A big hello from the U S of A!! I arrived in San Francisco last Wednesday and moved into a hostel. I stayed at the Amsterdam hostel in a four bed dorm. I am sharing with some twins from Brighton who are lovely!! I went and bought a back pack to replace my suitcase and then went for a very cheap Thai meal!! The next day I got up early, getting to make waffles for the very first time for breakfast. As I had only one day in San Fran, I got an open top bus around so I could see all the major sights! I first went to Union Square and got to see all the expensive shops that I could only window shop from!! Then moved on to Chinatown, which I got to see a little of the day before but is amazing to see all the different shops! I then went down to Pier 39 and Fishermans Wharf! I got to see the sea lions, and have my first ever clam chowder in a breadbowl!! I went over the Golden Gate Bridge, but due to the rain it was a painful experience as it was pelted at you at high speed!! I carried on on the bus, getting to see all the sights before returning to my hostel to collect my bag and move to the hotel to start my next tour!! I got a taxi and moved into the Red Roof Inn where I got to meet my new room mate, a lady called Barbera from the Netherlands. We went to the local diner for dinner and got an early night!! We met the rest of our group the next morning. There are four of us in total, the other two being a mother and daughter from Australia, Nula and Melissa. Our tour guide is a guy called Nicholas. We start the tour by driving to Santa Cruz. We went to the local town and went on the pier, seeing more seals!! We stayed in a campsite in a cabin. Nula and Melissa cooked dinner, we had steak and sausages which was lovely. We then went out to a local bar and had a couple of drinks! The next day we left for Monteray, where we went to the aquarium and had a wander around the town. We stayed in another campsite again in a cabin, but the one the night before had been nicer!! Myself and Barbera cooked dinner but we did pasta and due to intense rain, it took an age to cook!! We left the next day at 8am so as to start the long drive to LA. We stopped first at the Madonna Inn, a gorgeous hotel where everything is pink! Even the sugar!!! We then went to Carmel and down to Santa Barbera where we looked around one of the large missions in the area. We then carried on our journey to teh hostel in Santa Monica. We checked in and then went along the beach to Venice Beach where my new bracelet addiction carried on, with 3 new ones!! We went to a local restaurant for dinner and had pizza before going to a local sports bar for a few drinks!! We met at 8am today to go on a tour of LA, getting to see Bel Air, Beverly Hills (including Rodeo Drive!!) and then Hollywood to see the Manns Chinese theatre and the Kodak Theatre. We then went to a view point to get a close up view of the HOLLYWOOD SIGN!!!! We then went on to Universal Studios, where we spent 5 hours having lots of fun!! I got to meet Alex the Lion and Marilyn Monroe and characters from the mummy!! We went on the studio tour, saw the Waterworlds exhibit and went on the Mummy Ride and the Jurassic Park ride!! I also got to go on the Simpsons ride!!! Which was amazing!! Can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring!!!