Travel Diary NZ, USA

Post Dated (22 Aug. 2008)

The trip so far....

After spending a fantastic week in New Zealand with friends I had not seen and others I had not seen since the Linkoping days. My time spent there included touring the heady sights of Auckland and Wellington, and damn was it cold there. Had a brilliant time there seeing the night life of Auckland and the museums of both the capital and down south. But then came the time for me to leave the cold for the burning heat of LA (first day in LA I got sunburn).

Onto the glitz and glam that is LA and oh the antics that did occur once I crossed that pond. I stayed down by the beach in an area called Venice and it was an interesting experience to say the least. In the 3 total days I stayed in Venice I was mistaken for being homeless not once, not twice, but 3 times. It must have been all that walking I was doing. No one walks nor takes public transport in that city, except for the Mexicans, homeless and Alister. Venice beach was full of colourful and wild characters, Santa Monica Pier was well smick and on the day I did venture into the unknown world of public transport into LA I can report back that the Walk of Fame on Hollywood Bvld. has way more sex shops and tattoo parlors than I imagined one street could contain (and i did consider combining both, nice tat' of a blow up doll, then i imaged explaining that one to the parental unit....).

Point of note to anyone visiting LA, the greyhound bus station is truly on skid row, it was dodgy as hell while waiting for the bus to vegas, drunks, addicts and homeless as far as the eye could see.

Vegas
Where LA was plastic fantastic, Las Vegas can only be described as fucking madness. Zombies playing the slots all day and night, people blind drunk on $1 Margaritas at 10am, this was truly the town that doesn't sleep. And by the beard of Zeus, there were more telly tubbies on the strip than Australia can possibly dream of, I want a recount on the obesity rate business. I managed to stay 2 days in this town of debauchery at the Sahara Casino, which was easily 1 day too many.

Flagstaff
'Kicked Arse'
Fantastic student town, brilliant hostel in the Grand Canyon Youth Hostel, and the people were well chill . The Grand Canyon and Sedona have to be some of the most awe inspiring and wonderful natural scenery that I have every seen in my life. Just to be able to say that I have hiked the Grand Canyon makes me proud.

And let it be said, Native Americans are an angry bunch, and rightly so, went to a local metal gig in Flagstaff and saw the craziest pit I'd not seen the likes of since the younger years in the 'rat.

Santa Fe
I met up with Andrew 'the man' Norskog and proceeded to explore the night and day side of Santa Fe for 1 week. In the sobering light of day I did managed to explore the very different town of Santa Fe, with more art galleries than one can poke a stick at and only having a modest population. It is was like a giant artistic commune as a town, filled with Texan tourists and locals who liked to party a lot.

One of the more interesting things I gained from my time with Mr Norskog was how to make bloody beers.

Bloody Beer
1 can/bottle of mexican beer (Tecate as used in this case)
0.5 part V8 juice
dash of Hot Sauce
lime, salt to taste

The perfect way to continue the drinking the next day, fighting the hangover and contributing to your ongoing health all at the same time.

We also managed to do a hike of sorts around some beautiful natural scenery in the form of an area called the 'tent rocks' which are these conical shaped rock formations which have been formed from the elements. And through some forrestry area.


But like all things again the party had to end, and on Friday the 25th of July I boarded the 9am bus from Santa Fe to Albuquerque the first of many types of transport to make my way to Pachuca, Mexico. From Albuquerque I took the LA El Paso mexican Limo to El Paso Texas. I would highly recommend this to anyone over the crappy greyhound service, on this bus I got an assigned seat, the bus left on time and it was half the price of greyhound, winner in my book. 5 hours later it was time to walk across the 'friendship bridge' into mexico with the highly expensive charge of 35c i made my way across into the unknown, with a couple of thousand mexicans.
Cd. Juarez is as dodgy as it is describe everywhere, the cartels do truly control everything and there is no police that i saw there, just the army rolling around in Hummers with mounted .50 cal. I got out of there ASAP onto a bus bound for DF (mexico city) for a 24hr journey in a very nice 1st class bus. From DF got a bus to Pachuca, which is relatively close at 90 km away.

At 11.30pm on 26th July I finally arrived in Pachuca, I was tired, I smelt like a walking armpit and I had eaten twice that day so I was ready to eat a horse and chase down the jockey, beat him with metal bar around the ankles and dine on his entrails. This tale will be continued in the next epic adventure of 'Alister Tour of Dignity in the Americas', Pt. 2 The Kangaroo of Pachuca.

NZ
Die! Die! Die! - Out of the Blue




USA
Black Orchid