The travel angel strikes again
Trip Start
Aug 26, 2005
1
79
126
Trip End
May 26, 2008
St Louis,
Missouri,
United States
Thursday, February 1, 2007
Its happened on countless occasions now and I'm really starting to think that there's someone looking out for me. It was only last night, in Chicago, where i sat with 2 other Aussies and we were talking about how occasionally you get stuck and question what your doing here, then someone, something, a force or some kind of angel seems to be looking over us and helps us out of these troubling situations. Ive said it a few times now on this blog, how things just seem to have the strangest way of working out. Just when your out of luck, something happens and turns a potentially dangerous, upsetting, disappointing or otherwise awkward situation around and next thing you know, your eating pork chops and apple sauce in someones house.
We spoke for hours last night about the situations we get stuck in and think all is lost, and Ive just turned the most confusing and frustrating situation around in the best way possible.
It went a little like this:
I woke at 5am this morning in downtown Chicago, donned the thermals and ran onto the cold, windy streets. Headed for the Greyhound bus station, I walked for 30 minutes with my massive backpack and arrived - frozen at the station. I bought my ticket to St Louis - 6 hours south and got on the 6am bus.
We stopped a few times on the way as we drove by grassy snow covered flatlands as far as the eye could see. It was so incredibly barren. There was nothing to break the horizon of flat dull grasses.
I arrived in St Louis, on schedule and worked out where I was, with the help of a few nice locals I was on my way. A long long walk through downtown and past the famous st Louis Arch towards the Hostel - Huckleberry Fin Backpackers Hostel. I checked the net and confirmed the hostel was open this time of year. I had only walked a few blocks when a car pulled up and saw me walking with a map in my hands. The car pulled up and asked if I wanted a lift. Driving was a 40 something, white haired, big bellied guy called Robin. Sure, id love a lift. Back in the day Robin was a backpacker himself and had traveled through Europe and Asia. We swapped travel stories as we drove the long long long way out of town and arrived at the hostel. Damn and I was going to walk here. Lucky Robin showed up. The hostel looked a little suspicious, borded up windows and very dark, abandoned looking. I used robins phone to try to call the hostel, and couldn't get through. At the back of the hostel, posted on a window was a horrible note which read ' closed until March 1st' Oh NO!
I had heard many reports about this hostel, people love it and only recently I met someone who just came from there.
So, I called a few other places. they were all charging around 120USD. eeeek.
I thanked Robin for his help and sat myself in a local bar to workout what to do. A few beers went down and I struck up a conversation with a few locals. They suggested a few places to try nearby. So I strapped my bag on and walked around the frozen streets. If the places weren't closed for the season, they wanted over a hundred for the night.
I passed a local real estate and popped my head in to ask if they had any idea what I could do. It was getting late and I was getting frustrated. They let me in and gave me access to the Internet, where I found nothing but 5 star hostels.
I thanked them and left, with my head down, planning on heading right back to the greyhound station where I had started and heading on to my next destination - Nashville. without seeing any of St Louis.
If these people hadn't been kind enough, as i was walking down the snow covered streets, a guy called out ' hey, you need somewhere to stay?'
i was a bit sus at first, but this guy invited me in to his Mexican restaurant and served me up a great big dish of nachos and refused to take any cash.
He said he had a place round the corner and offered me a room for the night.
Sweet.
So just as I was planning on another sleepless night and a long bus ride, I'm here, in this great big apartment watching Seinfeld - the heating is blaring and Ive got a whole room to myself. What a life! There are some nice people out there after all :)
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This wouldn't be the appropriate place to put out another random spiel about how retarded the American people are, so ill save it for another entry.
In other news, St Louis, apart from being brain freezing cold and completely deserted, and as I learned a few days later, the worlds most dangerous city says the FBI(its a fact), it does have a few relatively kool attractions. the most notable and famous of which, and this is a tough decision, I'm tossing up between the Budweiser Brewery and the St Louis Arch, and I'm going to start with the Brewery:
The Anheuser Busch Brewery
The official home of the 2 biggest selling beers in the world; Budweiser and Bud Light, and, news to me a whopping 60 types of alcoholic and non alcoholic beverages.
