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Shona & Nikki's big trip!
So, we are now in California, US of A! We started off in San Diego where Kevin drove us to from Mexico. Felt a bit bewildering arriving in the US after 4 months of Central America, we still cant stop saying 'gracias' instead of 'thankyou' to everyone and receiving some strange looks because of it.First of all we got a bit lost in San Diego because as usual we had no idea where we wanted to go, after driving around for ages we finally gave up, got an expensive room in a nice hotel, shared a take-away pizza and said our goodbyes to Kevin. Slept like a log.In the morning we moved to a hostel. It was very clean and organised but really didnt like it as way too many rules and the people wernt very friendly at all. It was by Ocean Beach, which is a nice, laid-back, kind of sleepy, part of town with lots of drunk surfer-dudes on the street asking you to donate to their keg. Weird. We wondered around the town and walked the beach which was quite nice, we discovered a 'dog beach', where people can let their dogs run free, we watched as people put their dogs on surfboards and ride the waves, v.funny sight - never knew dogs could surf! In the evening we went to a bar called PB's. It was alright, managed to get a lift back with a marine guy. In the morning we moved again. We caught a bus to a different hostel, Banana Bungalow, which is right on Mission Beach. With a deck over-looking a nice beach and the busy walking/cylcling/skating path. Its really cramped and very messy, but lots of fun, everyone is partying there all the time. My kinda place! When we first walked in, in the morning, we met an English girl (from Islington) who was still dressed as a French maid from the night before and was evidently still drunk as she tried to dance on the sea wall infront of the hostel. All the people there are really friendly. Although, embarassingly the dog is called Shona, everyone was very amused to find out my name. But at least they could pronounce it and remember I guess. I took to saying, when asked my name, 'Shona - like the dog'. Although it did get kind of confusing when I would hear people suddenly say 'sit Shona! Sit!' or ask if I wanted to be taken for a walk?!That evening we went out with the crazy English girl, the ozzie manager of the hostel, and a girl covered head-to-toe in tatoos. Went to a really fancy bar, bit snobby actually so we didnt stay too long.The next day we were very naughty and went on a shopping spree. We went to the bus stop and to our surprise bumped into some crazy northern guys, and a crazy German guy that were staying at our hostel. They were on their way to an American Football match and had decided to dress up as a bride (sporting a purple wig and carrying a crate of beer), a bridesmaid, a jester and a pimp. They had made a banner saying 'Real Men Play Rugby'. Hmmm... We tried to pretend we didnt know them, but they grabbed us and screamed to everyone in the street that we certainly did know them and were their sisters. We were stuck with them for the whole bus ride, then got on a train with them, it was hilarious! We got off at Fashion Valley where we bought a couple of bits, then we went to some shops near Pacific Beach which had some great vintage clothes shops where I went a bit crazy and got a new wardrobe (or rucksack of clothes) tut tut. We stayed in and cooked that evening to compensate for silly spending spree.The next morning I actually joined Nikki on a jog. There is a busy promenade especially for joggers, bikers, skaters, posers etc right by the beach-front so its quite nice, except for the fact that I am totally unfit and walked most of the way there then turned back early. In the evening we went back to PB's bar to gain the calories we'd lost (plus more probably). It was a good night, really crowded. We had a bit of a boogie. Made some skater friends and went back with them to party some more (as everything stupidly closes at 2am). But they actually ended up kicking us out at some rediculous hour because we wernt interested in them as more than friends, which was real nice of them. Such gentlemen. Anyway... bothered! Yeh right.The next day we visited San Diego Zoo, which is so huge you have to catch a bus or sky-lift around it. We caught both, saw lots of animals and a sea-lion show. Totally zoo-ed out now, seeing two zoo's (Mexico and San Diego) in one trip is more than enough.The following day we went to La Jolla, which is a really nice area of San Diego. Lots of big lovely houses, boutiques and cafes. Way too expensive for us. We headed to La Jolla shores, beautiful beaches there. We walked along a pleasant path which lead to a large beach and settled there for a while. When we were walking back we heard some loud roaring (which we recognised from the zoo the previous day), we walked around the corner to find dozens of wild sea-lions lying on rocks or swimming in the sea. It was amazing! We managed to get really close, and saw a cub too. It was cool. We carried on walking along the coast and saw loads more. One rock was so full of sea-lions sunbathing that you couldnt tell what was rock and what was sea-lion.The next evening Kevin, our friend we met in Mexico, came back to get us. He picked us up in his other car - a Hummer! Yeh baby! We had no idea where we were going so eventually, on a last-minute-drunken-dicision we decided to go to Las Vegas! We drove for several hours through the dark of the desert and arrived in the early hours of the morning. We crashed on Kevin's cousin's sofa for a couple of hours then checked into a motel and got some real sleep.In the evening we walked around the glitzy, neon-lit streets. It was really weird, everything is so fake. We caught a glimpse of the fountain show and went into a huge hotel complex, which was like a mini-city, a big shopping mall with fake ceiling and a casino. Kevin showed us how to bet and we tried out a couple of casinos. I actually won a bit, well I went back with more than I started with anyway.The next afternoon we headed off, we drove through miles and miles of desert and mountain views and finally reached LA! We found a nice little cabin-style motel to share for the night and got some shut-eye.The following day Kevin took us on a little tour of Hollywood in the Hummer. We stopped there for lunch and had a nice Thai. Yum. Then we headed for Universal Studios, weirdly enough when we were entering the car-park the guy mistook Kevin for working with some gas company, so naturally we went along with it and got free parking. We almost got all of us into the park using the same tactic but they asked for ID at the last minute. Didnt end up managing