San Franpsycho!

Ive been harboring a secret for the last week since I arrived in San Francisco. If I were a better writer Id drop it here at the top of the post and then set about defending myself. Sadly Im not, so your going to be kept in suspense for a few paragraphs. I trust you'll forgive me for playing with your emotions in this way, but it is important for me to realise my limitations.


The thing about this city, is that there is so much to see. The Golden Gate Bridge (above), Chinatown, the twisty street, Golden Gate Park, Alcatraz, Pier 39... So much! Its great to be spoiled for choice like this. For me, the bridge was the highlight of the city. Its a little out of the way, but I went on a nice sunny day, took a long walk over and back, and enjoyed the view. On the one side you can see the Pacific, on the other the city, the bay and Alcatraz. Really stunning, just absolutely georgeous. Pier 39 was also a nice suprise, it has the shrimp shack from Forest Gump, but more importantly it has a left-handed store! I was incredibly tempted to buy the 'Obama is a Lefty' t-shirt.

Aside from the sights, I got an invite to a party at a friends cousins house. The party was located on a normal street, and seemed normal from the outside. Then I went indoors. I had been told about many of the features in the house, but I dont think I could ever have been prepared for such an amazing place:


Sorry the pictures shit, I dont seem to have any better ones - a sign of a good party perhaps? Thats a shot of the periscope next to the bath. The periscope looks out over the roof onto the garden, by the way. The bathroom itself is a giant tiled underwater scene collage type thing. It got pictures of underwater creatures, and actually kind of feels like your underwater in the room. The house has as its centerpiece a staircase coated entirely in pencils. I mean the walls, the ceiling, the banister - everything is made of pencils. The pencils are arranged to form pictures in the wall. Ive never seen anything like it, absolutely crazy, but I loved it! I cant go into every feature in the house, Id be going on forever, but it was great to go there. You know when you see parties in a film, and theres loads of people there and full on entertainment and a level of organization that just doesnt exist when you go to normal parties? I felt like I was at one of those, it had live bands, a DJ and movies. It had everything.

Now its time for the secret (I know - the tension is unbearable). You see, everybody I spoke to about San Francisco has built it up so much. Its been hyped to an extent that cant possibly realised, and for me, it just wasnt that amazing. Dont get me wrong, there is loads to do, and the sights are fantastic, and the city itself is lovely, but I just have a problem with the atmosphere. The city prides itself on its liberal and cultural leanings. Justin Webb, the former BBC North America correspondant described it as essentially a European City. My question is, if the city is so friendly, and cultured, and enlightened, why is there so much poverty there? I swear Ive seen more homeless people In the 6 days I spent there than the entire rest of the trip put together. I spent an entire night on the bus listening to some crazy guy tell me about all the fun he used to have in San Francisco, how it was great for finding a good squat to stay in, and great for getting smashed in the park.

Now the defence I was worrying about earlier. There was a running joke in my hostel that they hated anyone from Portland who stayed there, because they would constantly boast about how great Portland was. Perhaps part of my problem is that I just came from Portland (which is great, by the way). It rained solidly for almost every day I was there, and after 2 months on the move, perhaps Im starting to get a little travel fatigue. All of these are potentially reasons skewing my perception of the city, or mabey not. I would like to visit the place again in better weather, mabey with someone who knows the places to go. I have had a good time in this city, so it could be just a case of expectations...

Breakfast Epiphanies

Ive never been good at breakfast. A bad habit I used to have during my later school years was to get up 5 minutes before the bus left, then get ready and leg it downstairs - which left no time for breakfast. This carried on through University, despite frequently having more time in the morning. When working full time last year I genuinely thought I'd beaten the trend, only to settle for getting a snack on my morning break. Its not good for me, and I know it. Recently though, Ive been getting up every morning for a good full breakfast. It seems that nothing motivates more than the prospect of a free breakfast...

