Yosemite, waterfalls and opera!

Hello everybody!!!!!!!!!

Greetings from Yosemite...A truly amazing place! On Thursday morning I left the hostel and headed towards the bus station, and luckily there was space for me to go to Merced, where I then had to wait for a really long time for a bus to the hostel where I'm now staying...

At the station in San Francisco I managed to get in the middle of a fight, or rather a war of words all because this one guy behind me was petting the puppy of this young boy and the mother didn't want some "&%*$#&%^ing pedophile touching her kid!"...Meanwhile, she was fine with me petting the dog earlier...I was shocked! Anyway, after that situation had been diffused, ten minutes later, this guard was in for a power trip...Just because this guy looked different she picked him out and asked him where he was going, and when he answered, she got all huffy and puffy about the fact that he was being cheeky to an officer of the law! Oh my God! And here I thought this only happens in movies! But within half an hour I was like, "boy I'd hate to live here!".

Since then though, it's been great. Finally arrived in Midpines, a little place that has a YHA hostel and it's really in the middle of a big forest set about a mile away from the road....BEAUTIFUL!!!! Only problems has been the rockfall that has closed the highway into the park...Meaning that the bus that takes us into the park, has to go all the way around, meaning a 2 and a half hour ride to the Yosemite Valley instead of the usual 1 hr. So I've done that twice now (yesterday and today) and now I can't be bothered anymore....

Yesterday I saw the awesome thunder of the Yosemite Falls, Bridal falls, vernal and Nevada Falls and several more! Many of them are really high and at the moment they are spectacular all because of the snow melt...up to 3 weeks ago, the roads were closed because of huge amounts of snow....They've had the largest amount of snowfall since 7 years ago....And there's still snow lying around at high elevations.... So yesterday I decided to walk up to the top of the Vernal falls, which they recommend to do in 4hrs, and that the walk is "a strenuous 900ft climb with 680 steps...". SO I thought, I'd take my time and admire the view from above the falls...I made it to the top in under one hour and I wouldn't say that I'm exactly very fit at the moment...

Just as I was reaching the top of the falls, this guy just spontaneously starts singing some opera...I got talking to him, Donn, and his friend, Suz. Turns out, they both study music (WOW!!!!!!!), he opera and she the trumpet (with English). They convinced me I could make it to the top of the next set of falls and still make it back on time for my bus back to the hostel..."It's only another 1000ft up the mountain!"...So I walked with them the rest of the way. We got along really well...It was funny how he would just sing when he felt the need and along the way, it made people smile and enjoy the view even more! He even got a couple of requests along the way! It's funny how opera is so under appreciated, but have someone performing in the middle of the wilderness, and everyone listens...He must have the lungs of a walrus because he managed to sing all the way to the top as well as on the way down...Lots of fun....

So yes, I made it to the top of Nevada Falls...And sure enough, it only took another hour to get there...And boy! Was it gorgeous or what?!?!?! There was so much water, it was amazing...I mean, I have so many pictures of that walk, but the pictures don't really do justice...The videos help to capture the thundering noise.... Will try upload some pictures tomorrow...

Today, I took a tour to this place called Glacial Point, where you get like a 320 degree lookout over the valley....It was really cool to do this after the walk I did yesterday because I could see all the waterfalls at once and then also see the Nevada Falls and see what I had climbed the day before...Yosemite definitely did not disappoint! Even after NZ!

After the tour I decided to just relax and wait till the bus went back to the hostel...wanted to do another walk, but feeling a bit under the weather at the moment...got the flu...snif snif...

Tomorrow i'm off to LA. Wanted to go to the park another day, but can't see myself enjoying another 5hrs on the bus to the park...i'll jsut have to come back someday...instead i'll spend the day here tomorrow at the hostel and then just go on the bus for the whole night to LA...need to go do something about booking that! Hope all's well with you guys!