to get in as it was too late for non-gas-company people so we walked around Universal City for a while, which is basically just themed shops, cafes and bars.In the evening we visited a friend of his, then we all went to watch the sun-set at Venice Beach which was really pretty. We checked into another motel then tried to go out that evening but didnt reach the bar until about 1am for some reason, it closed at 1.30. Our timing had been totally off that day.Me and Nikki went to Venice Beach the next day, quite near to where we were staying. Its great, full of odd characters; people selling random stuff, artists, entertainers, musicians, crazy people, a guy playing electric guitar on roller-blades, tramps with signs saying things like 'support your local wine-o' or 'will work for marijuana' etc. The beach is really nice too and surprisingly big. We strolled along gawking at the strange people and the posers (muscley men in nothing but panties), all the way to Santa Monica pier. There we bumped into our friends from the Banana Bungalow in San Diego which was funny. They were only there for a day trip.In the evening we went on a mission for an Indian curry, I hadnt had one for almost 5 months now and was seriously craving. We walked for miles, in no particular direction. We discovered Venice Beach is not so nice at night, the strange people turn kind of scary, we were particularly shocked by this guy with no legs and one arm on the floor riding really, really fast on a skateboard and making strange dog noises. V.sad but also v.scary. We finally gave up due to starvation and had a not-so-nice meal in a cafe. V.disapointing.The next day Nikki went jogging and I didnt. Decided I dont like that at all. Its not for me. So I went to Malibu with Kevin. We drove past all the huge stars' houses, I even saw Cher's place. Then we went for a nice meal at a Japenese restaurant, which I've never tried before. I got a nice salmon dish. They cook it all up in front of you at the table, and throw food all about the place, catching it in their hats and stuff. We went to Venice Beach and people-watched again the next day. Went for lunch at Bubba Gump's restaurant, from the film Forest Gump - one of my favorite films. It was fun, all the food was something to do with the film, like 'Jenny's favorite' or whatever. We had some shrimps things. They even had signs on the table that said 'Run, Forest, Run' or 'Stop, Forest, Stop' to idicate to the waitor if you want service or not. And at the end of your meal the waitress gives you a little quiz on the film, on which we failed miserably.Our last day there we went back to Venice. I bought a nice toe-ring and Nikki got a henna tattoo. We looked at Graffitti Wall on the beach, where lots of people were spraying new art-work. Then we saw a commercial being filmed, for some kind of chocolate. They were dressed in 60's gear, skating long the walk-way with a park-bench. In the evening we went to 3rd street, which is a pedestrianised road, with fairy lights in the trees and bars and restaurants. We went to a bar which I dont remember v.well at all.The next evening we set off for Santa Barbara. Despite traffic it was a nice drive along the Pacific Ocean Highway with views of the beaches and nice homes. We arrived quite late and the cheapest rooms we could find were really expensive, although we personally didnt pay anything as Kevin is such a sweetie.The next day we wandered around the pretty town, which is really clean, with nice shops, bars, restaurants and cafes. We had a lovely healthy lunch at one place, which felt good after all the junk we've been eating. It was a bit chilly so we couldnt enjoy the beach, although it looked nice, so we went along the pier and had some yummy ice-cream. Me and Nikki went to buy our train tickets for San Fran, there was a bit of a misunderstanding when the ticket-guy must of thought I said 'shoes' not 'Hughes' for my name and then to my confusion I mis-heard him to be asking what shoes I was wearing? I found it all pretty funny but he obviously didnt and got in a strop and refused to serve me. All very weird. Anyway we got our tickets in the end then we all went for our final drink, as Kevin was heading back to LA, I will miss that crazy dude a lot. Me and Nikki finally went for our Indian curry that evening, although it wasnt the same as in London and hasnt satisfied my craving. Guess I will have to cook one.On Sunday we caught the Amtrak train to San Fransisco. It was surprisingly comfortable, a big double-decker train with plenty of leg-room, a cafe, restaurant, viewing carriage, and lovely 1st-class sleeping lounges (which we sneaked a look at), made the 8-hour journey not too bad. We are staying with friends Barbara, Judy and their daughter Abby in Albany, just the other side of the bay from San Fransisco. So nice to be in a real home, and a lovely one at that.On our first morning here Judy gave us a little tour of the local area, drove us down to the port where we had a view of the whole bay, with San Fransisco and the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance, then we went to the top of a hill for a great view of it all.Then me and Nikki got a Bart train (which is like the Metro) into San Fransisco. We visisted the Yebea Buena Gardens and saw the Martin Luther King memorial which is really nice. Its a waterfall that you can walk around to see various of his quotes written on a wall behind. We then took a walk around China Town, which is the largest outside of China. In the evening we had a home-cooked meal - yay!The following day we went back into town and visited San Fransisco Museum of Modern Art. It was really cool, so much to see that we spent the whole day there. On one floor there was a huge exhibition of paintings and sculptures by many artists from Matisse and Picasso to Roy Lichenstein and Andy Warhol, and another floor of various photography exhibits. We also watched most of a documentary film on Frida Khalo, until I started to feel sleepy. The actual building is great too.Today we went into San Fransisco with Judy for an anti-Bush demonstration which has been happening in lots of cities nation-wide. Unfortunately it rained all day which was a shame and probably bought down the numbers a bit. But there was a nice mix of people there anyway, from children to grannies. At first there were speakers, including a lot of high-school kids who thoroughly enjoyed shouting 'F**k Bush' into the microphone. And a rapper who was actually really good and spoke alot of sense. Then we all marched along Market Street and through San Fransisco, in the rain. Got totally drenched, it was fun though.
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