Another difficulty of hostel living is trying to get out the dorm without waking everyone else up if you are an early riser which I seem to be these days. Anyway only one more night here and then I'm moving on and I'll get my own room :) I took the public bus over to Coronado Island which is connected to San Diego via a hugely impressive bridge. First on my agenda was a historic walking tour which lasted 90 mins and was extremely interesting and great value for ...

So I arrived last night (easy direct flight with US Airways, although no inflight entertainment for a nearly 6 hour flight, what's up with that!) and took a cab to the hostel. I know, I should have taken the bus especially since I was checking into a hostel, lol, but baby steps :) The hostel (booked through Airbnb) has a great location and I'm booked into a four person female dorm. The other ladies seem nice, one of which is a British lady around my age who is t...

I've been living in the US for over 7 years and always dreamed of visiting the West Coast. I've also always known that a few days vacation was just not going to be enough once I finally got out there (after all the flight time is almost as long as it is back to the UK) so when I started looking at those places in the world I really wanted to visit with my 6 months of travel, California was almost at the top of my list. The next question was where exactly on the...

My last day in Abu Dhabi and at Ben's suggestion I head off to the Grand Mosque. WOW what a beautiful building, I've never been to a mosque before and it truly took my breath away. The brilliant white marble structure set against a bright blue cloudless sky had a very calming effect. The Mosque was built by the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan (he was the Sheikh that discovered oil and really is responsible for shaping Abu Dhabi as it appears today) His f...

In desperate search for a cultural experience and to learn something more about the UAE, Ben and I headed to the Cultural Center for Open Minds (funded by Sheikh Mohammed) for breakfast and talks with our host Nasif. The center is located in the oldest section of Dubai, the heart of the historic Al Fahidi District in Bur Dubai The traditional Emirati breakfast took place in the ambience of a wind tower house and no question was off limits with Nasif as our grou...