Budweiser dominates the US beer market, taking a 50% share in beer sales
In 1920, prohibition began in the USA and lasted 3 years, making it illegal to brew any alcoholic beverage. While almost every brewery in the USA shut shop, Anheuser Busch managed to stay afloat by making the following during that period:
Ice cream, barley malt syrup, ginger ale, root beer, chocolate and
grape-flavored beverage, corn syrup, truck and bus bodies, refrigerated
cabinets, baker's yeast and dealcholized Budweiser.
I toured the Brewery, visiting the Clydesdale's (They have 500 of them all through the USA) and the various facilities through the brewery. Finally ending up in their bar, where I got 2 free beers. woohooo, free beer!
The Arch
A huge metal structure, towering 192 metres tall, and strangely enough 192 metres wide. An optical illusion gives the perception that its much higher than wider.
Officially called the Gateway Arch, it was constructed in 1965 and is the tallest structure in the St Louis area. No building is allowed to be higher than the arch. Underneath the arch is the museum of westward expansion. A brilliant (and free) museum dedicated to telling the story of occupation of Central USA.
Its a strange structure and has attracted its fair share of attention from thrill seekers:
In 1980 Kenneth Swyers tried to parachute onto the span of the
Gateway Arch, planning to jump back off to land on the ground below.
Instead, he slid all the way down one leg to his death. The pilot,
Richard Skurat, had his pilot certificate suspended for 90 days.
Eleven light aircraft have been successfully piloted beneath the arch.
In 1984, David Adcock of Houston Texas began to scale the arch by suctions cups
on his hands and feet, but he was talked out of continuing after having
climbed only 20 feet. The next day he successfully scaled the 21-story
Equitable Building in downtown St. Louis.
In 1992 it was rumored that John C. Vincent from New Orleans unsuccessfully scaled the outside of the Arch with suction cups during the night, and completed a Base jump off the top. No evidence was present to support his claim however, it was
speculated by Rangers at the Arch that Vincent was lowered from a
helicopter onto the top of the Arch, where he parachuted off. He spent
three months in jail for the stunt.At the nearby Planetarium, you can use Microsoft's flight Sim, to fly through the arch. Like everything in the USA, they make a big statement about it being illegal, before directing us towards the arch.
The Zoo
I love going to the Zoo. Especially all these Zoo's in the USA cos they are all FREE! I have a new love of animals after spending 2 months living with them in Bolivia. The first thing I do in these cities is search out the zoo's. The St Louis zoo, they tell me is the best in the USA. It beats the Central Park Zoo (the animation Madagascar) in New York and the SanDiego Zoo (as featured on Anchorman - the legend of Ron Burgandy). I have come to the USA at a bad time of year. Its cold, and windy and covered in snow. So most of the animals were hibernating. Well, not really hibernating, but they had been removed from their enclosures and taken to a warm room somewhere. They did however have a Siberian tiger on display. The poor thing was growling and grumbling and pacing circles around his small snow covered enclosure. The highlight of the zoo... yes, you guessed it... the PUMAS! yay. 2 beautiful jungle pumas, lying on top of each other trying to keep warm. I growled at them. They pricked up their ears and we parted ways.
I spent 4 nights in St Louis and didn't get shot at once! Steve was very generous and kind and showed me around few local bars, full of hillbillies and hicks and pathetic drunken locals. A monstrous guy was passed out in the corner, 2 insanely drunk trailer trash girls stumbled around the place screaming and giggling, kissing as many drunks as they could,. I got hit on by some gay businessman and 2 locals asked me where Sydney was. I said Australia and they said, ahh y'all got them Kangaurooous bout there don't ya? I told them we have a few other things too and they didn't seem too interested.
Next stop - Nashville
