We hired a Hyundai in LA and decided we'd have a road trip and drive up to San Fran!! From LA it is about 400 miles to san fran so it's a fair old treck!!! We could only put 2 drivers on the car, one of them had to be Andy as he was using his credit card to hire it and Walks was the other driver. So altho it wuda been pretty cool driving i instead took the back seat and just chilaxed and caught up on some much needed sleep whilst the other 2 did the driving!!

The trip there took quite a long time ...... 8 hours!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We got a little lost as well but thats all part of the banter. Can't expect to drive 400 miles in foreign country and not get lost! We arrived in San Fran about 7pm and went straight to the hostel. The 1st thing i noticed about San Fran was all the hills. I couldn't believe how hilly it was! Our hostel was up this massive hill as well which we didnt fancy walkin up on too many occasions!!

We stayed at the Amsterdam Hostel on Taylor Street. The hostel was quality yet again!! Free breakfast, free internet, TV room, friendly staff and nice rooms. We stayed in a 6 bed mixed dorm en-suite. When we got there, 2 polish people were also in a room, a guy an a girl who seemed alright. We just dumped our stuff and went out for some food. We walked into Union Square where most of the things that go on in San Fran happen. Went to some cool 50's diner, then debated whether to go out and get smashed .... but in the end decided to save ourselves for the next night and went back to the hostel instead. We played some cards and met these 2 guys who were right at the end of their travels. 1 guy from Dublin and 1 guy from Southampton. They've been all round the world for a year and gave us some priceless tips and information which will help us loads.

Next day we did the Alcatraz Prison tour. We got the boat from the pier and made the short journey over to the prison! It was a trip well worth doing and we all enjoyed it. Once we arrived we had a short talk about the prison by one of the staff there, then watched a 15 minute video summing up the history of the prison. We then wondered up the hill to the cells, where you get a headset which takes you on a 40 minute audio tour. The tour takes you round and into the cells, and tells you stories of some of the famous people and interesting stories that went on in the prison. It also takes you to the hole where prisoners were thrown in for bad behaviour, through the library, the recreation yard, the dining room, into the officers block where the control office and wardens office is, then onto the garden outside which gives you an amazing view of San Fran .... it was a really good tour and very interesting. One of the most interesting things i learnt was that Al Capone (Scarface) spent just over 5 years in Alcatraz which i didnt know till then.

After Alcatraz we headed to Union Sqaure round the shops and did a bit of shopping. The shopping is class in San Fran. Has a Macy's, Barney's, Bloomingdales and loads loads more. At night we decided to go out and get smashed!! We got right on the Vodka and played some ring of fire then headed out. All of our room ended up coming out as well, which included obv me walks and andy, plus 2 french girls, 1 german kid and a lad called Jake who was from London. We just went to this Irish bar and got smashed. My memory of the night sorta went blank about 1am so i'll move to the next part of San Fran which i can remember ..... which is about 09:30am the next day!! We all felt rough as toast, especially walks who couldnt man up, was a mess and was sick haha!!! good bloody times!! we checked out and Johnston stepped up to the plate and took on role of driver as Walks couldnt see!!! We also took the random German dude with us (none of us know his name) as he was headin to LA. We nicknamed him Sherman the German. We charged him $30 which covered our petrol and was a good deal for him so we were all happy!!! Trecked back to LA, dropped Sherman at his hostel .... and we were done!! 800 mile road trip to San Fran. Was defo worth it.

Would of perhaps liked to stay in San Fran for a day or 2 more but we didnt have the time. We all enjoyed it tho. Alcatraz was the highlight of the trip. And weather was ok. Sunny but cloudy. Check back next time for LA blog ..... celeb central!! Ciao