Brace yourself. This is going to take a LONG time. San Francisco is the city on my world trip where I spent the most time, partly through choice and partly through necessity. There was a horrible lull in the middle but the rest was pretty cool.

So it turns out that Mark MacDonald (producer, Midsummer Night's Dream, York Uni) lives in San Francisco and it was his birthday on the 25th when I arrived late in the evening. I joined him quite far into the night and got some cohesive conversation out of him.

The next day I took a leisurely walk through Alamo Square and the town hall, to Buena Vista park and eventually to Golden Gate Park via Haight-Ashbury (pretty much hippy central). San Francisco is not a normal city. It smells of weed on every corner and the police don't seem to care. Even the muggers are laid back and friendly and the many homeless people wander around having conversations with themselves. Haight-Ashbury shows this very clearly! I sat and had some lunch on "Hippy Hill" in Golden Gate Park before heading home. I also went out with an Aussie girl called Claire, to sample the local cocktail and dive bars in the area, and to chat with some of the locals. Good times.

On the 27th, I joined some other folks on a walking tour of San Francisco to get my bearings and maybe some advice on what else to do around town. We went to Grace Cathedral, the Cable Car Museum, Chinatown, Little Italy, the Coit Tower and Levi Square. I went through to Fisherman's Wharf then rode the F Train back home. Lovely.

On Thursday 28th I hired a bike and rode it around Golden Gate Park, through Presidio, across the Golden Gate Bridge and down to Sausalito. I even got a free cookie in the bakery for being so English and polite (I'm guessing)! The ferry ride back gave us a great view of Alcatraz and the bridge in the setting sun. To round the evening off I went to a "speakeasy" cocktail bar called Bourbon and Branch with Teresa and Claire where we needed a password to allow us in to our booked table. A great night! I stayed up late enough for the build up to the royal wedding, but didn't manage to stay awake to watch it. I figured there'd be no surprises.

On Friday morning, and in fact most of the afternoon, I tried to plan my escape from San Francisco. I came here thinking it would be easy to buy a car and drive it across the US to New York. It turns out that it's not that simple. You need a permanent address to register and insure the car once you've bought it. Then there are gas prices that are higher than ever, and nobody to share the costs with! The prospect of driving thousands of miles on my own and footing the bill for everything was not attractive. That said, I wanted the freedom to see the national parks of the west and it seemed only a car would let me do that. Maybe car rental? Two weeks would be affordable, as long as I have some help with gas and maybe a travel partner. So far nobody has stepped forward...

ANYWAY, I got out of the hostel before my mind span any more and just walked somewhere. I ended up at the cable car and they were offering rides for only $2 instead of the usual $5. I took the cable car for the novelty and grabbed some clam chowder at Fisherman's Wharf. I wandered around and got conversationally attacked by a weird Irish bloke in a kilt who insisted I was sunburnt and that I needed to put sun lotion on. I strategically walked him away while he was explaining how he always boils chicken twice, then two minutes later he reappeared and graciously offered to take a picture of me with my camera. How kind... No thanks.

The rest of the evening was spent in the mission district with Mark and friends, celebrating the royal wedding with a pub crawl while I used my best English accent. I had no food all night!

Saturday 30th: I overslept and missed breakfast, still hungover when Mark called and invited me out to Muir Woods for some walking and to enjoy the icy delights of Muir Beach. It was nice to get out of the city!

Only six more days to go. Stick with me...

It's May! Wow, I've been travelling for seven whole months now. I think I've got traveller's fatigue, if that's the right term. Basically I've hit a roadblock in my travel plans: Buy a car? Too much red tape. Rent a car? Got to bring it back to SF. Greyhound? No. Just no. Amtrak? Doesn't serve any national parks. Grrrr.

So I decided I'd need enough freedom to go to the places I want to and that had to involve hiring a car for two weeks. I found some cheap deals and despite rising fuel costs I thought I'd try to do it anyway and see who would come along for the ride. Otherwise gas would be expensive. With that idea sorted, I headed off to the How Weird festival - a massive street party featuring strange costumes and drum and bass music - and realised I should have gone with other people, left my camera and been off my face to fit in...

Monday 2nd May, and people aren't really interested in my car rental and national park plan. If I can't get people along it'll be expensive and lonely. I found Green Tortoise adventure bus tours online and they seemed to answer all my problems, but it did mean waiting in SF for another four days. That noted, I decided it'd be best to hire a car. I got outside to clear my head and wandered to Green Tortoise anyway. I ended up speaking to Holly there and she seemed to solve all my problems! I think Green Tortoise is the way to go. I mulled it over by going to wiggly Lombard Street and back to the hostel. By the time I got there my mind was finally made up.

Wednesday was free museum day! I first went to Green Tortoise again and booked the Yosemite and canyons trips. With that load off my mind, I enjoyed an afternoon of the Museum of Modern Art, Yerba Buena and the Martin Luther King memorial. I felt very calm all of a sudden. Things were once again good! I can even get a half price Amtrak rail pass via some contacts. Bonus. I celebrated by going to an improvisation drop-in class to do a bit of American improv with a British accent. What-ho, toodlepip and the like... Good fun!

With a clear mind to work with, I ended up showing two new hostel residents around SF for the day. They were Meike and Dave, who I'd chatted to the night before. I basically ripped off the walking tour that I did on my second day, but I quite liked doing it again and being helpful. We put a few quarters into the mechanical museum to play some old school games too.

On Thursday 5th, I went to Alcatraz with Meike, which was interesting (and freezing cold). I spent the afternoon at Fisherman's Wharf after I'd eaten some rough dry seafood, I saw the local sea lions and I finally met Bushman! I was totally unawares as I was trying to find In and Out Burger when he jumped out and scared the heck out of me! I then sat and watched transfixed as he targeted other people fairly successfully. Great to watch!

Then at last came the 6th May, the start of my Yosemite trip. I didn't do much in the day as I basically decided to do a load of admin for Facebook, getting new walking boots and waiting for my Amtrak pass to be sorted out. I finally got it sorted in the eleventh hour, got my 50% discount and dashed to the Green Tortoise. Only the bus doesn't go from there. Another two blocks and I was there, making new friends and avoiding the Scientology dude who hung around outside the bus... Never mind. To Yosemite!

Phew. EPIC. I should probably give you something for reading this far. And it's this confession. This is the first time in my while trip where I've felt a bit homesick. It's probably a lot to do with the fact that my ears are still not right and I struggle to talk to or hear people because of it. If you're not up to being sociable, you might as well not travel. It hasn't been nice, but I feel better already.