Since arriving here on election night I’ve been feeling a bit lethargic, I don’t now if I’m coming down with something or if it’s just the previous six weeks catching up with me. The weather hasn’t helped much either, it rained almost all day every day up until today. I’ve spent a lot of time just hanging around the hostel chatting to the other travelers, watching movies and sleeping, lots of sleeping.

When I did venture out I found Seattle to be a really cool place where people can be themselves, it seems like every other person in the street is covered in tattoos and piercings with pink and green hair.

Being the home of Hendrix, Nirvana and Pearl Jam, it was unsurprising that most of the bars here are slightly on the rockier side, which suits me. One in particular stood out called Shorty’s on 2nd Ave. All the tables in the bar are made from pinball tables with another room out the back with around another 30 tables. Apparently the bar hosts international pinball tournaments as well.

I didn’t really see many of the attractions around Seattle, but one placed I did really enjoy was the Pike Place Market which was handily situated across the road from the hostel. I think it’s mostly famous for the fish stall where people shout and throw fish a lot in front of crowds of tourists, but if you venture a little deeper inside there’s a myriad of cool tiny little specialist shops selling bizarre things like old movie posters, magic tricks wind up toys old Indian herbal remedy’s an trippy little action figures.

The thing I’m enjoying most about travel is the totally random things I end up doing at the last minute. Last night I ended up in a bar at 1am with the 2 people I was sharing a room with (both of them in their pajamas) ordering a cup of tea, just because. Then tonight I was just settling down to watch the movie they where showing in the hostel, when I got invited to a radiohead laser show in the imax theatre in the science museum. Turned out to be one of my favourite things I’ve done so far.

I’m supposed to be leaving for Japan in the morning, but it looks like the connecting flight I was supposed to catch from LA has been moved forward an hour and a half which doesn’t leave a lot of room to deal with any delays. I need to speak to the travel agent I used and try and get booked on an earlier flight down to LA, otherwise it’s going to be a bit of a mad dash through the airport. Hopefully my next blog entry will be from Tokyo and not from the departures lounge of LAX.

I’ve spent my first night in Seattle in a bar watching the election results come in. All the bars were full of Obama supporters screaming, cheering and applauding every result that came in the democrats favour. When the California result was called (only 10 minutes after the polls closed) the place erupted, there was singing and chanting and the bar owner pored everyone a glass of champagne. The atmosphere was pretty electric.

After Obama made his victory speech a samba band came into the bar and gave 10 minutes of drumming and the bar emptied to follow a street procession down to the market square 1 mile down the road followed by half a dozen police cars. The party conveniently stopped directly outside the hostel. And with screams of “yes we can” I left the party. As I’m writing this another group has came from another direction complete with a brass band. This might just be one of the most memorable nights of my life.

I’m not sure why, but instead of heading straight up to Seattle I decided to spend a couple of nights in Portland, Oregon. I’ve heard from a few people that it’s amazing this time of year and the people are friendly. Turns out they were right.

I arrived on Sunday night around 8pm after a 24 hour train ride from San Francisco. I spent the journey sat next to a guy called Elijah who was from Seattle and had been hitchhiking his way around California for the past month and was on his way home now that his money had ran out. I was really impressed at his outlook on life, he works solidly at whatever work he can find for a few months, then travels as much as he can until the money runs out.

The hostel I stayed in was quite small but well run and a lot cleaner than most of the hostels I’ve used. Every night they get the leftover Pizza from the restaurant a couple of blocks away which saved me paying for dinner.

I really only had one day to experience Portland, and unfortunately the weather was very Newcastle like (damp), so the photos haven’t come out very well. I spent the morning wondering around Washington Park which had loads of little trails running through it along with a rose garden and a Japanese garden. I really enjoyed it, the colours of the trees, where truly amazing. In the afternoon I headed for downtown, to a bookstore called Powell’s which is the other thing Portland is famous for. It takes up an entire block and is 3 storeys high; it’s bigger than most libraries. I spent a couple of hours browsing around there and headed back to the hostel. I thought there was a pub quiz in the evening, but it turns I had got my days mixed up and I was a day early so instead I just hung around the hostel talking to a few Americans comparing the differences and stereotypes between Europeans and Americans, turns out everyone’s wrong about everyone.

I’m currently on my last train ride to Seattle which is only about 4 hours long. it’s election day so I’m hoping that the hostel I’m staying in will be showing the coverage of the results tonight, if not I’ll have to find a bar or something. I was a little bit surprised how much of an event it really is, there is a real buzz in the air. I was in a bar when one of the debates was on and there where people sat round watching it as though it where a sports match or something. I can’t really imagine that happening in Britain. Hopefully it’ll be a big turning point for the country.

