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"Thanks for the change.......so how long have you been homeless"? "Oh I'm not homeless I'm actually backpacking"! This, people, is what it's come to after 9 months of travelling around the world. People in the west suddenly believe that you are a Hobo.....well not me exactly but my mate who was accosted by a fellow hobo over here. So as I'm sure you can understand this wasn't exactly the best start towards the USA but quite amusing all the same. So it's been a funny 3 weeks here dragging our Hobo asses up the west coast and into Vancouver. Sorry for the complete lack of blog over the past couple of weeks. The Internet is really expensive in the States so I've had to leave it to the much cheaper Canada to blog away. Anyway here goes.....
I actually arrived in LA about 3 weeks ago after a long flight over from New Zealand. This was made even longer by the screaming child behind me who constantly decided to kick the back of my seat while her mother smiled and looked on. Man alive. Thankfully the flight was made bearable by many episodes of The Flight of the Conchords and the abundance of free beer they give away too. After filling out 3 forms to get into the states the border guards were suprisingly friendly, didn't give me any hassles and in 5 mins I was on my way into the city. All I can say is LAX is huge. I had to get a shuttle to a car park to get another bus that went to Santa Monica. Walking by the way is so last century and if your'e not driving your'e pretty much screwed. Still the bus ride through town was eventful filled with a selection of randoms along the way. Top marks goes to a HOBO who sat next to me and started chatting away and then tried to sell me weed for the whole journey. Telling that I was going to see friends and that wine was probably a more appropriate thank you gift luckily shut him up. Luckily It only took 30 mins to get to Santa Monica where I was staying with some friends. Santa Monica was a cool place right on the beach and a good selsction of bars which were sampled. I also had my first burrito which is as ubiquitous here as the doner kebab is in the UK although it's much nicer. The US is cool but to be honest it was a culture shock. My biggest bane here is the tipping. There does'nt seem to be any set rules about what you tip for. For example I got my laundry done here and it cost $20. " It's $17 for the service wash and $3 for the tip". Oh I'm sorry why don't you just take the $17 and do your god damn job! Bloody cheek. Still $20 lighter and smelling Downy fresh I was happier. Thankfully I'm now following my own system of tipping which is 10% on the bill for food only and only if the service is good. It's caused some consternation but I don't care. So I spent a few days mulling around LA but as Gladys Night said to her Pips, LA did prove to much for the man so I hightailed it out to San Francisco on the Greyhound. Luckily Pukey Sue was much better on this bus but Windy Pete was not. 6 hours of his emmissions nearly sent me over the edge and almost to the point of longing for Sues return. Thankfully I made it to SF with two fully funtioning lungs but a broken spirit.
San Francisco is a cool town that has a difference on every block you go to. In some areas it's incredibly plush and in some areas it's rough as hell. "Spare some change" became a regular call while I was here. Being the charitable guy that I am, i gave a guy some change while I was sitting down having my subway. ($5 footlongs....get in) It turns out that actually he wanted my sandwich. This wasn't going to happen so he started shouting at me that I was one the parasites of the world holding him back. Blimey all I wanted to do was eat my sandwich and now I was getting yelled at by this a******. I got up and walked away and found a corner to enjoy my sandwich in peace now totally resolved to never give any money to these people again....good sandwich though.
As you may be aware, my plans while on the road change regularly. It's how I travel and to be honest I like it this way.....it's just easier. This is impossible in the US though where you have to plan everything in advance. I managed to book 3 nights accomodation in one hostel. The Italian, who is now stalker numero uno, was coming to San Fran so I decided to wait around a couple of days. However no room at the inn and all the other hostels meant that I had to stay in an expensive hotel in a strange part of town.
The Rough Guide states that this area has a "vibrant gritty and real atmosphere". What this directly translates to is s***hole #1. The hotel was hilarious. The woman checked me in really quickly. What I found out later was that she also checked in another guest to my room the same afternoon. This random woman walks into my room and both of us jump at the same time. She apologises profusely and then goes to talk to the owner who then comes knocking on my door to find out who I am. "errr you checked me in 2 hours ago". "Did I......whats your name I can't see your details". Blimey. So I point out my name and it turns out that she didn't cross my reservation off assuming that I didn't turn up. So had I arrived an hour later I wouldn't have had a room there at all. Then she wanted proof that I paid. Sensing she was slightly mad, I showed her the receipt and then avoided any contact with her for the rest of the stay. When I checked out they had all gone to church so I had to leave the key to the room in an envelope the hallway. So don't stay at the Hotel Tropicana! Anyway after surviving two nights in the Ghetto and getting a hostel for two more nights we were back in the game. Becuase it's the high season here we had real trouble getting a car without paying through the roof so we decided to skip right through to Portland. I finally invested in travel pilow after 9 months of travelling and it's the best thing in the world. It looks like your wearing a neck brace and the drool stains on it take away slightly from it's awesomeness but I don't know how I travelled without one.
