Stuff...

I left Vancouver after staying three nights there, two in a rubbish hostel with no social areas which meant it was extremely boring, and one in a much better place, which was a lot of fun. Then I went to stay in a small university town just south of the US Canadian border called Bellingham, with a girl I got talking to on the bus between Seattle and Vancouver on my way up, called Annie. I ended up staying four nights there, hanging out with her friends. It was a lot of fun, I've been wondering what students do here, most of them being still underage, and it's very similar to what we do when we are underage, have parties at peoples houses with crates of cheap beer etc, except they sometimes do keggers here, where they purchase a keg of beer for the night. I left for Chicago on Thursday night, and I'm about two thirds of the way through the 2 day 7 hour journey, currently in Fargo, North Dakota, yes, the one the film is set in/ around. I'm staying in Chicago with a friend of a friend of Annies, but I'm going to have to hurry back to New York as my flight to London leaves Wednesday morning.

San Francisco part 2, Seattle, and Vancouver

Saturday I went to a free Jazz festival in North Beach, then checked out a Zombie Flashmob (A group of people agree to meet up dressed like zombies and lurch around the city, www.eatbrains.com) Later I visited Amoeba records in Haight Ashbury, managed to spend 50 dollars on 8 CDs, which is pretty good. It's got a very good selection, but I was still slightly disappointed.
Sunday I went for a walk around the parks, which were very nice, especially the Presidio park which is like a small forest on the edge of the city. Monday I walked across the Golden Gate Bridge. It was pretty foggy, but there was still a good view.
I left San Francisco the next day, headed for Seattle, which took about 19 hours, then, when I arrived in Seattle, I went to visit Jimi Hendrix's grave. It took me a while to find, as it's way out of town, and it's in a pretty big cemetery. That evening there was an open mic night at the hostel which was good fun, there was a Bob Dylan lookalike/soundalike/wannabe who was actually pretty good, as well as a couple of other singer/songwriters who were ok.
Yesterday I visited the Experience Music Project, a big museum of music with a lot of Hendrix stuff, a big Dylan exhibition, a history of the guitar exhibition with lots of old guitars which was fascinating. Then I got the bus to Vancouver, which is where I am now. After finally managing to find a bank which had Visa cashpoints, I now have money and can go out.

San Francisco

I got into San Francisco Thursday morning after an overnight Greyhound 20-hour trip, which was... fun. I arrived only to discover that my bag hadn't made it from LA. I had to fill in a little form and ring them back later to see if it had arrived, which was an unnecessary hassle, that I should have sorted myself changing buses at LA, but it was one in the morning so I wasn't exactly with it.

I wandered round a bit, then went to the hostel, which is very nice. It's called the Pacific Tradewinds hostel, there are a lot of cool people and it's a very laid back relaxed place. I went up Coit Tower, which is a small tower, but is on a hill, so it gives a pretty good view of the city. I also did a bit more wandering. Walking in San Francisco can be very hard work, as some of the streets are very very steep, even 45 degree steep. I went to the Cartoon art museum too, which had some good stuff, and an excellent bookshop, which I could easily have spent a couple of hundred dollars at. The evening I spent drinking in the hostel with a group of people from the hostel, including some Italians, a couple of girls from Manchester, and an american guy who works at the hostel. We ended up in a shisha (that flavored tobacco thing in the big pipe) bar, which was fun.

The next day I went to see Alcatraz, which was very cool. The prison cells were just like the Clint Eastwood film Escape from Alcatraz, so they must have either filmed on location or done a very good job of recreating them. The view from the island was also good, although it was a bit foggy. There were a couple of exhibits on the Indian demonstration in the late sixties on Alcatraz which were fascinating. I haven't really seen a whole lot of reference to the Indian population on my trip apart from the brief trip into Navajo territory so it was good to see the films of the people who occupied the island and their newfound sense of identity after the US government was trying to chuck them off the reservations.

I had a quick look at the area of Lombard Street where the road curves round and round, which I've seen in some film somewhere, either The Rock or Bullitt or something... It's a really beautiful city with some great views from all over the place. I walked back through North Beach, the italian area, past an excellent bookshop which again I could have spent a heck of a lot of money at. Today there's a free concert in Washington Square, part of the Jazz festival, so I'm going to head there after checking out the record and second hand bookshops in the ex hippie area of Haight-Ashbury.

