Halloween!

                                    

We were flying all day Halloween so we celebrated on Saturday night instead and joined the hoards of dressed up people for an evening out on the town. People in San Francisco go all out for Halloween and we’d been seeing dressed up people most nights we were staying there but Saturday was fantastic. We found Wally (or Waldo as they call him here), I saw Avatars, naked people and Lady Gaga. Kathy and I had very last minute costumes. Mine was Alice from Alice in Wonderland, children’s size as no adult costumes were left, and Kathy wore her cat beanie, striped stockings and drew whiskers on her face and was a cat burglar! Very clever : )

So we began the night with dinner and drinks.

Then we played the vegetable game with our roommates. Say a vegetable without showing your teeth. The photo on the left is the vegetable game, hence the wierd faces.

Now drink when you laugh. After a very long pre drinks and a quick funeral plan after Kathy started feeling racing pain going up her arm and through her heart – no jokes, we were worried for a while hence the funeral planning, we headed off into the night. Well, we actually headed off downstairs to ask the guy at the hostel desk how to get to Castro St. We caught the ‘muni’ (what they call their normal train) and de-trained with a stampede of other people. Waiting in the line of the first club, we asked the guys behind us what kind of music the place played. He said hip hop. Kathy and I found the closest knife and took our own lives. Kidding! Wouldn’t be here writing about it if that happened. So we asked him where to go for wedding music and top 40 tunes and he said Q Bar and pointed us down the street. So we walked for ages until we got to Castro St and found the club – huge line but only $3 cover once we got in and $5 drinks!

I’ve never had so many guys touch my ass and not worry at all, everyone was gay! It was really great except for this one really sweaty guy, see Kathy’s face haha

                                                    

Our bartender knew our usual by the second time we went to him – vodka cranberry with lime and vodka orange juice.


The only downer (and up that Perth has over San Francisco) is that all clubs shut at 2am and by law you’re not allowed to sell alcohol after then. No drinking after 2am. Crazy cos we were all having a great time and it was the Halloween celebrations and we all had to file out at 2am with cops our front making sure no drinks were taken out and that we all dispersed! So of course Kathy and I wanted to keep on going and somehow we met this guy.
                                      

Super duper best friend in the world, told us there’s one place open to dance called “End Up” which was fitting but if you wanted to drink you had to find an after party :( Hailing a taxi would be impossible he said but we spent a good half hour on the side of the road trying to hail a taxi or just anyone who would drive us downtown! No luck though so he took us to the bus stop and told us exactly where to get off and if it wasn’t for him and helping us get home we would still be walking around in Castro St!

We went to our local diner when we got to our street (24hour!) and met two nice guys in line (busy night) and we had a great midnight feast together! One was dressed 80’s and the other was a prisoner from Alcatraz. We were chatting and eating away and having a great time when Kathy checked her phone and said, “Uhh Anna, it’s 5am...?” Wow where had the time gone! We bid our farewells and in our hostel room tried to be quiet getting in to not wake our roommates but I think we failed when I knocked over an empty bottle of wine and when we lay curled up on the floor laughing so hard we couldn’t get up. All in all, fabulous Halloween night! Hope everyone else had great Saturday nights as well!

San Francisco!

  

San Francisco is a fantastic city! Kathy and I are both ready to move there. There’s cable cars (trams), which we’re not actually too fond of as the first time we went on someone vomited in the back and the whole thing smelt not so good, buses, a normal train line and then the underground train line. So much public transport and we walked everywhere anyway! Shopping, food and alcohol were all really close to our hostel and it only rained on one of the days we were there.

The first day we got in (Wednesday) we shopped and bought a lot of clothes, then bought bulk American chocolate like Baby Ruth and 100 Grand and then ate our chocolate at the movies. It was a Wednesday night 10pm when we got out and the streets of San Francisco were still buzzing, people were still everywhere! Loved it! There was also one point during the day when Kathy had lots of drinks around her and she said, “I’m the liquid queen!” Definitely a high point.

The second day we went on a wine tour! Getting up at 7.30am was...difficult but worth it because the tour was fun. We stopped near the Golden Gate Bridge for a photo op – got lots of good Mum photos.

The first winery was called Homeland and the chick doing the tasty session with us was from Adelaide! But she had lived in America for 30 years so no Australian accent left. We went through 5 or so wines and Kathy and I were downing ours as the next one was being poured when we realised that the jugs carefully placed on each table were for undrunk wine. Ahahha well shit.

