pogoism

For the third time in just under 2 weeks, I found myself in San Francisco.

I love this city, I really do. It’s the first city I’ve been to that I can imagine myself living in for a long time. It has everything – no matter who you are, no matter what you’re into, San Francisco has something for you. It’s a place where no-one cares what you do or how you act, you can just be yourself – and I can’t think of any other city I’ve been to that has that same ethos.

After a fairly horrendous drive from Reno, thanks to some completely pointless roadworks, we arrived in the city, and checked into our hostel. Originally, I wanted to stay in the hostel I’d stayed at with Sean, despite it being a bit dirty and uncomfortable, it had a great location near Union Square. However, that was all booked up, with it being New Year’s, so we opted for the other HI hostel, City Center. It tuned out that just off Union Square is a touch ghetto-like, but the hostel itself was fantastic – much more comfortable than the other one. The only downside were the 2 people staying in our dorm that insisted on getting up early and rummaging around the room chatting to each other, while the rest of us were trying to sleep after the late New Years Eve.

Melissa and I had come to San Francisco to see The Slackers at Slim’s, so we went in search of 11th Street. That turned out more difficult than we had anticipated, but after re-fuelling on some delicious pizza, we found it eventually. They had a bizarre system for determining who was under 21… if you’re over 21, you get a stamp on one hand, and if you’re under 21, you get a stamp on both hands. Which meant it was incredibly easy to wash one stamp off, to be left with one, and all of a sudden you’re 21. Support came from The Struts (who were okay, but a bit samey), and local band The Impalers (who were fantastic, and in my opinion better than The Slackers). It was a great gig, there was a good vibe, with it being New Years Eve, and a nice mix of people. Anyways, it was a different way to see in the New Year, and we had a fantastic time.

New Years Day, and feeling a bit groggy we headed to the Castro in search of somewhere to eat. Ihad my first Mexican breakfast, and it was delicious - scrambled egg, with onions and peppers. Then we went to the Chocolate shop on Castro for a hot chocolate. Still feeling somewhat sleepy, we caught the streetcar to Fisherman’s Wharf and walked along the ocean front. We ended up looking in some art gallerys, and saw some work by Dr. Seuss, which was cool. Feeling in need of some warming up, we had an Irish coffee at the Buena Vista Cafe, supposedly the first bar in the US to serve the drink. For dinner, we decided to go exploring, and ended up in North Beach. North Beach is essentially Little Italy, jam-packed with Italian restaurants and gelato stores. We ate at Ristorante Ideale, which was amazing, especially the pumpkin ravioli. Highly recommended! Walking back to downtown, we stopped off at the cinema and saw Doubt, which wasn’t as good as I’d hoped…

Friday, our last day in San Francisco, began with walking to the Financial District to go up the Bank of America building, but, as last time, it was shut, and didn’t open until 3pm. I wanted ti go to the Moscone Center, where Macworld will be held in a few days, to see if I could see anything through the windows, but all I could get was the IDG banners on the street, which said “Even the small talk will be big” – perhaps hinting at the long-rumoured iPhone nano? Maybe… but these were IDG banners, and not Apple ones, so I guess we’ll have to wait a few days to find out… Instead, we found ourselves in Chinatown, and did some tea-tasting for a few hours, thenbought some very cheap mugs/tea/therapy balls from a store. Fairly tired, we went back to North Beach, ate, had coffee at Caffe Trieste (the home of the Beat generation) and went back to the car. Our final stop was at Haight Ashbury, which seems a lot like the lanes in Brighton. We didn’t stay long, as it was busy, and we wanted to head home.

Overall, a fantastic few days in San Francisco! I really do love this city, and I feel like I know my way round it well now. Can’t wait to go back, I really can’t get enough of it.

San Francisco was interesting to say the least.

Got the Greyhound bus from Reno to San Francisco, which was surprisingly comfortable. And the scenery was as always, stunning. Wish I’d taken some pictures, but I was too lazy :P

Went to SFO (after getting on the wrong BART train and getting thoroughly confused), and met Sean. It was an awkward wait, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I knew it could be awkward – we only broke up because I was coming to Reno, and I’d been seeing other guys since then. But anyway, it turned out to be anything but awkward – we got on just as well as we did before. It’s fun. I’m very much enjoying seeing him again :) Even though it’s going to be tough saying goodbye again…

Saturday came, and Sean and I went to Alcatraz. I’d booked the earliest slot possible, so we could get some great photos without thousands of tourists in them. It was well worth getting up early to do this, we got a tour that very few people get around the island, seeing some parts that are usually closed off to the public with a very informed tour guide. Fantastic. One of the best tourist activities I’ve ever done, and I’ve done a fair few in my years.

