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.