Los Angeles, San Diego, and Las Vegas baby!!

GOSSIP GIRL DAY

Tuesday 31^st May

The three really awesome Americans we met in the jacuzzi (Ashley, Jasmine, and Jeff) invited us to go to the beach with them the next day. We planned to take the bus to Venice beach (getting pretty good at navigating them now) which would have taken hours. However, our new friends very kindly offered to pay for a car. And not just any car, a huge, black, blacked-out windows, SUV machine of a car. That came with a lovely chauffeur called Gary. We could use him all day, calling him up when we liked, he was very friendly and gave us Weathers’ Originals. It was very ‘Gossip Girl’-esque. 

(The black car was ours)

The five of us- Ashley, Jasmine, then you know the rest.

Gary first dropped us at the Santa Monica Plaza. Had a browse around the mall. Jasmine, our new friend, hadn’t brought any flip flops to LA, so instead of wearing other shoes to the beach, she decided to go bare-footed. Our first stop was to find her some footwear. Gilza also bought some well cool heels for $10. Barg. Gary took us to Venice beach next....

Fun facts for you.....Venice beach is famed for the outdoor weight machines which brought Arnold Schwarzenegger to fame. Indeed, there were numerous buffed up people which we felt we should admire. The actual area of Venice beach is quite dilapidated, the very opposite of Beverly Hills. There are loads of homeless people (bums in American) selling their art. There are also shops along the seafront that advertise ‘medical marijuana’, needless to say we didn’t oblige. 

Sun creamed up (learnt from our mistakes).Sunbathed. Played in the sea. Bought food. Got sand in food. Ate food anyway. Felt a bit sick. Also wandered along the beach front, avoided skateboarders and had a laugh at the slogan T-shirts.

Back in the hench car, Gary took us to Santa Monica pier. Fun facts about Santa Monica pier: It’s the end of route 66, when it was built everyone was very excited to see LA’s waterfront, it’s also home to the world’s only solar-powered Ferris wheel.

We walked along it, and got a bit cold, then walked back again. Ashley and Jasmine bought some food (sand free), we checked out the rollercoaster, decided it was too expensive, and then joined them. Lastly Gary dropped us at the hotel, opening car doors for us and everything. 

Our new American friends had very kindly invited us to join them for dinner. We happily tagged along, grateful of an evening without our dodgy cooking (which included soggy pasta and pesto sauce for Gilza and an attempted Ratatouille for Alice and Bessie). We went to a very fancy restaurant called STK, which is what an upmarket steakhouse calls itself. It was indeed a wonderful meal; we had perfect steak, crab, lobster, cocktails (shhh), and a huge cookie ice-cream desert. All of us were absolutely stuffed; it was a struggle to walk back (because of the amount of food we ate, not the cocktails, I promise!).  After some last minute packing we were soon fast asleep.

ROAD TRIP!

Wednesday 1^st June (First day of the tour)

Had to wake up horrendously early. 6am. Although, our original plan was to get to the meeting point of our tour (the Hacienda Hotel near LAX) by public transport which would mean leaving our hotel at 5am. We caved in and ordered a taxi for an extra hour in bed. Totally worth it. After quite a lot of awkward waiting around we were introduced to our tour leader, Kat, and the rest of our group. There are 12 of us in all; three Australians, an Irish lady and the rest of us were British. Apart from one other couple, we were the only group. Everyone gets on really well which is nice, there are also 6 of us who are under 21 which will make things less boring in the evenings if everyone else goes out. We had to fill out a load of paperwork and then hit the road!! The van we are using is huuuuge with 5 rows of seats in, don’t be fooled though, 13 of us in one car is still a squash. Getting into the back seats requires a degree of elegance some of us are not accustomed to. On the back of the truck is a trailer for all our bags, of which there are plenty.

The first stop on our trans-America road trip was Wal-mart. I suppose you’d call it immersing yourself in the culture. Stocked up on water, snacks, forgotten sleeping bags etc. 

Gillian also decided to buy a Hersheys Chocolate bar, just because you get them in America. We all have to agree that it has got absolutely nothing on Cadburys or Galaxy chocolate. Sorry Hersheys.

On arriving in San Diego we drove to the highest point with the best view of the city.

Kat gave us a talk about what to expect and a little about San Diego. The city is famed for its naval connections and Coronado Island, in the bay of the city, still has a large navy base. It’s also very near the border with Mexico so has a large Mexican population and influence. The hostel we are staying is much the same as the hostel in San Fran. It’s called Lucky D’s and popular with young long term travellers. The rooms were painted in crazy bright colours with all sorts of weird decoration.

After dumping our stuff a few of us went for a walk around the area. Almost immediately we met some lovely local ladies who were really interested in where we were from and what we were doing (and had a hilarious fascination and love of our accents). They suggested all the best things to do in the city. As we’re only here for two nights we couldn’t really do everything but they did suggest going to the 22^nd floor of the Marriott hotel to look at the view. The 22^nd floor also happens to be the Altitude bar and they were ID-ing at the door. After an awful lot of convincing, we under 21s eventually managed to talk the bouncers into letting us in to take pictures. Those ladies were right, the views were fantastic....

(left to right: Dave, Carl, Sas, Leanne, Alice, Bessie, Ashleigh, Gillian) 

Later that night, Kat took us to a Mexican restaurant to eat. None of us really knew anything about Mexican food but we did enjoy the burritos and tacos. A couple of people stayed out after but due to certain infuriating age restrictions we headed back to sleep.  

ZOO, BEACH, PARTY

Thursday 2^nd June

Naturally when in San Diego we had to visit the world famous San Diego Zoo. Most of us were going there so Kat gave us a lift.

