Wake up at 03:30, shower and out of the door.. The doorman of the hotel says goodbye and hands me a bottle of water for on the way. Great service, great staff. I walk towards the Ferry building, which is about half an hour away. On the way there I buy coffee and some sandwiches for the trip. The Amtrak bus arrives in time at 04:50 to drive to Stockton, where the train to the south will leave from. Last look on SF, had a great time here, met so many nice people and got to run around and be silly with Ozz. On the bus there is a woman speaking very loudly on
her phone while it is 05:30 am and I am sure people would like to sleep. Americans dont really consider others when their mobiles are involved. Not as in Europe at least.. It also seems to be a populair hobby to find a new ringtone and naturally go throug all these ringtones while being on a bus, train or airplane.. Transfer to Amtrak train Stockton-Bakersfield. Skyped with mom and dad from the train (yep, it had wifi aboard) and dad is fortunately home again. I would want to be nearer now, but it will have to wait 9 more weeks.. We will keep in close touch. The train is a very comfortable doubledecker, not very busy so i have four seats and a table for myself. Pretty easy ride, nithing spectaculair just enjoyed the view, relaxed and uploaded some pictures to facebook.

In Bakersfield, CA I get on the bus to LA, making this trip a total of 10 hours. The first stops in LA are Newhall, Bob Hope Airport and Van Nuys Train Station. The lady driving the bus is asking me if I am a student going to UCLA and after being estimated 32 last week and 27 two weeks ago, it just keeps getting better ;-). Best thing is that people still think Ozz is older than me, has been for 15 years. A secret: I am 7 years older. Haha.
Arriving at UCLA in Westwood LA at 15:20 and meet Fettouma who shows me to the dorm where I will stay among the people attending the university, in this building mainly exchange students. She will need to go to class still, so I am heading for a car rental place. LA you can't do without a car, just a fact. And now that I have experienced it, i can only confirm it. LA is so massively huge and everything is so spread out that that walking is totally impossible and public transport just not sufficient enough.
Avis has a s*** offer,so I walk on to Enterprise. At firstsame thing, poor offer and hardly any cars available. But on the way in both Flagstaff and San Francisco I have learned that there is a lot possible and a lot to negotiate at these places. Just give up a few times, walk off etc. in the end I am renting a huuuuuge (see pics on fb) Chevrolet Silverado pick-up truck for $49,99. To be returned in 24 hours with an empty tank, so he throws in the 1/8 tank that is left in it. At first I feel this car is too big but after driving 15 minutes I am getting confident and it drives like a dream. And everybody makes way for uou because it's like a tank approaching. I drive towards the beach and up the Pacific Highway, Sunset Blv (seeing the sunset actually), Bel Air. Got lost a little but found my way back in dark LA. Parking spot: tricky but taken care off. Back at the campus, I hear the planned BBQ is cancelled. We decide to drive up the Hollywood Hills, to see the sign and the view. Supposed to go to the Griffith Observatory but turns out it is closed on mondays and tuesdays. Bummer. Two other girls join in, one is actually born and raised on Boracay, my first destination in rhe Phillippines, so she will give me hints and tips about the island. Such a coincidence again.. The trip is full of surprises like these! We drive through Stanly Hills, Outlook mointain and Mulholland Drive to see a spectaculair view over LA at night. You can see all the city lights and the airplanes above them. Very cool. We drive around winding roads, radio on, celebrity houses of the rich and famous, grand views and taking pics. We drive by the Hilton where Whitney Houston died a few weeks ago. Eventually we find a way toget very close to the Hollywood sign, but it is very dark by now. I will go back there in the morning. The sign can be reached best through Beachwood Drive, for future reference! Back home, very tired, parked nearby. Five people in a small room, also an experience.

