Remember the Alamooooo, bitches

Trip Start Jun 19, 2008
1
6
Trip End Jul 25, 2008


Loading Map
Map your own trip!
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
shadow

Flag of United States  , Texas,
Friday, June 27, 2008

After leaving Little Rock at 5pm yesterday, we got in to San Antonio at 8.10am this morning and ruhed to get breakfast, Tex Mex style.  Best.  Breakfast.  Ever.  Bacon, scrambled eggs, rolled up in flour tortilla with a bit of refried beans to scoop up.  It was immense, and super cheap!  I wish I could remember the name of the place but it was right across from the Greyhound Station and along to the left a little.  We managed to check into out hotel a few hours early and we were so shattered that we crashed out around noon and got up at 6pm.  Once again, our thoughts turned to food!  We went to Iguana Lounge on the Riverwalk and had a proper Mexican feast, it was nothing short of amazing.  Enchiladas with tacos, and mexican bean soup (best thing I've ever tasted) and salad.  I also tried Orasa's quesadillas and some chicken thing in a wrap that was deep fried....my belt hurt so bad afterwards but I wasn't even sorry.  I'd do it again.  Right now.  We headed into a so called British bar and were highly amused to find guys with kilts on working there.  We then headed to an Irish Bar (American bars just aren't as fun as faux United Kingdom joints) and they had a couple of guys doing music, who were hilarious.  Everyone was really enjoying themselves, we struck up a few friendships and had much banter, so much so we ended up back there the following night and it was even funnier.  We were disappointed to see that everything shuts up at 2am.  'San Antonio is a 2 o'clock town.  Texas used to be a dry state.'  Aye, well it's not anymore, by my reckoning they should be making up for lost time.  After Orasa trying to get into the San Antonio River with my hat and my monkey, and harassing passers by, we got into a taxi where she shamelessly flirted with the old fat taxi cab driver all the way back to the Radisson, where we broke into the pool for a swim (I still refused to take my hat off) and were joined by some Mexicans and got a wee small hours pool party going.  Magic.
So the day after that we visited the Alamo, where around 200 people fought a whoel Mexican army for the freedom of Texas.  Davy Crockett and all that jazz.  It was originally built as a mission thing, it's beautiful.  I was very overwhelmed, I'll tell you.  A brave 12 day fight and then they fell, every single one of them killed except a couple of women and children who were released with a couple of dollars and a blanket, sent to tell the rest of Texas what would happen if they resisted.  Heartbreaking, truly.  A now famous quote that's engraved at the site reads, 'I would rather be slain in these trenches than surrender the freedom of Texas'.  And slain they were, he doesn't look so clever now huh?  I don't know if it's the Scottish thing, but I felt some affiliation with these poor hopeless chaps.  It was very moving.  Oh, and if I needed any cheering up after that, there was a fair right outside the site with..........Texas rodeo!  Proper bull riding and stuff too, or whatever they call it.  It was absolutely scorching, I had no sun block on, but I didn't even care.  I sat out anyway.  I swear, the sizzling sound still haunts me in my sleep.  Then it was another night, another stolen pool party at 3am.  We went back to the Irish bar on the riverwalk and met some extremely good company.  Strange, oh yes, but amusing.  We met a couple who were 20 and had been married almost a year.  He had no legs because he lost them in Iraq.  And he loved cider.  He convinced me that his family are from England, I didn't have the heart to tell him I wasn't really a fan.  SO he spends the rest of the evening mimicking my accent, trying to tell me that this is how he talks really (bear in mind he's from Mississippi) but he has to put on an American accent because his wife doesn't understand him, but he's so glad he can finally be himself now he's met me.  Weirdo.  His wife by the way, is spending her time kissing her way through all the other girls in the bar, her husband was very encouraging.  'She can kiss any girl she wants, but if it's a guy she has to ask first'.  Wtf.  Absolutely fascinating though!  Later in the pool I spoke to some guy (white trash) who was 21, and had just gotten a divorce after a four year marriage to a 33 year old.  Eee.  Some people, eh? 
Print this entry