Welcome to San Francisco...

"For those who come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there
In the streets of San Francisco
Gentle people with flowers in their hair"

San Francisco must have changed a fair bit since Scott McKenzie wrote these lyrics. Re-adjusting to the US after Australia has been a bit of a shock to the system.

On the flight over I had the seat next to me free so lots of room to spread and sleep, which was great. Also got talking to a really nice girl from the US who was engaged to an Ozzie and got the lowdown before I arrived. When I got to the airport there was no sign of any buses into the city and the train (BART) was gonna be a stupid idea as I'd never have found where I was staying on its actual street when i got off at the other end, so I decided to say bugger the hassle and get a taxi. But I didn't just get a taxi, I got a limo! Not a stretched one, just a normal limo, but all for just $40 which was pretty good. I arrived into SF in style!

However it was actually an even more sensible decision than I had originally realised as my hostel (which once you are inside is ok) is in the "Tenderloin district" which is basically where all the bums, the gangs selling crack and the prostitutes hang out. It is not a nice place. If fact it is the worst place in San Francisco that one could possibly stay. I didn't choose too wisely, however I am determined not to let it shade my view and experience of SF. The strangest thing about the US is you can literally walk a couple of blocks over and be in a really nice, clean, expensive district. Thats why walking through the city is such a random experience. On a long walk you can go from abject poverty to high-wealth and back again three times. Back home a dodgy area and a nice area are fairly well separated. The reason for this in SF is because of the extreme population. After Manhattan its the most densely populated city space in the whole of the USA. I had chinese for dinner the other night, at the end I had a fortune cookie placed in front of me. I opened it and it read "Look in the right places and you will find good fortune." If the cookie is correct, I am clearly not looking in the right place just yet.


On the tourist trail
On my first day I explored the Union Square down to Fishermans Wharf area (including the tourist trap Pier 39 very briefly and Jefferson Street) on foot. I thought I'd remember alot more of SF than I did at first (I was last here 8 years ago on a family holiday), but it is slowly coming back. Apparently they re-designed Union Square 5 years ago so that would explain that one. I followed the hilly SF streets and saw all the typical things like the cable cars, the bay, Alcatraz island, the bridge (from a distance), the sea lions at Pier 39 and Lombard Street (otherwise known as "the Crookedest street"). I ended up spending the evening at a place I had been told about many a time by my Dad, Lou's blues bar. They also do $1 pints of Miller every night, so with a bit of good ole' Blues and a few bucks I had myself a pleasant first evening, until I decided to walk the entire distance I'd covered previously at about 12am.

The next couple of days were spent riding a cable car, checking out the rest of the bay including Gardelli Square. After a hostel organised bar-crawl on Friday night I slowly made it over to the "in-famous" Haight Street (pronounced "hate st") at the weekend. This was where the summer of love apparently started, which is ironic. The area of Haight-Ashbury is the "bohemian" part of SF, and my favorite district by far. There were a bunch of well known musicians who lived in some of the houses in this area including Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and The Grateful Dead house. Now it is more about bars and cool shops. Forget your Macy's (if I went in there I couldn't afford a pair of socks anyway); at the end of upper Haight is probably the biggest record store you could hope to find - Amoeda Music. Its like a warehouse of new and used music, you could spend hours in there and all your savings. I nearly did! As I did in the Virgin Megastore in the city too. From here I walked up Fillmore Street (also well known for its live music) upto Alamo Square. From here you get the perfect picture of the Victorian architecture that makes SF so unique, transposed with a backdrop of modern SF (the city centre).

Later in the week I visited Alcatraz prison ("the rock") for the second time after 8 years. The place hasn't changed much, if at all, but it still provides certainly the best experience one could realistically hope to have inside a former maximum security prison. I always loved "Escape from Alcatraz" with Clint Eastwood (based apparently very realistically on the true story of 3 inmates escaping "by spoon" in 1962). The cell blocks are still pretty much in its original state from 1960 and it would not have been a nice place to spend 18 years of your life. Even on a sunny day the bay winds blow like hell, the many different currents made any chance of escape "technically impossible". Apparently one guy did once manage to escape and made the 1.5 mile swim but by the time he made it over to the bay he was suffering from extreme hypothermia and a heart attack on the way. No chance of a run after that then! The views of the city and of the Golden Gate Bridge from the island are great. Pure torture if you were a prisoner no doubt. Alcatraz represents another important addition to what makes SF such a unique place. Its a juxtaposition of harsh and dark punishment with the natural, free and bright environment of SF bay area.

