Sunny San Francisco

Journal Entry
January 25, 2006
San Francisco, California, USA

It was a long, and somewhat treacherous, busride down here today but we made it! We rather happily left Portland at 10pm last night on the dreaded red eye Greyhound, 12 hours overnight, to Sacramento where we layed over for about an hour before a quick two hour jaunt into Frisco.

Needless to say I didn't sleep very well last night. I slept for probably 15 minute intervals before needing to reposition myself due to lower back pain, numbness in my leg, sore knees (as the hours went on) or all of the above! It's worth it though, when you think that I didn't have to pay for accomodation last night.

Met a guy, originally from Oregon, named Greg with a killer mullet who does construction and trains horses (or at least owns some) during our layover in Redding, California. He lives in Reno now and, Mom, he totally reniforced the conversations we've had about how Americans seem to be becoming far less insular in their ways these days. In fact, I have yet to meet an American who is anywhere near the realm of pleased with their President...or thinks I ride a dogsled to work. Thank god for small wonders. Of course I haven't hit any red states (and don't plan to Mark) so I know I'm not getting the whole picture, but I'm still pleasastly surprised.



The bus from Sacramento to Frisco was jam packed, which did nothing for my knees, but we made it to Frisco relatively unscathed, and a short walk to the Green Tortoise Hostel all the same. We checked into the mixed dorm and upon entry into the smelly, messy room #1 I was immediately aware of three things...
1) I had a top bunk...shitty!
2) This was clearly a staff room (people here for longer stays and working for their beds)...this is cool cause they're more local and can offer a different perspective on a city than your average traveller, and
3) Everyone else in the room was a guy...okay so no one else was in the room at the time but some things a woman just knows...and smells!

We weren't super happy about the room we'd landed but at that point the only thing either of us could think about was getting our stinky, sticky, Greyhound asses into showers...and coffee! I didn't want to get out of my shower, it felt so good, but eventually I did and we hit the streets for a little foot tour of the neighbourhood.

First stop was definately Starbucks. I'm on a budget, yes, but after the night on the bus, I had no qualms in justifying a grande latte. Done and done!

We started walking around and immediately I knew I liked Frisco. It's a big city and we all know how at home I feel in a big city. Also nice was the fact that, unlike Seattle and especially Portland, I didn't look around at the locals wondering just what was wrong with half of them. What drug they were addicted to? There are definately some interesting characters in those cities. Don't get me wrong, they are nice cities but many a sad character is wondering their streets.

We got back to the hostel in time for a couple cold ones and the free Wednesday night dinner. It was so nice to have a square meal after 14-15 hours of nuts and dried fruit. The mexican theme certainly seemed appropriate. It sure is a good thing I like beans and rice cause there's a whole lot more of it in my immediate future.

Over dinner we met one of our new roommates, Travis (Aussie), and the mystery of the nasty smell in our room was uncovered. Now, bear with me on this one cause it's a little unpleasant...good thing it's slightly amusing too!

There is a bay window in our room that has a bed built into it. Travis had truned in early the other night and was sleeping in it when he awoke to the sound of water running and was both half asleep and very confused. Confused because there is no sink (or any other water source) in the room. As he became more lucid he realized that one of his roomies was, I kid you not, relieving himslef on Travis and the bed...DISGUSTING!!! Now this doesn't excuse the messy state of the room, but it does excuse the smell. Anyway, the windows have been open all day and I'll be happy to double up on blankets and keep them open all night. Travis is my bunk mate, sleeping below me, so I promised him I wouldn't pee my bed!

Tomorrow is Australia day. I'm sure my friends down under are partying hard as I wirte this and we will be doing the same tomorrow. A couple of the Aussie's living here now, have some traditional Aussie festivities planned so I'm going to partake. It all starts with a cricket match in Washington Park tomorrow afternoon (yes, I'm going to play cricket) then a baked potato fest and a pub crawl to cap off the night. Tomorrow I pretend I'm Aussie for a day...why the hell not?

I've booked my bunk through to Tuesday so I'm looking foward to some good times and good exploring in the coming week.