The home of Troy Bolton a.k.a. Albuquerque

I hate when the person in front of you puts their seat back. I rarely put my seat back, even on long haul flights. I’m looking out at... the mountains... erm, they might be the Sandia Mountains? I don’t really know. They’re more rocky than grassy. Maybe some southwest geography buff can tell me what mountain range I’d be flying over on the way from Albuquerque – Austin via El Paso. Yes, I get to technically say that I’ve been to El Paso. It fascinates me these flights in the US that go to a bunch of different cities. This particular flight is for El Paso, Austin, Houston, New Orleans and Baltimore. I’m not sure how long they stop at each city. The lady at check in said that I don’t get off the plane; but on some of my other flights people did have to get off the plane during the stop. Meh.


It was kind of bittersweet leaving Albuquerque. Real life people certainly wouldn’t appreciate the extent of emotional sentiment to the city, wow, High School Musical is set there, whoopee. So I think I’m going to write this blog entry and then write an extended version for my LiveJournal which I’ll leave unlocked so that anyone who is heavily ingrained into HSM like me to the point of caring about the intricacies of Albuquerque can read it.


Albuquerque is in New Mexico – for the benefit people who can’t be bothered to look on a map, it’s in the south just above Mexico; with Texas to the right and it’s a couple of states inland from California. I arrived safe and sound on my flight from Los Angeles on Thursday afternoon; I decided to book a return shuttle to my hostel because on Sunday (when I was flying to Austin) there was no bus running from town to the airport and so I was going to have to get a cab/book a shuttle anyway so I figured I might as well just do it return for a few extra dollars. First impression at the airport – HEAT. I knew it would be hot but it was like, steaaaming hot. The shuttle went via a couple of places on the way to my hostel so I got a bit of a driving tour of town – and the shuttle driver was pointing things out along the way. He was super nice, we chatted when I was the last one in the car and he was asking about my trip and itinerary and what not. I arrived at the hostel and was able to check in straight away even though I was early. I was checked in by an older lady named Sandy, a local. Most hostels are run by travellers on work visas – i.e. in Las Vegas the two main guys I dealt with were British and German; the Vancouver hostel was run by Australians. Somehow I’d wound up booked into a private room, for $5 a night more (so $25 a night) I’d get my own little private space. I didn’t argue. I was paying less than I paid in Vancouver for my own space? Sure, why not. The hostel was rather quaint; it was like someone had turned their two storey home into a hostel. There were only two dorms (a male and a female) and maybe 8 private rooms; of which I think perhaps four were being lived in by people who work at the hostel. It was basic – some people would be freaked out by the basicness. Things like powdered milk, rooms without AC or fans, teeny tiny bathrooms where you have to like, contort yourself against the wall to get the door shut behind you and your knees are touching the door as you sit on the toilet. This stuff doesn’t bother me.


My first afternoon I settled in and then set out to walk to the transport centre (about 10 blocks away, but small blocks, Albuquerquean blocks aren’t like NYC or LA blocks) so I could get my three day bus pass. I had to walk through the main street of town, Central Ave which is where my hostel was located – part of which is the home of the original Route 66. Downtown Albuquerque is pretty bland, really. As far as the ‘main street’ of town goes, it wasn’t like in Vancouver or all the other cities of the world where it is pedestrian only with lots of fashion stores. There were a few bars and clubs, diners, theatres. Anyway so bus pass in hand I wanted to start my touristing straight away, I’d lost a day so every moment was critical. I had a list of things to do and see which were a mix of fandom related and tourist related. However I went back to the hostel so I could do some much needed laundry (conveniently there was a HUGE Laundromat across the street) which in itself was quite interesting, an excellent introduction to the culture of Albuquerque, this diverse mishmash of Indian, Mexican and American – and among the American everyone from Cali girls who look like they got lost on their way from LA to NYC to the extreme stereotype of a southerner. This lady and her daughter came in and had what looked like enough laundry for about 20 people. They had about six washers going and still had baskets and baskets of stuff to put in.


After doing my laundry I checked the bus schedules online and was off on my way. I started out getting the bus out to old town which is meant to be like, all cute and quaint but I was a bit meh about it. I don’t know. Maybe an Australian who hadn’t been to Europe would’ve found it better, I thought it was overrated. An excuse for a bunch of Indian jewellery shops to set up and sell overpriced things to tourists (I bought one postcard for myself.) I should note at this time, I’m not sure if the politically correct term is Native American or Indian. I’m going to stick with Indian because that is what it is labelled as – like there were lots of shops labelled as selling Indian artefacts/jewellery/merchandise – but I don’t mean to offend anyone if the term is more appropriately Native American. (POST SCRIPT AS I’M ABOUT TO POST – I’ve been told that Native American is the more appropriate term. Apologies. But I seriously cannot be bothered to edit.)


