St Louis

The bus ride from Chicago to St Louis was dreary. It was raining, the trees were bare and the countryside had taken on a greyest cast. It reminded me of home and made me happy. The countryside and the weather combined to make the day look like a typical British winters day. More specifically a typical British Christmas day. Also I can now confirm that south Illinois also has lots of water towers. I wonder why water is kept in a tower, it doesn't seem very energy efficient as the water has to be pumped up into the tower. I guess they save energy when the water is needed and they can just let it flow out of the tower letting gravity do the work.
The bus entered St Louis by going over the Mississippi river. This was my first sight of the mighty Mississippi and while it is big, it's certainly not pretty. The area has had a lot of rain recently and the river is running very high and is a dirty brown colour. The St Louis Arch is very impressive and I couldn't wait to go up inside, although from just looking at it I couldn't see how that was possible. The bus dropped me off at Union Station, I wonder does every town with a station call it "Union Station" and if so why? Not very imaginative, although it could come in handy, if you ask for directions to "Union Station" without knowing what the station is called, there is a good chance that will be just fine. I should ask Scott.I also think that every town has a "Main St' which would make sense as people do use the saying "Main St U.S.A.". I suppose it could be compared to the number of Red Lion pubs we have in the U.K..I went into my arrival routine, first to visitor information and then down to the public library. St Louis has a different feel to it than Chicago, there are fewer high rise buildings and lots more green space throughout the whole down town area. There is no elevated train, so that cuts down on the noise levels and it isn't divided by the river. The Mississippi river forms not only the city boundaries but also the state boundary between Illinois and Missouri. So I was in Missouri, but only just.
I got the bus to the hostel as I had been told that I couldn't walk there because I would have to go through the projects. As it was already dark I didn't want to chance it and took the hostel owners advice. I have to be honest,even in the dark, the route that the bus took didn't look that bad. I decided that I would investigate the following morning. I am always tired and irritable when I have to lug my ruck sack around and although I have walked further with it in a day I now don't have the will or strength to do that anymore. Oh and it was still raining.Receiving just plain wrong or misleading advice makes me even more irritable.I found the hostel and my heart sank, maybe it would look better on the inside. I opened the door to the house at the address I had for the hostel and walked straight into a dorm room. It was completely empty and I couldn't see anyone around so called the telephone number I had been given. I had to leave a message and settled down to wait. I ate my pasta dinner from the night before, I was glad that I hadn't been able to eat it before the concert and glad that I had taken the trouble to haul it all the way from Chicago on the bus.
The girl taking care of the hostel,Rebecca, arrived, I handed over the cash and she handed over some keys and bedding. The hostel is spread out principally over the ground floor of three terraced houses. One area has the office and I guess a bar or something, I only saw the office. The other two houses have a mens and womens dorm. The kitchen and common room was across a courtyard at the back for the dorm rooms in another building entirely. It was generally clean but the fact that I was the only person staying there didn't lessen the general air of neglect that hangs over the place. Unfortunately it is the only hostel in St Louis so I would put up with it. One good thing,the water was hot and plentiful.
I headed into the local area the next morning looking for breakfast. The area,Soulard, has a big Mardi Gras festival and is quite the party place apparently. I had a huge breakfast which I couldn't finish and suitably fortified I walked to my first stop of the day, the Anheuser - Busch factory. Better known as the Budweiser brewery. I signed up for a beer tasting class and I am not sure I learnt a lot but I did get to taste a lot of different beers. Then as if that wasn't enough I did the factory tour and of course that was followed by the obligatory beer tasting. I had to do it, it was free! I walked into town and the route did take me through a low cost haousing area, what I would call council housing in the U.K.. The area was fine, there were no cops and I didn't get shot. I felt aggrieved at the hostel owner for giving me shoddy advice. Although maybe the place does turn into a war zone after dark, who knows.
I went to the arch, this is a memorial to celebrate St Louis's role in the expansion to the west of the Mississippi and it is cool. To get to the top you have to ride a "tram" but it's not like any other tram that I've ridden before. You sit in small steel capsules, which I guess probably sit in a metal frame like the cars on the London Eye. The capsules move vertically, horizontally and diagonally. When the doors first close the capsule is completely sealed as the outer doors into the building are solid. The actual capsule doors have windows so you can see out once you're moving. If it had been completely sealed the whole I am not sure that I could have done the trip to the top and back again. Once you get to the top you walk out into a small rectangular room at the top of the arch with really tiny windows. You have to lean at an angle to look at the windows. It did cross my mind that I wouldn't want to be leaning on the side and have it give way. I am such a coward. I should realise by now that not only is this kind of occurrence extremely unlikely but I am in the litigation Capital of the world. People falling out of this thing would definitely lead to a law suit!!
The view was pretty despite the rain clouds. I hadn't seen an awful lot of St Louis but I was glad that I had come. I don't like to walk about by myself too much at night and so when it gets dark that pretty much finishes my sightseeing activities for the day. Bearing in mind that it gets dark at about 5pm and my days are fairly short. I went back to Soulard and went to a local Mexican restaurant for dinner. It wasn't a late night as I had to be up at 2.30am the next morning to catch my bus to Lexington. I really didn't have a choice over the mode of transport, the train would first take me back to Chicago and then across country. A flight would cost me over $500, which does not fit in with my budget.So the bus it would be.