I arrived back in San Francisco after a 7 hour bus journey through the desert just in time to go on the pub crawl that the USA Hostel organise. They worked out a deal with each of the bars for half price drinks or 2for1′s which to really took advantage of resulting in nasty hangovers for the next days sightseeing.

I have been collecting points from a company called ipoints for a couple of years and I managed to pay for 2 tickets to Universal Studios and 2 Alcatraz/City tours with them.

I think Alacatraz is probably the biggest tourist attraction in San Francisco so it was quite full of people. You can stay on the Island all day if you want, but as we had to get back for a city tour we only had time to do the Audio tour of the main cell house. The tour was quite interesting they tell you about the famous inmates like Al Capone, “The Birdman” Robert Stroud and George “Machine Gun” Kelly. They also tell you about what life was like inside the prison for the inmates, the guards and their families and also a bit about the escape attempts. The Isolation cells in particular looked pretty grim.

We did the city tour in the afternoon, I wouldn’t have done it if it didn’t come with the Alcatraz tour, but it turned out to be pretty interesting with the highlight being a trip up to Twin Peaks, massive hill overlooking the whole city. For me, the most interesting part was the drive back to the hotel seeing all the people dressed up for Halloween party’s mixed with people on their way home from work.

The Hostel held a big Halloween party that night, they take it so much more seriously than we do in the UK. The pictures pretty much speak for themselves, I can’t believe how much effort had been put into some of the costumes. They had free beer on as well which resulted in another hangover the following day for catching the train up to Portland where I am now. It’s a hell of a lot colder than California, might have to buy something more substantial than a hoody.

I’ve been in LA for 4 days now and I haven’t seen a single Blood, Crip, drive-by, car-jacking or any police brutality. I have seen a lot of wannabe actors and actresses with scary amounts of plastic surgery.

After a nasty coach ride from Vegas, we arrived in around 8pm on Sunday night. I was too tired to do anything so just popped to the liquor store and burger place across the road for some beer and burger nastiness.

Monday, we used the free tickets for Universal Studios I got from an internet points thing I’ve been saving for a couple of years. I had a great time and got to fulfill my lifetime ambition and go on the Jaws ride – which turns out to be not a ride at all, but part of the 45 minute studio tour you get. It was spoilt a bit because they where filming desperate housewife’s at the time so they had to keep stopping the tour. If you get the chance to go, I’d recommend the tour, the Simpsons ride, Waterworld show, the Mummy roller coaster and the
haunted house. If you don’t have much time, give the Backdraft show
and the special effects show a miss.

On Tuesday we got a bus down to Santa Monica beach, where I am convinced is where The Lost Boys was filmed… turns out it was at Santa Cruz which is about 6 hours north of here. The beach was really well kept and to too busy, but I guess on a Tuesday in late October isn’t exactly high Tourist season. We walked the mile or so north to Venice Beach which is a mix of cool little indie stores, artists, people hastling you to go on tours and the old hippies who have taken entirely too much acid and completely lost there mind, they are harmless enough but it’s hard not to laugh at them.

Yesterday was a quiet one. I’d been given a ticket for a preview screening of Role Models, for that evening by the guy in the bunk beneath mine. Spent the day hanging around Hollywood Boulevard and Sunset Boulevard. We also did the tourist thing and went to the Chinese theatre where all the handprints are.

I’m catching the shuttle back up to San Francisco for a couple of nights now. I’ve got a tour of Alcatraz booked and I can’t wait to see the place on Halloween.

…and Canals, pyramids, cities and volcanoes

I flew to Vegas on Thursday afternoon, where I met up with Lisa again at the airport. We stayed at the Sin City Hostel which is in Downtown Vegas where all the wedding chapels (including the one where Brittany got married apparently) and a lot of the seedier establishments are. There is a bus called the deuce that connects the downtown area and the bottom of the strip and for $5 you can ride it as much as you want for 24 hours.

We had a wander down the strip going into a few casinos, but I’m not much of a gambler and found it hard to get excited about the gaming tables. All the different casino’s seemed to have free performances or exhibitions on which are quite fun to watch or wander around, I especially liked the fountain at the Bellagio which dances in time with music every 15 minutes. The scale of it is real hard to grasp, but it must shoot water up about 100 feet into the air.

