I woke up at 7 a.m., took a barely warm shower at the hostel (only $15 a night- must tolerate!) and then locked my stuff up to head out for the day. Trisha, the South African I met wanted to hang out for the day. We first accomplished her reason for coming to Denver (shopping, ew!) and then mine, site seeing. We took the public bus to the Colorado Mills Mall where I hung out outside for about 3 hours. Even if I wanted to shop, which is rare- it was 70 degrees out, the mountains were beautiful and I have no room in my bag. I even got a little sun burn or a rash. I found a $2 breakfast and stole some red pepper flake packets for the pasta & Couscous I brought and plan to eat in San Diego.
After the mall we went back to downtown Denver to catch another public bus to Boulder (2pm). The ride was beautiful. We met a cool guy, named Josh. He really loves Boulder- I was soon to find out why. The landscape was a mixture between desert like plains and beautiful black rock/snow covered mountains. Arriving to Boulder, I could tell that it was full of young people and the streets were covered with healthy, organic restaurants, score! My budget wouldn't allow that of course, so we ate at a place called Illegal Pete's. I decided to spurge and get a burrito and a diet coke. I managed to eat 1/3 of it. I'm not used to soda anymore. I saved the rest and ate it for a snack and then again for dinner. It was great. Boulder was full of backpackers, cute hippies and free spirits. From the looks of people, they really seemed health conscious. There were tons of people walking and biking. Also someone was singing or picking a guitar on every corner. The town is nestled right up to the mountains; it's a beautiful backdrop to a cool city. The roads are brick and for a few reasons it reminded me of a summer day in Portland (the brick, the free spirits singing ditties, and just the casual, lax, slow pace of Maine life.)
We headed back to Denver at 6pm and explored the downtown Denver area. A few things I noticed: there's a different group of people out at night, mainly kids on drugs. Trisha wanted to go to McDonalds for her dinner- we won't do that again. It's weird seeing 13 year olds high. Anyway, Denver started to feel a little too dark and a little too unsafe so we took the free 16th street shuttle to within 3 blocks of our hostel. We were scared at first walking but noticed that cops were all along our route- which was reassuring. Sixteenth street is awesome though, it has tons of stores and great restaurants but you just have to be careful how far you go down it. Look at me developing street smarts! We got back to the hostel around 8:30 p.m. and I decided I needed a reality check so I started preparing for my interview tomorrow. I'm going to walk to it. It's about a 20 minute walk. My interview monkey suit is already wrinkled so, really, what do I have to loose? My interview is from 9-11 or 12 and my flight is at 2:00. I'm going to try to take the public bus. I'll have to see what time I'm done. The bus leaves once an hour and takes about an hour. It cost $8 as opposed to a $45 taxi ride.
Alright, thanks for reading. It's bedtime. Goodnight.
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