Hello everyone,
I'm trying to summon the effort to blog, however, it is absolutely boiling in California right now and I am seriously concerned for my health over the next week. I'm off to Vegas on Wednesday where it is due to be 48 degrees! Thank god for air conditioned casinos.
The last post I did was from New Orleans and I was just about to go to Bourbon Street for the evening. It really is incredible how your opinion of the road changes the more drinks you have. Completely sober, it is a bizarre place and not overly enjoyable; after one or two you begin to see the appeal; and after a few more (or one of the cocktails on offer) it becomes the greatest place on earth. Someone should definitely do an in-depth study as to why that is. I am willing to volunteer as guinea pig, I will need the backing of a wealthy investor and a spare liver on standby. I was down on Bourbon Street that night with two British girls called Laura who were on an almost identical travel route as me for a couple of weeks so we teamed up to take on the best of the deep South. We discovered the signature cocktail of New Orleans, the hand grenade, which is truly delicious, and tastes so much of melon it is almost certainly good for you.We spent the evening in the home of the hand-grenade and singing 'Wagon Wheel' at every opportunity.
The following day, feeling interesting to say the least I walked to the stadium of the New Orleans Saints, the originally named "Super Dome". However, to get there I did have to walk through a fairly suspicious area, perhaps best summed up by a poster on lampposts with a sad looking child on them saying "Ceasefire - please stop the shooting" (Sorry mum!). Needless to say my pace quickened somewhat from then on, and my neon green sunglasses and camera went deep into my pocket. However, evidently I survived and made it to the megabus bright and early the next day for a mammoth road trip with the Lauras to Austin Texas.
Austin is not what I expected from Texas at all. Far from the guns and beer culture I was expecting it is a cultural, music-orientated and 'foody' town. The nearest to a redneck I have found is me, sporting a fairly spectacular t-shirt tan. The hostel we were booked into was full of bizarre characters, a charming man named David who was there to pursue a music career and insisted on serenading us that evening. I am going to go out on a limb and suggest he probably won't be gracing the charts anytime soon, but it did give me the opportunity to bust out my shoddy covers of Passenger songs. We ate very well in Austin, after arriving too late to get to a man vs food location with the greatest name so far (Juan in a Million), apparently he only needs to open til 3pm as he is too rich/lazy. We ended up eating some great hot dogs, and a BBQ place the following day might be the best food I've had so far on the trip.
The final day in Texas was spent at a natural (read full of algae) pool, with a diving board, followed by an evening of pub games. I had to leave the Lauras there and head to San Francisco alone and bleary-eyed at 4.30am, although I managed to catch up with sleep on the plane. I nodded off on the runway in Austin and didn't wake until they announced we were about to land! My hostel in San Fran was amazing, huge communal ballroom and free breakfast and food for most of the week.
I failed to heed Twiggy's warning and was scared by Bushman, a homeless guy who hides behind bushes and jumps out at you, to the hilarity of passers-by. Did all the touristy things, walked across the Golden Gate Bridge and managed to make it onto Alcatraz, and more importantly, off it.
I've now spent a couple of days in San Diego, lazing about as it is so warm. I've been looked after by a group who I was put in contact with by a guy called Kevin I met in Nashville. Today I ticked off the only thing that was on my list of things to do in San Diego, the zoo. It definitely is quite a strange experience going to the zoo on your own, but it meant I chose exactly what I wanted to see and what I could ignore (Honey Badgers, yes, random garden birds, no). It is an amazing zoo, with Pandas, Polar Bears and even the extremely rare common magpie. Tomorrow I'm off to LA for a few days before meeting up with Paul again in Vegas to end the USA part of the trip. Will no doubt blog the end of my trip from back in the UK, and try and filter how many photos I put online! That is of course ignoring the huge possibility that I am discovered in Hollywood and flown off to star in movies and such.
Wish me luck for Vegas. Peace!
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