I have noticed a lot of difference in the concept of a breakfast over here. For a start Americans really have no idea what they are missing with proper bacon. What the fuck is streaky bacon? It ruins the taste of bacon for the sake of apprearance. Yes, you can pick it up and eat it with your hands, but its really not in the same league. On the subject of fried breakfasts, why does everything have cheese on top? A sausage and egg roll is perfectly fine on its own, why the cheese? Everywhere here does it, its not even an optional extra!

Im being harsh of course, pancakes are a regular feature of the American breakfast. So are bagels, french toast (glorified eggy bread) and bagels. I actually really enjoy the prominence of these on the breakfast menu, and maple syrup really is amazing. Several places Ive stayed have had 'make your own pancakes' for breakfast, and theres a chain restaurant here called the International House Of Pancakes, or IHOP, which I really wish we had back home.

One other staple breakfast over here is Biscuits and Gravy. Ive been avoiding this like the plague on principle, but was unforturnate enough to see it for the first time a few days ago. I was relieved to find out the biscuits werent digestives, but in fact some kind of scone type construction. Also the gravy really wasnt what I was expecting - it was cream with green bits in it. This faces me with a dilemma. Im of the school of thought that you cant fully criticize something till you have experienced it yourself. Case in point: When the BBC broadcast Jerry Springer: The Opera, very few of the protesters won any respect from me, because most of them had not seen the show. If you start your argument with the phrase 'I havent seen this, but...' then its not an argument, and you are an idiot. This means that for me to criticize biscuits and gravy in the way I want to, Im going to have to try it. If I dont post back within the week just assume its food poisoning.

Triple Whammy: Pacific Northwest

After numerous bus rides, flights, friends, and not a whole lot of sleep, I can finally settle down to tell you all about the lovely States of Oregon and Washington.

Portland is the greenest city in the United States (discounting Chicago, who clearly mis-understood the term). It's also home to Powells city of books: the best if not largest bookstore on the planet. This place was HUGE - and dense too. I found literally every obscure book I could think of, and Harry Potter in latin!


I only spent a couple of nights there, but the atmosphere in Portland combined with the jaw dropping scenery of the drive through southern Oregon (which I didnt take pictures of) really create something special. The West coast is proving to be way more laid back than over in the East.

Getting to see where Frasier lives seemed like a great idea for going to Seattle. I did enjoy the coffee there, but the city turned out to have too much cool stuff for me to define it that way. I started out in the market down by the docks, which has loads of fish, and nice places to eat, but also the worlds first Starbucks. You can tell its different from normal Starbucks cause the symbol is different, and the lady is naked on it.



The space needle is as impressive as it sounds, but for me the great thing were the museums right next to it. I didnt visit the science fiction museum, but the Experience Music Project (AKA the Jimmy Hendrix Museum) was well worth the price. I got to see DMC talk about how the 'Walk this way' track with Aerosmith came about, play Bass guitar, see some Hendrix footage and view a collection of impressive photo's from the last 40 years of music.

The week was rounded off with a trip to Eugene. My good friends Ross and Haley (to whom congratulations go, by the way) were good enough to put me up for a while. Well Haley and her mum did anyways. Eugene is a town with a really large university, which means its a great stopping point for bands to play while touring the West Coast. The vibe here is really relaxed, really friendly, and it was lovely to spend a few days here in the bars and houses of the city.

One final mention goes to the weather. It is SO nice to not have snow.

The Small Talk Blues

Im a miserable fuck who hates talking to people. Perhaps a slight exaggeration, but I have realised over the last year that Im really a lot more happy in my own company than most people. If you're my friend, or a friend of my friend then your fine! Im more than happy to chat about anything and everything. You guys are interesting. You make my life better with your stories and wisdom. If I dont know someone, then I can find the small talk irritating, awkward, and most recently a complete waste of my time. I like speaking to my friends because theyve been filtered out as the best people. Their friends have had a full background check so I can trust them. If Ive just met you, then its complete pot luck.

