#7 - Going up the country

Sunday, the 3rd of May, 2009

12:00PM, laundry room at the HI Hostel, Vancouver Central

Day 10

So I arrived in Vancouver safe and sound. Just to get chronological, here:

Last day in S.Franscisco

I decided to go and see a museum. Took off to Legion of Honour Palace. It was raining, quite a bit, and so I was happy Veronica took pictures of me in the morning rather than in the evening. Yeha, we took a picture of me on the rooftop with a flower pin in my hair - the flower pin that I got for free at that Indian shop in Haight-Ashbury. Glorious portraits. Anyhow, Legion of Honour was quite interesting. A good collection with a great range and a decent organisation. Curiosity: all info was in English exclusively. Significant? Overall. I wasn't incredibly impressed, but I guess I have a bad habit of visitng the best museums in the world so my standards are quite high. (What modesty Filipa. what modesty...) It was also quite empty, on a Friday! not many epople at all. Ended up being a relaxing factor (...)

The highlights:
-one painting, which i loved, was called something like "the broken vase". I forgot the name of the author. [ it is William Bouguereau and the painting is actually "The broken pitcher", see picture] (...) The way she looked and the broken pottery at her feet were just hypnotizing. The little text on the side said it was normally interpreted sexually as a "loss of inocense" and "hard bruttish country life" theme thing. I see it in a more holistic sense. Her look, like she was about to cry and stay strong at the same time, seemed to whisper "this is me, here I am". It was very intimate.

-There were also some great Monets and Pisarros. i saw the "Great Canal", the Monet I reproduced [ or tried to] 4 or 5 years ago. (...) I stared for a while.

After that I decided to go to Golden Gate Bridge. (...) It was pouring down, sort of foggy and very windy. Perfect drmatic setting for that red huge bridge. (...) Being there I thought I should walk the bridge. After all taht would be the "complete S.Francisco experience" thing to do. And so I went, defying the wind I strolled with some other brave tourists. Very exciting and liberating. But when I reached half the bridge I had to go back 'cause I was wet to the bone. My band-aids were falling off my blisters because of the water. (...)

[Back at Veronica's] I packed and ate our shared pasta. (...) In any case, I thought, it was time to leave. We said goobye and I headed down to Pier 39. When i was at the Ferry building I realised there was something worng with the cable-car times. they kept increasing on the monitor! So, in a little panic, I ran all the way to Pier 39 with my bagpack.I looked like a mad woman and felt my legs about to collapse. 15 minutes of insane runing in a San Francisco night with 30 kilos on my back. How glamorous. I got there 10 min in advance though! And the bus was late more 5 minutes! Seriously... But I met a guy also waiting for the bus. He looked familiar and soon we realised he had been seating behind me on the train south. His name was Ryan and he looked like a bearded laid-back type.

So, me and Ryan started talking. He was 23 and lived in Sacramento. His current occupations: working in a bar, looking for fun things to do, riding his bike. And, when he went somewhere, 2 things were certain. He would be a) drinking a lot b)smoking a lot of pot. His visit to San Francisco had been a sort of "out of an impulse thing" and the only thing he regreted was not having dropped some acid. (Just for the record, marijuana, although illegal is osrt of a common thing in the stated. at least I got that impression. (...)) Meanwhile, Ryan went to smoke another joint and the train arrived. It was late and I was tired. I got my music goign and tried to sleep but Ryan came up and we talked all the way to Sacramento. I talked. he mumbled. People getting high - stops being cool when they stop being able to have a decnet conversation [but still want to have one!]. Also, when talking about how rough travelling alone is, he told me I had it worse "being a lady and all". No comments. When he got off at Sacramento I said bye and went to sleep.

The train north

At 5:30 AM of the next day I wake up in Dunsmuir, California with someone shouting "Derailment!". A freight train had derailed ahead. We were stuck. At first I panicked abit. But then I just enjoyed the warm train seat, read and knitted. (...) It took 9 hours for buses to arrive from Sacramento and load all passengers. Next stop. Eugene, Oregon. But the ride was beautiful through Northern California and Oregon. We saw so many things. From dry hills in California to the beautiful green valleys of Oregon. Along highway 5. I saw little towns with only one mainstreet. I saw trailer parks and the poeple living in them. i saw churches advertising their services like butter and I saw baseball games with parents cheering! I saw native reservations that were "Hotel and Casino Resorts" and even saw an Amish couple that was on board of the train ( at first i thought they were dressed in a costume). I saw America. In Seattle we boarded a bus to Vancouver. This old lady was going too. She had been to Portugal many times as a tour guide and it was lovely to tlak to her. She had such a beautiful white hair. White like snow. (...)

Vancouver

I arrived at the Pacific Central at 5 AM. What was I going to do in Vancouver that early? (...) I took a cab to the hostel (...) enjoyed 3 hours of sleep and breakfast and a shower. I got to do laundry and now have everything washed and dry in my bag. While i was at the laundry room I met this guy named Carlo who wrote the message that is some pages back on this book. [a poem about us "meeting" and "speaking of siliness, do you remember?" and apparently he noticed "I wore my hair long, down past your shoulder" and, finally, apparently "It didn't take long to fall in ---" , it literally ends with a line there and a phone number down]. He was a slightly sleazy italian musician from Toronto. He thought I was very friendly and had 2 tatoos clearly designed to impress. He invited me to his room, to hear him play guitar. .. Rigth pall, nice try (he looked well over 30). Yep, I have been meeting some characters I guess...

Filipa