Spent the rest of Saturday walking around San Francisco. It felt good to be back in a cosmopolitan, vibrant city after being stuck in the cultural wasteland that is Reno. And no flashing lights for 3 whole days. It was bliss.

Just chilled out on Saturday night, hung out with Sean and caught up with what had been happening since August. Then some crappy stuff happened… But bleh.

That bummed me out for the rest of the trip to be honest. Sean and I trudged around San Francisco in search of something to do, but both of us were tired, I was zapped and we couldn’t really be bothered. We headed back to Reno, and arrived at Circus Circus at 9pm. I was very glad to be back in familiar surroundings.

And that was that. A bittersweet start to Christmas. I’m over it now, and planning some fun stuff for the next few months. They’re going to be good… :)

Virginia City is an odd place.

It’s one of the most famous of the mining boomtowns in the Old West, and lies on the site of the Comstock Lode silver deposit – the first major silver deposit found in the US. The deposit, found in 1859, brought the population of the city to 30,000. However, this dropped when the Comstock Lode ended in 1898.

Virginia City itself is a National Historic Landmark, and as such does not have any chain stores or fast food restaurants. It’s pretty much a ghost town. The city manages to draw about 2 million visitors every year. To be honest, if you travelled far to get here, you might be somewhat disappointed.

There isn’t much in the way of things to do in the city, but it’s a fun place to walk around. There are two main attractions:

• The Suicide Table – located in one (of the many) saloons, the Suicide Table is a poker table where supposedly many people have gambled away their fortunes and killed themselves. Nice.
• The Way It Was Museum – which shuts really early, so we didn’t actually get to go round. I’m sure it’s interesting though.
• … and loads of candy shops, souvenir shops, antique shops and saloons.

Oh! And I almost forgot. Mark Twain started his career as a journalist in Virginia City.

As usual, more photos over on the ‘ole Flickr.

Last weekend a mate and I went on a little road trip to Los Angeles. The drive there from Reno, down the SIerra Highway, is absolutely stunning, really beautiful. The highway takes you through the Sierra Nevada mountains, which were covered in snow, set against a perfect blue sky backdrop. We also passed by numerous lakes, such as June Lake, Mono Lake and the Mammoth Lakes, as well as going through towns such as Bishop, Lone Pine (where numerous Westerns have been filmed), and the Mojave desert. The highest mountain in the contiguous United States, Mt. Whitney (14, 505 ft), is also on the drive.

Then we got to Lancaster, CA, the ninth fastest growing town in the US, and our place to stay for the night. Went out for a nice meal to some Mexican place, and found a place to stay (eventually). Had a good nights sleep before our day in LA…

Woke up fairly early so we could get on the road and see as much of LA as we could, and got ourselves a copy of the Lonely Planet guide to California. However, as we were driving along Hwy 5 to LA, we noticed some smoke over the hills. Uh-oh. LA county being somewhat infamous for its wildfires, we feared the worst. And we were right, We got massively diverted and ended up driving for many more hours than we should have done. In the end we didn’t get to see much of LA, but we did go to Santa Monica, and drove through Hollywood, and then to Pomona to the party we were going to.

Santa Monica lies on the coast of LA county, west of LA city. I was shocked at how hot it was down there, 90F! In the middle of November! But anyway, Santa Monica was nice, I guess I’d describe it as an American Brighton – it has a pier and good shopping and food (though the service was a bit bad).

Then we went drove through Hollywood, on the way to Pomona. Again, we didn’t see much of that either, due to a massive Prop 8 demonstration. And then Pomona – don’t remember much of that.

Woke up on Sunday morning with surprisingly little of a hangover, off to Denny’s (my first trip to Denny’s might I add, and hopefully not my last!) to refuel before the long drive back home…

So, overall, a fantastic weekend! 

More photos over on my Flickr.

Yay! The snow started yesterday, and it was apparently very early this year.

It’s really weird that just on Wednesday the weather was sunny and 30 deg C, and only a day later it’s around freezing. It’s great when it snows here in Reno, it covers the Sierra mountains that surround the biggest little city, making them even more jaw-dropping. I’ll make sure I get a picture next time, for sure.

Also, *really* looking forward to the weekend, if it snows some more, I’m off to Mt Rose for a tubing party, which basically involves sitting on a rubber ring and sliding down a snow covered hill. Promises to be lots of fun!

Ah San Francisco – what a great city!

I actually went a while ago… so here’s some pictures.