The best part of our wine tour was that we met Heidi and Geoff from St Paul, Minneapolis. Geoff has travelled the world and is currently working in sales. It was their anniversary but he didn’t want to tell them he was going away so he was organising meetings on his phone on the tour bus. Apparently working in America is really shit for holidays and you’re allowed four weeks but if you take more than one you shouldn’t expect to keep your job and stuff! And they have four kids needing their dinners at home! They were both really nice and Geoff was buying the wine by the case load so it made Kathy and I feel less guilty about not even considering buying any wine.

Heidi and Geoff are in left corner

At the second place we got a quick how to make wine lesson and I tasted some grapes.

Kathy tried cheese!

By the third place we were all pretty tired and tipsy and Kathy and I decided to have a nap when we got back to our hostel. Big mistake. We climbed into our beds at about 6.30pm and then got up and had dinner at about 10pm. No worries though, there’s 3 diners on our street that are 24 hours and all take literally less than a minute to walk to!

We decided to take the ferry to Alcatraz the next day but after a really long walk, it was sold out for the day. So we bought tickets for Saturday and went looking for Halloween costumes instead. People are crazy, lines were super long and the shops were a mess! And the costumes were a little pricey too, average being about $50-$60 and we didn’t want to spend that as we were probably not going to be taking them with us anyway! On the way home, a giant mob of bikes went down Market St (one of the main streets) and they were all dressed up and one had a boom box and it was just one of those crazy stop the traffic, doesn’t matter that the lights are red moments. There was a LOT of them and we don’t know what they were doing or why but it was exciting to see.

On Saturday we went to Alcatraz and here are some photos but just for the record, Kathy and I were unimpressed. Everybody talked it up, said it’s the one place we have to go to but honestly, it’s just a prison. Freo prison is way better.

Kathy being a cat while we're waiting for the ferry

Halloween coming up!



Kathy enjoying her first 2 minute noodles in 2 months



Vegas!!

Limo ride? Check

Bottle service? Check

VIP entry? Check

Thunder from Down Under? Check

Venetian Canals, MGM Grand, wedding chapel. Check check check!

To sum Vegas up in one word – excessive. Night clubs have fire

the shops include the trevi fountain and venice canals

 food doesn’t fit on a plate

and everything else is big and outrageous! From movies, I thought Vegas would be classy but it is actually quite seedy and it’s weird to see such extravagance (penthouse suites, limo’s) next to people who are living on the street, and the huge, over the top, fancy hotels next to the mediocre, dark and musty hotels. The latter in which we stayed! The Imperial Palace was a great place to stay because it is right in the middle of the strip and I would recommend it to people looking for a cheap place to stay. Fun fact – no room light, just a lamp. Later when we stayed at the MGM Grand there was also no room light so it’s not just a cheap hotel thing!

If you’re a lady and breathing, it’s cheap to go out in Vegas. The club promoters approach you during the day to give you VIP entry and free drink cards and at night, they personally walk you in to make sure you get in with no trouble! If you have a penis however, expect to wait in line and pay exorbitant amounts to get in, eg $20 - $60. The clubs are full on. So are the drink prices. 

 

                       

We were travelling on three different time zones but that worked in Vegas as everything was open practically all the time. The first night we went out at 1.45am but the second night we were home and passed out by then! On the third night we saw Love by The Beatles, a Cirque Du Soleil show and it was love-ly : )

The best night by far deserves its own paragraph.

It was a Tuesday afternoon. Kathy and I decided to wander down to Excalibur and Luxor, two hotels that are shaped as a castle and pyramid respectively. Walking into Excalibur, Kathy, with her eye for noticing half naked men, spotted a poster for the Thunder from Down Under. With a 3 course dinner package it was only $65 each! How could we say no! The dinner was really nice – they let Kathy taste the wine before they poured it and she handled this like a pro (by looking at me questioningly). Anyway, the show! The theatre was dark. We were seated next to a wife and her super excited husband. The warnings about strobe lights and fog machines were noted and after the boys did their opening dance routine, Kathy and I were stumped as to how this show could possibly last. WELL. The host got everybody revved up as a swash buckling pirate made his entrance. There was also a firefighter, gangsters and Roman warriors later on and a few lucky ladies even got a one on one on stage. You would think this is just another strip show but the boys were laughing and not taking themselves too seriously and smiling goofy smiles as they did their dance routines and they were just so Australian, this is my recommendation for all Vegas goers, you HAVE TO see this show! We got photos with the boys after the show and we may or may not have circled the bar they were drinking at a couple of times, lurking in the shadows, waiting for that marriage proposal. Or just a room key. Kidding.

PS. Not kidding.
                                            

Make sure you have a spare pair of pants on hand for this next photo.

See you in San Francisco!!