Boxing Day

Today Tom, Lauren and i had booked ticket to go to the MGC to watch the cricket (Australia verses South Africa). We walked to the stadium and picked up the tickets. The MCG is so well designed, although we were up in there the nose bleed seats we felt really close to the action. Tom wasn't feeling great because he'd had a bit much to drink the night before so he wasn't well and keep disappearing for half and hour at a time and coming back looking grey.

Lauren and i went for a walk around the stadium because i want to buy a radio to listen the commentary. Which was well worth it in end, its so much more enjoyable being able to see, listen and enjoy the atmosphere. Across from where we were sitting was the MCG's equivalent of the north bank at the vetch. Some of chants were really comical. This area of the MCG was the origin of all the Mexican waves. I had a really good time and we watched about 75 overs out of the 70. A really good day and the was made even better by the weather. Tom and i are planning to maybe go back the fourth day to watch the Australias bowl.

Christmas eve and day, Down under

Christmas eve was planned that we would go over to Laurens house on the other side of the city for a few bottles of wine. We headed over about 9ish . All the buses are free around Melbourne around Christmas time which is really cool. We arrived at Laurens a little late so we didn't get to meet her house mate. We hung around for a few drink and mince pies which were nice and then Smithy and I headed off.

Lauren had said that Chapel street near her house would be a good laugh to go for a Christmas drink so Smithy and i headed off. When we finally got to Chapel street it was dead. Lauren had offered if we wanted to stay at hers we were more than welcome. I wanted to wake up in my own bed so i persuaded Smithy to head back to Collingwood to stay at ours. We got the taxi back to Brunswick street and had a walked down there convinced there would be somewhere open and the nightlife bouncing. Oh how round we could have been. Normally you can't see down the pavement because of all the people, tonight you could see all the way down the street. We wised up and walked back to the hostel and went to bed. I'd had a few too many by now so i slept like a baby.

I awoke Christmas morning feeling what only could be described as "death". I'd heard of a miracle cure that could make things a whole lot better or a whole lot worse, starting drinking again. So i got out of bed, climbed down the bunk ladder reached into the fridge and grabbed me a beer. It worked, the first few sips were like drinking water from the tawe. After that i felt great. I finished the first, the second and so on, by lunch time I'd had about 8 or so and was well on my way.

Paul the owner of the hostel had organised a BBQ for all those who were staying over Christmas so that was ready to eat by one o'clock. We had that and continued to drink. Smithy and i had drunk about 14 bottles each by about 5ish so we started on the wine. Again, i was plastered but it was all good. I rang the family and loved one. Grandparents, Popsicles, Mumma, Bondy and most importantly Bex. I only had emails for Christmas presents, the four or so i had of Rebecca made me really really miss home and her. I'll explain what i think of Christmas away from friends and family at the end.

I sat on balcony with all the Irish guys telling stories of Christmas past and Christmas cultures in Ireland. I think there biggest culture is you have to be hammered and watch the classic Christmas films. Much the same as home really.

I stayed up until about 12 drinking and went to bed because we had an early start the next day to go and watch the cricket in Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).

My thoughts of Christmas in Australia.
If waking up in a room full of guys wasn't strange enough everyday, it being Christmas added to the mix made it worse. Hot Christmas's' are wrong, very wrong. A few things that make them so wrong are the fact that you don't have any desire to cuddle up to you blanket, walk around in your PJ's and slippers for a few hours. All you want to do i put on shorts and t-shirt and try and hide from the sun. Then you've got the added fact that you don't have your family ringing to wish you Merry Christmas and see what time your all planning on hooking up to have lunch.Arguments about the state of the economy and other political matters that really shouldn't be brought up on Christmas day (don't get me wrong, i love family Christmas day debates). Then there's the lack of the dinner. BBQ's aren't acceptable on Christmas day (apart from BBQing the Turkey because that rocks).

There are a few other things that make Christmas away from home wrong but i won't mention them because i don't want to seem ungrateful to all the people that are supporting this trip away. Oh, chocolate is one other thing i will mention. The lack of chocolate on a Christmas day is unacceptable.

Christmas is family time and i will appreciate it more next year when I'm home.

Meet the Lakers

Today I planned to go to Melbourne to ring the loved ones and send postcards. I got to the city about 8 and I could put money on my phone, so I wonder around the city like a lost lamb for an hour looking at all the churches and sky scrapers. After I had hung around and made some phone calls Woody called and said he was heading into the city to do some shopping and offered did he want him to show me the sights and sounds. Tom and Lauren had also planned to come into the city later that morning. I went to meet woody at the tram station. We wonder around for a bit, bumped into Tom and Lauren a few times so we agreed to meet in the roof top bar in the centre of the city around 1ish. The roof top bar is a really nice place to have a casual drink around midday. Its 7 stories up and there’s loads of bean bags to chill out on enjoy a beer. The view is a 360 degree view of the city centre of Melbourne. Woody and I later split up from Tom and Lauren again to leave them to move stuff out of Lauren's old house. Woody and I ended up getting a train back to his house we I meet his parents. They were so nice, they gave woody and I a lift to the biggest shopping mall in the Southern hemisphere, they shouted me a lunch and an ice cream and even bought me bicarbonate of soda to shop me new shoes from smelling. When we went back to Woody’s place I spoke with his old man about beach cricket and general cricket. He said the best time in the whole of the year to go and see the cricket is Boxing Day, Australia versus South Africa in a test. He thinks there should be about 90 thousand or so people there doing the same thing I intend on doing, getting steaming all day and watching some world class cricket. I can’t wait. We spoke about cherry picking and the slave labour it is and they suggest that when Tom and I get back from Tasmania where we plan to pick fruit in the New Year we could go to their beach house in Philip Island for a week just to get over the hard work. Sounds like an offer I would be insane to refuse. That evening we went out for a beer, but because woody is skint we ended up back rather early. I had a really good day thanks to the Lakers. On and by the way……..
Merry Christmas to all the readers and a happy new year!
I hope to see a few more people commenting in the New Year.