Next morning I am taking the car outat 08:30, everybody has classes so I am getting into LA! Driving to the same spot for the sign, only to find out the trail is closed.. There is construction going on it says but might be a movie shoot or so. A lot of crew etc. Two ladies that were in the same unfortunate situation let me follow them to another location where they went for a hike and i took the car up the mountain. Great view, als on the city and the Hollywood Bowl, an 18.000 seat outdoor theater. RockandRoll radio station on and this car drives me through spectaculair neighbourhoods, palm tree lined boulevards and along enormous mansions, who knows who all lives in these. All have tall gates and security systems. NextI park the car just off Hollywood Boulevard, where the stars are on the pavement and the Kodac theater (the Oskars were just handed out here last week) and the Chinese Theater are situated. Feels like a bit of a tourist trap but fantastic to witness all the movie stuff that is going on there. Get my Jimmy Hendrix Hard Rock Café LA T-shirt, take Starbucks coffee and head for Beverly Hills. Since Americans don't walk, valet parking at the Rodeo Drive area is $40,- but if you park a 10 minute walk away as I did, it is completely free on the streets of Beverly Drive or Rodeo Drive in the more residential areas. Avoinding parking garages or valet parking, I nicely walk into this area and am amazed by all the luxury shops that I don't even step into. Don't think theywould actually let me, it is exactly as Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. Well, if you know what I mean. I did read somewhere that the GStar store opened last week on Rodeo drive (Go Holland!) so I do pay them a visit. The jeans are more expensive here than at home, around $220-250. This Rodeo Drive by the way makes the PC Hooftstraat in Amsterdam look like an
Alrbert Heijn (or S-Market for my Finnish readers).
Pretty sure I saw two celebrities, one actress when we asked the way in the hills,don't know the name but there was a lot of plastic surgery going on. And today the actress that played in
Lord of War at least, playing the wife of Nicolas Cage. Nobody else, sorry!
Walking back to the car, a Mercedes Benz passes me with 4 obviously rich blondes in it, singing along with a song on the radio. Straight out of a tv or reality show. I call it stereotype reality. Had to look if there were no cameras around. But no, this is the real life in Beverly Hills.
I drive west to Santa Monica and reaching the ocean south to Venice Beach. I want to park and the girl asks me for $15 dollar flat rate for the day. I say i only need an hour, she asks for $15. I say its still too much, she tells me to park it 10 meters to the right where is a parking meter. I put one dollar in for an hour and its done. At least she was being honest.. I walk onto the beach and up and down the Venice Boulevard where you see the skateboarders, skeelers and bodybuilders. This is muscle beach after all. I run into Peter, who hands out free tickets to the Dr. Phil show coz appearantly they need audience 3 days a week and the studio is not filled with many Americans but mainly visitors from abroad. Peter says Americans dont like to travel to rhe studios, "too far". Its in Hollywood! I get the ticket, but wont be here tomorrow, maybe mext time! Peter knows everything about Dutch football, I mean everything and as recent as last weekends results of Heerenveen and AZ.
Irs rime to return the Chevy, one last drive east to Westwood and the Enterprise manager drives me to the airport shuttlebus stop, where I meet Fettouma to say bye. She brought me famous cookies from Westwood and I get on the half an hour drive to LAX. Got me a (world famous since 1939) Pink's chili hotdog. Checking in went smoothly, the lounge was crap. Was looking forward to a shower, there was none. The wife went off-line for two hours and no other free wifi on the airport. But free beer and noodles so that was ok then! Boarding the Chinese Airlines Boeing 747-400. Was sitting in a bit of a tight spot, but was moved upon request to a row with some empy seats around me, much better! Stewardess also brought me The LA Times and some English magazines. 99% of the passengers are Asian. This flight will cover 10.936 km in 14 hours. We are 5.566 miles away from Amaterdam. I am writing this on the plane, we have 3000 km to go, arriving 6am Taiwan time.
We have also crossed the international date line, so i think i lost a day? Need to look that up.. But I got february 29th as a bonus day so i think it all evens out again in the end. :-)

Need to find accomodation still in Taipei, get some local currency. I have two contacts in Taipei, let's see what kind if tips they have for me. Supposed to meet one at least in the evening I think. Taiwan, a complete mystery to me, a new adventure, let's see what happens. The motto "the plan is that there is no plan" has worked great so far, so I trust on some good times and more beautiful pictures and impressions.