Tijuana
For those of you unaware, San Diego is pretty much just a suburb of Tijuana, Mexico, and with it being only half an hour away it would be a crime to miss out on a trip to the centre of all things cheap and boozy. Under the guidance of Chris and a couple of other stragglers we set off on a bus and then a tram down towards the border. It mostly involved a few million coronas between us all and being hassled by street kids to buy local homemade treats such as chewing gum, bracelets and general tack. We managed to escape any brushes with the Mexicano police but we did manage to severly aggravate one of our party (the one FOOL, who decided not to drink, called Graham) which resulted in him storming off back to the US border complete with childs guitar and ear buds in hand (yes...he thought 'ok I'm going to Mexico so I'm gonna buy ear buds'...error). A few more coronas later and we were in a massive queue to get back to the hallowed soil of the USA.
ROAD TRIP!
So here is where our trip starts to get properly crazy.
We were due to spend another night in Austin yet all the people we had met there were flitting off to different parts of yanksville. So when 2 of 'da crew' (Kevin and Chris) were about to drive to San Diego we thought we'd hop on board and within 5 minutes we were travelling chez Ford Explorer. Fantastico. 22 hours and a mean cop pulling us over for speeding later, and we were in sunny San Diego! We're staying in a fab place right on the beach as well called the Banana Bungalow that seems to be slightly more attractive that the Tee Total Austin Hostel as it offers $5 kegs and drinking is pretty much a pre-requisite for staying here!
For those of you keeping track and know that we are due in New Orleans next, please DON'T point out that we are randomly zig zagging across the country. We are aware of our stupidity.
The best thing about Austin...6th Street
The lads we met (Chris the blonde surfer Aussie, Kevin the Aussie who thought we were Aussies, Peter and Paul the drunk Scots, Chris and Jay..2 london geezers, crazy Jimbo from New Orleans, plus a few randoms!) guided us through the hot spots of Austin resulting in many drunken shenanigans and secret plans to sneak in the 'contraband' to the hostel. This place doesnt allow satan's juice and Kate and myself were roughly 30 seconds away from being kicked out, no lie!
Once again we wowed the Texan crowd with our 'My Humps' routine and enjoyed $1 drinks. To be honest we got pretty tipsy and after arriving back at the hostel Chris tried ordering dominos at 2am, much to our suprise it was shut. Oh and then Kate woke up to find she had made a few million new friends...bed bugs!
So there are freaks in Austin as well then..
Our first night consisted of ordering Dominos pizza, sitting in our PJs and being harassed by a slightly mentally disturbed yank who had a fascination with the classy 'Hooters' establishment. He was 35 but staying with his 'Mom' and he not only loved koala bears, he had 2 toy ones with him, which he liked to play with and act out his fantasies. We were starting to dread the 6 nights we had left here until we were saved by the slightly more sane group of lads staying in the hostel.....
Yee-hah! Austin, Texas!
After a night in the plush Baltimore Airport terminal, we made it to Austin, Texas. Guess what, it was raining, and I mean cats and dogs. We managed to find the hostel which was one of the slightly more ghetto-ised of all our accomodation so far, featuring such luxuries as a shower that shoots water from the ceiling a la a jet wash, and merely a flimsy curtain to hide your modesty from fellow shower goers. However, much to my excitement there is a cat that lives here called Boots, woo! Oh and a 14 bed dorm, its privacy central over here.
Homeless in Baltimore Airport
The 'Knickersnatcher' (TM) episode
Thats right, we've had our first proper drama in the form of a THEFT!! In fact, the Washington Police, FBI and CIA are all on the look out for the following items;1. Kate's matching (dirty) underwear set2. 2 brand new tops that I had bought3. The fantastic tennis pants that I was sporting merely a few days ago on the blog...fond memories4. ALL OUR FOODAs a result we've been forced to eat Maccy D's for the past 3 days and well....we've been traumatised by the fact that NOTHING is safe..not even dirty underwear! This morning we found that someone had written under my matress the words 'THE WORKERS STEAL'. So, we've narrowed down the potential Knickersnatchers (TM). Unfortunately we may have unwittingly stolen someone elses 'Fruit Loops' in part of our cunning revenge tactics, as sadly we had waited like 5 days to tuck into those bad boys only to find they had fallen victim to the Knickersnatcher (TM) and pals, so Im sure someone else out there is writing on their blog this week 'I had my Fruit Loops stolen this week Mum, sob sob'.We haven't exactly been put at ease either by the freakish way this lame hostel has put us in a constant state of being 'electrically charged', getting electric shocks from any stationary (and non stationary) object. We're afraid to open doors, turn the TV channel, use the shower, you name it! Oh and there's the usual high quota of freaks floating round...but you knew that anyway right. This is America after all, and to quote from the film 'When a Stranger Calls', 'there are a lot of freaks out there'.
The unamusing superbowl aftermath
THE SUPERBOWL! Not a football player in sight..but lots of cake
Honestly...X Rated Shenanigans, tennis folks be proud
Capitol Building, Washington DC
Bye bye Boston!
The last few days of Boston we spent shaking our historical asses, making the long walk along the 'Freedom Trail'. For those of you NOT familiar with this major piece of American history (shame on you.... although I expect its all of you!) its basically a LONG walk throughout Boston along a red brick line showing you all the sights including Boston tea party etc and all that colonial crap that doesn't really touch our history (hear the patriotism over here!?!). HOWEVER! We also went to the original Cheers bar, which was so fab...we tried not only Boston Baked beans (Kate) but New England Clam Chowder (moi) and also Sam Adams lager (the both of us of course)! Check us out trying to get down with the locals!To be honest not much else happened so I thought I'd tell you about some of the more important factors of our trip...freaks.For those of you not familiar with Hostelling International's policy, it says it 'doesnt discriminate' against ANY of its guests... and that means everyone, including.....A complete nutter who sat at the table at brekkie and chatted on his phone (no doubt no one was at the other end of the line) about how he wanted 'the limo outside within 10 minutes', before ending the call with the line 'I love you Dad'. Oh and then he put his key card down his trousers...lovely stuff.Sean...who we actually grew quite fond of...who greeted us on Sunday night drugged up to his eyeballs and took quite a shine to Kate. We tried to walk off but he followed us and kept telling us how his girlfriend had run off with her ex, basically ranting on about having no friends, even tho we were the only ones crazy enough to give the poor lad the time of day! Even as we left Boston at 7am we could hear him on the phone yelling down the halls! Good luck with the detox Sean!We then got a Chinatown bus to New York and then another onto Washington DC.. we travelled for over 9 hours and it only cost us $35! Chinabuses will soon be in for world domination...mark my words!