Off to Melbourne

Tom and I had been offered a lift to Young by Stuart who was now in a better mood. Smithy and Lauren had decided to hitch-hike from young to Melbourne which is about 600 to 700 kilometres. We got the bus to Cootamundra and sat about for roughly half an hour. We ordered a burger from the station café and when it came it was unbelievable. It had so much filling some rather strange but it was definitely the nicest burger I’ve had since I left Wales. Some of the more interesting ingredients in this burger were pineapple, grated carrot, egg and even beetroot. We ate our burgers just in time for the train to come to arrive. Tom and I got aboard, got the sleeping bag out and had a sleep for a few hours.
When we arrived at Melbourne roughly 7 hours later we found out the Smithy and Lauren had had a spot of luck and was roughly 30 mins behind. Tom and I got a taxi to the hostel which is just off the wind street equivalent called Brunswick Street. We checked into the hostel, well kind of, a really cool Irish guy opened the door for us and told us were staying. As I write this we are in our third day off our stay and I still haven’t paid or meet the manager.
That evening we rung an old friend which we had made in LA and road tripped with, Woody. He was ecstatic to hear that we were in Melbourne. Woody and a friend of his drove over to come and have a beer with us. We walked up and down Brunswick Street looking for somewhere to have a pint but because Tom and I had left our shoes in Young because they stank and they were totally trashed.

End of cherry picking for now

So we stayed in young a few days after picking because we awoke the following morning to Stuart shouting that we all had to get up and pick a few lugs for his son to make a few dollars. I thought sure this won’t take anytime at all, little did I know that the few lugs had to be spot picked (spot picked is when you strip a tree of the cherries but don’t put any bad cherries, this take at least an hour or more to fill a lug) today was going to be a long day. We picked about three or so that day, this meant we had to stay a day extra, miss our bus to Melbourne. We had a few beers to celebrate the hardest day picking.
On the last day we had a few photos with the last surviving members of the back creek team.

The Great party

Stuart popped over to see us all in the morning and asked which pizzas and beers we wanted. We order 20 pizzas, 6 crates of beer and a box of goon (cheap wine to you and me). We started partying about an hour before the rain started. After a few ideas I had the excellent idea of making a beer bong (a funnel and a plastic bottle connected). At this point the beer was doomed. We decided the nationalities on the farm would race. This meant the French, Aussies, Canadians, Germans and the mighty welsh would face off. Obviously I was the one doing the beer bongs for Wales. We all did a few and a couple of people were close to being sick. The Aussies won, Wales came second and the French came last. About three hours after the beer had been delivered it was all gone. I had completed 5 beer bongs and I was well on my way, leery could describe it best. We started doing wine beer bongs, about 2 hours after that I was in been with the spins. Good times! Have a look at some of the photos from the party.

A few days off

So after working for 4 days the farmer popped over and informed everyone that we would be having two days off to let the next variety of fruit ripen. The first of the two days off we spent chilling out around the camp site, playing cards, scrabble and even a spot of cricket which was a good laugh as everyone played. The weather was hot so naturally that meant we were having a few beers too.
That evening we planned to go out for a drive to water hole (koorwatha falls about 50 kilometres away. We left the camp-site and headed there in three vans and a 4x4. It took about 50 mins to drive there, the drive was along all types of roads the last was a dirt track. All the vans were getting thrown around so I was glad to be in the Germans 4x4. Only Smithy and I had been able to get a lift so when we got there it was about a 10 minute walk through the bush to get to the water hole. One of the farmers sons had mentioned because it was such a war and clear day that the snakes would be out. He’d also mentioned that he’d seen a brown snake that morning and they’re deadly. Once bitten by one of these beasts you’d have roughly 15 minutes before you were dead. Knowing that, made me rather anxious while walking through the long grass knowing that the nearest hospital was at least an hour away. There were about 16 or so of us, all were carrying various stuff, and I had been tasked to carry the cooler box full of ice and beer which got heavy after about two minutes. Smithy was in charge of the bongo and the guitar. We walked to the water hole and had a beer. The sun was beating down hard that day so we planned to get the jumping under way. Heath, Joel and Paddy all climbed the rock face and then jumped. Joel jumped first and no one had been in the water to test the depth. He didn’t hit the bottom so the other two boys jumped. After a while I started to get abused by everyone for not jumping yet (sounds like home and work, funny that). I got changed and jump. When I hit the water I thought the back of my left leg had fallen off because I sort of assumed the fetal position. Not a great idea from the height of the jump. After a few hours when it started to cool down we all decided to head back. We hopped back in to the vans. We stopped at the bottle shop on the way back to get a few boxes of beer for good old knees up.
The second day of we had was just as hot as the first so we planned to go to the local swimming pool in Young. This pool was like no other I’ve ever been to. It was so chilled out, they had a diving board which was a really good laugh (see photos) they even had a BBQ which was free. We spent a few hours at the pool which was nice.
When we got back to the farm we all chipped in and paid for Pete to cut matt a mullet. It was the dirty most horrible mullet I’ve ever seen. Shows what being bored on a farm in the middle of now-where can do to you.