Trolley's on Union Square

Transamerica Building

Alcatraz

Hanging on...

The seals and view of city from Fisherman's Wharf

Downtown, from Coit Tower

Wow, been so busy and haven’t really had much time to blog in the last month.

Well, things are still going great – work’s keeping me busy as I’m working 9-5 weekdays, and weekends are pretty hectic – but anyways, some highlights (and photos :))

Birthday

Went camping to Pyramid Lake on my birthday, and it was absolutely amazing! The lake is set in the middle of a Native American reservation about 20 miles outside of Reno, and it’s beautiful. Had the best night – BBQ, toasting marsmallows and sleeping out on the beach under the stars on a really clear night. Perfect.

Reno-Sparks Rib Cook-Off

Possibly the most American thing I’ll ever go to – a festival in Sparks dedicated to the eating of sauce-covered pig. Not what my ideal day out, but it turned out to be quite good fun. Best beer-batter covered onion rings I’ve ever had!

The Great Reno Balloon Race

Got up bright and early for this so we could go to the Dawn Patrol – where five balloons line up and blow their flames in sequence, and then take off… it was pretty. Then we watched the sunrise over the hills surrounding Reno, while slowly freezing. At around 7, all the balloons (about 100 of them) took off from San Rafael Park – a beautiful sight!

First Football Match – UNR vs. Texas Tech

Well, American football is weird… there never seems to be much more than 10 seconds of continuous play, and it seems like the aim of the game is to run into, and knock over, as many people as possible. But, anyway, it was fun, the atmosphere was great, the whole thing was good – cheerleaders, marching bands – the whole fandango! Definitely be going back soon! Oh, but they lost :(

So, yep, a few highlights from Reno so far. Off to San Francisco on Saturday, so check back next week for more. I’ll try and get back in the habit of blogging again!

Lake Tahoe

Apologies for taking ages to put up a new post, but it’s been a really hectic week and my chances to get to the internet have been somewhat limited.

Started off last Sunday morning, bright and early, to get the bus to Dublin. We drove through the country, marvelling at how ill-prepared the UK is for flooding, and got to the airport way ahead of time. Boarded a trusty Aer Lingus flight to Los Angeles and tried to settle into my new home for the next 10 hours. Unfortunately I didn’t get one of the planes with the in-seat screens, so I had to make do with craning my neck around my neighbour’s rather large broadsheet – not that the films were worth watching anyway. Managed to doze off once or twice, and forced down some yummy airplane food, but otherwise a very long and uneventful flight. I can’t imagine how people do transatlantic flights so often though, it’s not the nicest experience. Arrived in LA early, so had an even longer wait for my connecting flight to Reno, but spent the time trying to find the ever elusive terminal 8 (which they decided not to signpost for some reason), and wandering around trying to find something to eat that wasn’t going to give me a coronary.

And then, after 27 hours travelling, I arrived in Reno! I was greeted by a poilce office on a Sedgeway and met Emily and Fiona.

Up early on Monday to go to Lake Tahoe for the annual department picinc. The drive up there is spectacular. Reno itself is at 4500ft, but the drive to Tahoe takes you right over the mountains at 8000ft and down a bit to the lake. The scenery on the drive and the lake is some of the most dramatic I’ve seen.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were spent filling out the mountain of forms we’d been given, making sure that they all got to the correct offices, and getting orientated about the School and the campus. The campus is huge, with the School of Medicine being at the far north end. Also had to do all the dull stuff, like setting up bank accounts so I can actually get paid, getting social security…

Friday saw the start of work. I was assigned to a project studying interstitial cells of Cajal and type 2 diabetes, so it should be an enjoyable year! Also managed to get an apartment sorted out – free gym and pool for $850/month – bargain

So, a fantastic start to what looks like is going to be a great year in Reno. Keep checking back for more photos and posts :)

After a few months of my placement being on and off, tomorrow I’m finally heading to Reno for a year! Which means I can finally fill my blog with the things it was intended for :)

I’m really sad to be leaving Belfast though, I’m leaving behind some people that I’m *really* going to miss…

Anyhoo, keep an eye on my blog if you want to see what I get up to over there, complete with pictures!

I booked a flight a few weeks ago, unsure whether I’d need to check-in baggage. Just went to review my booking and they wanted to charge me £24 for it! Thats £8 to check-in luggage each way, plus another £8 for airport check-in.

On top of a £7 flight, all seems ludicrous.

So, I’ve decided. Ryanair have lost a customer. I don’t care if Belfast International is less convienient, at least Easyjet have a fair luggage policy.

I promise no more whines about Ryanair :)