Over the next few days I visited all the other areas to be experienced. Pacific Heights (very rich, up-market and traditional part of SF. All the movies shot in SF are normally filmed here). Did you know that: Motion pictures were actually invented in the San Francisco Bay Area. The film industry moved to Los Angeles after the Earthquake of 1906 and World War I put many Bay Area movie companies out of business. I also experienced Chinatown (where I stopped in at a fortune cookie factory and saw them being made), North Beach (the Italian area and the place to get a good expresso shot) upto the Coit Tower, Telegraph Hill (very nice too with views of Bay Bridge and Angel Island), and the "Levis Plaza" on the way to the the financial district. I also took in Mission (the latin area and also visited the Mission Delores, the oldest building in San Francisco) and finally Castro (the gay area, I walked down Castro Steet and laughed and laughed and laughed. What a sight to be seen... even a butcher named "The Sausage Factory" had that campness to it). Every area a different type of person, all living on top of one another in one small city.

SF is a city of such diversity (in both a good and an extremely bad way). Maybe it optimises the modern American culture, as screwed up as it is, mixing such a variety of people into such a tight space. The traditional notion of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer is portrayed for all to see with redumented regularity. Its such a far cry from such a relaxed and deserted country like Australia which I now realise is still in its total infancy as a developing nation. I now know why American's would find Oz such an appealing place to be. Although I am still "hostelling" it at this point, I have realised that there is a clear lack of the "backpacker/traveller" movement which is rife in Australia. Its more of a plain tourist scene here (i.e. people come for a week or two of holiday). The hostel's here (or at least the one I'm currently in) definitely have a bit of a higher standard of quality and cleanliness than the Australian ones but the type of person staying in them is very different! In Australia everyone is from abroad, basically in the same predicament and on a similar itinerary. Here, there are is whole different type of person (which I didn't expect to this magnitude) alot of people from out-of-state US, Korean's, students and some very strange random strange older people chucked in to make life here even more twisted (why the hell would you stay in a young persons hostel if you are no longer in that definition of "youth", why they let them is even more distressing). Any other typical traveller I have met is either here for a few days and moving on or just here for a short holiday with a friend or partner. There are also very few people like myself, travelling on their own (this was confirmed by a girl I met who had done the same thing for the past 2 months). This doesn't really bode well.

Being away from home on your own, especially travelling (as opposed to living in one place away from home) is pretty lonely at times, as you don't have an established group of friends. Alot of people wouldn't do it for this reason. Would you? (in all honesty!?). Its not that I don't like to be alone, its nice for a couple of days to have total freedom to live to your own schedule but its hellish boring after a short period. Unless I'm at home, then I can function just fine alone for a certain time, but being away (especially in a big city) where you are not only trying to figure out which street goes where but all the new exciting (and some scary) things you are experiencing having no one to share them with is hard. Yes you do normally meet people in hostels and stuff. In Australia there were even times where I actually wanted to break away and have some time to myself, but here people in hostels are alot different and nobody seems to stick here for more than a few days at a time. Hopefully the situation will improve. This blog has depicted the major rollercoaster ride that one experiences on a trip like this, it is called "no evasion of reality..." after all! I said I'd post a truthful experience of what I saw and experienced here. Whilst I am in a moaning mood :) There are more more beggers, tramps and bums here than i have ever previously experienced (although I expect New York will not fail to surprise me!). To be honest half these people are actually mentally ill and need treatment, but again that glorious American culture lets those who are in need of serious help languish and get worse. What they don't (stupidly) seem to realise is its a vicious circle. These people are going to be the ones that end up mugging (or worse) their own children in the street. Oh and there are also next to no public restrooms around, probably due to the fact that this mass of beggars, tramps and bums would get up to no good in them. You can even be found queing in bars for the toilet in the evening!? You can't even do a "Mc-whiz" (the verb meaning "to use the restroom of a fast food restaurant without making a purchase") as they lock the doors. You have to get your daily toilet break in before you leave the house or if you have the fortune to come across one in a shopping centre or something.