Off to the back of Beyond

So to get to young we had to get a train to Cootamundra and from there we had to get the bus to Young. The train left on time at 7:45 and we got to Cootamundra about 12:50. Unfortunately we had an almost 2 hour wait until the bus would depart so we walked to get some lunch. I had half a roasted chicken and half a loaf of bread, a good hearty meal even by my standards.
We got the bus to young which only took about 50 minutes. We got there unloaded our bags and walked into town to find a place to say. The cherry picking season was about to start a day later so there was no where to stay. Luckily Smithy saw a mate from Sydney and he informed us we could stay in a cattle shed on a race horse track for $3 each a night. We walked up there in the baking heat which took ages.
We got there and saw the French guys who had given us the directions and another group that could be only described as drifters. Basically your typical type of person that got drunk all day and fruit picked when they could be bothered or needed money for more booze. We only stayed there a night because Smithy nor I felt comfortable with leaving our bags with all our worldly belongings in. That was the first night we slept in our single skin tent and believe me, it was hell!
The month of the fruit.
Last night was terrible, no sleeping bags, only every item of clothing i had in my bag on to keep me warm. We got up early to walk down to the ready workforce building to pickup details of our placement. We arrived about 10 minutes after the building opened and had an offer for work by about 9:15. We were given the address so we needed to get supplies. First stop was the camping shop then the supermarket and lastly the Op shop (charity shop to you and I). I spending broken down to roughly the below.
Camping stove and pots and pans: $22.50
Food for three days for three people: $20
Sheets and pillows from the op-shop: $10
Only buying two sleeping bags for three people and making the same mistake as Yosemite: PRICELESS!
We headed back to Workforce and waited for another Tom from Chile who would be on the same placement with us to arrive and share a taxi. When he did arrive we got the taxi, which was creaking with the sheer amount of baggage and food and got it up to Bill Smithers’ farm. It was about a $40 taxi ride. We unloaded the taxi accidently stealing the taxi drivers uniform jacket, setup the tent and got taken up the fields to get on with the work.
Fruit picking isn’t easy, it hurts your fingers. We were warned by the drifters in the cattle shed to watch out for red back spiders as well as another five or so various spiders and snakes that could potentially kill us. I was starting to this wasn’t such a good idea. Bill taught us how to pick to pick the cherries and we were away. We work from about 1pm until roughly 6. We headed back down to the tent thoroughly pooped. Finger was killing but we hadn’t even started yet. We slept like babies that night. When we awoke the next day we all had agreed that last night’s sleep was much better. Tom, Smithy and I got up about 6:30, had breakfast and headed up to the field to start picking again. Today was hot, when i say hot i mean a good 35 degrees of head. We used the spare t-shirt to FASHION turbans. Our diet for the picking in this farm was to be cereal for breakfast , crisp sandwiches for lunch witch Simthy had kindly introduced us to (much like Woody and the foil packs). For tea we had pasta pasta and pasta. Things were good. That day we picked 27, we were lucky because we were allowed to trash the tree which normally is a big no go but because he planned on knocking them down we were allowed to rip the buds and even snap the branches.
The day after we got up well early but when we got to the fields, we quite simply couldn’t be bothered. We finished picking the row and the farmer had told us to move up to the corner of the field where there was a retched stench. We all thought it would be the toilet block from the next farm. When Bill came up later to pick up the lugs (which i will explain later) he informed us that the horrific stench was an inquisitive horse that had got bitten by a snake was rotting about 50 meters away, Nice! We picked the two rows by the rotting horse; we were then instructed to head up to the back of the field about 1last day5o meters away from the farm house and packing room. We finished the day with 21, which wasn’t bad because we started the morning by only completing 8 lugs. We headed back to the farm about seven, cooked tea, had a shower and went straight to bed. Tomorrow was to be out last day on Bills farm so we had a beer to celebrate.

