Leaving Salt Lake

Early tommorow morning, arriving in Lincoln early on Sunday morning, so should be online on Sunday :)

If not, then Chicago on Monday

xxxx

Amtrak and Salt Lake City, Days 12 and 13; Coming from the mountains

So, after 12 hours on the train I made it in to Salt Lake City after travelling from Truckee. Got to my hostel at half four in the morning and had to just sit in the lounge for a bit while it was time for me to check in.

The train ride was great, again; played cards with a girl who sold all her possesions and took off travelling and a guy who's off to do a ten month placement in Russia. Then, about 10pm, a groupo of Amish people suddenly started singing choral hymns which was quite a moving and spectacular moment.

Salt Lake City itself is something quite unique, Truckee was small with not much there, Salt Lake City is huge, sprawling, spread out with mountains penning it in on all sides. The founder of the Mormon church essentially marched into the middle of the desert and announced a temple would be built. They fetched stone from the mountains and they built the temple and it is quite a spectacular building. Just in the public library at the moment, which is really nice- there's a poetry circle here tonight which I might try to crash if the locals will let me!

Just one more day here, that's tommorow, and then 24 hours on the train to Lincoln, Nebraska, just for one night, and then Chicago will be my next big city stop.Travelling by train has been so much better than I ever thought it would, I'm really tired, missing people, but it's definitley worth it.

Day 11, Truckee; Amtrak Adventure

So I will hopefully do a more thorough update when I get to Salt Lake City early on Thursday Morning but Amtrak has been an incredible experience so far. Incredible views, comfort and really amazing people. Probably been the best day of the trip so far today :) I can't get on facebook from here though, in case you're wondering why I've not updated.

San Francisco, Day 10: The Sea Swings In

So, last day in San Fran today, headed out to Ocean Beach, which was freezing cold but some great views out to the Pacific and had lunch in a great little diner that was part Thai, part American place that played instrumental versions of Don't Cry for Me Argentina throughout my meal. I then had a walk through Golden Gate park which is really nice, but far too big to spend just one day exploring. The Pacific Ocean is an incredible thing to see close up, I kept getting lines of Anne Sexton in my head:

'The sea swings in like an iron gate'... 'the wind falls in like stones'



Everything's packed up and I'm off to Truckee tomorrow morning, a small town just outside Lake Tahoe. After just one night there it's on to Salt Lake City for a couple of nights, which should definitely be interesting. This is where the real travelling starts I guess, after the security of staying in one place for over a week.

Onwards

Oh and how could I forget:

I'm pretty sure I saw Lawrence Ferlinghetti!

Last Few Days

So, last few days have been great! Not been updating as much as I want but it costs too much to spend too long on the internet so that's why

so, last time I updated was Thursday. On Thursday I went up to Haight Asbury which is an amazing part of the city, lots of independent designers, vintage shops and a really nice 'peace cafe' where I had some lunch. Lots and lots of homeless people too though (as there always seems to be in this city) but, more heartbreakingly, these were all very young people. Perhaps who had moved to the city with dreams of being artists or writers? Maybe it's a way of trying to warn me away? I don't know, I still do want to live here though, it's a pretty amazing city.

So Friday I walked back up through China Town to North Beach. I'd been there on my first day but didn't take my camera, so I just retraced my steps to City Lights and to the Beat Museum to take pictures so that I actually remember things when I get home. Walked all the way out to the piers which is where I'm going to be setting off from tomorrow as I set off for Truckee and then Salt Lake City. Was a really cool day just spent wandering around and things; was really tired by the end of that so just had a relaxed day.

Saturday I did some more wandering and looking around, and then met up with my partner's friend to go for some drinks. Turned into a very good night out on Castro street, met some really nice people and it was just great to finally get a night away from the hostel and have a dance. Treated myself to a very random breakfast (it was called a Wagon Wheel and was potato, a burger patty with gravy and mince on top and then a fried egg as well- it tasted better than it sounds I promise!) and then a Chinese in the evening as well.

Last day in San Fran today so I'm thinking of heading out to Ocean Beach and exploring that area because I haven't been there yet. Early train tomorrow which is going to take me to Truckee, a town on the banks of Lake Tahoe and then to Salt Lake City for two nights.

The journey continues.

San Francisco, Days 4-6; Thom Gunn Archives

One of the things that I was most excited about coming to San Fran was the chance to get up to Berkley and get inside the archives of my hero Thom Gunn, who I am moving on to research in October. The archives are huge and extensive and three days certainly isn't enough time to get done everything I wanted to do but I feel like I made a good start and certainly found enough cool stuff to be going on with.