The reason Im ranting is because of a trend thats started a few weeks ago. Pretty much everyone I spoke to until Chicago was cool - Ive even met some really good friends (and the same applies to some of the people I met in Chicago too). There does seem, however, to have been a rot setting in. People are talking to me despite my best body language doing everything I can to say 'stay the fuck away', and its getting worse.

It started out with a thespian in Chicago. If I have headphones in, or Im reading a book, I would usually take these as signals which other people would use not to speak to me. This guy wasnt following any rules, he was a rebel. Within minutes he was quoting Shakespeare to me. The next evening with my headphones in a guy kept talking to me while I was trying to watch something! Even my best one word, disinterested responses could not put him off.

It was time for drastic action: the double fuck off. I put in my headphones AND started to read. But it hasnt worked.

In the last week Ive had 2 drastic examples of how bad things are getting. I had my headphones in and was playing a game on my iPhone on the bus. The lady next to me leaned over, and waved her hand in front of me to signal the start of conversation. What the fuck? Where I'm staying right now has little curtains on the bed for extra privacy - something that really excited me (not like that...). Last night I had my headphones in, I was reading a book and had the curtains shut. A guy came into the room, poked his head THROUGH the curtains and began talking to me.

Suggestions?

CN Toronto

After a month of travelling, what better do to for a break than go see Canada... and family! My cousin lives out here, and in the spirit of making sure Im not dead yet my mam, auntie and uncle all flew out on the pretext of seeing my cousin on the week I was due to be here. Still, for me it meant one thing: A cheap week!


Toronto is home to the famous CN tower, pictured above. Unfortunately the tower was closed while I was there, but it looks great. At night it even lights up! In terms of culture, Canada really doesnt do much different from the US (sorry Canada - but the phrase America's hat really does seem appropriate). On a few occasions when a waiter was asked what you can get to eat thats 'Canadian food' they looked blank, and said that most of the food is inspired by the UK!

After a couple of days we decided to venture further out... and see Niagara Falls! The falls were really amazing. I didnt realise there were 2 sets of waterfall either. Being on the Canadian side we didnt see the waterfall close to the US side too well, but the Canadian one is bigger (and Ive been told better). The picure below is of me looking out in a heroic pose over the falls.


The biggest suprise when we got to the falls was the fact that right next to it is a big fucking casino. For most of us it was the first experience of a big casino, and we werent about to let that go to waste. I personally spent most of my time on the slot machines, slowly building up a respectable loss. To be honest though, I wasnt expecting to make any money - the fun of the casino is in seeing the flashy lights and hearing pleasant noises. Having said that, one member of the family consistantly refused to leave the casino, and always lied when asked how much they lost. For the sake of privacy I cant tell you who that is sadly, but I can tell you it wasnt me.

On the road

As the title of the blog hints, Im travelling via Greyhound bus. I bought a 2 month explorer pass to give me a free ticket on any bus till the 12th March (which Im assuming was financially a good deal - and refusing to check with any other bus company), this has kinda turned into a double edged sword.

The buses themselves are frequent, easy to reach and get there reasonably quickly - of course when I say reasonably the distance does have to be taken into account. The leg room is ok, and since any given bus will often be half full I normally get two seats to myself. Every now and again if Im lucky I'll get a new bus. These have plug sockets and free wifi, which makes a trip much easier and a lot less stressful.

The one thing I really enjoy is that once in a while the bus driver will be amazing. I cant possibly qualify that statement without talking to you guys about James (not me, and not another James Gray). James was my driver on the way into Chicago, and got everyone off to a good start by making everyone learn his name, and would then complain panto style we wouldn't say it loud enough. What made the journey, though, was a mixture of life advice and personal tales he felt it appropriate to give along the way. A sample: "Dont surround yourself with negative people, that in turn will make you negative. Only stay with positive people and your life will improve". Does anyone else think that bus drivers should be taught to do this more often? I normally can't stand bus drivers, but this guy was amazing!