For those who regularly subsribe to this journal you will remember the post from Melbourne, Australia - well there's another one of the places here! and no it wasn't found in the Castro District (which was a shame).

Goodbye Australia!

Pt 1: 15/08/06 12.43am Room 641 IBIS Hotel Sydney Airport

Well, I fly out of Sydney bound for San Francisco, California tomorrow. I am really looking forward to it. It seems unbelievable that I have been in Australia for the past 8 months, its a long time, but looking back on the whole time, it seems to have gone quite quickly. There have been some great moments. I haven't really felt "homesick" so far (which I was very surprised at) but this morning I saw a British Airways plane on the runway and it briefly set me off for some weird reason. As I sit here on my bed watching James Taylor live on DVD (one of the USA's best singer-songwriters IMO), I am super excited about the US and the gigs i have tickets for. I know I have 3 months and no more due to visa restrictions so I certainly have a time-scale to work within.

So the past week since I left Brisbane has been a nice ending to my time in Australia. I flew up to Airlie Beach on the north Queensland coast (avoiding excess baggage charges by strategically placing heavy items down my pants and laying on the politeness very thick to the check-in lady. Maybe she just thought i had a big dong as i had half my backpack down there ;) I spent a couple of days readjusting to grotty hostels (reminding me of the main thing i hate about this budget travelling life, however at no point during my time here did I take a greyhound bus anywhere), I met a few people in Airlie and just generally hung it out at the beach (although I didn't go for a swim) as I waited for my sailing trip around the Whitsunday Islands to come.

I was spending the next 3 days on a boat called 'Madison'. It was damn windy the couple of days before my trip and travel sick pills proved to be the sensible idea. Leaving the harbour on a Wednesday evening set for 3 days and 3 nights sleeping in a 6 ft x 3 ft bunk (with a room full of snorers - thank god again for iPod), it sure was an adventure though. Watching all the craziness of the mainland (well as much as you can get in Airlie Beach, Queensland) quickly disappear on the horizon was a nice feeling. It was like being on your own island and your own time for 3 days. Early mornings didn't seem so painful when there was such amazing snorkeling on offer and exploring amazing beaches like Whitehaven. The most well known one, and nearly the only one with sand, the rest are all coral. Its so vast, like a picture postcard. Pretty sweet huh!. Still a load of tourists on other boat trips there though (not pictured fortunately), but this was really the only place where there were a few.


It was ultra relaxing at times and there was no need to worry or be concerned about anything at all, just chill out with a beer watching the sunset over the islands on the horizon. It sure was spectacular. During the days I saw more tropical fish than in an aquarium, and we saw whales on more than one occasion, including 2 feet from our boat at one point! Not something you see everyday. No sharks though. The high wind (25 knots to be precise, which is bluddy windy in nautical circles) meant we couldn't make the 4 hour open sea trip to the Barrier Reef, which was a blessing in disguise, as there were 5 ft waves breaking on the boat at times. It was a shame I didn't have my board. But seriously, if we'd gone there wasn't a pill in the world that could have stopped you hurling. So yeah we did experience some 'rough seas' on our voyage, at times the only option was to hold on for dear life to the nearest mast!.

The best bit of the trip was the other 11 people on the boat (not all pictured, some were in bed). It was so refreshing to meet a group of intelligent and genuinely good humoured people. Mainly from all over Europe and one couple from Australia, it renews your faith that there are still good people out there in this world. We spent the last night on the boat discussing each others different cultures and having a laugh. It was sad to leave the boat when we did arrive back, it seemed more like a week than 3 days. Although after a long hot shower when we returned to dry land we all met up for drinks. Everyone had a noticeably renewed enthusiasm for their travels (probably mainly due to that long hot shower), and it was another really pleasant evening of interesting and hilarious conversation.