A few days in Sydney

The next day I woke up without a hangover so Tom, Smithy and I went for a walk around the botanical gardens and to see the opera house. When we got to the opera house a film crew were setting up for the Australians dot talent final. We watched one guy practice his song (Sex is on fire by the Kings of Leon) and walked back. On the way back through the botanical gardens we say loads of bats hanging in the trees and loads of cool birds. That evening we went over to the kanga House for a few drinks with our new mates and a few guys we had played football with the day before offered did we want to go to a house party in an area not far from central station. When we got there it was more of a gathering of friends all of which were Swedish. We only ended up staying about half and hour and headed back to Kings Cross to go on to a pub. Tom went home so Smithy and went to a little pub, had a two pints and headed back to the hostel. Went straight to bed when we got back.
Smithy had managed to get us a fruit picking placement in Young. Young is a little town of about 12,000 people about 400 kilometres inland from Sydney which we planned to head to two days later. Knowing this Tom and I got up early and went for a walk around Sydney to see the sights. The weather wasn’t great but the banter was in full flow. A lady that we where stood next to at a pedestrian crossing asked did what we where we looking for. We planned to get cheap T-Shirt because we assumed fruit picking would be a messy business. She recommended if we wanted to get cheap clothes we should go to a part of the city that was the opposite from where we were. Tom said we should walk because it was a nice day and that way we would get to see more of the city. We walked through some of the cities parks and through china town. When we got to the market area it was teeming with activity. Lots of street performers were out as it was the weekend. Beat boxers, people playing the drums and even a Chinese man playing a traditional Chinese instrument that could only be described as a two string violin. We Wondered around the market looking for cheap T-shirts and even cheaper fruit. We found both, the T-shirts were about a £1 each and they were terrible. They must have been in fashion about ten or so more years ago. They were covered in luminous koala beers, kangaroos and wombats. We got a few oranges which were also really cheap and strolled back through china town the business district and back to the hostel. We chilled out for the rest of the day trying to catch up on my blog (Thanks to Cathy for the gentle shove).
That night we went to bed early because we had to get up about 6:30 to get the train to Cootamundra. This didn’t mean we got much sleep, two Irish guys from the hostel must have been determined to not let anyone get a good night sleep because they were up drinking until we left. They made one hell of a racket. When we got up to leave i spoke to one of the guys and he had told me that his mate was playing on the roof and had fallen off, he had broken his arm, cut is hand and split his thumb. There was blood all over the floor. Silly Irish boys.

Off to Australia

Stop number two.... Australia.

We got to the airport in plenty of time so we checked in and relaxed. Tom and I watched a film on his laptop and next time I looked up we saw two airport cops standing in front of us. Some silly guy had left two of his bags in the departure lounge and the police had come to investigate why. The dude was nowhere to be found so they had the dog sniffing the bags. After about five mins the police started looking through his bags looking for ID. The dude came back after about fifteen minutes and they had a stern word with him about the dangers and so on.
The flight went ok, Air New Zealand are really good, plenty of leg room and free booze and even a choice of meals. We watched a few films but I mainly slept for nine out of the thirteen hours. We got our transfer in Auckland and slept again on the transfer flight.

Summary of America

This entry is just my thoughts and feelings that I have gathered about America in the last 56 days. So first, i was always under the impression that America was customer service is there number one priority. After my stay i now believe this isn’t the case for the following reasons. The hostel staff in all bar one of the hostels we stayed in where largely very unhelpful. The information booth at Pier 39 gave us the same impression. The staff at restaurants and bars got really annoyed if you asked for a different drink or to have your meal served a different way to than the usual requests they had. Secondly tipping, i HATE tipping. I know its part of their culture but when you don’t have enough change to tip them, which doesn’t happen often because the larger half of your change is made up of one dollar notes. They get really annoyed and even arsey. If you don’t tip at a bar, the bar staff will ignore you until you end up shouting at them. The last thing, TAX, I hated the tax system out there. Why not just add the tax to the final price. For example you see a deal on beer, $10 for a case say. When you get to the counter you end up paying another $4 for tax, it got me every time. Same with most food.
On the bright side, California has awesome weather we were sun bathing on Pacific beach on the 13th of November. The public transport out there is cheap and reliable. Metro buses, Trains and trams always ran on schedule. We also meet loads of cool mates, some I’ll never see again, and some I’ll see in Oz in a few months.
56 days in America was plenty, I sometimes wish we’d gone to more states but i plan to go back at some point to drive from the east to west coast.

Back to LA for the last time

Today we had to get up early after the carnage last night of Tijuana. The lady that took us on the tour last night would be working check out this morning so last night I managed to persuade her to let us check out before 11am instead of 2 am without losing our deposit of 20 bucks. We got up packed our bags and said goodbyes to our two Irish mates, Sean and Steve. Tom and I walked to the bus station and booked ourselves on the 12:25 bus. We sat down and waited, i carried on reading this book that i picked up in San Fran which i was well into. The bus ended up being about an hour and a half late. We got an and about two hours later we got to the down town bus station in LA. We had to wait about an hour and forty five mins to get the transfer to the Hollywood greyhound station. After we had waited all that time we got the bus for about 15mins and got off. I really can’t believe that we waited all that time for such a short ride. Doh! When we got to Hollywood we walked back to the hostel our stay in America started in. Funny it would house us for our last days of travelling in America. We popped out for a Mexican as we hadn’t eaten all day. The place wasn’t far away so we walked there. When we got back to the hostel we meet three guys from the last hostel we stayed in San Diego. Tom and i ended up having a few beers with those guys and a few more people we meet. Ended up going to bed rather drunk.

The last booze up

The last booze up that we would have in America would be a different if not a little scary. We planned to go to Tijuana with the hostel on a Saturday. If you mention Tijuana or TJ to any american they instantly tell you "It's a warzone", "Are you sure you want to go" and "The police down there are bent as a butchers hook". This in itself didn't inspire confidence in a already weary and nervious chain of though i had about the whole trip.