Another pretty amazing thing was Fremont Street which I think is the original strip in Vegas. Now the entire street has been covered in what looks like white plastic, but every hour all the neon lights go off and it turns into a 1500 ft TV screen, apparently the largest in the world.

We also went to the LA Comedy Club at Planet Hollywood, the haunted bridge at New York, New York. And after Lisa convinced me that it would be worth it we went to see the Penn & Teller show at the Rio. I’m really glad she did, I’ve been a fan of theirs since they had a show on late Friday night channel 4.
I’m not really sure what to make of Vegas on one hand it’s the ultimate nightlife city with so many amazing things to do, but on the other hand the whole exuberance of it all made me feel a bit uncomfortable, that the casino’s make that much money from gambling and sex shows that they can afford all the life-size Eiffel tower replicas and 110m high pyramids. The other problem I had was with the amount of hassle you got form the people trying to sell you timeshare or much worse, the lines of people along almost every step of the strip trying to thrust cards in your hand with the promises of 2 girls for $69 or girls to your room in 20 minutes or less guaranteed.

We’ve now left Vegas for LA on a greyhound bus which was what I was originally planning to use for getting around the whole of the USA and I’m bloody glad I didn’t, the seats where uncomfortable with hardly any legroom and they are anally strict about the amount of time you’re allowed for a rest stop. The driver of our bus drove off with 1/3 of the bus still in the service station including a really old couple who had left all their bags on the bus. I felt really sorry for them for the rest of the day.

We’re in LA for 4 nights I got some free tickets for 2 days entry to Universal Studios from an internet points thing I’ve been doing and maybe having a day at Venice Beach or something.

I’ve been hanging out in San Francisco for the past few days, I’m enjoying the California sunshine and eating as many free pancakes as I can stuff myself with every morning.

I’m sharing a room with a guy from Korea called Kym and have spent a couple of days doing the tourist thing with him. We went down to see the Sea Lions on Pier 39, they are all wild and apparently they like the bay because the water isn’t salty enough for their predators(the great white shark and the killer whale). They are funny to watch, they seem to spend there whole time either sleeping, barking or trying to stop other sea lions from getting on their little patch of pontoon.

We also went got a bus up to the Golden Gate Bridge, which is amazing to look at, but full of tourists (and I guess I’m one of them) ticking it off the list.

After the bridge we went to the Golden Gate Park, which was much nicer. It’s very well designed and you can easily get lost in it all day.

I also took a walk through China Town, which had a nice busy feel to it. similar to the one in New York, once you get past all the tourist girt shops and overpriced restaurants you can get a real feel for life in the Chinese community.

The Hostel I’m staying in has a nice Atmosphere and seems to have things on most days and nights. Last night was a cheese and wine night (although in my case it was a slightly less sophisticated cheese and beer night). And there is also TV/Movie theatre in the basement showing a couple of movies every night if you can’t find anything better to do. There are a lot of Asian students staying in the hostel, far more than I’ve seen anywhere else, Kym told me it’s because it’s cheaper to stay at the hostel than it is to get accommodation in the area.

I spent most of the last two days in San Francisco either watching movies in the Hostel TV Room or hanging around the park or Union Square reading. I did make a little geeky pilgrimage to the CNET building in the business district where a lot of the Tech podcast’s I listen to every day are recorded. I guess it’s a bit like a “normal” person going to the set of Coronation Street or something. The evenings on the other hand were a bit more lively, drinking in the basement party room of the hostel, playing pool and table football.

According to my geeky USA by Rail book, the California Zephyr is one of the world’s great train lines. It takes 2.5 days to cross the 2,438 miles (3,922km) from Chicago to San Francisco, spanning 3 time zones, passing through Omaha, Denver, Salt Lake City, Reno and Sacramento.

You might think it’s a bit crazy to sit on a train for well over 50 hours when I could have flown in less than 10% of the time. But by far this has been the best train journey I’ve done in my life. The scenery is gorgeous and the trains not to bad either. The seats are comfortable and recline back with a footrest that comes out and you get about 3 foot legroom between you and the seat in front. There is a dining car for proper sit down meals with table service, there is a lounge car selling snacks and drinks and an observation car with huge windows and seats facing outwards. Sleeping on the train takes some practice, but it’s not too bad especially if you can get a double seat to yourself.

On the way I’ve travelled through Leafy towns, prairies, deserts, ghost towns, mountains, forests and canyons. The highlight was following the Colorado River from Denver to the state Utah state line. The conductor’s voice kept popping up on the PA with titbits of trivia about the local landmarks w and wildlife. Apparently there where bears running around, but I didn’t see them.

