San Francisco continued

Upon leaving the UK, I vowed to myself to try and eat as healthily as possible and try and keep active in order to stay relatively trim. I needn’t had worried as over the past three days I think I must have walked every inch of San Francisco, managing to get lost numerous times along the way.

Yesterday saw me and some friends decided to check out Hayte Ashbury area of the city. Hayte Ashbury is about as bohemian and hippy-like as you get. An aroma of marijuana wafts down the bustling main street, between scores of independent boutiques and bars. By the time that we left I almost felt stoned and found myself bopping along to mellow reggae beats for the majority of the tram ride back into the city centre.

Then followed the hostel pub crawl which ended up with me doing shots with a redneck guy from Kansas and a US marine, as you do. Details then began to get a little hazy but all I know is that I made it back to the hostel despite inadvertently wondering through the cities red light district in a highly intoxicated state.

Despite initially waking up with a thumping a headache, my insistant Ozzy roommate decided that we were to visit the Golden Gate Bridge. After stopping off for food, beer and football stops, we finally made it and it’s easy to see why the image has become so synonymous with the city of San Francisco.

San Francisco

My body still may be reeling from the jet-lag and the aftermath of an 18 hour flight, but wow, what an incredible first full day in San Francisco.

The journey to the states was long and painful as expected. Changing planes in Reykjavik and Seattle and the associated layovers had left me questioning whether or not the cost-cutting measure was worth it, but what I do know is that I’m here now and San Francisco is like no place I've ever been before.

I arrived late on Tuesday night, having seemingly passed through the stage of immense tiredness. I’d gone from being unable to keep my eyes open on the plane a few hours earlier, to somehow not being able to sleep despite my body working at 8am UK time once I got in bed.

I eventually managed to grab what could have been no more than five hour kip before going downstairs and signing my name up to the hostel walking tour.

Signing up for the tour is definitely the smartest thing I’ve done so far during my time here. The knowledgeable tour guide led us around the city showing us the various sights and vantage points to photograph the stunning cityscape.

San Francisco is like hilly like no other. The hills are an intimidating prospect to walk up but the views at the top make the struggle well worthwhile.

Our tour initially led us to Union Square, a compact space which is the setting for many important episodes in the history of San Francisco.

From here our tour progressed through the fascinating Chinatown, onto Little Italy before descending down to the sea front which displays stunning views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz.

Each district of the city oozes its own culture and identity and San Francisco emanates a very bohemian and mellow vibe.

The place strikes me as a tolerant city, where the people who live there are free to express themselves however they see fit.

Many of the landmarks are recognisable from various media and a walk around one district led us to a bar where the likes of John Steinbeck used to hangout, not to mention the church where Marilyn Monroe once tied the knot across the road.

All-in-all a very successful first day, met some cool people, got my bearings and finished off with a fantastic calzone and a beer in the searing afternoon heat.

Eagerly anticipating what the rest of my time in San Francisco has to offer.

A few images from a weekend of fun in Madrid

2013

Well, this blog has been awfully quiet for a while now and there can be two reasons for that. Either I’ve been travelling the world and having such a blast that I haven’t yet found any time to update the page, or that nothing of interest has happened in the life of Chris Matthews.

Ok, so the case has definitely been the latter, but that’s all about to change.

2013 has been a strange one so far, I’ve been working extremely hard and packing the hours in and unlike in recent years, haven’t really got away much.

Up until September, my only jaunt of note was a trip to Download Festival in June. Download certainly didn’t disappoint with notable performances from Stone Sour, Parkway Drive, Jimmy Eat World, A Day to Remember and Slipknot and a family atmosphere that I experienced at Download more than any other festival that I have been to.

Next came three more months of extremely hard graft before the annual Roast. For those who are unaware of what a Roast is, it’s a group of friends who get together once a year for a little lads holiday. My inaugural roast was Vegas last year, and while the Roasters visit Vegas every other year, the year that lies in-between is a closer and cheaper trip to another European country.

This year it was decided that Madrid will be the venue for the trip and I must admit that I’d never heard Madrid mentioned in the same breath as Prague, Krakow and Barcelona as places renowned for a great night out, but wow, what a night out it was.

We arrived late on the Thursday and hastily changed and headed out. We sat down and enjoyed some tapas in a lovely square before doing what all good British tourists do and heading to the nearest Irish bar for lots of beers, shots, dodgy dance moves and god knows what else.

As the night became the next day, we got our heads down for a few hours before embarking on a bus tour of the city. These rides are very ‘touristy’ but are a fantastic way to be ferried between the major sites in a minimal amount of time.

The afternoon’s sightseeing was broken up by the odd beer, in a few of the many sidewalk bars/cafes in Madrid, great places to kick back and watch the world go by.

Then we headed back to the hotel before changing into our fancy dress for the upcoming night out. As all good groups of Roasters do, we pushed the boundaries as far as we could and dressed up at bulls and matadors.

Fortunately, despite out initial reservations about the choice of dress, Madrid’s mix of locals and international students all found the idea comical.

Madrid is certainly a fantastic place to go out at night, as there are a plethora of bars and clubs all within short walking distance of each other. There is also an electric mix of locals and international students, during our stay we made friends with Americans, Dutch, Swedes, Germans, Puerto Ricans, Spaniards and South Americans.

The city itself isn’t the most beautiful city in Spain, it feels more like a working city, but there are still some beautiful sights to be sampled.

It may have just been because of the sheer units of alcohol consumed, but our touring group found Madrid extremely difficult to navigate and with the similar looking, parallel streets, I think just about all of us were lost at some point.

Fortunately everybody made it back eventually at times ranging from 10pm (early casualties) to 7am (very drunk).

The Saturday was the day of the big football match and we had managed to all score tickets for Real Madrid against city rivals Atletico at the world famous Santiago Bernabeu.

We arrived early and took in a stadium tour before finding a bar and counting down the hours until kick-off.

The atmosphere was incredible and the ultras choreo display in the moments leading up to kick off is an image that will stick with me for a long, long time.

Real turned in a poor performance and a Diego Costa goal gave Atleti a richly deserved 1-0 win. Real never really threatened their opposition and in truth, had Atleti not been so wasteful themselves in front of goal, they could have emerged even more comprehensive winners.

Another night out followed the game and we all awoke the next day feeling slightly worse for wear. We then split into two groups with one heading to one of the city’s art galleries and the non-arty group decided to head to the Vicente Calderon, the stadium of Atletico Madrid for a tour.

After relaxing in a charming park and grabbing a bite to eat, we arrived to find the staff understandably in buoyant mood after the result from the previous night. Whereas Real is a global brand and business, we found Atleti a lovely club really in touch with its fanbase.

The Calderon isn’t the most sparkling stadium but I can imagine it generating some noise on a match day and being an intimidating place for opposition to visit.

So all-in-all our jaunt to Madrid was full of laughs, nights out and sightseeing and I would fully recommend the city for anybody to visit.

Next week I am off to the United States for a prolonged visit. I loved Las Vegas and ever since I have been saving to return to the country.

I will be flying into San Francisco before making my way down the California coast and then across to Texas, before working my way up to New York, where I will meet my parents for a few days before flying home.

I’m looking forward to meeting lots of new people and visiting some places that I have seen in so many films and television programmes, yet never actually visited.

Time to reap the rewards of working 55 hour weeks all summer!