We got the train down the which was heaving so we had to stand for 45mins. We got there and it felt so werid as if the group of us were in quarrintine. We went to the first bar and had 1 dollar cornonas which was awesome. Out there they give you a bucket with loads of bottles in and a bottle opener. You pay them after you've drunk as much or as little as you like. I wanted to get drunk as a skunk as it was to be our last night out in America. Sense provalled and i took my time, keeping my hand on my wallet and making sure Tom or I didn't wander off from the group.

We had a few drinks in the next few bars and went for a meal in a pub. The food wasn't as good as i've had on Hollywood Blvd, but it was dirt cheap. A few more cornonas and we went Tequilla tasting. The first thing we were told to try was Moonshine, 192 proof or 96% alcohol. I spilt some on my face, my life flashed before my eyes and my skin was on fire. That stuff is DEADLY! Don't go there, whatever you do. I tried a few tequillas but they made me want to be sick so i deciede to stick with the Coronas. Needless to say there aren't any photos of this part of my adventure beacause i love my camera and i didn't intend on taking it into a "war zone". We went back to a few bars one of which has a mechanical bull amogst other crazy toys. We all got back safe, sound and most importantly, intact.

San Deigo

Toms parents has kindly brought his laptop out so we could stop paying to us the Internet. This was all fine and dandy until the hard drive gave up the ghost, bugger. We took it to a repair shop and left the guy to try and save it.

We decided to go for a walk towards the port. When we got there we saw a massive aircraft carrier called the midway. It was 17 bucks to do a audio guided tour which took about 3 hours. As we had time to burn we decided it was a good idea. We walked through the bows of the ship seeing the bunk beds where the sailors stayed, engine room, the captains quarters and the mess.

My favourite part of the tour was the flight deck. They had all sorts of jets, helicopters and GUNS!!!! We watched a video about how they land and the importance of ejector seats, seeing people being shot into the air at gods knows what speed is really, satisfying and funny.

When we returned to the laptop man (mike) he had bad news. I think his words where "It's in a terrible state, shes been a real pain to got the media off. Your gonna need a new one". Not good. Anyway it had to be done so we planned on picking it up the next afternoon about 2ish.

We had to move hostels the next day so we were up early. We checked into the USA hostel. Instantly we bumped into 3 groups of people that had been staying in hostels we had on the tours. Over the next few days Tom and I became close to two Irish guys by the names of Sean and Steve. As you can imagine the banter was some of the best I've every had the pleasure to enjoy. I enjoyed a few new nicknames, some i couldn't possibly write on here. One i can mention to you is "Princess" yes princess. I couldn't believe it, but if the shoe fits.

One of our last days in San Diego Tom, the Irish dudes and I went to Pacific beach for a chill out. The weather as you can imagine for this time of year was amazing. It was so hot. I think that evening i saw the most beautiful sunset I've ever had the pleasure of watching. (Photos below)

Off to San Deigo

I'd had a very cunning plan. If we got the bus down to San Diego overnight we wouldn't have to spend any money on accommodation. 12 hours in total on two buses, that wasn't going to be much fun. So we arrived at the bus station at about 7 ready for our 8.45 bus. The bus ride was fine. It was really quiet so Tom and I had a two seats each so it was relatively easy to have a kip.

When we arrived at San Diego we got a taxi to the hostel and checked in and had brekkie. The plan was to go to the Zoo. We walked up to the zoo which was about 30mins walk away. We walked through Balboa park which is really nice, it looks a bit like Australia.

Tom and I paid to have the extras on the park ticket. This included a bus tour of the zoo and as many shuttles as we liked. I've check out the photos below. We saw loads of cool animals from big cats to Wombats. I know when i am reincarnated as an animal i want to be a Wombat. They're so cool! We had a walk around the reptile centre and got loads of good photos of all the snakes and lizards. We even saw a two headed snake (picture below).

When we left the zoo we headed back to the hostel to cook ourselves steak for tea. Steaks are so cheap out here. I bought a steak that was 3/4 of a pound. Good times. We stayed up for a while playing rock band with all the people that were staying in the hostel. Below are pictures of some of the strange looking animals we encountered on our day trip.

Back on the booze

Today Mr Calzaghe would face off against a washed up old man. Roy Jones Jr, not so junior being 39. Tom and i planned to go to watched the fight down town. We got the bus, went for fish and chips and went to the pub. most places in America charge you to get in for a Pay-Per-View event. It was 20 bucks, we thought it was a rip off but we're glad we did given the result. We had a few beer and watched the fight. We got the bus back and was in bed buy 11.

Theres a first time for everything. This was a bad first time.

We didn't drink much last night so we got up at a reasonable hour. We'd had a few new guys move into our both really good guys, Wayne and Chris. The four of us planned to drink the bottle of Vodka mama and papa Chilcott had kindly donated to the cause.

Tom and i mooched about the hostel all day as the weather was rubbish and were planning on conserving as much energy as we could ready to have a boogie. We played a few games of scrabble (which may i add my skills are improving. It's 7-5 to me)! We popped out to buy ingredients for a curry as Tom had promised to cook me one of his "awesome" curry's. Fair does to him it was banging.