The windows of the train are quite scratched and when the sun shines on them it makes it difficult to take photos through, so apologies for the blurry bits and poor quality of some of the photographs.
I’m really glad I made the decision to take the train over flying and hope I get the chance to do it again sometime.

I’m just heading into San Francisco now, where I’m staying for 6 nights so should be a little bit less hectic than the last few places I’ve been to.

I arrived in Chicago early this morning and wasn’t able to check in to the hostel until 3pm. Luckily a couple of blocks away the city’s annual Columbus Day Parade was happening to keep me busy for a few hours. It’s organised by the Italian American communities and basically consisted of all the local school marching bands and a few local business putting on floats.

Chicago is a clean friendly unpretentious New York. I’d choose Chicago over New York any day.
After the parade (see previous post) I went to the Navy Pier which about a mile of funfair, theatres, restaurants and boat tour operators, unfortunately just as I got there everything was closing so I just had a nice quiet walk along the pier anyway.

The following morning on the recommendation of one of hostel staff I headed down to the Millennium Park. Parts of the park are still being built, but the bits that are finished look really smart and modern. It has a huge area where I guess they hold music concerts and in the centre of the park is a huge metallic bean. I’m not sure what the significance of the bean is, but it looks quite impressive. If you stand directly underneath you can see lots of reflections of yourself.

In the afternoon I visited the Museum of Contemporary Photography then got the metro down to the Museum of science and Industry. I love science museums, and this has to be one the best one’s I’ve visited. There are about 20 different exhibitions on ranging from Space exploration (which includes the real Apollo 8 landing capsule, to a mock up of the inside of a warship. It also has real submarine inside, but that cost extra.

The Chicago H.I. (Hostel International) is also one of the best hostels I’ve stayed in, it’s a bit shabby around the edges, but the staff where really friendly and they had a lot of organised activities, like free ice-cream on a Tuesday afternoon. That evening there was an organised trip to a bar called the Map Room. This is a bar in one of the suburbs of Chicago with an international theme; it’s got about 20 international draft beers and well over 100 bottles beers. Every Tuesday they invite a local restaurant to come over cater for the evening and if you buy two drinks you can eat for free. On the night I went they were serving Filipino food, I’m not sure what it was I was eating, but there was defiantly pork rice and some sort of Pasty. There was also a desert of “purple cake” which strangely was served on the same plate as the main course.

Wednesday morning was spent with a hangover in the Laundry. My train left a 2pm so I couldn’t really fit anything else in. I’m currently winding my way through the Rocky Mountains, 24 hours into the 54 hour journey to San Francisco. I’ll write another post about it.

New Orleans is a party city, at the same time there is an incredible amount of poverty. The cab driver that dropped me at the hostel told me “It’s a great place to visit but a bad place to live”. He also told me that the only safe place I town was the famous French Quarter. Everywhere else he recommended not risking it. Unfortunately for me, the India House Hostel I was staying in is about 2 miles from the French Quarter. The only real safe and cheap way to get between the two is by streetcar (really old trams like the one at the Beamish Museum in Durham).

Although the neighborhood was bad, the hostel was good fun. It’s made up of about five small wooden buildings facing onto a courtyard and swimming pool there is an outside big screen projector on which they show movies and college football. They are mad about it in New Orleans, they can fill a 90,000 stadium on a Saturday night to watch two state universities play each other. The Hostel put on a BBQ and for $5 you got a huge meal and as much margarita as you can drink.

The French Quarter of New Orleans is full of galleries, antique shops, markets and bars playing great blues and jazz. It’s full of tourists (mostly American) taking horse and cart rides around the tiny streets. Bourbon Street in particular is great, there are so many bars on that one stretch that they all have drink offers on. I didn’t go at night, but apparently it’s a lot seedier with girls flashing in exchange for bead necklaces.

There is also quite a nice little park in the middle of the French quarter called Jackson Square which provides a nice retreat from the buzz outside, although when I was there it was too hot to sit out in the sun. Around the outside edge of the park there is a host of psychics, astrologers and palm readers, but my favorite was the voodoo bone readers who claim they can read your future by the way some chicken bones land.
At the moment, I’m 10 hours into a 19 hour train ride to Chicago.  I’ve also decided to skip Denver and go direct to San Francisco for Chicago. It takes 54 hours, but I’m expecting some amazing scenery to keep me entertained. Failing that I could fill my time replying to emails and watching movies on my laptop, so please send me an email and let me know what’s happening back home and any ideas for stuff to do in San Francisco.