Austin - 24/1/13

A nice long sleep in - looking forward to a nice rest and a break from driving. Today was Laundry Day(tm). Wasn't so hard, found a laundromat just up the road, not too expensive, took a couple of hours.

In the afternoon, got the bus to Downtown Austin and a short walk out of the city centre to South Congress. This had the feel of Haight in SF to some degree - all independant shops, nice cafes, bars etc. On the walk up to South Congress, stopped off for a quick ramen - I was craving vegetables, as they're not so popular out here it seems, at least when you eat out.

Mooched further up the road to find 'Allen's Boots' - a few days previously, we had been talking about purchasing some 'proper' cowboy boots. The shop was bonkers. Thousands upon thousands of boots, smelled beautifully of leather and a little overwhelming when you first walk in. The boots were organised by size and width, so while there were masses once we'd found that out, it narrowed the search considerably as there was only really your size section to look through, luckily. The pair that I had seen on the shop's website was not in stock - not a huge issue, as seeing a smaller size in the flesh as it were, they didn't look as nice. Ended up with a pair with a nice 'cuban heel' - the old style boots. Incredibly comfortable and really fine lookin'. B unfortunately didn't find a pair that she liked, as the ladies' boots all seemed to be too pointed for her taste.

South Congress was a nice area, pretty relaxed (as most of Austin seems to be), and the weather was really nice - around 20 degrees, comfortable, not too humid, sunny and calm.

After shopping, went and sat in a bar (Doc's) just as dusk was falling, had a few drinks, a basket of wings, and a few more drinks. *Very nearly* missed the bus home, but managed to catch it just in time - driver kindly waited for us to jog to the stop - and much hilarity from B seeing me running in flip flops and trying to flag the bus down.

San Francisco - 12/1/13

Saturday morning was a bit of a lie in, got going around 11, did a wee bit of essential shopping (US sim card,  three day bus permit etc.),  then headed out to the 'Mission' district, situated between 16th and 24th street. The main drag  turned out to be pretty run down, and also not - wealth next door to poverty unusually close together; on one street there was an old tramp digging through a bin to get food, while on the side of the pavement was a luxury organic vegetable delivery truck carting expensive food into nice homes. It had quite a nice vibe to it in some parts and not in others - the nicer parts were set back from teh main drag, really pretty townhouses, almost a colonial design with lots of character and colour. We also found a really interesting alleyway that had been painted by locals over the years since the 70s called Balmy Avenue, plus an equally good one on another street that was carrying on the tradition, but only started in the last few years. There was also a really lovely cafe called La Boheme (just off 24th street) which served for lunch particularly nicely. Running parallel to Mission Street was another called Valencia, which looked a lot more fun and lively. We were planning to go out there in the evening, but decided not to, as I'm sure it would have been fine, but was also quite a long way to go.

Saturday evening turned out to be a playoff game for the local American football team for a place in the super bowl, a big deal here, so we watched that and met some friendly Americans. The SF 49rs won fairly easily - great atmosphere as you can imagine. Against our better judgement, it was in an Irish bar in the centre of Downtown which didn't turn to be too bad (just expensive) and B was really chuffed that they served Magners. We had been planning to head out to Haight (another district) for some drinks, but were a bit tired and in need of some refreshment. After the game had completed satisfactorily (to the locals) we headed out to Haight, much nicer that Mission. Although Haight seemed pretty dead, we found a rum bar that was busy,  met some more Americans and had a lovely time. There was one chap who's birthday it was - so I introduced him to the delights of Sambucca. Turns out that the rum cocktails in this bar were pretty strong, so we left before I disgraced myself - rolled in around 1am. 

B noticed the amount of homeless people in SF in general, and around 90% of them (it seemed) had some sort of mental health problem. Talking to themselves, shouting at doors, riding buses (or 'muni' transport) to keep warm. In the evening it was even more prevalent; it was rare to see an empty shop doorway without a homeless person sleeping in it - we guessed that the homeless situation was so bad because there were just no shelters available, either due to budget cuts or lack of care. It was a pretty sobering thought considering that it is a 1st world country and more than a little bit sad.