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Gday all! Firstly sorry for the long delay in my blog update. I did a blog back when we were in Santa Monica yet it didnt register for some reason which is really frustrating. Nevertheless I will try give an update of the past couple of weeks.
So we completed 10days in cancun and if we spent one more day there I think we would have been taken out in body bags! We partied pretty hard in cancun and we had a blast. We met a lot of people from USA which we hope to go and visit and also we met a lot of good aussie lads (all there for the same reason we were!). After Cancun we headed to LA. As we arrived late from our flight from cancun we spent the first night at a hotel near the airport and the next days we made our way to the beach town of Santa Monica. Santa Monica is an awesome place. It is quite a quaint beach town but has a lot of vibe and character. About 2 mile (in seppo terms) down from Santa Monica is Venice beach which has a bit more of a hippie vibe to it but is also really cool. James bought a skateboard with him from Aus which I initially thought to be a bit of a hassle yet it has turned out to be a bit of a revelation when travelling around USA and so within one day of being here all four of us have been getting around on skateboard rolling like dogtown and Z-boys. It has been really good though as we are able to cover alot of ground in very little time and it sure as hell beats walking. Whilst we were in LA we checked out Downtown LA rodeo drive sunset blv, a bit of beverly hills and of course hollywood. However we were all left somewhat disappointed at what we found, it didnt really appeal to any of us. So we spent a few quite days in Santa Monica recovering from the 'Mexico Massacre' before picking up our RV! We picked up the RV just north of Santa Moncia and after having to deal with a w***er of a sales clerk (and paying another $1500 USA for additional insurance, which all our parents would have agreed neccessary) we were on the road with our 30ft V8 ford weapon. It has been quite daunting getting used to driving this thing firstly due to the shear size of it and secondly adapting to driving on the other side of the road. However we are all getting more comfortable driving it and we always have a 'co-pilot' at the front as an extra set of eyes while the other two of us can chill in the back either sleeping, playing cards or watching DVDs.
We were planning on driving back to LA after we picked up the RV yet since we were already north of LA and the traffic back would be terrible we decided to go a little further North to Santa Monica. We talked to a few people in Cancun who told us about a festival at the University of California Santa Monica called Floatopia which was happening on the weekend, we werent entirely sure what it entailed yet we were intriged. So we drove up to Santa Barbara and arrived downtown with the plan to stay there for a few nights before driving about 5 miles out of town to the Uni campus. When we arrived in Santa Barbara it wasn't really what we expected the town was quite small and when we parked the RV we realised we werent able to camp over night without running the risk of getting a fine and there seemed to be a few dodgy characters around. So on that note we decicded to drive into the University to see what was doing. We rolled up in out 30ft beast driving through a campus which is very similar to UQ. At first we were worried about where we were going to be able to park out whip (a problem which we will faced continuously throughout the trip) but then i called out to a few 'freshmen' who were very helpful and told us about a place (which ended up being a stones throw from campus but we couldnt find it) called Ilsa Vista where we should have no dramas parking our RV. Ilsa Vista is a dream town for students. Its main road Del Playa runs about 3 k's parallel with the beach and every single house there is home to students. The houses are all illuminated with neon bud light signs or heineken signs or Corona signs and there are constant Keg parties and people playing beer pog and the streets (on thursday, friday and saturday) and crowded with students it truely is a top venue. We are throwing it out there early but we believe it could be the number one spot of the trip. Anyway we found a top place to park the RV which gave us beach front views. We arrived late at night on wednesday so we all decided to go to sleep. Not long after we hit the nest we awoke to some people outside talking about our RV, moments later people were climbing up onto our roof running around. As we were all b*****ed and in a hlaf daze we ignored it and eventually they left. The next day (thursday) we awoke went down the road bought some beers and kicked off the festivities. It didnt take us long to meet new people and before we knew it we were partying away at some keg party before jumping onto the party bus to head downtown to Santa Barbara. The next night was similar yet we stayed in Isla Vista going to several parties on the street alot of people were out despite many saying people are saving themselves for 'Floatopia'. The next day, Saturday was Floatopia. Floatopia is an annual festival whereby everyone gets a blow up vessel of some description and makes there way down to the beach to drink and party. Us lads thought everyone was crazy because although the weather was clear and sunny it was still as cold as the coldest winters days in Brisbane despite it being spring here. So armed with several cartons of Corona and empty water bottles filled with Vodka we made our way to the beach to find absolute mayhem. 12,000 students were on the beach that day going nuts we had an absolute ball. There were houses atop the cliffs jammed packed with people. Two people fell from the cliffs trying to climb up and had to be hospitalised. It was an awesome day. I must say however, these septic tanks dont really go as hard as us Aussie (without taking into consideration that they usually drink light beers) I was suprised to find that later that night there was next to no one on the streets. I was under the assumption that the beach party was only half time yet most had burnt out and were already in bed. Nevertheless it was a top day and one i wont forget anytime soon.
With floatopia behind us we decided to to check out San Francisco for a few days with the plan to return to Santa Barbara Ilsa Vista for the weekend. So we made the 6 hour drive north to San Fran and checked into an RV parked 7 miles from town, mainly so we could fill up our water tank and clear out our grey and black water tanks. The next day we decided it would be a good idea to skate into town. So here we were 4 australians skating through what we later realised was the Ghetto of San fran for 7 miles into town, we got many looks from a lot of people and also we had two old Afican American ladies make some passing comments which were hilarious. We ended up skating all the way through san fran and all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge we reckon we covered at least 20miles that day. The golden gate bridge was pretty impressive and it is quite an imposing structure. Later that day we went to an Irish pub for a lat lunch/early dinner which ended in a massive bender for blacky and I. The rigs decided to head home early for some shut eye ( a good idea in hindsight) and black and I stayed on for a just a 'couple more beers'. We ended up arriving home at 3:30am after being shouted many drinks by some LA businessmen (and for those of you who were thinking they werent a bunch of 'Dennis Fergusens' there were married and had kids). We tallied it the next day and we reckon they bought us at least 2 pints of beer each 2 jager bombs each, 2 irish car bombs each and several tequila shots, yeh it ended quite rowdy. The next few days in San Fran we spent walking around we saw alcatraz which was awesome, yet by the end we were ready to get back on the road and head back to Santa Barbara which is where I am right now as I type this message, freeloading the Universities internet at the Library. We plan to stay here for a few days before heading back to LA to check out some more sights as well as head to newport beach and laguna beach before heading out to the Coachella festival.
All the best and stayed tuned.
Damon
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