This post has the potential to be the length of a book so I'm going to try my hardest to keep it short. The last week I have mainly been based in LA. We first arrived at the Banana Bungalow hostel on Sunday the 12th and after a night of pizza and settling into our own private room, we spent the next day at Universal Studios, Hollywood. We also picked up Kiah, one of my really good friends from home to come along too as she was staying in the same hostel! It was so nice to see her as the last time had been in New York at New years. So Kiah and her friend Amy came to Universal with us and we had one of the best days of the trip. It was soo much fun, even better than expected, all the rides are so clever and the special effects really trick you into thinking you are part of the film/ride. My favourites were the King Kong part of the Universal tour, the Simpsons ride and getting to see the Universal back lot where soo many movies have been filmed. It was also really good weather this day too, so that helped and potentially added to the tan.

The day after Universal we joined our Grand Canyon tour that we booked a while ago, for a ridiculously cheap price, and now I see why. Although it was still worth it for the cheap transport, hotel and convenience, there was several things that nearly caused us all to have a breakdown by the end of the trip! These included being ordered to go to the restroom 'not maybe, go now' from our very frustrating Chinese tour guide Leo (who actually gave us very little useful information), being tricked into various silly attractions such as a chocolate factory and shopping outlet and the final straw - being took for a Chinese all you can eat buffet at 10 in the morning! 10am!!! Not the sort of food you want, even if you have been up since 4. The whole tour was a little ridiculous, with Leo even telling us that a bus rule was not to eat anything strong smelling on the bus as Chinese people don't like that. A little controversial to say the least. Despite all this however the Grand Canyon was well worth the journey, the view from the South Rim was incredible. Its hard to get your head around how vast the area is and it is such a dramatic setting. So of course a huge photo shoot took place posing on various rocks and ledges. We even climbed down to a piece of rock that juts out from the edge, not quite as dangerous as it sounds but still pretty scary! The night after and before going to the Grand Canyon we were all staying in a luxury (for us) room in the Circus Circus hotel in Las Vegas and went exploring the casinos on the night time. Vegas was the most bizarre place I have ever been, its just so massive and bright, we got lost in the hotels so many times they just seem to have insane shopping centres, fountains and theme parks inside and they do not make it easy for you to find your way out. I even won a whopping $1.75 on a slot machine which I had no idea how to work, but I'm happy with that! While we were in Vegas the weather was unbelievably hot, the majority of the time being about 37 degrees even on the night time. We all lost it a little bit when we went to see the Hoover dam as we'd all ran out of water and the weather was just unbearably hot, the desert definitely lives up to its reputation.

Back in LA after the tour we returned to the same hostel and signed up for the Hollywood tour for the next day. A funny old guy took about 12 of us around in the mini van and we got to see the Chinese theatre (and put our hands in Marilyn Monroe's handprints), the Dolby theatre, Beverley Hills (inc. Jackie Chan and Michael Jacksons house), the Fresh prince of Bel Air house and a great lookout spot of the Hollywood sign. We also picked up some free TV show tickets from Hollywood Boulevard, for The Late late show with Craig Ferguson. By coincidence he is actually a Scottish man, with a very bizarre late night TV show that involved dancing with a costume horse and a skeleton robot. It was so so much fun though, somehow we ended up in the front row and being the only 7 people to be given a release form to sign so we will probably appear on TV! The comedian who talks during the breaks of the show picked on our row calling it Lesbian row as there was 6 girls and then Ryan! They ended up giving Ryan a free t-shirt for being the best English Lesbian on Lesbian row, it was hilarious. The show meant we got to go inside CBS studios, one of the biggest Tv networks in America (they film Big bang theory and CSI there!) and the guests on the show were Ice T and some female comedian, in the past it has had Johnny Depp and Bradley Cooper though!

After the show we checked out of the hostel and began the hour long trip to our next hostel in Santa Monica, LA. But incredibly luckily and bizarrely while walking to the bus stop Stephs friend from back home stopped at the traffic lights and spotted us! Her friend, Charlie, is also travelling the West Coast and he had no plan for a hostel that night so offered us a lift and to hang round with us for a few days. We managed to squash our 4 massive cases and backpacks into his tiny little rental car, which was absolutely ridiculous and ended up with Cait and Ryan having completely dead legs by the time we arrived but it was an amusing story.

Santa Monica is absolutely beautiful; we were 2 blocks from the beach and one block from the pretty town. The beach was probably the nicest I've ever been to, the sea was amazing and the waves were huge. We spent a morning there before it got a little to chilly to sunbathe. The whole trip we have had good weather but not quite as great as would be expected in California, but I have tanned very slightly. The rest of the time in Santa Monica involved playing Charades and the Name game with our new friend, Ned who was from Leeds(!), until 2am, going on a bar crawl, going along the pier and going to a horrific comedy show. On the last day we also all rented bikes and cycled all the way down the seafront to Venice beach, which was a very cool area and definitely worth a visit.

Next stop - Overnight coach to San Francisco!