More Mexico, New Mexico and the Grand Canyon

THe evening of my last post, Sunday, I went to an open air jazz concert in a national park in El Paso, which was ok, the songs were all jazz classics, kinda boring, although there were some good instrumentalists. I got some food there too, a burrito which was quite nice, and a "Blooming Onion" which is an onion, sliced up and opened like a flower, and deep fried, served with a sauce or ketchup, it was absolutely delicious.
The next day I cocked up the buses to Flagstaff (for the Grand Canyon), so I went over to Mexico to have breakfast and a wander round, now having a bit more idea of where I was going thanks to the guy at the hostel. I got a poncho at the market for my sister, and had a pretty good omelette with chorizo (mexican salami, a bit spicier). Then I went on my way to Flagstaff.
I was really glad I'd decided to do this journey during the day, because the views in New Mexico, even from the bus, were absolutely amazing. It has some of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen, and I definitely want to go back with a car, and perhaps check out some of the many National Parks in the area.
I arrived at Flagstaff about midnight, which was just too late to be picked up by the people at the hostel. I'd tried ringing them but my mobile ran out of batteries, and by the time I reached another phone they'd switched the answering machine on and closed up. Luckily a nice couple let me share their taxi, so I got to the hostel for a dollar. It was, however, all closed up, so I wandered around for a while, wondering what I was going to do. After a few minutes a guy came along, sympathised with my plight, and let me into his dorm, where there were a couple of empty beds.
Then, this morning, I packed and checked in as if I had just arrived, meaning I stayed there one night for free! I went on the Grand Canyon Tour this morning, and, well, it was awesome. It really is jaw-droppingly spectacular. We had a look round the main area first, I saw a Condor, a great big vulture with a three metre wingspan, got a great picture of it too. Then we went to another spot for lunch, then we hiked down a mile and a half, and back up, which was pretty hard work, but again, some great views. We made a couple more stops, one at a small museum showing stuff on Native Americans and a dwelling of their ancestors known as Puebleans, and another at an are called Desert View, which has a watchtower with some more great views. We then drove back through the Navajo Reservation, stopping off at one of their markets selling jewelry and stuff, as well as some great views of a tributary of the Grand Canyon, which I can't remember the name of.
All in all, a very worth while experience, and a great day.

Eh Gringo!

I'm in Mexico, albeit for a very brief period of time, and it's not too different to southern Texas. El Paso, the city on the American side, and Ciudad Juarez, on the Mexican side, are virtually identical, only the mexican side is a little more run down. It's like a poorer suburb. There is, unfortunately, bugger all else to say about this place. There doesn't seem to be a huge amount to do, so I'm glad I'm leaving for the Grand Canyon tomorrow morning. I arrive in San Francisco on Thursday, with my Alcatraz tour booked for Friday, so look forward to that (because I definitely am). Hopeofully, San Francisco being the metropolitan place it is, I should be able to upload the photos, but I am starting to give up hope on that.

Anyway, Austin was ok, there wasn't a whole lot to do during the day, and almost all the clubs and bars wouldn't even let you in if you were under 21, even the music bars which I had heard would "brand" you with a felt pen to stop you buying drinks if you were under 21. Eventually we found a place that did let me in called Emo's, a (surprise surprise) Emo/punk-rock kinda american teen rock sort of place. We (we is me and an american originally portuguese guy from New Jersey called Rui who I saw again in Austin after meeting in the hostel in New Orleans) ended up seeing a band called Cruiserweight who seemed to be very popular, fronted by a tiny girl in her mid twenties, who could sing and was pretty goodlooking, if slightly irritatingly cutesy, which explains the success anyway... I don't know if they were signed.

I missed the first bus to El Paso so I ended up staying in Austin an extra day, then getting an eariler bus the next day, taking a wander round San Antonio to see the Alamo, then getting the bus here to El Paso. Tomorrow I'm off early to Flagstaff, the place on the Greyhound route nearest to the Grand Canyon, so I'll be seeing that on Tuesday, then off to San Francisco to arrive on Thursday morning.

Now I'm off back to the States, hopefully I won't get stopped at the border (It's actually just a big bridge where they charge you 35 cents to cross).