Before I left I was warned by a few people about some of the characters who get on the Greyhound. This wasnt something I really experienced until I left the east coast. I will admit the people I spoke to have in general got a little crazier (Ive been told on at least 4 occasions of a persons regret at the death of Princess Diana), but Ive met some real fun people on the bus. One lady kept talking out loud about how her ex-husband was boasting to her he was living with her sister, only for her to laugh back that she had made up with said sister, and knew he was lying...

Perhaps the thing I dread most is sleeping on the bus. Im not great at sleeping on transport in general, but Ive averaged 2 hours a night while on buses so far. This is entirely my own fault, as I assumed that this was something I'd get over without any problems. The effects arent too bad though, it just means an early night whenever I get somewhere. Next week I have a 36 hour bus trip featuring 2 nights on the bus, its gonna be great.

In the loop.

The windy city, Chicago, turned out to be not windy at all. The name apparently comes from the peoples love of talking (very true), so it was a nice relief to find somewhere to ball-freezingly cold didnt actually have the added problem of wind.

The Willis tower (really called the Sears tower) used to be the tallest building in the world. Its not the tallest anymore, so how could they expect to attract the same sort of crowds to the top? With SkyDeck.



A see through box on the 103rd floor that hangs out over the street. I was scared, before I worked up the courage to stand on it I had to tap my feet on it, and even then I jumped straight off 2 or 3 times before taking any pictures. Its supposedly designed to hold 2 elephants, but I still saw someone come straight off when they saw a really fat person get on...

One thing Ive really liked about this city is that almost everywhere seems to have a free day of the week you can go along to. Art museums, the aquarium, the science museum and the planetarium all have this. My favourite of the bunch was probably the planetarium - perhaps because Ive never seen one before. The theatre is amazing, you lie down and look up at the ceiling and look at cool stuff. In my case the cool stuff was giant collisions in space, and sundance told me how it all worked. Amazing. I also got see this:



Important note: I didnt see this at the planetarium.

Chicago is also famous for its deep dish pizza. When I say deep dish, I mean it: the thing was 2 inches deep. Between me and my friend we only managed one small pizza between us. 3 Slices and we were done! Ive never felt so ashamed, but the thing was so thick! (and so good...) If you come to Chicago my only suggestion would be to do it in Summer. Theres loads to do at this time of year, but in the Summer theres free movies and music in the various parks on an almost nightly basis. And you'd get to take advantage of Lake Michigan, which is a load of broken ice right now.

******************************************************

I feel it would be wrong for me to talk about all the good things in Chicago without discussing what I see as the bad, or in this case, the treatment of the river. Im about to turn into an ill informed Al Gore here so stop reading if your not interested.

The Chicago river naturally ran into the lake, however due to the drinking water being polluted by the waste being put into the river by the City, they decided to reverse the flow. Recently there has been some evidence this is not working as everyone thought all year long. For me this isnt a long term solution to the problem. If theres too much waste being created, sending it somewhere else isnt stopping the underlying problem, not to mention the ecological impact.

On St. Patricks day every year the river is dyed green. They originally used Fluorescein, which was banned after being shown to be harmful to the river. The dye now used is claimed to be completely safe, but seriously, how can this be proven? The ingredients they use are secret!

There are now concerns that invasive species such as the silver carp and bighead carp are going to reach the Great Lakes and wipe out the current ecosystem through competition. These were brought in to farms in the 1970's, but escaped into the river after flooding and have been heading north since. At present the solution is an electrified fence in the river that prevents anything from coming upstream, but again what kind of impact will this be having?

I should note that these are all issues that Ive only been made aware of in the last week, and that most of my research come from wikipedia. If Ive got anything wrong here feel free to point it out in the comments and I can amend any mistakes, but all the things Ive just mentioned here to me seem to be incredibly wrong. How can you take any of these measures without thought to the effects?