(For the record I’m now writing in El Paso as people board the plane.)


Anyway yes so my wander around old town took less than an hour, including time spent picking out a postcard, and then I found my way to the place where I was to get a bus to the Cottonwood Mall which is like, supposedly the biggest mall in Albuquerque. It took a while to get there, even on an express bus, and it took me on a bit of a tour of a different part of the city in the suburbs which is part of the reason why I like getting buses out to random places – just to see something other than the main city area. The mall itself was just a mall. Nothing too special. It was a nice mall, it had really funky decoration on the ceiling in the food court, but in terms of its shops and whatever else, it was just a mall. I wandered, looked around, grabbed some dinner, and then probably around 8pm headed back to the bus stop so I could make my way back toward the hostel. I was sitting waiting for AGES for the bus; I hadn’t actually looked up the timetable but evidently on this route the bus doesn’t come very often. Finally I was back on the bus and on my way back to the hostel where I had an early night. There’s a sign on the back of my room door which warns that Albuquerque is about a mile above sea level and between the climate and altitude it is common to experience headache/nausea/fatigue as side affects. I don’t know if my fatigue was a result of a lack of sleep at Audrey’s the night before or New Mexico but either way, a quiet night catching up on my online stuff and then heading to sleep early was more than welcome.


Friday arrived, I got myself up and going by about 10am – breakfast was pretty basic, but it gave me fuel to get going for the day. My agenda for the morning was to head to the north east area along Menaul for fangirl purposes where I did the mundane things of hanging around the Coronado Center, wandering the nearby streets and going to a Smith’s grocery store. At Coronado I bought a pair of shorts from Sears – indication of the weather because I hate shorts but it was just too hot to be wearing my jeans and it was so hot that wearing a skirt was creating a chafing issue (yeah, that’s probably too much information but whatever). Lunch consisted of a fabulous combination of a treat from Hotdog On A Stick (it was like a dagwood dog that you seem to get at like, fairs/fetes at home) and my first version of what Americans call lemonade – it really was like a homemade lemonade, stronger than Lift or Solo, more bitter and lemony. At home if I went to a restaurant and asked for lemonade, I’d get given Sprite or an equivalent. I then got back on one of the buses that had gotten me there to head toward the Tramway Street just so I could be a bit closer to the mountains to take some pictures of the view. I went back to the hostel for a little while to chillax for a little while, and then headed out east along Central Ave on the bus, having a look around before walking through the student area of the University of New Mexico. Like all great student areas it has that off beat, discount eclectic vibe with music stores, funky fashion outlets, cheap eats. I had been planning to go to the Route 66 Diner as recommended by my guidebook but took a few photos and then saw the massive queue inside just to get a table. Instead I got the bus back to downtown Central Ave and went to one of the diners there – Lindy’s Cafe or something it was called. I had what was called a Chicken Buffalo burger and it was covered in this ridiculously hot marinade, my mouth was on fire. Good thing my drink came with refills (which were just automatically done, the waitress came and collected my glass to take to refill a couple of times).


(Now in the air to Austin)


I was up and about even earlier on Saturday morning, such a bizarre trend for me. But I had a pretty packed day planned. I was on the 8:50 bus heading out to look at Tingley Beach and the Rio Grande River, west on the Route 66/Central Ave. I like going to look at rivers... I don’t know why, but I just adore shots taken by them, I’m always drawn to bits of blue that I see on maps.


There was no blue. It was more like a brown trickle. Yeah, I know, desert, I should’ve anticipated this. Tingley Beach is advertised as like a place to hang out – oh yum, let’s lie on the mud and swim in the murky brown water. No thanks. The Botanical Gardens/Aquarium weren’t far away so I walked there, figuring I could wander through the garden but they were charging an entry fee and I only had a tiny amount of free time so I took some photos in the ticketing area/parking lot and then headed back to the bus stop to make my way back to the downtown area – to find out about the Rail Runner to go to Santa Fe for a few hours. It was due to depart at 11:30 and I was there at like 10:15 and as I was peering at the timetable, a guy with a giant backpack is also there looking at it. He asks me for the time, I’m hardly surprised to hear an Australian accent from his mouth given the backpack. I tell him, he asks where I’m from, we chat and wind up going for a walk downtown to 7-11 and then sit down for a while talking. His name was Vince, he’s a research scientist on a working visa in the US and currently in the post work travel period of his trip. God this guy has done some amazing stuff and met some incredible people through his journey.