With the Italian in tow we headed up to Portland,Oregon. Being the expert planners that we are we arrived in town with nowhere to stay and the all to familiar realisation that all the hostels were full. So I managed to Couchsurf for the first tme on this trip. Basically you join a website that advertises people who are willing to offer you their sofa for a night while your in town. Our host was cool and we were lucky enough to arrive in town during a monthly Thursday night hippie festival which was pretty cool. What wasn't cool was being stopped by a policeman and having my beer poured down the drain while on the street. Obviously there is an embargo on fun in this town (only joking it's prety cool really).
Road Trip baby wooooo yeah! (Sorry went a bit american there it's quite catching). So after hightailing it to the airport it was time to pick up our mean machine that was to take us around Oregon and onto Seattle. I was the driver this time round and managed to get used to driving on the other side of the road fairly quickly despite driving on the wrong side of the road a couple of times, driving across a zebra crossing while people were on it etc. Give me a break I've not driven for ages people. So we were on the road and experiencing proper slices of Americana along the way. Our first stop, was a diner in Portland. We needed a break as I managed to get us lost and we spent the best part of 2 hours trying to get out of the city. The diner was awesome and "just like the movies" (how corny is that), even to the point of the waitress saying she loved my accent and that she could listen to me all day. Cheers love but how about you get my breakfast!! Anyway after a few more stops along the way we headed out to Astoria.
Goonies fans will know that this town is the location it was filmed in and in my childish excitement I was pointing out all the scenes in the film to the Italian. Thankfully also being a fan of the film my geekiness wasn't to irritating, although one more round of "ayyyyyy you guys was definately too much. So after a few hours there we had Americana slice number 2 by staying in a motel. These places are really good and at $25-$30 a night each make more sense than a hostel. It's just a shame they are in crap parts of town. We spent the next day following route 101 south towards the California border stopping at some good towns along the way. I managed to get flipped off by some guy in a car who evidently was a little put out by my turning right. Charming. I'm a Brit give me a break. We had to make a stop for Petrol where we experienced our third slice of Americana. I got out to fill up the car and had just worked out how to unscrew the petrol cap when the attendent shouted over to us to get back in the car. "Sorry"? I said. "Get back in the car and don't you touch that petrol pump or I'm calling the cops". Blimey. Getting back in the car we were suddenly reprimanded by this jobs worth and given a lecture that filling up by yourself is illegal in Oregon and New Jersey. "Sorry I said we're not from here we didn't know". "It's a major offence sir punishable by jail time". Slightly excessive I thought but this guy obviously enjoys his power over us hapless motorists. We paid up, sans tip, and b*****ed off pretty quickly.
After passing through the Redwood National Park we mananged to find a motel in the middle of woods called Cave Junction. The motel and it's owner were seriously stuck in the 80's leading us to believe that the last time they had left the town was circa 1984! Despite this, the Dallas style Motel was cool and so was the town. Here we experienced Americana slice 4. I bought some beers at the store and you always have to show your ID here to get served. So the guy looks at my ID and asks me how old I am today. "errrr 26 the same age I was yesterday". "hmmmm" he says "and whats your name"? Thinking this guy was a complete moron I told to take a guess as it's on the card. This he didn't take to kindly to. I later found out that they always ask these questions here to root out the fakers. Luckily cheery chops cheered up and we got our beer. Man alive. We spent the next 3 days driving through the centre of Oregon towards the Idaho border. Away from the coast Oregon boasts really dramatic amazing scenery which we wouldn't have seen with out a car. The chance to stop in all of these random towns made the trip really worth it to. We really wanted to go to a Rodeo but could'nt find any on while we were there. Oregon is without doubt my favourite place in the states. Alas after 6 days of road tripping we arrived in Seattle ingeniously managing to get the car back to the depot on just the petrol vapours left in the car.
Seattle is a cool city and I had a great couple of days there. We had a good time roaming around the city and taking it easy. Over a beer we joined at our table by a guy and his daughter and they invited us to the Pacific Science Centre the next day as he could get us in for free. Mention free to any traveller and they'll go for it regardless of what it is. Well I'm glad it was free as It wasn't really my thing. Still it's better than a poke in the eye with a big stick as they say. So after 3 weeks in the USA it was time to get to Vancouver and begin the Canadian leg of the trip. We had a weird look from the border official as she asked us how much money we were bringing into Canada. "$30" was our reply. After explainng that we had credit cards though she was happy.
Vancouver is a cool city. Although our hostel is in the Ghetto and we saw a woman have her bike stolen in the first hour we were here, I really like the place. But it's off to Banff tomorrow for some trekking and some chill out time before heading across country. Can't wait.
Can't believe I'll be home in a month. Sorry for the long blog but as the internet is cheaper 'll be more regular......the blog that is.
Ciao Amicos
Will
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