Pointless 24 Hours; No. 2 - 1

Yo, I came back to finish putting a sleeper hold on this entire crowd by concluding my top 3 most pointless 24 hour periods. If ya wanna see numero 3, check out the post below.

2. This 'day' occurred in the spring of 2003. I was living in Bristol at the time on a road called Park Street in some halls of residence. Ok, so this one Sunday right, I got up at about 11.30am yea, and I watched some rubbish television (this was in the pre-The O.C. days) for a bit yea. Then right, me and my mate AlexForce went to the Crown for a bit yea, and had some pints of beer. Serious. Then right, we went to the Hatchet for a bit yea, and had some pints and played some pool. Then yea, eventually we went back to the halls and at about 11.30pm I went to sleep, right. You get me.

1. At 8.30am on Friday the 3rd of February 2006, I stepped on to a bus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I traveled for 6 hours on said bus and arrived in Pittsburgh, or as I became fond of calling it (and please forgive the profanity, but I'm sure you'll see its necessity in aiding an offensive and devilishly clever pun) Shittsburgh. I went to the city because their American Football team, the Steelers, were playing in the Superbowl that Sunday and I fancied a party. And you know how much I like to party.

I made my way to the area that the youth hostel's website said it was. It was frankly a horrible part of town. When I reached the correct address, the building where the youth hostel was supposed to be located was sitting there with boarded up windows and seemingly devoid of any life. Upon my enquiries in the next door convenience store, I was amusingly told that the hostel had in fact closed down 2 years ago.

So I was stranded in Pittsburgh, or as I became fond of cal...oh, sorry I did that one already. But I wasn't about to make this a wasted journey, oh no. I knew that in the city, about 40 blocks away, was the place where Hannibal Lecter in the Oscar winning film 'Silence of the Lambs' cut some geezer's face off and escaped imprisonment. I began to walk there, all I knew was that I could do without wasting money on a taxi.

What I didn't know however, was that the neighborhood between the Soldiers and Sailors War Memorial where I was headed and I, was what many would call 'a bit dodgy'. It's the kind of area where gangs of homies stand on street corners discussing current affairs and holding guns. The kind of area that you get shot at just for walking through...if you're playing Grand Theft Auto. The kind of area that my brother, Ross, had warned me about going in to.

I felt my best approach would be to stand tall, chin up, and I strided my way through the 'hood in an attempt not to allow the locals to notice the distinct shade of brown that my underwear had turned. I was getting a few funny looks but I marched on. At one point a home girl began walking with me. Despite her lack of teeth, I managed to distinguish her asking, "Hey boy, why yo walkin' so fast?". I wittily, so I thought, retorted, "By walking quickly, I really find that I get to where I want to go in less time". She didn't seem so amused, so I further picked up the pace and rapidly escaped her gummy glare.

I got to my destination eventually, took a couple of blurry photos, and got the bus back to where I had started. So the whole episode was really worthwhile.

The problem remained though that I was still stranded in Shittsburgh. As if this wasn't issue enough, it really was one of the worst places that I've ever been to, and I've been to Shelton Lock (Burn) and Thulston (Burn. Ouch that actually really hurts). I managed to while away three hours in Starbucks so that I could ponder my next actions. I drank lots of tea and kept nicking the free cake testers, much to the camp, foolish assistant's chagrin (Ooooo, nice word. People like Rebecca Sherren Robinson may want to look that one up. Miss Wild would be so proud). I decided to do the only logical thing and later that night I was on a bus back to Philadelphia. I arrived there at about 8.20am on Saturday the 4th of February, just shy of 24 hours after I had left.

So that's it. Done. We'll never talk about this again.

A couple of shout outs that I'd like to offer at this point. Firstly, for anybody who knows Isabel Catherine Anderson. She's off traveling the world at the moment with her comrade Tracey Davey. She is keeping a TravelPod, which is much like this blog, except she actually has things of interest to say. It can be found hither:

www.travelpod.com/members/izzyanderson

Also, for anybody who knows, and for those of you who don't know, James Hankins, he has been keeping a blog for a while now. It can be found at the address below and it is funny stuff. Also, there is a picture of me on it, so it must be good:

www.beansonbread.blogspot.com

Enjoy.

Kind regards.

Adam Marshall