Seeking An Extraordinary Life - A Travel Journal

Unexpectedly PJ gives me today off as well, so I spend the morning shopping the thrift stores for clothes with Sharon, one of my fellow longtimers from the hostel. The thrift stores (charity shops for those back home) in San Francisco are amazing - huge and well-stocked with genuinely good quality clothing, and the prices compare very well. Goodwill are the nationwide chain, but in San Francisco there are also several stores owned by Out of the Closet, which have still better clothing (although it's generally a little pricier) and give most of their profits to Aids research.

In the afternoon I go with Jennifer, a recent arrival at the Adelaide, to a potluck thrown by the local group of Couch Surfers. It's an organisation similar to Servas which I already belong to - both of them provide a connection between travellers and hosts who will provide them with free accomodation. Couch Surfers is rather more laidback and anarchic, and the crowd contains several Burners among other interesting individuals. I plan to create a Couch Surfer profile in the not-too-distant future, as there are many members scattered across the countries I'll be visiting.

In the evening I gather a small crowd and we go to Swig for a last night out. It's my first time in this bar which is just round the corner from the hostel, and I regret not having been in sooner - it's a cool, dark but welcoming space with a long bar and comfortable sofas, and tonight they have wonderful live blues music. We drink and talk, I take a couple of turns on the dancefloor and turn out to be gratifyingly less awful than I would have expected, the evening rolls by. Finally, with the crowd thinning, we retire to the hostel dining room until we can't stay awake any longer.

Labels: couch surfers, out of the closet, San Francisco, servas, swig, thrift stores

A good night's sleep, and first thing I packed up my gear and went looking for net access before my Servas visit tonight. I decided to walk up from Maryland to the public library, which turned out to be a long hot stroll of over an hour. Halfway there I stopped to sit on a shady wall and enjoy one of the best burgers of my life from the stall of the friendly and quirky Mr Mike, who, when he found out I was from England, insisted on giving me a free Dr Pepper and that I try the Canadian delicacy Squeeze Cheese; "The England-Man must try the Squeeze Cheese!"

Fortified, I carried on to the library where I found internet access but no facility to upload my photos. Before leaving again to find a net cafe (I wasn't sure how much time I had or I would have updated the blog at least, a choice I later regretted), I ran into a fellow hitcher from the US, Frank, who was on a limited visa (due to lack of funds) and visiting Canada in his school holidays. A veteran hitch-hiker, Frank had a wealth of great and fairly disturbing hitching stories, including being stabbed in a bar in Mexico after trying out a Spanish "pickup line" his friend had told him - the girl's boyfriend had been violently unamused, and Frank never found out what he'd said to her.

After a fruitless search of the area for an internet cafe I was sweltering, and I collapsed in a Second Cup cafe for a strawberry lemonade smoothie (the best possible thing on a hot day) and to wait for time to get a bus to my hosts. When I arrived in their house on a beautiful TV-perfect leafy suburban street the Kirby family made me enormously welcome, treated me to a delicious meal of bison burgers and fresh salad (mostly from their own vegetable garden), a long evening of great conversation (and vicarious Nintendo with their two sons), and a comfortable bed in their cool basement.

Labels: bison, burgers, canada, hitchiking, hot dog, Mexico, servas, United States, Winnipeg

Back in March I posted briefly about Servas, the worldwide network of travellers and hosts I was hoping to join. Well, I had my introductory interview booked around the time of the great course collapse, and what with all the upheaval at the time I cancelled it, and only got round to revisiting the idea recently. So tonight I finally got my introductory interview, and I'm now (bar some paperwork and fees) a confirmed traveller member.

Servas is an extraordinary organisation. Set up after the Second World War by an international group of friends, it has grown to include over 13,000 hosts in more than 100 countries. The premise is simple: promote world peace by enouraging people to learn about other people and other cultures, through travel. Servas hosts take in Servas travellers, generally for two nights. No money changes hands (that's a fundamental principle of the network) - only knowledge about each other and better understanding of the world.

It's a beautiful, simple premise, and a truly independent positive force - there's no political or religious agenda, just the intention to make the world better through better understanding. The Servas system is maintained by a set of protocols, kept simple but carefully chosen to ensure that no-one feels uncomfortable or put-upon at any point. Travellers are expected to be respectful and helpful to their hosts, and to really be there with them (not treat the house as a hotel). Hosts have a simple set of commitments too.

All in all I'm really excited about getting involved with this network. The local coordinator who interviewed me (a teacher who, with his wife and family, has been a traveller previously and is now a host) was very helpful and clear, asked all the questions I would want to have asked, and it was clear that his concerns were very much like my own. And it was clear that the things which excited me about the network - the chance of finding new experiences and becoming a bigger person - would make me very much at home with Servas.

Labels: hosting, servas, travel