When we started to drink we were drinking a lot faster than normal. Three of us finished of the first bottle of Vodka in about an hour. I didn't feel too drunk at that point in time. Chris and I popped over the shop and bought another. We had a few after the pub crawl had left the hostel and planned to meet them in the second bar. At this point things got bad....

I went to look for Tom and found him laying on his bed, mashed. He got up and was sick in the sink in our room. I've got photos but i don't think you'd like to see them so I'll keep them hidden. Chris and i where left standing. We spoke to Marj on reception and she gave us directions to where the second bar was. We walked towards the and we walked passed a fire station and spoke with the fireman. For some reason i started to tell him how brave i thought they all where and they where doing a fantastic job that i could never do. You know when you really drunk your like, Man i love you. Your such a nice guy and all that just being drunk and soppy. Why i don't know, maybe because all the booze had caught up with me.

When Chris and i got to the bar they weren't there, bugger. Chris asked me what i wanted to drink i didn't answer him so he bought me a whiskey. This was Vegas all over again. I drank it went outside and you guessed, was sick EVERYWHERE! The rest is kind of patchy, well not patchy. Blank. I spoke with Marj and she said i got in about 11:45 with Chris. We later found out Chris got back at 4ish.

I still don't have a clue what happened.

The next day, Tom, Chris and I spent all day doubled up in bed telling each other we wouldn't drink again. That wasn't going to last. Tomwas sick all day and didn't muster the courage to get out of bed until 8pm. I got up about 3 to go and get some pizza. As you can imagine we didn't do anything that day. I blame the whiskey.

Once you go Barack, You NEVER go back!!!!

SO today was election day. Tom and I where back in San Fran. We didn't really think about how important today would be for American history. We certainly didn't know if it would be a good thing or a bad thing for the country, only time will tell. I would imagine it couldn't get any worse as Mr Bush made a bit of a hash of it.

We saw and heard comments and T-shirt slogans such as: Save the drama for Obama, Once you got Barack you never go back and Bahrock and Roll. We also heard a guy from the hostel saying "Lets go and vote a black man into the white house". I couldn't help but laugh.

We headed down to Pier 39 to have another look at the seals and another bowl of Clam chowder. We we got back that evening we watched a few films and chilled. We watched a bit of the coverage of the election. By about 8 or 9 we knew Obama must have bagged it. He was so far ahead even when the results from the bible belt had come in. About 10:30 we head on the PA that Obama was the new president of the USA. Then the party really started. Cars driving down the road honking there horns. A small district called the Mission was closed to cars, they had a massive street party. I heard it was like wine street on a bank holiday... Pure carnage!

Congratulations America, positive steps forward towards a brighter future!

Alcatraz

Another early start today as we had to be down Pier 33 to get the ferry out to Alcatraz island. When we got there i got off the boat and felt so sick, the sea was really calm, a bit like a mill pond. i think that rules out a life on the 7 seas.
Photo of me with the bay bridge in the back ground. Picture below is the dock of Alcatraz.




When we arrived our main priority was to do the audio tour of the jail house itself, below are some of the photos.






This is the average cell - 5 feet wide by 9 feet deep. A tight squeeze!

Me in solitary confinement... Bad times. Believe it or not, these aren't only the biggest cells, they have the best view of the bay and the biggest windows from which to see it!

These are the sort of home mad weapons made by the inmates at Alcatraz, called "Shanks" only eight inmates where ever killed by other Alcatraz inmates.

The whole trip around the island was awesome, we heard about the escape attempts, myths and life on the island in general. When we got the boat back to the main land the weather turned, it started hammering down. the only thing we could do was to go to a bar and have some lunch and a few beers. For lunch i had clam chowder which I'm sure the old man will chuffed about and i'm glad to say it was awesome. I'll definetly be having more of that.
We headed back to the maxwell and the hostel to have an hour and get change to go out for a meal. We picked up Haydn and Dawn and went to another Irish pub. This one was different to the others. They had two pianos which took it in terns to play request. We had amazing food and about 8 pints. We all sang our hearts to classics such as the Beatles and bohemian rhapsody. What an amazing to end to an amazing few days.
I would like to thank Dawn and Hayden for there generosity and making me feel so welcome.

Thanks again

Meet the Chilcott's

The events over the next two days i will treasure the most of my San Fransisco experience. We woke early and headed down to the Maxwell to await our collection for the city coach tour. The coach picked us up as well as a few others and took us down to Fisherman's Wharf. When we got there we boarded our big red double decker coach and awaited our departure. The bus gradually filled and after 15 minutes or so we left.
We got about 10 minutes down the road and the bus driver pulled over, the emergency exit windows weren't closed properly. He spent about 20 minutes on the side of the road trying to sort them out to no avail. We waited for another bus which came after a while and we all changed.
When we finally got going, we where told we be heading to the following places (obviously there are a few missing because my memory doesn't serve me that) Victorian houses, Civic Center, Union Square, Nob Hill, Cable Cars, Chinatown, North Beach (Italian town) , Coit Tower, Fisherman's Wharf, Marina District, Golden Gate Park, Twin Peaks, Golden Gate Bridge. The first schedulled stop was the Twin peaks which over look the city. We saw this..

Never mind, the mist kept lifting so we did get a good view or two. When we got back on the bus we headed towards Golden Gate park listening to the drivers knowledge of the city, which was amazing, every part of the city had an interesting fact or funny anecdote. The one thing main thing i learnt from the city tour was... Next time there is an earthquake in San Fran, don't be. Some of the stories of whole suberbs of the city burning down and collapsing was just increbidle.

