Within one hour of arriving in San Francisco after 2 days sitting on buses and in bus stations, I have already been offered acid and cocaine by a 'beggar' trying to rustle up the money for a bus ticket to Oklahoma, been given a leaflet on how to relieve stress by a Jehovah Witness, and been asked if European men have big appendages by a gay Mexican called Harry.
Harry sits down next to me as I wait outside the European Guest House, the cheap hotel in a seedy part of San Fran that my friends have booked us into for our brief time in Frisco. Its 07:30 in the morning and although the hotel doesn't open until 09:00, its not too early for Harry to offer me "crystal" and tell me I have nice blue eyes.
Quickly switching to Spanish to inform Harry that I used to have a Spanish girlfriend and that I met some beautiful Mexican girls whilst I was in his country, he seems to get the message and so instead explains that he has lived in the US for 5 years, got political asylum from Mexico for a reason I didn't quite understand but related to homophobia, and that he only smokes crystal meth during sex.
Not long after this, the hotel opens, and so I dump my rucksack in reception and tell them I will be back at 11:30 to check into the room and get some sleep whilst I wait for my friends, wave a sad goodbye to Harry, and quickly head to a nearby Chinese restaurant to have an English breakfast.
Footnote: For the benefit of any Irish readership that I may have on my blog, I can confirm that my L&M breakfast came with with fried and not boiled potatos.
