What an adventure already and its only been 48hrs...... Where do I start ? Day 1 The first 6/7 hrs of the our 11.5hr flight was a breeze but I think it lulled me in to a false sense of security because the final few hrs were not so pretty. We landed fine, big clap to Rodger our pilot, but I think I left my stomach back home because it was a big dash through immigrations to my first view of an American lavatory. After my intimate relationship with the toilet , I found my way back to Kate who had reclaimed her luggage but had seen no sight of mine. To cut along story short an hour letter my pack come bundling down the shoot which had been broken all that time, followed by an announcement saying anyone who had not yet claimed their luggage needs to reprt to customer care booth. Was I relieved? Put it this way I almost collapsed to my knees, with my hands in the air praising the lord. All we had to do then, was catch a shuttle bus to our car rental and we would be away, (at this moment I was trying not to think that I had volunteered to do the first drive and it was dark, I was sick, the american maniacs drove on the wrong side of the road and we had no clue where we were going). The shuttle bus was an experience, it almost had intimate relationship number 2 with me, but I managed to compose myself. Finally after going aroung the airport for what seemed like 3/4 times, turning right through red lights and doing u turns in the middle of the road (yes, just some of the things you can do on american roads), we arrived at the car rental place and queued for an hour,(we had now been up approx 22hrs).

Then we saw our car and nothing that we had previously enjured seemed to matter. It is a gorgeus silver PT Cruiser 2.4 turbo soft top, forget Thelma and Louise meet Emily and Kate, they're way cooler. (At this point you would have a photo of it but we haven't quite worked out how to do it yet, so watch this space). Then it dawned on me, I can't just admire it, I have to drive it, aarrgh ! However, we had driven passed our first night accomodation when we were on the bus, it was only 4 buildings away so it should be easy, how foolish were we. I mastered the driving very quickly, I must state at this point, wrong side of the road and everything, but then I had to leave the car park and this is where it all went Pete Tong. Our lodgings were to the left, but we could only go right out of the parking lot so our adventures around LA began a little earlier than planned. Hats off to the pair of us, as we were very composed and after going through some areas I'm best not to describe, we were checking in for our first night sleep about half and hour later, (nearly 24hrs awake now). Not much to say about hotel, quiet, clean, comfortable, again probably lulling us into a false sense of security as we are well aware, it ain't all going to be pretty as are travels go on.

Day 2, after a night sleep or to be exact, a couple of hours on and off sleep, we bought a map and sorted our route to get to Santa Monica. Roof down, I-Pod connected to radio,(not sounding much like poor travellers at the moment), we set off cruising down Lincoln Boulevard, Kate driving, myself navigating, easy. Arrived at Hostel, we did well again, very nice, clean, safe and comfortable. We went off on foot to explore the Santa Monica sights and a hop,skip and a jump later we had the beach and Santa Monica Pier in front of us. It has finally hit, how lucky I am and how amazing this adventure is going to be. We stumbled across our first crazy, an old women who sang at you when you walked passed, and an sign advertising a giant singing clam what more could we ask for? Further into our exploration, on the way back from the pier we hit Ye Oldey Kings Head British Pub we couldn't resist and went in for a drink. On the walls there were hundreds of pictures of visiting stars from our very own Tom Jones to Colin Pharrell, Tom Cruise and cast members of Eastenders. We ordered a drink and we were offered darts to play, which often occurs in Britain? Food next, and we decided to try an american diner 'Jinkys', food was lovely but I should have pre ordered the crane to lift me out of there after eating their portions. In the evening we went to 3rd street aka the promenade which is where the shops restaurants and bars are, and 10 seconds into it we were watching a street act which was amazing. It was a group of lads break dancing, how they didn't break their necks I don't know, but they were also giving a running commentry which was hilarious. After the act they were asking for donations and started up a competition between the crowd, whoever gave a big dollar bill was asked for their country, at 1 point wales was against Lebonan which was kinda cool and even though we were a soft touch, giving more and more we lost for wales. After food and a stroll around we headed back for an early night as jet lag still gripped us.

Day 3 Yes, all be shocked we were up and out at 6:40am on the pier, taking in the fresh sea air and sometimes the pong of seaweed, and we also spotted our first one-legged bird. We were waiting until we could board the bus for our LA city tour, courtesy of Redrow (as we used their dollars to pay for it) so cheers! Even though the tour was cheesy or Le Big Fromage, the sights were fantastic. I didn't really take much notice of which stars lived in which homes (honest!), just took in the magnificent architecture. We walked around Rodeo Drive with our mouths open and salivating at all the bling, took photos of 2 beefeater guards outside a jewellery store as wll as the rodeo drive sign and went to powder our noses in the Beverly Witshire Hotel (for those non film buffs the hotel in Pretty Women). Then it was on to Hollywood, the walk of fame, the hand prints outside Manns Chinese Theatre ( and yes I do have the same size hands as Marilyn Monroe!) and the Kodak Theartre where the oscars are held, to name but a few sites. Finally, the Hollywood sign, what can I say.... It's big! Back to camp now for a siesta as we were dining in Malibu this evening......