The next couple of days were spent chilling on the beach. 3 others I had met (Will, Kathy and Gem) and I hired a car one afternoon and took a drive out to nearby "Ceder Creek Falls" and Conway Beach. I met a girl on my flight down to Sydney this evening from Ascot who I managed to get to check my guitar with her baggage as she only had 11 kilos of a backpack. Yet again I avoided the dreaded excess baggage charge, victory over Jetstar! Even if i had been required to pay extra for my excess kilo's I'd have had trouble paying for it as I had converted all my AUS dollars over to US AM EX travellers cheques two days ago.

So here I am in my hotel room in Sydney. You really realise the importance of the things you take for granted when you are away from hom. Having my own room in the house in Brisbane was so nice as i could just take some time alone after 4 months of hostels and geek out on the computer, play guitar for hours on end and most importantly, work on some songs. I can't write when there are people all around, its a very personal thing (sensitive singer-songwriter stuff :) So, getting into the hotel room, even though only a week later and only one short night, was so nice (especially as my hostel in Airlie beach was particularly bad). To have a little 1, 2, 3 - me time. Sit back, have a tv (i have watched about 2 hours of tv in total since January) - it even said my name!, play some guitar, play and sing as though nobody was there (which i am slowly learning to be able to do when people are present).

As I got on the bus at Sydney Airport to my hotel this evening I saw the musician Lior (who I saw live in Birzzy) at the shuttle bus stop. We both had guitar in hand and it was only as we made eye contact that I realised it was him. It was annoying I didn't get to have a chat, but everybody is always tearing around on their way to where they gots to be going... anyway, I am gonna have to resume this later as its 1am and I have to be up at 8.30am for my flight to get to my flight to San Fran.

I spoke too soon...
Pt 2: 16/08/06 1.30pm Room 213 Mercure Hotel Sydney Airport

However, little did i know then that my time in hotel rooms was to be a bit longer...

My flight has been delayed for 9 hours!! Great fun. On my way to the international terminal this morning I got a call from Quantas. So here I am in a "delay dayroom" in a nearby hotel (watching plane after plane take off and land). Its annoying but its hardly the end of the world. I sit watching people in Greece on the news who are living in poverty with no help. In this western culture we get annoyed when our flight is delayed and we are not reimbursed for our time in some way. Anyway, I get the best lunch and dinner I've had for some months for free, so its not all bad. Plus I will (hopefully) get to SF early evening instead of very early morning, which definitely works in my favor.

On a more potentially disastrous note. I decided to re-read the page on US visa's in my guidebook yesterday and it said that all visitors must show proof of an outbound ticket when entering the US (in theory to make sure you don't have the potential to just "disappear" after they arrive). I didn't have one. I was going to see how I went and then book a ticket back to London from New York just before I needed it. So, upon arriving at Sydney airport I had to book one (even though its fully refundable). Panic over, but it was lucky I did get one before going to check-in as I wouldn't have even been able to even leave Australia without it!

I'd just like to say thank you all for actually taking the time to read my writings on this blog. I have had some really nice emails over the past couple of months and I really appreciate it, it makes it all worthwhile. Bye for now... see you in Frisco'... t.m.

I hate goodbyes. Much prefer hello's. So you say goodbye and I'll say hello.

My final week in Brisbane has been a good one. I finished my last day of work this week (I had been working with 2 others reviewing electronic documents for a mining company, and it was so monotonous I managed to develop RSI in my arm). However this week I received a healthy tax rebate from the Australia Tax Office, saw two amazing gigs and i had the great pleasure of finally dumping my $20 BIG W shoes that had been plaguing my feet ever since the day i bought them to wear to work on day one in Brisbane (straight out the office door and into a skip they flew, it was such a proud moment. Like when you want to burn your school uniform on the last day but your mum talks you out of it, because its not very sensible.) Too many late nights and early mornings this week...


