My Wee Trip

Sorry for the huge gap in blogs, i've been having trouble logging onto the site, and it lost most of this blog i posted a few days ago but i only just realised... i'll try to remember it now!

So... Vegas! After so long of my saying it sounds like my worst nightmare; cramped streets, noise, glaring lights and hundereds of shows! I'm actually really glad I went there. It wasn't like I imagined at all, all the elements were there, just not as intrusive as I feared. It was a lot of fun both seeing all the attractions and laughing at the very special brand of crazies they have there. Our hostel was in possibly the dodgiest part of downtown (the neighbouhood with the 3rd highest rating for gun crime in the city!) but in a way, that was a good thing because it meant experiencing that part along with the glitz of the strip. The hostel ended up being not too bad either once the annoying Irish girl and her friend left! There is a lot to do besides gamble and see shows but I think 3 days is enough to do it in.

We took an organised trip to the Grand Canyon from our hostel which picked us up at a very unearthly hour of 5:45am! We didn't even get to the Canyon till about midday, mostly due to the complete disorganisation of the tour company. It is a phenomenal sight, and very much worth seeing. But I would recommend taking your own car so as to not be at the mercy of the control freakish Americans. They really do spoil it unfortunately. We did the Skywalk - a smallish transparent walkway out over the canyon - but we weren't allowed to take cameras and were litterally herded from one guard to the next across the walk, utterly infuriating! The second viewpoint is slightly less controlled and the Americans had made me angry enough to defiantly huff off to the very edge of the point where no one else would go so I got a fantastic 360 view of the canyon. It really is breathtaking, if you can let yourself see what billions of years worth of nature can be capable of.

That night, one of the guys who works at the hostel took us to thier local bar. They had a blues band playing who were made up of an inter-racial group of charming old blues guys with day jobs who just played for fun. They were great, it was a perfect end to "real-life Las Vegas"!

The next day, we drove back through the desert to LA and stayed at the Santa Monica hostel again. I was really bored by LA. We saw the Hollywood sign and Rodeo Drive which were both cool to see but there was just nothing else there. Our flight wasn't till 11pm that night so we just hung around the beach for a few hours and then spent about 5hrs at the airport again being herded about by shouting security staff... After the 10 hour flight to Fiji, I arrived feeling pretty grumpy and tired and happy to be out of America.

Now... I must say that if there's one place that will snap you out of being cranky and tired, it's Fiji!

But I must go for now, the sun has just come out and I have to work on my tan! :o)

Last night was my first ever hostelling experience. I didn't do too badly actually, it's weird and I feel a little bit out of my comfort zone but it's worth it for all the time we actually spend in it. I did wake up earlier than everyone else in the room and have to sneak out on my own.

We spent most of today driving across the Mojave desert listening to an odd mixture of rock and soul music. We took a wrong turn and ended up having to drive down Las Vegas Blvd though which really was not fun. Got to our hostel feeling a bit shakey and in need of a little glass of wine!

Hostel tonight is in an interesting part of town and the others staying here are quite a lot younger than me and all a bit perky and joiny in for my liking, hence my disappearing to have to use the net! Nevertheless, it is Jess's birthday so we do have to celebrate! The kids are all very excited about that!

On our last day in San Francisco, we took a boat trip to Alcatraz. For the first time, so far, I was quite stunned at actually being on 'the rock'. There is so much history there, it is actually quite eerie. The guided audio tour makes it easy to imagine what it would have been like to be there. We also went on a tour to the Golden Gate Bridge and saw some of the sights that Alonzo showed us, but in daylight!

We had already booked a hire car from San Francisco for Thursday so we went to pick it up in the morning expecting to be getting a 2 dr standard car. Due to having too many bookings however, we were given a luxury Cadillac! Honestly, we could just live in this thing for the rest of the seek and save ourselves a fortune! Driving down the Pacific Coast Highway in a tank was not exactly fun, and I'm used to winding roads!

We stopped in a great little town called San Luis Obispo last night and we are now in Santa Barbara looking for somewhere to stay in Malibu for tonight.

Must go now, running out of time!

Flight here was uneventful and as nice as a 10 hour economy class flight can be. After a quick nap in the hotel, we ventured out to find dinner. Thankfully, we chose to get a cab and met Alonzo, a very friendy cabbie born and bred in San Fran who said we could only get in if we liked Jazz! Instead of simply taking us to Fisherman's Wharf, he took us on a fantastic little nightime tour of the city including stopping at Twin Peaks to show us the view of the bay across Alcatraz and the Golden Gate bridge, where he lost his cap in the wind. We went through Haight-Ashbury, Castro and North Beach villages, down Lombard Street, the crookedest street in the world, and past Pacific Heights were the houses are enormous and security wont let the public through. For some reason however, Alonzo is allowed... We didn't ask why! He recommended a lovely local restaurant as well which was as good as he said it would be.

We are going to take a boat trip out to Alcatraz tomorrow, hopefully it will be a bit warmer, today is sunny but the wind makes it pretty cold.