Alcatraz and the wax Pope

After scaling these huge mountains we were felling pretty tough, so we decided to really test our manlyness by visting the home of some of the toughest people in the world, Alcatraz. But not before having a quick look at sculptures of our favourites celebrities. Another hike across the city took us to the 'must see' destination for all tourists, The Wax Museum. How anybody can dislike looking at wax verions of greats like Steve Irwin and the Lion From 'The Wizard of Oz' is beyond me this place was full of some of the creepiest looking faces if sen in my life.

A couple of plot twists later and we end up on Alactraz listening to  a recording about bowling and  a library. This place didn't seem that bad though, they even had radios in their cells and apparantly were quite the fans of kickball. Most of the exercise yard had been modified into a kickball court, and we were told of the huge championships and rivalries that existed behind prison walls.

Following Alcatraz, we went back home and engaged in the biggest American tradition out:
We got a large pizza, went back to the hotel room and watched Wrestling until we fell asleep.

Tasty!

Sam and Nathan

Corndogs suck and pretzles are huge: the tale of burning calves pt. 2

San Francisco is a strange place. On its near-vertical streets, homeless are the kings, and drug dealers are always persistent to sell you illegal wares. On Monday, after waking up from an extended 16 hour nap, we decided to travel across the golden gate bridge, not by foot but instead by bicycle. The only problem was that the bike store was on the other side of town.

Our only choice was to walk. These roads closely resembled the scene from Inception, except these were real and were directly in our way. After fighting cardio problems and hemorrhage, we finally reched the bike shop, where we greated by an overly excited women who attempted to give us directions, but we didn't listen. Wrong turn after wrong turn on the bike track led us to an old civil war fort. Here we learnt about the art of firing canons and dress making.

We didnt spend too much time here, as frostbite and gangrene were affecting our ability to learn about history. Back on the bikes we began to cross the bridge, and here we met our second challenge of the day, avoiding being blown off the bridge. With gale force winds coming head on it was a struggle to get anywhere at all, let alone across the bridge. Like a freight train though we powered on, and soon crossed the bridge. From here, the following things happened

• We got rejected from a childrens museum
• a hipster parked his combi and played a set of folk tunes before our eyes
• Saw a bikie gang gathered outside the bank of America

This part of town was different...Had the woman we didn't listen to warned us about this? We decided to grab a bite and leg it, but even that turned pear shaped when Nathan recieved a bowl of potato chips as a side dish. The ferry couldn't have come at a better time.

Upon returning to the mainland, we jumped back on the bikes and made a few stops (hard rock cafe) before returning them to the bike shop. Thankfully, there were different staff working, and we were greeted with excitement.

Once again, we scaled the himalayas to return to our hotel. It is fair to say our calves are ruined, and we may need wheelchairs tomorrow. That shouldn't be a problem to organise though, due to many of the more sophisticated homeless using them to get around!

Tasty!

Sam and Nathan.

 
 

 

Corndogs suck and pretzles are huge: the tale of burning calves

Touch down! After an 11 hour flight with a P-Plate, pilot we've finally made it to San Fransisco and are ready to start our 6 week adventure around the land of dreams, The United States of America.

Our adventure was kicked off by an obsured 6 am wake up, followed by a ride to the airport with sobbing mothers. The moment we arrived at the airport we realised that this journey was going to be anything but normal when two flight attendants ran past, yelling military commands into radios. It seemed the flight attendants and security guards had swapped jobs for the day. After saying a quick goodbye, we boarded the plane to begin our eleven hour flight. Tasty? Nope, not at all...

The flight began with the captain being introduced as Derrick. Before take off, he seemed to run a few laps of the tarmac, making sharp manoevers and speed changes. It was assumed he was an L-plate pilot, who had to sit his P's before flying us to America. Presumably he passed the test, because we were soon on our way!

The flight was absolutely gruelling. Despite the in-flight movies, one of which was a rip-off of Indiana Jones, except with wrestlers and kids, the hard seats prevented much joy and relaxation. The low point came nine hours in when Nathan fell asleep, and Sam was forced to watch a horrific romance film starring Rachel McAdams.

But we did arrive eventually! And we soon learnt how far away from home we were. San Francisco is no ordinary town, you see. We discovered there are more homeless on the streets than home-owners...A city run by homeless - this was truly beyond our imagination!

Americans drive on the right side of the road...fancy!

Stay tuned for more San Francisco stories!

Juice,

Sam and Nathan.