FEELING GO - PEOPLE IN MOTION

(REMEMBER: IF YOU'RE MENTIONED BY NAME ITS COS I LOVE YOU DEARLY. IF YOU'RE NOT, ITS ONLY TO PROTECT MYSELF IN THE LIBEL COURT)

By now I'm beginning to think I'm a dab hand at this travel lark, so when i get stuck in the middle of a heated argument between teenage twins and their mother, it all seems quite funny. This funny air hangs almost all the way to Reno where they get off and at last I'm free to relax and sleep.


Girls on a train, Grand Junction, Arizona.

The train has lost a lot of time and we are very late rolling into San Francisco. I get off in the middle of downtown to be greeted by the sight of a bum being sick in a bin. I book into the International Hostel at the far end of Market Street to where I'm stood, and so set off walking into the San Francisco night.
It soon becomes apparent that San Francisco streets are chocka-block with the sketchiest bunch of hobos, beggars and vagabonds I have ever seen anywhere, and that includes Bristol. The streets are paved with them, literally.

One thing to be said for San Francisco, its the only big city I've visited so far where you feel free to wander the streets, in fact on foot is the best way to get around. Most of the big sites are too familiar to inspire any kind of awe. Far better was Chinatown, where I found myself to be the only Western face for a few blocks. Of course, the City Lights Bookstore was the other highpoint, I hung out in the Vesuvio Cafe where Jack Kerouac and the rest of the Beats used to drink, and had a couple of beers myself. I was obviously on form at the start because I got chatting with the folk at the bar, making them laugh with a few off beat comments. But then I started to feel a bit pissed (it was only 11:30am) and started to ramble, and then slowly but surely they turned their backs so I quietly climbed off my bar stool and left.


LEFT:Me on the corner of Jack Kerouac Street
RIGHT:Me, sat at the bar of The Vesuvio Cafe.

Andrew arrived the following day and we basically retraced my steps from the day before. Then we picked up our hire car for the next stage of my journey: A Tour Round California.

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