There are some incredible things there, annotated poems which Thom would read from which give unique insights into the meanings behind some poems. Diaries which Gunn kept meticulously everyday from the 1960's and even one harrowing one from his childhood. There are lots of files of correspondence, from friends and colleagues and there are little bits of paper, scraps and scribbles hidden everywhere which proved to be a real treasure trove of information. I know more about the man that I ever did and I feel like, for the first time, that my book on him could be something truly interesting- presuming nobody beats me to it!

The best thing I took away from Gunn was his love- for all his friends, for his long time companion, for his family. The intimacy of an entire city and an entire community, encapsulated in one man, is on show and it's breathtaking. Some of the most moving moments came when looking through Fan-Mail to Gunn, much of which he managed to reply to. On the back of one letter, received towards the very end of his life, Gunn has scribbled a reply which it is unsure whether he ever sent. It is truly beautiful and shows Gunn's compassion to be immeasurable.

3 Days was not enough time but I was grateful for anytime spent with such wonderful articles and documents. Hopefully, as my project progresses, I will be able to go back again.

San Francisco, Day 3; You Gotta Give em hope

So, Monday was spent down in the Castro, the area made famous for Harvey Milk's campaigning and work there and for it's open and liberal attitudes towards sexuality. It's a beautiful and breathtaking place- surrounded by sandy hills and the low mists which seem to always be around San Fran while I've been here. Wandered up and down the streets, saw Milk's old house (as used in the film) and camera shop and talked to some really friendly people who were volunteering in the Community Centre and a shop which was raising money for people with H.I.V/AIDS.

The one thing which struck me was how friendly everyone was; whether I was in a cafe, walking the streets looking a bit tourist-esque and lost or in a bar grabbing a drink- everyone was willing to help and tell me some cool places to go and try and help me fit in. Haven't felt that comfortable in a gay area in England just wandering around on my own. It was really great.

Sorted out my trains too, so it's on to Truckee next Tuesday and then Salt Lake City. Still plenty of exploring to do in San Fran though!

Quick Update

So people know I'm still safe:

Castro area yesterday, and then Thom Gunn archives today, been amazing.


More detailed stuff will follow

A

San Francisco, Day 2; "I'm Happy, Kerouac"

Caught the bus up to North Beach and China Town area, to seek out the churches of Beatitude, places like the City Lights Bookstore and the relatively recent Beat Museum. People like Ginsberg and Patchen are some of my most treasured poets and being able to wander up and down the streets and the alleys where they used to scratch out their words and hallucinate their lives was incredible. Managed to pick up a couple of obscure magazines and pamphlets as well.

It is wierd to see a gift shop in the museum selling gifts and presents based around the Beats though, wierd and painfully ironic. The counter-culture icons being reduced to collectable posters or place mats seems somehow wrong, and probably not something they would have approved of- or maybe they would have. At least it's keeping their memory alive and helping a new generation of people discover a School of Poetry and an outlook on life which changed everything, well it did for me at least.

So I've stuck to buying the poetry instead. 'Reality Sandwiches' by Allen Ginsberg to go with my battered copies of 'Howl' and 'Kaddish' my dad gave me. It's in the writing that the spirit of the Beats is truly preserved:

' as she walks the universe
with all life gone
and cities disappeared
only the God of love
left smiling '

San Francisco, Day 1; The mists are rolling in

So, after getting up at 6am London time this morning I've arrived in San Francisco, after a stop-over at LAX, at around 7pm local time, making it around 1 or 2 am on Sunday back home I think? I need to buy a watch or I won't have any hope of ever knowing what time it is

What I've seen on San Fran so far has been through the window of a taxi, but it seems beautiful; flat-top frontier-esque housing side by side with skyscrapers and pastoral scenes; hills where the mist is rolling in because of the heat of the day. Proper exploring can start tommorow and tommorow and tommorow. I was terrified before I set off but I'm here now.

Welcome

I'm heading to America for a month; this is a basic blog to help keep my friends and family up to date on what I'm doing, where I am and the sorts of things I've been discovering along the way.

I will be in San Francisco, Truckee, Salt Lake City, Lincoln, Chicago, Charleston, Staunton, Washington and New York.

Keep in touch with me while I'm away; I'll be home in a month and I will look you in the eye.