Anyway moving on from my last journal entry.... I left you anticipating my next move, which was dining out in Malibu. Well, if you can I would certainly recommend it. Not somewhere I think Kate and I would have ventured as its where the posh people dine and us being lowly travellers, obviously do not have the means. However, Lu and Dave live in Simi Valley, near LA and kindly invited us to diner, (for those of you that don't know, I met Lu in Bristol when I was in Uni, via Nyree and Ny hooked us up when she realised I'd finally done what i'd been threatening and booked my travelling ticket). We put on our posh clothes, or whatever was presentable from our pack, a bit of mascara and lippy and we were picked up outside our residence and whisked to the hills.  The drive to Malibu was beautiful, on an ocean road with quaint old beach houses mixed with modern, weird but it worked. Geoffreys was the name of the restaurant and it was breath taking. A stone white structure looking out over the ocean, no doors or windows, all al fresco with thousands of white fairy lights in the surrounding palms (hope your all imagining this now, with all the effort I'm putting in to describe it). I bought the first round of drinks out of courtesy as Lu and Dave had already told us we were not allowed to argue, that they were paying, not what I'm used to, but when 4 drinks cost $45 incl tip which is the equivilent of our breakfast, lunch and diner for the last 2 days, I was more than greatful. So, BIG SHOUT OUT TO LU AND DAVE, THANKYOU!! The food was incredible, the setting amazing and even though I hadn't seen Lu for 3/4 yrs and never met Dave, the converstion flowed. After having a couple of bevvies both myself and Kate, knew we were to have a better nights sleep this evening.

Sunday 17th ( just in case anyone has lost what day I'm on, coz I'm losing track rapidly). Again an early morning but passable as more into the 8th am hour rather than the 6th or 7th. We woke up to find more residents in our dorm ( not sure if I've told you that we are in a 10 bed dorm yet, and bunks). Most had been and were pleasant, first night, an elderly women with alot of phlegm, kept us up, not so pleasant but she was gone the next day. Lovely Swedish girl with greek/Irish/american aswell as swedish accent as she'd lived all these places (interesting). 2 other Swedish girls who'd been nannying in New York (boring). The ugliest woman we have ever seen, (I know that sounds b****y but none of you saw her,) she also didn't know how to smile and left her stained knickers all over the bed, now do you sympathise. And most interesting of all an elderly lady who Kate caught hacking the zip off a case whilst wearing her pj's and a man's DJ. Despite the company, we did feel spoilt, it was clean, safe, superbly located and we loved it. So that morning we decided to leave our sumptuous residence and catch a bus (yes mum i did say bus) to the John Paul Getty Centre. If I'm honest, the exhibits were pants but I'm so glad we went us the architecture, gardens and views were phenomenal (I've got to stop with all these different descriptive words soon as I'm not going to be able to spell them soon). We went on the architecture tour and Oh my goodness, it was fascinating, every little inch of the complex had a reason for being on a certain angle or at a certain height, it was really interesting and yes I will bore you with the pics if I could stop writing and gave myself 5 mins to download them, (I promise you will see them soon). No siesta this afternoon, we must be getting over the jet lag. Instead we freshened up and took a drive back to Hollywood to see the Boulevard in the evening and go to Ripley's 'Believe it or not' museum. It took an hour to go 12miles because of all the stops and starts at the traffic lights but this USA driving thing is a piece of cake. The lights were bright and fab at night on the Boulevard and we sampled an American diner (Mel's drive in), very cheesy. However, I should have remembered they don't do burger's well done over here unless you ask, mine came out complete with juices, hence it didn't go down to well. Ripley's was interesting, full of 2 headed goat skeletons, bikini's made from human hair, pics made from butterfly wings, the worlds smallest pool table, pics of people who survived after being impaled with 10 inch poles and lots of optical illusion things to name but a few exhibits.

Monday 18th in LA for the last day and night before we set off to San Diego tomorrow morning. We couldn't leave LA without a trip to Venice Beach (obviously not to perv at the bods at muscle beach). But, alas! SERIOUSLY not to perv at the bods at muscle beach as when we arrived there were 2 bods of which I can say I've seen better in Wales and their average age was 60yrs. We wouldn't have minded so much seeing these poor specimens if it had taken the 0.5 of a mile from where we were staying that we were told. But 2.5hrs later on foot we arrived in Venice Beach (0.5 of a mile my arse). What can I say about Venice Beach ? Probably one of the most scary places I have seen and I don't think Kate felt much different. It was cool, as it was first thing in the morning and quiet but the walkway was lined with down and outs selling there wears, ghetto shops graced the other side of the walkway and behind each corner it was pot luck whether a whaff of cats pee or weed came your way. (maybe that is why we took 2.5hrs, as we got closer to the weed we were going backwards, can that happen Steve?) Obviously, it took us another 2hrs to get back, we gained half an hour as we made sure we weren't going backwards once we escaped. Also, there were helicopters that were scouting the area at very low heights, we kinda wondered who or what they were looking for if you know what I mean, so we kept our heads down and walked straight back to Santa Monica Beach. Even though this trip took as quite a few hours, we were done by lunchtime and spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach contemplating doing our laundry, but by about 6pm we had a bit of colour and clean washing yeah ! In the evening we decided on a quiet one because we had a 3+ hour drive tomorrow, so we just went to the promenade for pizza and pasta, but on the way out we met a new room mate who had just got in from Fiji and been travelling where we would be eventually going, so took her with us to pick her brains......