Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

The Rockies as viewed from down-town Denver. Mile high
stadium is in the fore ground.

Yes, hello blog readers (or bleeders as I would like to call you!) I am currently in Salt Lake City, and what a beautiful day awaits me.

I loved Denver. It is probably my 2nd favourite city so far (behind D.C.) but if I had to live somewhere in the states it would be in Denver. The views from the city were amazing. It is also really clean and tidy.




On Saturday I found out that it was free admission day to Denver art gallery so I decided to take advantage of this. I don't normally 'do' art gallery's but this one was pretty cool. They had quite a lot of American Indian art and also a fair bit of modern art (the cool kind). I did see a Picasso and a Monet so not bad for free. Whilst I was at the art gallery I could hear a live band playing somewhere in the city. So after I had finished walking around the gallery I decided to investigate. . .and boy am I glad I did. You see Saturday was 'cinco de mayo'. Which means 5th of May in Spanish (not much thought went into that!). It is the Mexican festival of independence. It was a blast, there were loads of stalls selling EVERYTHING (did I mention that Denver has very lax drug laws, like Cali), there were a lot of very good looking latino women and the best part was when I was asked to take part in a chilli tasting competition for free. Free chilli - yes please.

Cinqo de Mayo festival

After walking around the festival and having a good look I stopped into a bar for a drink It was a really hot day and I needed something to quench my thirst! I met two Denver locals in there and we got chatting. They suggested that I should go to watch the Baseball in the evening and that if I wanted to I could join them for a few drinks after. I popped back to my hotel for a quick change and walked over to the ballpark. Unfortunaly I couldn't get a ticket for the section that they were in and with that my phone ran out of battery - bloody typical. Anyway, I till got a ticket for the bargain price of $15 and proceeded to watch the game. This one was far more exciting than the Yankees, I saw a 'Grand Slam' (second of the year, first one was the mighty Welsh rugby team in the 6 nations) which is where the hitter hits a home run when all the 'bases are loaded'. The stadium is pretty spectacular, the view I had was that the Rocky Mountains were a perfect backdrop to the game. It was rather exciting and the Colorado Rockies were 9-12 down going into the last 2 innings when the storm struck.

What a F-ing massive storm it was! Lighting, rain, gales and a handful of hail thrown in for good measure. I have been so lucky with the weather since I have been over here and this was the first american rain I had experienced, however just like the wonderful game of cricket, rain stopped play! I must have got a bit used to the sun as I now found myself stuck at 'Coors Field' with just a t-shirt and jeans and a good mile walk back to my hotel. I waited and waited and decided to risk it. It wasn't too bad as the rain eased off a bit!

Denver capitol building. If you sit on the steps - you are officially a mile
Above sea level!

Sunday I got up and had to get a few things from the shops. After I had done that I thought that I would give the History of Colorado museum a run for its money. It was $10 to enter and this did seem a bit on the pricey side. It had only just opened a few weeks ago and so there wasn't the huge number of exhibits that I am used to from other museums that I have been to. However I can see that once it had become established then it would be a very good museum indeed. I did get to see a winter Olympics medal! On the way out I got chatting to one of the women who welcomed you as you walked in, so at least I made a friend from it!

After that I headed back to my hotel and had a quiet night watching trashy american tele. Oh yea, almost forgot - I needed to get some cigarettes and so I asked a non-nazi looking person if they knew where the best place to buy some would be. He directed me to a pharmacy. I did think this was a cruel joke that the people of Denver play on unsuspecting tourists but I gave the man his dues. It turns out that yes, you can buy cigarettes from a bloody pharmacy here!!! Crazy!!!

Yes, there was snow!

So my coach was meant to leave at 11:30 on Monday and to leave plenty of time I checked out at 09:00 and walked to the bus station. It was raining (Denver weather don't like me!). I got to the bus station at 09:30 and the man behind the check-in counter said that there was a coach leaving in 5 min's to Salt Lake and I might as well get on that one rather than hanging around. Boy and I glad I did. This coach was going to take 2 hours longer to get into Salt Lake but it was going via the mountains and the view was ruddy spectacular! The rain turned into snow, lots of the white stuff. It was like a scene from the shining. So impressive. The coach only had about 8 people on it and it was one of Greyhounds newer ones with wifi and seatbelts (which I was thankful for when I saw some of the drops by the side of the road!). Further on the journey 'The Shining' country turned into 'Deliverance' as we drove along creeks in the blazing sun. Was the most breath taking trip so far.

I arrived into Salt Lake City about 22:00. Caught a taxi to my hostel and checked into my single room for the next two nights. Will just be a day of exploring the city today.

Until we meet again!

Tom