Catchup part 2

Memphis
Again, no hostel in Memphis so I had to stay in a motel, pretty close to the Greyhound station. I went to Sun records first, where Elvis had his big break, and it was a pretty cool place. They had a lot of memorabilia, and the story of Sam Phillips, the owner, and how he set up the studio, got sued for copyright, then, by discovering and selling Elvis, managed to break even and put out records by Jerry Lee Lewis and other famous country singers, was a fascinating one, and getting to see the studio where Elvis first recorded was pretty cool too. They still use it as a studio, with updated equipment obviously.
After that I went to the Rock and Soul Museum, which was excellent. It had a large blues, country, rock and roll, and soul collection, with an audioguide thingy that had about a hundred songs on it as examples of the various styles. If I'd had more time I would have sat there for ages just listening to it. I also suddenly saw what made Elvis so great. When playing the original "That's allright" by some blues guy (Arthur Crudrup) then playing the Elvis version you can see why the world went crazy. He adds a country style bassline, with more rocky guitar riffs, and you get rock and roll. The other big exhibit was the Memphis Sound of the sixties, with all the soul music with a horn section made in Stax records, which I visited the next day. I'm not particularly into soul music, but Stax was pretty interesting, even though I was only in there for an hour before it closed, as I had difficulty finding it.
I also visited Graceland, Elvis' home and gravesite, as well as a lot of other stuff. His house was pretty cool, a bit garish in places, but the hall with all his gold records was pretty impressive, as were his car collection and his aeroplanes.
The evening i was in Memphis I went to Beale Street, the music area, which is a bit cheesy touristy, but in one place I was in I saw a really good young guitarist/singer, as well as a lot of big blues bands which featured some good instrumentalists, but not much originality. Still, I'd like to go back there with a car, when I'm 21, so I can get to the further out places which are less touristy. The same goes for exploring the Delta, something which isn't really possible with Greyhounds.
Next I went to New Orleans, where I visited Bourbon Street, an absolute shithole, full of drunk tourists and more cheesy blues bands, although I did catch a couple of decent bands, a Zydeco band which is amodernised version of the folk music that comes from the Cajuns/Creoles, who are the various mixed groups who have inhabited New Orleans over its history, as well as a good traditional jazz band. The next day I went on a walking tour of the French Quarter, which was pretty interesting. The history of New Orleans is pretty fucked up with large groups of Spanish and French as well as a large influx of French Canadian catholics who came down when the British chucked them out of Canada. That night I went out with some people from the hostel to the area where the locals go. We caught an excellent blues band, then for some reason went back to Bourbon Street, tourist central, hovered around there for a while, caught another pretty good blues band, then headed back to the pub round the corner from the hostel, where we ended up staying til half six in the morning. The next day I understandably didn't do very much, then, yesterday I went on a tour of the cemetery where they shot Easy Rider, then caught the overnight bus to Austin Texas, which is where I am now, in the Youth Hostel which took me an age to find.

Catchup for the last week

Washington DC.
I arrived in mid afternoon, and after finding the hostel, went on a big walk round all the various monuments and so on. The Jefferson and FDR memorials were the best, the Washington one is a bit boring, although apparantly you can go up to the top which might have been nice. I saw the White House and the Capitol, as well as the Lincoln Memoria, which was packed. I went back to the hostel, which was pretty good fun, there was a good mix of people from all over the place, and we played Texas Hold'em (I lost bigtime) and lots of other card games. I was sleeping on the couch because they ran out of beds, but it was still pretty comfortable, so it was a good stay.

DC to Nashville
This was a 17 hour coach journey, with a stop in Roanoake, Virginia that lasted a lot longer than it was supposed to because the driver of the connection didn't get his wakeup call. The first driver was this crazy southern woman with ginger hair who was pretty funny, but she was also pretty rude to an asian guy who couldn't understand what she was saying. The next driver was a massive black guy with a realy cool voice, who also didn't have a huge amount of patience with foreigners, I think it's pretty standard in the South. I bought a bottle of water from a service station and the guy said it was $550 as a joke, the american sense of humour is a little messed up...

Nashville
I kind of cocked up my room selection here, ended up finding a motel way out of town, took a taxi there, and had to take a bus back but eventually got to the Country Music Hal of Fame, whcich was pretty good, there was some cool stuff, and I saw the first of what was going to be a lot of Elvis memorabilia. I also saw some TV footage of Dolly Parton at 21, and she looked absolutely stunning, compared to how she looks now... There was a load of Johnny Cash stuff too, that was pretty cool, he's got some great music.
It really reminded me of the R. Crumb cartoon that has a picture of three old folks playing banjo, guitar and double bass, and above it says "Where did it go, the music of our Grandparents?". Then it says very small underneath, "It died with them, that's where it went". It depressed me, especially to see some of the more modern country music, which is so cheesy it's untrue. At least the old stuff had something about it, the newer stuff is just missing something. Anyway, after that I wandered round the city a bit, but outside of the central blocks where all the bars are, it seemed a bit of a shithole. Maybe if I went back with a car it might be more fun.