After the many joys of Seaside, I was glad to make my way back to Portland for one more night before hitting the train to San Francisco. The plan was to arrive back mid-morning, spend the day just hanging out in the city, spend one night there, and have a nice lie in, catching the train early the next afternoon.
Unfortunately however, I was without the experience of one of the most vital lessons I've learned on the journey so far. The simple lesson being do not rely on people you've only ever met in the pub when very drunk for a place to stay the night!
You may recall from my previous blog posting from Portland an episode involving drunkenly dancing in my kilt. Well that night I'd met some people in the pub who'd offered me a place to crash on my return to Portland, knowing I'd be going down to Seaside for a few days. Arrangements were made the day before I was due back up, and all seemed rosy until I ended up in Portland, when all of a sudden phones were ringing out and text messages were going unanswered.
With no place to stay, I got in touch with the HI Hostel where I'd been staying previously, and thankfully managed to get me a bed there instead. While I was there, I met some excellent people - Roxanne, Ramon, Douglas, Jessica and Jennifer. We all went out for a stroll around the streets near the hostel, and ended up at the Blue Moon for a few beers and found out that all of us but Jessica would be travelling down to California on the same train the next day.
The train journey was a bit of a beast, 21 hours in total, but thankfully the good company made it a whole lot more tolerable. The train had plenty of legroom and comfy seats, so it was a nice relaxing journey, even with the woman sitting behind us whom we were sure was trying to communicate with ghosts. Jen left us at Sacramento, Roxanne at Martinez, leaving myself and Douglas to carry on to Emeryville, then making the short bus transfer across the bay to San Francisco.
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