I saw what was, in all probabilities, the best live gig that I have ever been to on Tuesday 1st. A largely unknown quantity in the UK, Jason Mraz really performs live music more than just well; he makes it funny, unpredictable, full of melody and full of character. I was Mrazmerized.*** In Aus for a 4 date "acoustic trio" tour, before going home to the US to record album number 3, it was amazing how 3 people could make such an expansive sound on some songs. It was full of funky beats, vocal harmonies and personality engaging with the crowd. It took what 99.9% of musicians call a "live show" and turned it into a experience of sound, with everything re-interpreted from the original songs. With more talent than a copy of Playboy, if you ever get a chance to catch Mr A-Z live drop everything and go... I'll say just one more thing on the matter. A woman stood next to me in the crowd turned to her boyfriend during the track "Bella Luna" (from latest album Mr A-Z) let out a high pitched gasp of air and asserted "Oh My God! This is better than sex". The boyfriend, visibly embarrassed quickly replied "steady on!". She then proceeded to have what I can only describe as an orgasm without being touched.
Philosophical mode engaged: So, what does this all mean? well it makes one realise how important talent is as a musician in order to get the chicks. No, actually it reiterates the point of how important having a great stage presence is as a musician. At the end of the day, people in a bar, a gig, a coffee shop are there to be entertained. That is the performers job. (Why else is Robbie Williams so popular.) There's no need to be so bloody serious over it all, this is the one time that people want to forget about their problems and have a smile put on their face. The difference between me as a fan of live music seeing a "good" gig and an "amazing" gig is that rapport and delivery. I told you this trip was becoming "musical masterclass 101".

*** mraz·mer·ize (mraz'mə-rīz', mĕs'-)
tr.v., -ized, -iz·ing, -iz·es.
verb
1. To spellbind; enthrall: “I am Mrazmerized".
2. To hypnotize through sound and performance.

The very next day I saw Carus (7th time since being in Oz) and his mate Loren. This was also a great gig, full of special moments. The musical tour continues into the US as I have 3 gigs lined up, one of which is Willie Nelson at Hollywood Bowl. How often do you get to see a legend in such a legendary venue!?

Another piece of good news is that I managed to claim all of my tax back for the time i have been working here, which is awesome (thanks mr taxman and his resident for tax purposes only rule!) I celebrated by going out yesterday and purchasing some new socks to replace the ones with holes. Its nutin' but rock n' roll over here kids!


The weekend before last I finally made in up the Sunshine Coast to Steve (the Crocodile Hunter) Irwin's Australia Zoo. I went with Leyla (a girl from work) and her boyfriend Andy, who kindly drove me there and back. Yes I saw crocodiles, kangaroos, snakes, koalas etc, etc, the tigers were the best. They really are amazing animals. Another highlight was getting to feed an elephant. I got to meet Steve but he wasn't very talkative. However, his mullet was pretty loud. One of the more salient observations I took away with me was that every single female member of the staff at Australia Zoo is hot, really hot. Steve clearly has a fine eye for recruitment!!


The night before we had a "Christmas in July" dinner. Why? No idea, because we can!

So, I leave Brisbane tommorrow! After nearly 4 months living in what is probably the smallest city you could live in (in terms of if you were trying hard to avoid an ex or something, you'd have no chance and would meet her slap bang at the worst moment, something like in a chemists whilst stocking up on rash cream, anti depressants and toilet paper.) I will certainly miss the friends I have made in my house, at work and those I met whilst staying here. I wish you all the very best. Something my mum told me was "Good or bad, nothing lasts forever", it really is time to move on now. Thanks Mum.
So, my itinerary before I fly to San Francisco on August 16th consists of flying upto Airlie Beach (the "gateway to the whitsunday islands"), sailing on a luxury 62ft ketch on Wed/Thur/Fri back on Sat (during this time i shall be doing largely nothing but chillin') then fly down to Sydney on the 15th in the evening (stay one night in a 4 star hotel by the airport) before flying out to SFO the next morning. Its like living the life of a rock star, only without the adoring fans...

"climb up, over the top,
survey the state of the soul,
you've got to find out for yourself,
whether or not you're truly trying,
why not, give it a shot,
shake it, take control,
inevitably wind up and find out for yourself all the strengths you have inside of you"