Travel Diary day 5: The drive to Yosemite

Today we did something that only only crazy people do. We hired a car and proceeded to drive on the wrong side of the road.

We started off getting our hire car and driving across the Golden Gate Bridge twice and having Sam deciding to forget to drive on the right and nearly killing all three of us.

American highways are slightly more confusing than ours , so luckily for us we got a Sat-Nav that for some reason kept wanting to send us on the "scenic route" which culminated in us stopping and grabbing some snacks at a Gas station in Oakland, which was so dodgy that it accepted food stamps...

After several hours driving we stopped off at "Francho San Miguel" supermarket. And Boy was it super!! This place was fucking huge! I swear you could buy food by the pallet. We bought supplies (beer Malibu and Tequila) and possibly the greatest invention of all time. Bacon Cheese. Yes thats right. Cheese flavoured like Bacon.

Later on that day we pulled into Yosemite national park. It was like everytime you rounded the corner it became even more incredible. Words really dont explain how incredible it really was.

We pulled into the housekeeping camp and I discovered that I would be sleeping at an almost 90 degree angle. Awesome

Travel Diary Day 4: Hooters and Cable Car

Today was a very special day. Today was the day we set aside to go and visit the greatest restaurant America has ever produced. Hooters...

We started the day with a visit to Westfield San Fransisco. 12 levels of shops, all to find Sam some funky fresh shades and Al some new Kicks (sneakers). It was freaking huge! Riding the curved escalators was a frightening experience for me (I'm slightly afraid of heights and by slightly I mean extremely) If you feel my pain I'd avoid them like the plague.

We then caught a streetcar down to Pier 39. Just had a wander through the sports store to find a new jacket and boy did I find one! San Fransisco Giants Baseball Jacket. I have never had a jacket fit so well! (Editors note: The Giants later won the World Series) We adopted them as our Go to team while we watched the many and oftentimes confusing American sports on ESPN.

We couldn't go to San Fransisco without trying some famous Clam chowder (despite my dislike of seafood) So we stopped off at a place and within its outdoor seating area we had a huge "bowl" of chowder. I say "bowl" purely because it was served in a giant sourdough bread bowl. It was actually pretty tasty..

Now here is the highlight of my trip so far. We couldn't get tickets to the Giants game so we did the next best thing. We went to Hooters! I can honestly say I have never felt like I belong as much as I did there. Hot super friendly women, Beer and spicy chicken wings. I think I might secretly be American. Sam tried his hardest but surprise surprise in the manliest of all restaurants in existence he did not fit in...

On the way out of Hooters something a bit weird happened Sam and I were walking out of the restaurant and this girl walks up to us and asks us if we are from Perth. Now this being the case we replied with the affirmative and asked how she knew this. She too was from Perth and actually had the same Taxi driver as us just after us! He had actually described Sam's mohawk haircut and that he was hanging out with 2 other dudes. She recognized us and we ran into her in one of the biggest cities in the world... In HOOTERS!!

To get back to the hostel we caught one of San Fransisco's iconic cable cars. It was awesome! Hanging off the side while traveling the streets of San Fran was incredible and one of the must do things in a lifetime. We stopped halfway through to see the cable car museum. Learning about how it all works and seeing the machines that make them run was very interesting.

That night we were pretty knackered after a rich, full day of hard walking but we had a bit of a wander around and Al , for some unknown reason, announced that he would like to see a genuine SF gay bar. So Sam obligingly (and frighteningly quickly) googled Gay bars and we found one nearby.

Unfortunately for Al it wasn't what we could call a "stereotypical" Gay bar. So much so that it had a picture of a topless woman behind the bar! Which lead to one of my favorite comments of the trip so far. When the bar man inside the gay bar asked what we were after Sam replied with "just browsing thanks". Possibly not the right thing to say in a Gay bar.

After that dispointment we went back to the Hostel and drank and played Liars dice...

Travel Diary Day 3 Meet the Hippies!

Awaking up at 9am for a day of fun an frivolity in a brand new city is awesome! Unless you spent till 3am drinking, then it is not as much fun as it sounds... But we carried on anyways deciding to hit up Fishermans wharf and other such stereotypical tourist sites...

After catching a bus we came across Fishermans Wharf which is basically Mecca for fat tourists. We walked along most of the piers and boy did I pay for it... Even my Blisters had blisters... Walking through Chinatown was an effort.. So many people on the sidewalk! Everyone was packed in trying to buy fruit and whatever else was availble on the sidewalk! It was freaking nuts!

