......Tuesday 19th we checked out of the Santa Monica Hostel and headed towards San Diego, about a 3hr drive and we were staying in a hostel called Banana Bungalow. I say 'were' as, we arrived, checked in, walked out, went Oh s***! to each other, deliberated over lunch and decided there was no way on God's earth that we were staying in that hell hole. Got in the car, found another hostel in Downtown San Diego and never darkened Banana Bungalow's door again........

...........Sorry everyone, its been a while, so might take me a few paragraphs to get back into the flow of things. Whilst the cogs are turning in my head to process all that I have done over the last 6/7 days I want to mention a couple of the crazy people we have met along the way. (I say met, I mean walked passed rather quickly). First there was the run of the mill homeless beggars with their signs, 'fishing for coins' he had a fishing rod obviously, and the blatant, 'I need money for drink or a little bit of weed' approach, which made us laugh but not enough to give him any money. Then there was the wheelchair bound, big black man in a rather fetching red wig and a dress (we ran passed this one). And finally, a lovely lady with long blond hair, in her 60s/70s of ample size squeezed into a denim mini skirt, leather bra top complete with chains and gold stilletos, wheeling a bike with fluffy handlebars, ( remind you of anyone mum, a certain Ms MW minus the blond hair, perhaps?). I'm sure as my travels continue and my journal progresses I will be able to top the characters I have seen and will be taking great pleasure in describing them all to you.

I last left you on our first day in San Diego and I am now in San Francisco, so get the kettle on and make yourself comfortable you maybe a while. After our little disaster at Banana Bungalow, we settled into our new hostel in the Gaslamp District very well (although we could only find 2 gaslamps in the whole of the area, why we were looking I don't know). We did wonder if the Banana Bungalow had noticed we'd done a runner, but didn't particularly care. As it had been a long day, we headed for any early night, but stayed up talking to our roomate Carol a lovely 60yr old American who was originally from San Diego but now lived in San Francisco. We had her in hysterics as strangely enough she appreciated our sarcasim, so much so that she gave us her contact details and told us to look her up when we were in San Fran. Ah Bless !! After re- charging the batteries overnight (quite well I might add, lie in until 9am - Wed 20th ) we went for our complimentary pancake breakfast. Realising we had to make the pancakes ourselves we edged behind a guy already there and kind of pushed him forward as the guinea pig for the demonstration. This guy was Steve from Barnet North London aka thingy or just s a d. Later in the afternoon we went on a trip to Tijuana in Mexico with a guide called Ron, Steve joined us and we all got chatting to Steph from England who was the girlfriend of Talbon from Oz (nice couple -and better tell you Steve was nice as well, just in case he's reading this) Tijuana or TJ, as I will refer to it from now on was in a sentence, a dirtier version of Aiya Napa or Faliraki in High Season populated by probably the poorest people EVER, but colourful. The beggars came in all colours, sizes and ages, with or without limbs. We dined in an authentic Mexican Restaurant and all I can say is I will never dine in an authentic Mexican restaurant again. Left to our own devices for an hour without a guide, myself, kate, Steve, Steph and Talbon stayed in pack formation and tried not to venture awy from the main streets. Nice place (no hint of sarcasim, honest). They had donkeys on the streets, painted with black and white stripes which they called 'zonkeys' and charged you to have a photo with them (you have to give them credit for their money making skills) and we got a free show on the trolley bus back to San Diego in the form of a Indian/hispanic/american drunk crazy who sang at us and thought we were Scottish. In the evening, our now adopted friend Steve and ourselves went to, I don't really want to admit to this TGI Fridays for food (surprisingly my 7 year service was no good for a discount). Followed by a few bevvies in some live music bars, Ashley was one of the singers and she apparantly has a CD out, so if she becomes famous I saw her first.

Day 2 San Diego ( or 3 if you count our arrival day). Pancakes again for breakfast, I cooked, as you all drop to the floor in amazement. Then off to San Diego Zoo, apparantly the best zoo in America. We had it all sorted, we'd catch the free shuttle bus (see how we are budgeting - well I am and I'm trying to teach Kate how to along the way) and spend a leisurely few hours walking around the zoo and catch the bus back. Well we should know by now, not all goes as planned. The bloody shuttle bus didn't turn up and as I was still realing from the 2.5hr jaunt to Venice Beach, Kate timidly broached the subject of walking. However, I gladly obliged as we had been told it was only 20minsaway. 20 mins, my arse! over an hour later and up hill, we got to the zoo and WALKED around the zoo for the next 5 hours. Sarcasim aside (just for this sentence) the zoo and the animals were fab.  But I will have calves and buns of steel by the time I get home if this walking malakey continues. As we were ALL tired from all the walking  we quickly freshened ourselves up as we felt a bit stinky from all the walking, (did i mention the amount of walking) and want out to find a place to eat, our adopted English man in tow. Twenty mins of more walking we were still undecided as to where to eat, so we decided to venture (didn't say walk) back to the hostel and look for good and cheap places to eat in the rough guide. Just in case you have all been eagerly waiting this is the part where we got accosted by 2 rather good looking US marines...........to be continued........(only kidding). Matt and Luke were 2, 22yr old American boys who were let off ship for the evening. Matt has been married twice and has 2 kids by 2 different wives. A tattoo of the disney cartoon 'a land before time' on his arm and his 2nd wife's name on his arse and in one phrase ' the thickest of the thick'. Luke was marginally more intelligent and engaged, which apparantly still means your single in America?? Anyway they decided that we were to join them for diner including adopted Steve aswell and also decided it was on them as the government was paying, who were we to decline a free meal. They took us to one of the classiest restaurants in San Diego 'Hooters', where whilst dining we met the mother of one of the hooters girls, who has another daughter working as a waitress in Dix's ( a restaurant where you go to be insulted) and unbelievebly she seemed to be so proud. During the meal, Luke told us storires of how he pretended he was British when they were somewhere a US marine shouldn't be and did a very good 'Cor Blimey Governor' english accent which was hysterical (guess you had to be there). At one point during the meal we thought they were going to do a runner after offering to pay, but we had to hit ourselves for being so cynical as they were true to their word and settled the bill, (not like us Brits to be cynical, I don't know what came over us). Then it was off to Whiskey Girl for some bevvies and dancing. They kept on buying the drinks so we kept on drinking the drinks. Matt was getting very over friendly but I did resist, don't know what it was but maybe the wife, kids and the IQ of a turnip had something to do with it ( I think you would agree, I was not being too overly fussy, Kristina). Good night had by all I won't mention that Kate had a snog from Luke, (oops I did mention it)........