than 90 days, ie outstaying my so called welcome, so i had to change my ticket to 89 days, and at some point ill have to apply for an extended visa, if im to be here/Canada for christmas. blah blah, but they were all very nice about it. NOT SO in new york, where the bored man obviously liked to pick a few aliens and watch them squirm now and then. He asked me questions like about how much money have i got (and was it in cash?), how did i earn it, and "i dunno man, 90 days in hostels? whos your friend? how do you know her?" I was a sweating wreck, since i had 25 minutes to get onto my next plane on the otherside of an unhelpful and hard to understand airport.. I ate a lot of crap plane food and was feeling ill. it was horrible really but oh i better move on- this is boring stuff. another 7 or 8 hours anyway, i was back on the ground and out of San Fran airport and getting my first Bus into town. A nice man gave me three quarters, since i didnt have the right change.

Ive got got some nice photos of things i think are interesting or wierd, but i dont know yet how ill get them off the camera.

Thinsg ive seen: cars with lots of lights on them, 4 lane roads, people talking to themselves, people dancing by themselves with no music, and quite a few who shout gibberish at everyone else. Very very steep roads and pavements, trams (trolleys), very tall buildings, a man whos foot was really rotting and smelled like the strongest cheese you could imagine (he got on the same bus i was on, and the man sat opposite said "Jesus christ!" and opened as many windows as he could- others were holding their jumpers over their faces, and the tiny old chinese woman i was next to looked she was going to black out). Big juggernaught trucks honk honk, yellow school buses, a muffin i couldnt finish, electric buses, the steepest winding residential street in the USA (youve seen it in a picture), a broken down bus blocking the rushhour financial district (we had to abandon our working but helpless bus and there were lots of horns and "WHY I OUGHTTA!" shouting out of car windows). Ive been in a really nice hostel, and a night in a really bad one (no sheets, ciggarrette holes all over the blankets, the staff were 3 russian teenagers, and a lot of other guests in the morning were complaining about water flooding through their ceilings in the night. It wasnt a busy hostel (word must have got out), so i had my own room with 4 filthy beds). I put my head down for a rest after checking in at 6pm, and i woke up at 7:30am, which i think has exorcised the last of the jetlag, or made it worse, but i feel fine now). Im back in the nice and friendly one now, and have it for the next few nights. Its the same price too. Service with a smile.



I went to see the Golden Gate bridge, which was quite special. Its enormous, and you can walk across it while grinning widely, which takes about 35 minutes each way. You get fantastic views into the bay, and out to the pacific ocean. You can see Alcatraz island too. Everyone on the bridge was happy, but it was really windy, and you have to dodge some pretty serious cyclists buzzing along the 'sidewalk'. They probably do it every day, and must be sick of gurning tourists taking the billionth picture of themselves with their thumbs up infront of the big orange stantions. I did my bit the best i could, but not being with anyone, only my thumbs-up makes it into the photo.

Today, my third but second full day has been pretty hard. A lot of lugging the rucksack around, and battling with the cash card i have, i think ive cracked it now. I went to a Comic Art museum which was very good, and then immediately when i stepped outside got dragged in to an opening day 'Psychotherapy Is Terrible' exhibition next door which was awful- lots of weak links and facts about EST and drug treatment... presented in the worst amercan way you can imagine. Next door to that though, was the Gay Lesbian and Transgender Celebration Museum, but i think id had enough of museums by that point. Ill go back tomorrow for that one.

OH i had a crazy breakfast in Loui's Diner, which was all 50's inside. I think it was quite a touristy thing, but there seemed a lot of locals in there too. I ordered the wrong thing by accident, so no pancakes, but i did get a huge plate of potato and corned beef thing, with sausages. It was nice, but i codulnt finish that either. My waitress was called Erika, who hoped id have a nice day, and a happy stay in San Francisco. They had 5 immaculate and amazing vintage Pinball Machines to play on, making some nice clunking, dinging and clanging sounds. I got 90,000 points, which on todays machines with inflation would be 90,0000000000000 points.

Hoping to meet up with Nic tomorrow or Monday, whichll be nice to share some of this with. Now i need to get some food. Its very hot today, i have a red tan. But i think itll have cooled down by now (6pm). Ill try and add the photos to this post when i get them.

Overall, this seems like a very relaxed place, for a big city. The traffic is on the whole very calm, except when things break down, and most people are nice and friendly (that reminds me, on the way here i was just invited to go into a place to have a personality check! I spotted that it was the Church of Scientology! yuck! to show me where i was going wrong obviously).

Hope you enoyed this uncut rambling, who knows, you might not have even got this far. Imagine!

EDIT: NOW WITH PHOTOS