We headed back to the train station and onto the train when it arrived, with an hour and a half journey ahead of us to Santa Fe. He was meeting someone there that he knew from home, an ex-professor he’d worked for, I think he said. I was armed with snacks, continuing my trend of tasting American things for the first time. Three Musketeers Bar – average but yummy. Cheddar flavoured Chex Mix – LEGENDARY. The train ride was fine, we chatted for a while, I took photos of some scenery, we were asked during a specific 20 minute period to not take photos as we were travelling through Native land and it is out of respect, Vince napped for the last half hour. We bid our farewells at the train station in Santa Fe as he met his friend and I headed for the courtesy shuttle that takes you to the Plaza Area.


There were tourists everywhere, but with reason. Santa Fe is adorable! Wayyy cuter than Albuquerque. Way way cuter. Yeah it’s still touristy with ‘New Mexican Cuisine’ and Indian jewellery and both Mexicans and Indians lining the pathway selling overpriced trinkets. But in an appealing way. I took a zillion photos from every angle of all the buildings and again headed to the river to be met by a modest trickle of water. I bought a Fajita from a stall in the sort of like, town square, which was super hot but very delicious. I only really had like two and a half hours in Santa Fe but in terms of the main town, that was all I needed. Sure if I’d gone into the museums or whatever you’d need more time but just to wander around all the streets looking at buildings and monuments and statues it was plenty of time, as it was I got back to the train station with heaps of time to spare.


When I got back to Albuquerque I walked back to the hostel, wandering through downtown taking a different route than I had on previous walks. I came across this like, section of 3rd Street with some Hoops thingy going on – they’d blocked off the street and a massive parking lot and set up all these basketball courts and boys from probably like, 6 – 18 years were training and playing. I don’t really understand why or what it was all about. I also saw them starting to block off part of Central Avenue but I had no idea why. I got back to the hostel and researched it – evidently Saturday night was Summerfest Albuquerque. I’d had no idea, nor had I seen it advertised anywhere. So I went back out to get dinner – my first time experiencing Wendy’s (boring. A glorified Kentucky Fried Chicken/Burger King with a nicer seating area) and then heading back to downtown again to check out this Summerfest thing. At the bus stop I wound up chatting to these two older ladies, they were also tourists, they’d rented an RV and were travelling around for two months. We talked about travelling and the culture in Albuquerque and they were really curious about staying in hostels and lots of the things that I was doing.


Summerfest Albuquerque was... it was something to do, I guess. Haha. They’d basically blocked off all of Central Avenue for about six blocks and a couple of the streets off it. At one end there was a bad country/rock cover band playing; at the other was this guy advertising his new salsa studio and giving a ‘first free lesson’ to all the people who were willing to get up and salsa in the street. In between these two ends was a rock climbing wall, jumping castles, some food stands, a random clown act, some buskers and a heap of security. I bought some homemade ice cream, listened to the terrible band for a little while, and then made my way back to the hostel. I had an 8am shuttle this morning and the problem with having a private room was that I’d taken the opportunity to pull like, everything out of my suitcase and scatter it about everywhere.


People in New Mexico were really really friendly. Some of them were friendly in a dirty gross old men on the bus hitting on me way; others just friendly out of the goodness of their hearts. My accent is a talking point – I guess in the places I’ve been to so far, tourists are common and not as exciting. But in Albuquerque it was a thing of fascination. The check in lady at the airport was asking all about my trip; the security guy wasn’t in this gruff rush to get through everyone, people say hello as they walk past. I was waiting for a bus and this random guy walked past and told me it would arrive in ten minutes – I hadn’t asked, he wasn’t even getting the bus, he was just volunteering the information. New Mexico socio-economically has fairly low standards – reflected in the fact that flashy sports cars were few and far between and instead Troy Bolton’s truck would fit in perfectly. Even the homeless people who would ask for money seemed more polite about it, approaching and apologising for interrupting you but could I spare a dollar. The ticket conductors on the trains were friendly, the flight attendants are more relaxed.


Sometimes I think that the vibe and culture of a city is largely influenced by the extent to which business and government is prominent. Sure, Albuquerque is the biggest city in New Mexico but downtown is fairly segregated with business in one section, everyone else in another section. And business people aren’t using public transportation in Albuquerque; it’s not like in New York City where it is commonplace to get around on the subway or buses. So the life I was living and the people I was crossing paths with led to the impression of a much more relaxed lifestyle; people aren’t go go go go and so they weren’t feeling the need to rush and ignore the tourist on the side of the road.


Anyway. That’s the truncated Albuquerque for the general person to read. I’m finally posting this in Orlando; after I’ve been to Austin, so the Austin, Texas update shouldn’t be too far away! :)