It’s not hard to see why the zoo is world famous. Immediately confronted by a bunch of flamingos, we headed along the walkways surrounded by trees to see tigers, birds, monkeys. At the hippo park there was a mother and her baby. We could see thought the tank underwater, they were absolutely massive! And adorable (from a distance), the mother was pushing her baby up to the surface so it could breathe. They looked just like Gloria from Madagascar.

We also saw elephants, rhinos, camels, Pandas – they are beautiful, and spend pretty much all day eating, what a life, gorillas, a baby gorilla, and orang-utans. The orang-utans were really cool; one would roll all around his enclosure and then really slowly around the glass where people were looking in. Then he would look away and when he thought you’d lost interest, he’d press his tongue against the glass, actually hilarious.

After a quick bus ride back into town, we all got a ride with Kat to Coronado Island (means ‘crown’ in Spanish appaz). The bridge to the island is filmed in Anchor man. We spent the time on the beach, admiring the scenery and playing a bit of Frisbee (which was utterly crazy because of the wind!!!)

That evening our hostel very kindly made a free dinner for us, much appreciated after all the money we’ve spent recently. After our (very spicy) pasta, there was also a pub quiz. The rounds were music, film, lyrics, geography, and interactive round. The interactive round was particularly hilar, it was like musical statues but when the music stopped the quiz master would shout out some awkward (and sometimes rather inappropriate) positions we had to be in. This resulted in Gilza being held upside-down (with a skirt on) by a very merry Irish guy. If only we had a photo (Gilza says thank goodness we don’t!!!!).......Anyway, we came third so missed out on the champagne prize but did respectably enough- I’m sure you’ll agree. And yes for all you doubters out there, there were far more than just 3 teams taking part.

That night the hostel had gone all out and had organised a club trip. The club they had chosen let in over 18s (whoop!) so long as they paid, something about not being able to buy alcohol I guess. So we got ready and walked to the club after ‘hanging out’ in the over 21s room for a bit. It was good fun when we got there, and all managed to get in. The club was so much bigger than Reading clubs and the music was crazy, with a DJ who didn’t like to play whole songs, only bits of songs.

There was quite a few dance offs between some cool San Diegans which is not something you see every day. After losing each other for a while, then reuniting, and ticking off the lady in the toilets by refusing to give her a tip for handing us a paper towel (which she’d just stolen from the dispensers), we decided to call it a night. Walking back, Gillian bought chips (standard), which were shared by all (standard), and after a lot of faffing about and avoiding some over-zealous Serbs, we headed for bed.

 LAS VEGAS BABY!

Friday 3^rd June:  San Diego to Las Vegas.

Had to meet at 8am, not very easy after last night, to depart for Vegas. It is a 330 mile journey and took 6 hours. We all snoozed most of the way but stopped at a service station briefly for lunch and again at the liquor store for the over 21s *ahem* to stock up.
Gillian fell asleep, and woke up with the guy next to her fast asleep on her shoulder, which everyone who was awake in the back of the minibus found absolutely hilarious.

When we reached the California/ Nevada border, we stopped to admire the sudden appearance of a whole flurry of casinos (we’d reached the state where gambling was no longer illegal- delighting us all with the knowledge that Vegas was close!) There was a pretty enormous rollercoaster there, which claimed to be the fastest, tallest, largest rollercoaster in the world. We were all a bit sceptical about how up-to-date that information was, but I can assure you that when it boasts that passengers experience G-forces exceeding those experienced by astronauts, it probably wasn’t lying. By the end of it we all had bone dry mouths (too much screaming), tears horizontally across our cheeks which had literally been blown from our eyes, and legs resembling jelly.

Hitting the road again, Vegas drew closer, and as if from, nowhere, out of the desert landscape rose skyscrapers and lights- it was completely surreal, but we’d reached Las Vegas!! We got out at our hotel (called Super 8), which is a very nice hotel indeed! There is a pool open 24 hours a day, we each get our own double bed, and there are mirrors in the rooms (a bit of a luxury we have all come to realise from the past hostels, where everything has to be done in the middle of the corridor, or in the toilets). We all showered and got changed before heading out to grab some dinner from a 7 Eleven and a service station (we weren’t allowed in the closest restaurant because most of us were under 21- pretty silly considering they just turned away about ten hungry individuals who would have contributed nicely to their finances).

That evening we all went to our tour guide (Kat)’s room for a bit of pre-drinking, and then we headed out to the party bus we’d booked earlier (all the limos had been booked already). All three of us can probably agree that that was one of the single most amazing moments of the trip so far (and there have been a LOT of amazing moments!)

The driver played really brilliant tunes, there was ice, drinks, poles, sofas, and plenty of room to dance- and dance we most certainly did! I don’t think so many photos have been taken by so many people in such a small space of time ever. We stopped at a venue to see a light show and some band play, and a really very amusing old lady told us that we ‘had it’, and that Bessie was a sexy cub. Needless to say we all found that VERY amusing.

We also stopped off at the Las Vegas sign (the famous diamond shaped one), and then the Bellagio and Caesar’s Palace where we saw a water/fountain show with lights. The whole city was dazzlingly beautiful at night!

We tried to get into a few clubs, but the age restrictions were against us, so we went into the only one we could find that let in 18+s. A gay one!! Which was actually hilarious fun, and we all had a great time before finally meeting up with the other half of our group.

Gillian got some henna done (since getting a tattoo was probably going a bit far... although saying that, we are in Vegas, and we have been trying to get the couple on the trip to agree to marry each other here (they’re our age, and not thrilled by the idea).

After walking around New York New York for a while, we finally caught a taxi home, and fell asleep very quickly!

Next update will be in a day or two's time. For those unsure (probably family members, yes, Gilza is in fact the same person as Gillian- Alice is trying to get nicknames to stick haha).

Next stop GRAND CANYON!!!