Aha! I have my hands on someone's laptop (ooer) and so am free to blog to my heart's content, at least for today (or until Jo's kicks me off to check her emails).
So, where was I? I was a little brusque about Mexico City, so I'll pad that out a bit. As I mentioned, the hostel was a little noisy, but it also had a very strange room arrangement in that instead of regular doors they had mirrored sliding patio style doors. You can imagine what this does to your body image after a few late nights and burritos to constantly be faced with a warts n'all full body shot of yourself. Yikes....so I've been holding my stomach in alot more lately...i don't think my amazing masterplan to become lithe and tanned has quite come to fruition, but I am hoping that I haven't actually gained too much (though there's definitely a bit of a belly there these days!). And LA, irritatingly, doesn't have quite so many fat people to stand next to.
Anyway, we headed off to the airport to catch our flight to New Orleans only to discover that it had been delayed by 2 hours. Kindly they gave us a free breakfast voucher and off we toddled to feast upon delights. We had to go to a particular airport restaurant called 'Freedom', although I was rather intrigued by the elegantly named 'Flaps' bar & grill, where Jo indulged in the 'Hangover Tortilla' which contained vast amounts of chilli and I had something which resembled and tasted of tortilla chips cooked in tar. I will let you imagine the effect on our guts...
Our flight was via Dallas where I encountered the compulsory grumpy immigration officer (I don't think they like the word 'archaeologist') and Jo met grumpy baggage/security men. Somehow they had managed to rip the waist support off my rucksack and the union jack patch from Jo's, but I suppose it could be worse. Finally, several hours after we were due, we made it to New Orleans, found our bags, caught the bus into town, and yomped through the French Quarter to our hotel - 'A Creole House' - which apparently is right next door to Sting's house (he wasn't home, we looked). There we met Shane, our friendly desk man, and spent the next hour trying to help him to get his pc to work. Eventually we checked in, showered and headed around the corner for food. I, predictably, went for a 'Louisiana Sampler' of shrimp creole, jambalaya & rice & beans, whilst Jo chose the more sedate Cobb salad. Of course, when the food arrived Jo's salad was big enough to feed 4 people.
We spent the rest of the evening exploring Bourbon Street, basically it is loud, garish & tacky, had a cocktail each (also loud, garish & tacky) and slunk back to the hotel to sleep in a proper bed. The next day we wandered the French Quarter, nosed in shops, drank alot of water to counteract the heat & humidity, hid from thunderstorms and stuffed ourselves with oyster po'boys & crawfish pie. We also solved our luggage dilemma by buying a fabulous wheelie suitcase made from rather colourful chilli patterned material, which is now packed with our winter clothes from South America. With a free evening ahead of us we asked Shane to recommend a decent gay bar (most of those we'd seen seemed to be blasting 'You make me feel mighty real' or playing drag queen bingo, and it was a little too warm for that) and he directed us to The Golden Lantern. The Goldern Lantern almost epitomises the typical US bar - small, slightly dingy, a barman, half a dozen customers drinking beer & smoking, all watching tv...the main difference was that instead of sport they were watching 'Queer As Folk'. Jo & I were the only women, excepting one woman of indeterminate age who looked as if she'd been drinking continuously for the last 57 years (apart from pauses to do home hairdye jobs). Soon enough I'd bonded with Dave, the barman, who shared a love of Cagney & Lacey and we were then engaged in deep conversation with some of the locals who had been rehearsing their play about the Stonewall Riots, in particular a 74 year old Southern gent called Winston who got to end the play by breaking a beer bottle over a cop's head. How exciting!
We crawled back to the hotel at 4am and slept until 2pm the next day, only to venture out for food and then watch tv until midnight.
Up at 5.30am the next day for our flight to LA, again via Dallas. got to the airport to be informed that our flight had been delayed by 2 hours. Clearly American Airlines have a theme going on. When we finally got to check in we were informed that this meant we would miss our Dallas connection, so, instead of arriving in LA at 11am, we would have to travel via Dallas, then Las Vegas and arrive in LA at 4.30pm. Nice. So that's what we did, but it gave me an opportunity to see Las Vegas airport and decide I didn't really want to stay there, particularly after I noticed a rather rotund lady in a very pink Celine Dion concert t-shirt...
Once at LAX we were met by Jo's friend Chris who had very kindly offered us a room at his apartment. So we've spent the last 3 days exploring Los Angeles and doing vast amounts of walking. Walking is a fairly alien concept in LA, so this means we often have the pavements to ourselves, and the car drivers seem so astonished to see you they very politely let you cross the road ahead of them. Sunday Chris drove us to Santa Monica to do some shopping and walk along the pier, then on Sunday night we went to Hollywood to check out the Walk of Fame & Mann's Chinese Theatre (where they have all the famous foot & hand prints). Monday Chris drove us to Beverley Hills and we proceeded to mooch for 8 hours along Sunset & Hollywood, where I spent quite alot of money on clothes, bought our bus tickets for the rest of our USA travels and then headed home for dinner with Chris & his mum. Tuesday was back to Beverley Hills and then a wander along Melrose Avenue, checking out all the vintage clothes shops, down to the farmer's market (where I, on the weak excuse of having a sunburnt nose, bought a rather fine straw "redneck" hat - I'm pretty sure I'll look back on it in a few months and cringe, but right now I love it) & The Grove (fancy new shopping area), a quick look at the Holocaust Memorial, down to Le Brea tarpits to enjoy the wafts of liquid asphalt & admire the model mammoths, and then back to Chris's office (a mere 8 hours again). Out for dinner & a DVD last night. All very civilised.
Today I think Chris is taking us to the Hollywood Hills, and tonight we have our first Greyhound bus trip to San Francisco. I'll blog again from there!
love to one and all...
S & J
xxxxxx
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