Travel Keyword
Greyhound
It is 2am. I’ve been on the Greyhound bus for 7 hours. The sound of the road peeling away under the wheels and the gentle rocking of a cabin should be lulling my senses into a blissful stupor but they bring no respite. I watch through my window into the clinging blackness and try to ignore the poster child schizophrenic that chose to sit next to me. He keeps yelling and yelping, one of three personalities at any time bursting forth onto the bus. Sometimes it’s the retarded boy, others the racist Southerner and when ever a sign came into resolve enough to be read: the educated Harvard scholar. If I am lucky I can catch them arguing between each other as their vessel jerked and roiled about in his seat. Their arguing continues through the night and punctuates the darkness. Around 5am he quietens a little, yet keeps snorting and fizzing and fidgeting. His odour has driven a few of my fellow passengers to move up into shared seats, foregoing their comfortable reclining positions for relief from the smell. I breathe through my teeth and count the hours, the minutes, the seconds until the next stop.
With the break of dawn comes an oasis of a gas station where we stop for food and drinks. My seat partner rises from his perch and lumbers down the isle, carrying with him his most valuable worldly possessions, 15 recycling containers. I stretch and am greeted by numerous faces that smile at me reassuringly and words of praise and amazement at my resolve. Only 13 more hours of travel face me but they lay stretched along the i5 through the new day. The terrain changes in hue and composition as we roll ceaselessly onwards into the morning. California opens before the bus welcoming me into it’s warm bosom. Mesas rise along the highway and farmland covered in dry grass surround the coach as we travel south in the morning sun.
While my strange friend has moved on he leaves a sinister stink he in his stead, standing sentry in the cabin like a ghost. I push my chin deeper into my chest and watch the white lines weave and duck back and forth along the asphalt. We’ll be coming up to San Francisco soon according to the woodsman that sits in the seat in front of me. I look out of my window and drink up the scenery. I gulp it up in an attempt to satisfy my excitement. A new city awaits just on the other side of the bay. A new city, with new sights, new people and hopefully new adventures.
SAX, bag stuffing fun
About a week before PAX is SAX. SAX is a day of bag stuffing, pizzas, introductions and hilarity.
This year the Enforcers banded together in production lines to stuff flyers, tshirts, buttons and other junk into over 20,000 swag bags to be handed out to attendees at the Expo. The stuffing started at 9am and didn’t finish until about 7pm, with only a small break in the middle which was staggered to allow people to grab some pizza.
While monotonous the activity was great fun and once your brain had fallen into a pattern of grab, stuff, pass it was easy to chat with those around you. Meeting so many new people all striving for a common goal was a great way to get to know the people I would be working with pretty much non stop for a week at the convention.
Next time you grab greedily at the bags handed to you at your next convention give a thought to the many hands that went into making sure you got all your stupid vouchers!
Housekeeping
This morning in Montreal I spent a little time doing some housekeeping. Just checking flights, planning the next couple of days, sorting accommodation etceteras. In doing so I began to take stock of my trip so far and thought I would just give you an update on some stats:
Days travelling: 199 days
Current weight: 68 kg (starting weight 78kg)
Amount spent on toilets: ~$150AUD
Countries visited: 12
Cities (1 night min): 22
Photos taken: 9,000
Blog posts: 105
Flights: 7
Flights missed: 0
Major trains: 3
Trains missed: 1
Major busses: too many to count
Busses missed: 0
Backpack weight: ~28 kg
Daypack weight: ~10 kg
Souvenirs bought: 0
Clothes bought: 2 pair of shorts, 4 tshirts, 1 hat
Postcards sent: 0
Hostels stayed in: 23
Books read: 8
Number of times caught in rain: don’t even start
I’ve still got around 2 months to go, so these stats are sure to increase, especially the photos one. I have also updated my itinerary with my latest flights and movements if you need to check up on / stalk me.
… And we’re back
So, as usually happens with these things, ol’ murphy came into play when I took my laptop to get repaired in Rome. Walking into the Apple repair centre, I placed my crapbook on the bench, described the problem, turned it on and lo and behold, the fans start spinning and everything is hunky dory.
Shit for me, as I have had no laptop for around 10 days, but great for you readers. Over the course of the next few days you should get around 11 updates. Hold onto your hats guys, you’re in for a treat. Vienna, Munich, Venice and more are waiting to get their odyssey treatment. Over 700 photos are itching to emerge into the world like over cooked infants scratching at the walls of their flash card uterus.
Keep an eye out for jumping shots, something that has become a bit of a theme for me through Europe. Just to start us off, here’s me rocking St. Johann in Austria. The alpine air has proven a boon to my vertical leap.