But whilst drinking last night we heard talk of a free concert off in Golden gate park. Now if Fishermans wharf is Mecca for tourists then this was mecca for smelly unwashed hippies. There was thousands of them!! There were more people than I have ever seen gathered in 1 place at one time! It was freaking epic! We forced our way to the nearest stage (banjo stage) and Al got himself yelled at by a woman for smoking despite the fact we were outdoors and she was like 10 people away but the smoke was getting to her so much she nearly died of a coughing fit...

So we sat down at the stage! Literally sat down at the stage! All of us! Thousands of people sitting down to watch Joan Bayez! (she played at Woodstock! Be impressed!)

By this stage it was a bit later on so we managed to figure out the bus route home and rested for a bit...

That night Al had recommended (via his copy of Lonely planet) that a great place in San Fran to go and drink was South Market St... There was nothing there! So we tried again this time catching a train down to Mission St. This was a bit better with lots of what they call "dive" bars. A "dive" bar is pretty much what you see on American TV. 1 Bar with lots of people standing around... These were exactly the same filled with people who wanted nothing to do with us...

Unfortunately we did not realize that the trains stopped at 2am. So we were forced to walk basically the distance of Osborne Park to Northbridge... It was harsh.

-Makin-

Just what I am listening to At the Moment

Travel Diary Day 2 (or day 1 again)- Save me San Fransisco!

After an epically long plane ride where all 3 of us got fuck all sleep and Al and Sam learnt that plane rides are made all the more fun when you are drinking Bloody Marys... (I did not like them) we arrived in the Foggy city of San Fransisco. Don't forget to wear a flower in your hair.

It wasn't the greatest of starts. We got off the plane all full f hope and wonderment of this mystical land and it was my job to figure out how to get to the hostel from the airport. Now being the super organized person I am I had looked into it a couple of weeks before and found out we could catch the "Bay Area Rapid Transit" (BART) train from the Airport directly to the Powell St station. As the train went along we suddenly got the delightful smell of burning... Now being Non Americans we assumed this was normal and that was just how Trains smelt over here... Apparently not as we were asked to disembark at the next stop because THE BRAKES WERE ON FIRE!! True story... We waited for 5 mins for the next train (no burning smell this time) and rode it to the station without incident.

Upon arrival at our new home at Globetrotters Inn I, with my Internet booking in my hand, went to check in. Whats that? Despite my Internet booking and the fact I have paid a $30 deposit you don't have a reservation for us? and you are full and cant fit us in? AWESOME! Luckily for us there was a hostel around the corner with some space so we didn't have to sleep in a cardboard box on the street.

Just coming off a 20 hour flight and not having slept for nearly 30 hours culminated in us all being super jet lagged. We walked around for a bit but deep down we knew that our excitement wouldn't keep us going forever and eventually culminated in a 4 hour nap.

Our first night in San Fran and we decided to hit a bar. Ironically we decided to hit an Irish bar that was full of Aussies as the Grand Final replay was going on.... I tell you what I can see why Americans are fat. The food is cheap and massive portions! Are you generally get a side of fries with it, and when I say a side a fries generally it is a whole plateful! Its crazy!

Plus Beers over here are super cheap. We were in a super packed bar drinking with a whole bunch of people and were buying Pitchers (jugs) for $15US! No wonder I felt like absolute arse the next morning...

And on possibly the most exciting note ever as you do when stumbling home drunk we passed our first American Maccas and of course nothing says drunk in America like Nuggets.
20 nuggets for... $5.99! And Dr Pepper on tap!
Dear God I may have died and gone to Heaven!!

Travel Diary Day 1

As many of you know I recently went on a month long tour of America Mexico and Cuba. I took down some notes and stuff, so I thought I'd share them with y'all.

Enjoy

Day 1: The Day of Many flights.

Waking up at 2.30am is never fun, unless of course you are off gallivanting around continental America with your two best mates...

After being woken by Al and his brand new ritual greeting of "This is it boys!" we were taken Via taxi to the Domestic Airport where we realized we were far far too early for our 5.45 am flight. After checking in and gearing up we realized that we weren't sitting together Al and I were sitting on the window side and Sam was in the middle row partially to the left. This did cause a slight pack mentality and left poor Sam feeling a little picked on after we spent most of the flight giving him shit...

Sydney Airport was fun, but not so much for Al, who apparently looked dodgy and was swabbed for explosive residue(a trend which continued for almost every airport) He was promptly cleared but not before some mocking from Sam and myself...

Duty free in Sydney had a very aggressive approach which clearly worked on me and Al, with both of us buying new cameras before we hopped on the plane for our epically long flight to San Fransisco....

-Makin-