Happy Year of the Ox!

We got to walk through San Franciso's mad Chinatown on Chinese New Year's Eve. There was loads of mad people about, selling stuff, doing little shows and dances. The place was filled with lanterns and banners to celebrate the New Year.

I think is my favourite shot from walking up the streets, the two little kids were having a great time, eating sweets and messing about.

Me and Elaine went up to a cheapo supermarket and I got talking to this guy about pastrami. Apparently if you give the bag the pastrami is in a squeeze and it doesn;t let air out, then you know it's ok to eat!

Cosmo told me where to go to watch the Obama inauguration and we had a bit of a chat about obama himself. It's great to see Americans excited about their President, not just for their own interests but because they know Bush was hated pretty much everywhere else around the world and was giving them a bad rap. The Yanks aren't that bad, really :)

We bumped into Cosmo again in Union Square a couple of nights later, he was chuffed that we'ld gone down to watch the Inauguration, so I took his photo to whack up on the blog. Cosmo is a cool dude, and if your ever in San Francisco, check down the Deli aisle in the supermarket, he might just be there!

San Francisco is such a deadly city!

Elaine and I where a bit worn out after just 2 days in LA, but once we hit SF we felt much more chilled out and at ease. I've got so many cool stories from just a week there so I bought a notebook to write stuff down, and I 'll bore you all with its contents when I'm home. Highlights so far though; cycling over the Golden Gate Bridge, getting the best coffee EVER, being in an Apple store (glayvin!), taking the tram at night up from the Pier, seeing some weird lady get her kit off in front of Alcatraz for a photo shoot (sorry lads Elaine wouldn't let me take any photos) seeing sealions and meeting some very cool people.

For now have a look at some photos I've whacked up on Flickr.

We had some great weather the first few days in SF, it was 25ºC, sun splitting the rocks. Booked a trip over to Alcatraz about three days after we arrived and by then the weather had started to turn, so by the time we actually got to the Rock it was cold, raining and foreboding; exactly how I thought it should be!

The place itself is amazing, the cells and spaces occupied by the prisoners and gurds. There's also a whole load of history that most people don't know and that doesn't get shown in the pictures; it was a US military fort to protect the west coast during the Gold-rush, then a miltiary prison, then a state penateniary that also housed all the guards and workers families, then when Bobby Kennedy closed the place a group of Indians took the place over until they were sabotaged by Nixon who sent in people to subvert the movement because the news coverage of the Indians occupying the island interupted a televised speech Nixon was giving at the same time!

Now it's a National Park and bird roost, it's really weird how quickly the things man built have been crumbled or been taken over by nature. I'll have more photos up soon, still a bit jetlagged from the flight to NZ!

Got a good tip about where to watch Obama's inauguration last week, so bright and early we headed down to the San Francisco Civic Centre to watch his swearing in on a Jumbo screen. It was really amazing being in the crowd, there was a real sense of hope and optimism, along with a big dollop of relief that Bush was out of office at 12pm.

There was a lot of cheering, crying, booing (at Bush) and laughter at the oath of Office slip-up. I was really glad to be in San Francisco to see Obama become President, the city was really buzzing.

More photos on Flickr

Staying in Hollywood is a bit mad. On the main strip, people can be very pushy trying to sell you things or asking for money. But it is very cool seeing things you really only see on TV; the types of cars, fire hydrants, the Hollywood sign. The Hollywood Walk of Fame is cool too, but gawking at it immediatley marks you out as a tourist. Seeing the famous (and not so famous) names is great, but my favourite was the stars at the intersection of Hollywood and Vine, celebrating the Apoll XI moon landing.
That Michael Collins lad got around, didn't he?

Here's the first of a a section about people we've met on our travels. This guy is Tom LaBonge, the Councilman for District 4 in LA.

I think me and Elaine had found the area around Hollywood Blvd. a little too in-your-face, but after taking a stroll up towards the Hollywood sign we found it completely different. First off we got directions to the sign from a nice guy driving to work, then we met Tom LaBonge who gave us more directions then ran after us from his car and gave us a free map and calendar! Nice…

After the torture of a 12 hour flight from London to LA we finally got a decent sleep in a creepy hotel just down from the airport. It must have been the reverse jet-lag, but I was up kind of early and I got this nice shot of the sun coming up over the LA hills. We haven't seen Spencer or Heidi yet though…

So we started on the long journey to LA with a bit of a stopover in Heathrow. There wasn't much to do and I tried to avoid any SSP food… Elaine took this shot, she's getting really good with the fancy camera, when she gets a chance to use it :)

Anyhoo, sorry to keep you all waiting for a new post, I promise there'll be a lot more very soon.

We're off on the first part of our trip. I love free wifi! Hope everything is nice back in Ireland, we'll post soon from the good ol' USA.

Marcus&Elaine