So when we arrived at golden gate park we had time to go for a walk around the park and had a ice cream. When we where walking around the park i was astonished to see how close the wildlife can, squirrels came within feet of you starring at you to give them some food.

Our last stop was the Golden Gate bridge, the weather lifted a little, we hung about for about 10 minutes or so.

When we arrived back at Fisherman's wharf we went for a walk around pier 39 again, this time we went into Bubba gumps for a beer or two. Bubba gumps is a Forest gump themed restaurant, it was really cool and they served loads of different beers. We stayed around until about 7 then decided to walk back to our hostel and have food on the way. We walked through china town and stopped in North Beach (Italian town) and went for a meal in a lush restaurant, i had the best lasagna I've ever had. We walked past the maxwell and headed home.

November First - Meet Tom's parents

Today Tom and i woke late because of the Halloween carnage. Tom had planned to meet the Dawn and Haydn (both may i add at this point are legends) in the lobby of there hotel, The Maxwell. They must have brought the weather with them because it was hammering down (it made me feel like i was at home) To our delight when we checked it was only two and a half blocks away. We ran down there and meet them. They where both so happy to see us. They'd brought us loads of cool presents including, a few British news papers which was nice to see how rubbish it is at home, Toms laptop which will make sharing photos and videos so much easier and most importantly a bottle of Vodka!!
We planned to g out for a meal, but first a few pints. We went to two Irish bars, where we shared stories or our adventure and chatted about things back home. Topics include, the mighty Pete (dad), Rebecca, the team and the plans for the next few days. All this talk of home made me miss, Mumsie, Dad, Bex and all the wonderful mates from work and home (Yes, YOU!!)
After a few pints we planned to go to this restaurant that we saw in the good food guide for San Fran, Daffodils (funny that, being welsh and all). We wondered around and got close to china town before we decide to go into a little pub called the Irish bank. The pub was really cool and the food was even better. We had a few beers and walked our guests back to their hotel.
Slept like a baby that night with a belly full of good food and kind thoughts of the motherland, Home.
Photo (left to right) Me, Tom, Haydn and Dawn.

Chilling out, true San Fran style

Once our stay at the grand mothers house was finished (my grandmothers house rocks, just for you to know) we planned to move back to the USA hostel just up the road, we knew Halloween is a big deal out here and the USA hostel has a real party atmosphere so it seemed like a good option. We moved there on the Monday and settled in.
In our room where two of the noisiest Germans i have ever had the misfortune to come across. They woke up at 8 everyday and banged about the room for a good hour, just to make sure tom and i didn't have any chance of staying bed. I think they did it on purpose! After two nights of watching films, playing scrabble which i am now winning in the series! We had to move rooms because of a group about 60 school students from Santa Barbara where staying for Halloween and they all wanted to be together in rooms.
The day of Halloween, Tom, Charlotte and i all went down to Haight street again (near golden gate park) to have a look at some of the shops for a fancy dress costume. We went into a few second hand shops to have a look for cheap stuff, as I'm always on a budget now days! Charlotte bought a second wedding dress which was cracking, i bought second hand scrubs, (thinking about it know, second hand scrubs, what was i thinking that's disgusting!) for ten bucks. Tom didn't bother buying anything because he couldn't be bother. When we headed back to city we stopped in a shop to get come fake blog to smear down ourselves. I couldn't believe it. The walls where bear as if they where giving the stuff away. The shop must have sold out of 95% of stock. Needless to say i was starting to feel just how much of a big deal this was going to be.
We got back to the hostel and started to get ready. Charlotte had to make a few adjustments to her dress and i had a shower. When we meet we covered ourselves in the blood and headed down to get some free keg action. Everyone put in so much effort. Two out of four teletubbies where there, pirates, American football players, Benjamin Franklin, Devils, the list continues. There must have been about 90 or so please getting wasted. Surprisingly not many people spoke English so we spent most of our night with 3 Kiwi's an Aussie couple and obviously a few English guys. It was a really good night, played some pool and generally got hammered.
Obviously this is Charlotte's dress before she cut holes and covered it with fake blood.

San Fran

When we arrived at San Fran international airport after a very comfy flight with Virgin we headed to our hostel called the Adilade. It's a nice hostel but a little like being in someones house. It's really cheap, Tom and i are staying in a room called Alcatraz, yes it's like Alcatraz, very small. Charlotte had flow the day before to San Fran so we planned to meet her. Saturday morning we meet and got the metro down to Golden gate park which is really nice. We stopped on the way and had a look at some of the cool shops and obviously stopped in a beer garden for a Margarita with a friend we'd made from the night before, Charlie. When we told Charlie we where Welsh she told us she hated the welsh, the nerve, she's English so she can't talk (joking). We saw lots of geese and ducks on our stroll around the park. Tom, Charlotte and I headed back to Charlotte's place as we planned on going out for a few drinks that evening. We went to a all you can eat buffet in Chinatown, it was awful! I have definetly eaten better chinesse at home! We went to a few clubs that evening, none of which compare to Monkey! Monkey rocks
Picture 1: A Canadian Goose Picture 2: A famous photo from San Fran (Not sure why).

