Hello everyone! After spending a little time becoming acquainted with the area in which Abra lives, including a visit to the main campus of Stanford University, a swift twenty-minute walk to the west, I braved a train-ride from Palo Alto into San Francisco proper, a full hour away to the north. After such an idyllic day visiting the vineyard and Monterey, followed by a lovely day exploring Stanford, replete with uniform, stately sandstone buildings of a neo-...

Hello everyone! I arrived in San Francisco late in the evening of Wednesday 16. The next day, Abra and I took to the road and headed south out of the city district into the luxuriant agricultural valleys of the Santa Cruz and Monterey regions. Our plan was to visit some of the places made famous by the great American author, John Steinbeck, whom both Abra and I hold in high regard - indeed, Abra takes her name from a central character in my favourite Steinbeck n...

Hello everyone! I should type (yes, I know, I know) that this is the third entry of the day. If anyone feels particularly motivated to read what I thought of my experiences in Los Angeles, those musings can be found in the two prior postings: sorry! After enjoying a wonderful week with Ben, Courtney and my new-found friends in Los Angeles, I began to feel the traveller's itch, that sensation between discomfort and excitement: I was eager to move on to new adven...

Hello everyone! My week in Los Angeles passed quickly, very quickly. I spent a lot of time simply relaxing in and around the apartment in Venice Beach. I enjoyed the horizontal feel to the place, the friendliness of many of the strangers passing me on the street. I indulged in tasty Mexican food, prepared by real Mexicans who had settled north of the border, searching for a more stable, better life. I took sun-drenched strolls along the boardwalk, a pedestrian p...

Hello everyone! I am sat writing this latest entry from a calm, collected library in the middle of the main campus at Stanford University. The computer is very limited and will not even allow me to write an inverted exclamation mark; thus have I been coerced into greeting you all in English for the first time on this blog... that is America I suppose. Let us not dwell: although I have safely journeyed north from los Angeles to San Francisco, it is time to return...