You and your whole crew are dead

Warm, sunny San Francisco was the second stop of the journey, well it was supposed to be. It was more like foggy, quite cold San Francisco. To be honest though the weather for the majority of the trip was great so I can't complain too much.

After arriving at the hostel we were reunited with Simon and the infamous seven as we came to be known were together at last. What amazing sights and attractions would San Francisco have to offer us? Let's go and have a look shall we. I know that some of our blogs may be similar from this point on, so I do apologize if anythings feels familiar. At least mine will be funnier.


San Francisco is a very hilly place. It often involved walking up and down, up and down. Just like the hills in Crazy Taxi, hey, hey, hey


Apparantly there's a large gay community in San Francisco. Didn't see any evidence of it though

The first port of stop was Queen Elizabeth Park. First impressions weren't great as we had to wander through what seemed like a never ending sea of homeless people. One thing you notice in the USA is that they have a large percentage of people living on the streets. We carried on though and were rewarded by a stop at the Japanese Tea Garden.

In response to Simon. I wasn't in this picture beause I took one myself. However, I can't deny that it would have been better with me in it


Are we contemplating the meaning of life or which players to swap in our dream teams. Reminder to self, transfer players before deadline


So beautiful, so picturesque, so tranquil... yet so cold


I know this is a picture of a wall outside my hostel room, but it leads onto an interesting story. Now as mentioned previously Andy had a number of strange room mates in the hostels. Unfortunately Andy and myself were seperated from the rest of the group and this particular night brought about the worst one of them all. He was an old man who on our first encounter just pointed at his bags and said "that's mine". No problem so far. He then went to bed about quater to 6 in the evening. He's old, still no real problem.

The real problem didn't start until after we returned to the hostel after a night out. The first strange thing he did was after Andy had left the bathroom and swictched off the light, the old man got up, switched the light on, shut the door and went back to bed. Slightly strange but no harm done.

The worst part came at about 5am in the morning. Going to the bathroom, you could repeatedly hear him spitting in the sink which was digusting enough. But then he started talking to himself. And seriously this is what he said. "He was raped, he was tortured, he was murdered, curse the devil, curse him". He then strted banging on the bathroom door. I was a little worried at this point, but being on the top bunk I felt he would take Andy out first if he had a gun, leaving me time to jump down and overpower him.

The old man then left the bathroom and continued to walk around the room saying "I hate him, I hate him". By this point I was definitely sleeping with one eye open. He then left to come back stinking of cigarettes. And I mean stinking. Fortunately he then left around 6am for good, never to be seen again. Or will he....


Another shot of the hostel, this time about what hostels should be about. Bringing the world together. Unfortunaely the hostel was in a pretty bad area and had no pool table. The Seattle hostel spolied us


The next day saw us visit Alcatraz, which was home to many famous criminals. Al Capone, the birdman of Alkatraz, Sean Connery and many others


Would you trust this man, I wouldn't


I tell ya, if the inmates had as much fun at the prison as we did they would have never wanted to leave


Only Andy and Ian managed to be in perfect syncracy for the jumping shot. Note to others, must do better


We then popped down to Pier 39 where a group of Sea Lions hang out. Can't remember why but it was fun watching them just crawl over each other. After a brief stop at the arcade we went to a shop which sells silly hats. Which meant we took some pictures


I bet you didn't know this but I actually used to be hat model in my younger days. I blew it though. All that fame went to my head


BBC chiefs deny theres a budget cut for the new series of Doctor Who


The first sneak peak preview picture from the third Pirates of the Carribean film. Box office disaster looms


Downtown San Francisco. Like every American city it contained a Virgin Megsatore. We visited every one as well


After a more peaceful nights sleep, we set off for Chinatown the next day


I've been to a few Chinatowns in my team and this easily ranks as one of them


Another tower, this time Coit. By the time we went up the Empire State Building in New York I think we'd been up so many towers that even that was lost on us


Foggy, misty, you can just see the Golden Gate Bridge in the background


On the way to the Golden Gate Bridge we stopped off at Lombard Street, known for being the only windy road in San Francisco. It's appeared in lots of movies as well. I'm struggling to think of any though


The other members of the infamous 7. I wish they'd stop e-mailing me with all their problems, losers


At last the Golden Gate Bridge. Still foggy and cold. Hang on a minute, it's red, not golden at all. I'm going to write to my MP and complain.


The evening was completed with a trip to the cinema to watch Crank. Featuring British action star Jason Statham, it provided numerous memorable quotes and an hour and a half of blistering action. Catch it if you can.

It was off to LA next, another long train journey and the only place on the trip I'd been to before.