The aftermath

When i awoke at three o'clock i tried to think what happened in the end, i still haven't got a clue! Never mind, everyone tried to fill me in on the goings on but i still can't think of anymore, not even one flashback. The three northerns left that morning at 9, none of the three where in any state to travel, let alone fly. We spent the day around the pool which was nice and chilled out. We basically chilled out for the last few days which was nice. We tried to make plans of what we would like to do when we get to San Fransisco. We flew to San Fran on Friday.

The extreme day.. 21st October

Today Tom, Adam and I had an early start because at 11:30 we where getting picked up from the Tropicana Casino to go SKY DIVING. (sorry mum) We where drove about 25minutes from Vegas to a little airfield just on the cities edge. To be honest i wasn't that worried and I'm still not sure why. I should have been very nervous, jumping out of a plane 2.8miles above a desert isn't the greatest of ideas, but i wasn't for some reason. We meet out instructors and then had to watch a video about the process and dangers of skydiving.
Below is the man who invented the tandem sky diving system. I laughed so hard when i saw his face. To think i was going to trust this crazy looking dude with my life.
We put our jumpsuits and harnesses on, ran through what to do when we jumped out of the plan. Then we where all set to rock and roll. The three of us had already payed to have a DVD of our jump ( I promise you'll all see it before i get back. I'll have a word with Pete about how to go about it). When we saw what would be flying us up to 15,000 feet i got kind of scared, it looked like it was made up of old roses tins. I was really glad that we didn't have to come down in it. Just before we got to the jump height my instructor Troy asked any last words as part of the DVD, I blurted out "I love you mum" and shortly after that i found myself heading straight down, then the potty mouth started. 50 seconds of free fall with your mouth wide open, screaming, doing roughly 120mph really drys your mouth out believe it or not. When he pulled the shoot it went from being extremely loud to so peaceful in a split second. Troy suggested we did a few "Death sprilles" (nice name hey?) which i agreed too. They where really cool but i felt sick after about 10 or so, i had to ask him could we just cruise down nice and slowly. THe landing was really soft which i didn't expect at all, i thought it would really hurt. We headed back, got changed and got a lift back to the strip. Tom, Adam and I had a beer and a laugh about the insanity we where just a part of. After that i went back to the room for a power hour or two.

When i awoke later everyone was getting ready to go out down the strip for a few beers and a gamble. Before we left we paid to go up the Stratosphere tower to have a go on the rides and look at the strip at night. The strip was really nice at night.

The details of the rides are below:
Big Shot - Shoots passengers straight up 160 feet at 45 mph (over 4 Gs) until they are 1,081 feet above the Strip.
X-Scream - A giant see-saw that propels you 27 feet over the edge of the Tower, 866 feet above the ground.
Insanity, the Ride - A massive mechanical arm extends 64 feet over the edge of the Tower and spins you at a force of 3 Gs for a truly mind-bending experience.

X-Scream was rubbish, it may have been because i was sitting at the back on my own. The other two where a really good laugh.

When we finally hit the strip we started in the Venician which was lush on the inside and had canals you could have a ride on if you didn't mind spending a few dollars on the outside. We didn't stay there long because it was really expensive for drinks, we decide to find somewhere with cheaper table minimums and obviously cheaper drinks. We ended up in a little casino which was a bit of a dive called Casino Royale. I didn't really want to waste any money on the tables so Adam and i sat by the bar and got the drinks in. After a few Adam got his courage together and put $100 on black and won! He played a few more times and kept winning. By the time he was done we was up about $700. He said he'd pay for me and him to get drunk, this is where it turned sower. We had about 12 beers, 3 frozen margarita's, 3 double jagermisters and 2 double whiskeys. As you can imagine i was howling! It went crazy after that, last thing i could remember was standing by a craps table at about one. I found out we didn't get in till about 6 am. I'd lost four hours of the night, bad times but fun so I've been told.

Back to Vegas

We left the Banana bungalow early on the Sunday ready for the six hour bus ride to Vegas. The four of us (Charlotte, Wayne, Tom and I) had book into the Stratosphere for four nights for 11 bucks each a night. When we got there we went to the off license to get supplies this encluded Champagne, lager and Vodka. The seven of us went for a buffet in the Sahara, which was awesome, all you can eat for $7.50 rocks.
On the Monday we spent all day in around the pool on the 8th floor which was really cool, there was also a gym so i got a few hours in which made me feel a lot better about all the junk and fast food i had been eating. The weather was stunning, not a cloud in the sky, sunbathing in mid-October is lovely and kind of weird. The only thing about when you stop from being on the go all the time is, your mind starts to think about the people you miss, Rebecca, the family and you guys of course! Again that evening we went for a buffet and had a wonder about the casinos. This time one of the northerners demanded we sample some of the wonders of $1 magertia's. We ordered 28 for a laugh, the barman wasn't best pleased but hey we where the ones tipping. After wondering about the Casino's we headed back to the Northerners room. They had payed a fair bit more than us and there room had a lounge, master bedroom and a bathroom with a jacuzzi! WE all stayed up and got a few drinking games and funny stories on the go, Adam had a few beauties. The story continues!
The Banana bungalow.











The Stratosphere