Having fun in the warm California sun

What's that smell ?

Coming into LA on the Southwest Chief we could see the flood control system that was used for the Bike scene in Terminator 2 and although I hadn't even got off the train looking back at it that may well have been the highlight for me in Los Angeles. To be fair I only spent a day in Los Angeles and it was spent wandering around Hollywood rather than the beaches but from what I saw Bill Hicks was right and I don't know wtf the RHCP are on about . From the Station we hopped on the Metro to Hollywood / Vine and walked to our hostel which was easy enough being only a couple of blocks away. I hadn't booked a hostel but the three Malaysian students I meet in Arizona had a place lined up so I tagged along . We had arrived at 8 in the morning so they weren't ready for people to check in yet and we walked around to kill time . So we grabbed a bite to eat at a Mexican place across the road  and munched on some breakfast burritos . We made our way along Hollywood Boulevard and trampled over some stars as we made our way to the Kodak and Chinese theatres and took some snaps before carrying on down to Sunset . Walking along Hollywood and Sunset Boulevards there was definitely a whiff of something in the air , it was shit .  It wasn't a faint hint either , North Hollywood literally smells like someone ate a giant poo pie and didn't flush it . Our hostel told us to come back at 11 to check in so to kill more time we came across the "Citizins Commission on Human Rights"  which claimed to be a museum on psychiatry . The penny didn't drop until the woman at the front desk gave us a introduction and said that the commission was started in 1969(I think) by a Scientologist....but it was too late !!! . They made us hand in our bags as we entered so we went around and found that all the worlds problems are because of the "evil" psychiatrists and that all the worlds bad folk are bad because of these drug prescribing monsters . So amongst the poo and propaganda I called it a day and started looking for somewhere to stay in San Francisco so I could catch the Coast Starlight the next Morning .

Run away !!!!

The next morning I made my way to LA central and hopped on the Coast Starlight , this is one of the most spectacular train rides in America  .As you head north through California you follow the Pacific coastline then head inland into the hills with crops and vineyards . The ride was 10 hours which isn't that long by Amtrak standards . The train doesn't go straight into San Francisco you have to transfer at Oakland,Emeryvle or further south in San Jose (I think) . I didn't want to use up one of my railpass segments for a 10 minute bus ride so I caught the BART (subway) under the bay then took the bus to the Filmore district where my Couchsurfing host lives . My host was working across the street so he let me in and I crashed out . In the morning he went to Redwood City to pick up some weights he bought of ebay so I explored Filmore and Japantown . We were going to meet up back at the appartement but he didn't show so after a couple of hours  a decided to leave a note and go off on my own and walk around Chinatown,Downtown,Hob Hill, and Fishermans wharf stopping off at Coit tower along the way . Chinatown wasn't to much different from all the other Chinatowns in the States apart from being cleaner and steeper . The Fisherman's Wharf area is tacky but still fun at the same time , you can go watch sea lions swim about at the end of pier 39 after chowing down on some clam chouder and as well as that the t-shirt & souvinar shops are there to take your money . On pier 45 there is the fun Musee Mecanique were you can watch a man being hung, have your fortune told play Pacman and of course have a game of San Francisco Rush...next to a WW2 submarine . At this stage my feet were telling me that they have had enough and wanted to go home so I walked up to Lombard to view the hairpin turns and it also gives you a nice view of the city looking into the bay . The next day walked around Castro and the Hills again before I meet my Malaysian friends at Fisherman's Wharf and we hungout before they went on a Alcatraz cruise while I caught a bus to the Golden Gate Bridge . The Golden Gate Bridge is quite a sight with the Golden (or orange) towers raising from the bay , its definitely paints a picture and was favourite of the famous big American buildings , I caught the bus again to Filmore and had a coffee and called it day . While I was in San Francisco the annual Carnival was on and by the time the parade came around my host had recovered enough to go . We watched the floats and dancers in the parade on Mission St for a couple of hours then made our way to the Harrison St Festival . Harrison St was full of stores,shops dance groups, bands and everybody was relaxed and bathing in the sunshine, music, culture and atmosphere or maybe it was the guy selling 'brownies' . This the best way to end my time in San Francisco and wish I could have spent more time exploring the Californian cost . Amtrak has a 21 day Californian railpass which is awesome value for money at $150 , I believe Megabus will be coming to the West cost soon making it cheaper to travel around and maybe if I had the opportunity to spend more time in LA I would have found parts of it that didn't smell like poo


As usual are are the snaps

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