'The Greyhound Experience'

We had caught the Greyhound bus earlier on in our trip, a mere 4 hour journey in the afternoon from Miami to Orlando. However, no journey of life experience could prepare us for what we were about to endure.
Let's begin...

So, we had planned to get a Greyhound from Vegas to San Francisco as we knew it would be cheap and presumed - foolishly - that it would be only a 4/5 hour journey. Oh how wrong we were. For a mere $55 each we had the pleasure of spending 15 hours sat on a Greyhound coach. 15 hours... 15 HOURS!!
Why ?!?!? Why!?

We arrived at the Greyhound station just after 11pm and sat waiting for our bus both hoping we could sleep our way through! There were some really odd people at the station making everyone a bit on edge. One guy walked around making gestures with his hands whilst making gun shot noises - greatt. Once on the bus I grabbed the first seats I saw near what seamed to be normal looking people, only for the cray cray guy to sit right next to us! Terrifying. We stopped after 2 and a half hours so I took the opportunity to pop more travel sickness tablets, use a normal toilet instead of risking the one on the bus - I've heard bad stories. Meanwhile Amy managed to keep nodding off to try and ignore the strange conversations that were going on, the weird dude next to us was now reciting what appeared to be a dictionary to the poor guy sitting next to him,(who looked petrified) he then went on to talk about his recent stints in Prison. This is of course something you want to hear at 2:30am whilst stuck on a crowded coach for another 12 hours. We arrived at LA around 5 am and had an hour break until our next bus to San Francisco, most of the crazy people left at this point which was a relief! As we sat with our bags waiting for our next bus a young guy started to talk to us, he seemed friendly enough so we got chatting. I soon regretted this as he told me his he's an alcoholic and has been a drunk since he was 14. He also mentioned he was still drunk and drove here after '20 cans n' half a bottle a summit nasty.' - lovely. He then added that he moved around a lot, before showing me his lighter burns his friends gave him this morning. I just smiled and nodded trying to give gentle comments to encourage him out of his alcoholic state. If was then that he said '' I dont mind that they got me with the lighter, I scared 'em silly this mornin' with what's in my bag *pats bag* although they don't like it cus I've been shot at with it myself 3 times.''
It was at this point in our thrilling conversation that our bus was called out - thank god!! So I wished him the best and hurried away to the coach whispering manically to Amy 'he's got a gun!!!' Sparks of course was too sleepy to notice so only responded 5 minutes later with a 'woahhhh'.
Poor guy was only 21 and was a bit of a state, however when someone mentions they have a gun I think it's safe to say you need to wrap up the conversation....

Once on the bus the number of people jumping on was very random from a midget dressed as Mr T, an elderly man with a beard down to his hips to an enormous lady with an even bigger suitcase who managed to knock anyone/ thing out with her ass whilst clambering on board. She decided to place her bag over Amy's head and nearly knocked her out in the process!

This journey was less traumatic and we both slept most of the way 'til we arrived at Fresno. Here we waited for half an hour before making our final 5 hour drive to San Francisco! During this part of the journey I felt as if my back had become numb to all emotion whilst Amy's ankle has turned into a 'cankle' which greatly distressed her (this is where your ankle swells up so much your calves cannot be distinguished from your ankles... Brilliant!).

The last part of the drive was lovely and there were only 8 or so of us on the bus which made seeing the beautiful views much easier!

Once in San Fran we fannied around for a bit before getting the right bus to Jeffs house. On arrival the doors code didn't work as the door had been bolted ''by accident'' so after a 15 hour journey we were homeless, probably smelt and starving! The lady in the flat below kindly let us throw our bags over so we could go to Starbucks to steal their wifi to get hold of Jeff. Fortunately by the time we'd eaten food and drunk coffee Jeff was home and we could go in - success!

It was my first time in 'Hell House' and after a lovely warm welcome by Jeff into his and Angelo's home I felt right at home :) The house is beautiful with the most stunning woodwork and beautifully painted /frosted windows. Jeff kindly took us out for supper at this lovely fish restaurant where we dined on shrimp, calamari, salad, trout and soup! Delish! And yes Sparks hq Amy ate some Trout!!

After an evening of banter and a big catch up by Amy and Jeff we were more than ready for some sleep. So we took our sore backs and cankles to bed.

No pictures from today I'm afraid, so instead here's some pictures of our pets to relieve you from any trauma caused by reading this blogpost.