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.