......Fri 22nd leaving San Diego today, quite hungover, very little sleep as some strange new german girls and a lady with re-hydrated packs of food were banging and crashing around the room from the early hours. Luckily for me Kate was driving today, not so lucky for her. We had to do some quick last minute shopping before heading off, but as we were in slow motion it took us 3 hrs. We had a mcdonalds to soak up the alcohol and after 3 trips to the loo and seeing our 2nd 1 legged bird, we were eventually on the road. We weren't anticipating much from this next stop as it was literally just a stop gap in a Motel 6 in Ventura half an hour away from Santa Barbara where we were going to spend the following day but couldn't afford to stay on a travellers budget. What should have taken us 3hrs took 5hrs in Friday afternoon traffic,but at least we wern't walking. Luckily Motel 6 had vacancys as we decided to live on the edge and not know where we were staying that evening. Stomach re-fuel stop in Dennys and back to Motel for early night, how hardcore are we ! Great night sleep as no roomates to disturb us and no bunks, breakfast in Dennys full English (well american style) and fruit pancakes,(wish I'd hired the crane again). Drove to Santa Barbara, very pleasant, and what I assumed California would be like. Palm tree lined streets, a Beach road and  a Shopping street on which a snake rescue group accosted us and made us hold some snakes, not a sentence I thought I would ever write, but nonetheless I had a little snake which wrapped itself around my thumb and fell asleep. We also visited the local Mission to soak up a bit of historical culture and Kate decided to rip the bumber away from the car in the car park ( obviously I've over exaggerated but there is a crack). We decided to take the scenic road out of Santa Barbara and of course got lost but eventually were on our way to San Luis Opisbo which can wait for another time........... next week on 'emily's Adventures around the world' Pervy Hostel attendant, Bubblegum Alley, more Crazy characters and much much more, don't missit...... The story continues.

....... After leaving Santa Barbara we journyed (is that how you spell it ?) to San Luis Opisbo, not really knowing what to expect, as all we knew was the hostel, and that it was closed between 10am and 4:30pm (not even allowed to hang around if staying there) and doors closed at 11pm at night (which we took to mean as a curfew - like being on school camp). We arrived in just under 2 hrs dying for a pee and quite ravernous and pulled up into a quaint little residential street which we would call home for the evening. On entering we were greeted by Buster ( I would forgive anyone at this point who is assuming that Buster is a dog), a 50+ yr old Hostel attendant who had lived in the UK for awhile and was evening more sarcastic than us ( well almost, on a par, anyway). He settled us in and we went to park the car and on returning he had left a Herschey's Kiss (chocolate) on each of our pillows and sprayed some lovely fragrance in the air ( Ah bless! or so I thought). We badgered Buster further to tell us of all the wonderful sites we would get to see in his great town (not expecting any of course) and he proceeded to rattle of quite a few 'must see's' and 'must go to's'. So as we were still ravernous ( we'd had the pee in case any of you were interested) we headed out to the town for food. We decided on a pizza place ' Woodstock's' as reccomended by good old Buster and it had an unusual set-up. You walked in ordered from the counter, were given an empty cup for your soda, filled your cup, sat yourself down and waited for your pizza ( fast food at its best - you can see we're eating well). One of the 'must see's' was our next stop, Bubblegum Alley. Apparantly this alley is in the guiness book of records for the most bubblegum stuck to the walls, started back in 1960 so you can imagine the magnitude of gum. Colourful and somewhat gross we couldn't resist adding our own bit of gum to the world record (and yes there are photo's to prove it) probably not the most cultural of sites but I'm also guessing not the most bizarre we will write home about. Then we went on a hunt to find a certain underwear shop. Not because we had run out being too lazy to do our washing ( 1 pair is still good for 3/4 days........i am so kidding....), but because its name is ' FANNY WRAPPERS' ..........

........Its been awhile but I'm finally back on line with a computar that is not from the dark ages. I left you dangling at ' Fanny Wrappers' in San Luis Opisbo so the epic continues.... After laughing like 3 year olds at Bubblegum Alley and Fanny Wrappers we returned to the Hostel to use the computar ( from the dark ages) and continued to have the same trouble as we had been having for awhile, not being able to download our photos ( because at this point no one has seen any of our pics). Kindly an Irish Guy called Ross ( no he wasn't good looking before anyone gets their hopes up and marrys me off) lent us his laptop. Three to four hrs later and in absolute hysterics for no reason ( you had to be there, think it was the theme of the evening). We had managed to chop, rotate, caption and delete alot but not all of our photos, so we packed ourselves off to bed.

Next morning, we awoke to the smell of pancakes ( again) but obviously we weren't going to pass up a free breakfast. All was well until I got up to wash my dishes, Buster the hostel attendant came up behind me and whispered in my ear how he had found it hard to stop himself coming into my room and snuggling up with me last night. Short of throwing up in the sink there and then at the prospect of a this yank coming on to me I smiled politely, whispered 'thank god he didn't' under my breath and went to the room to check all my knickers were there, as he had delivered our washing back to the room this morning. Tried to usher Kate as quickly as possible out the Hostel as I was unable to tell her of Busters advances, when he tried to snog both Kate and I goodbye ( and I thought he only had eyes for me !) Don't think I'll be recommending that hostel to any female travellers but it gave Kate and I a laugh anyway....Yuck!......