It seems kind of strange looking back at the start of our US adventure as it feels like we've been here for ages and done so much now! It's because we've been so busy that I haven't had a chance to write the damn blog!!

When we arrived in the US after our longest flight of which I barely slept as I was in the aisle seat so I had Ben taking up ALL the space and jabbing me in the back on one side and a fat air hostess barging past every few minutes waking me up on the other side!! We landed in LA very early in the morning, our bodies very confused from the time difference. Our greyhound to San Francisco wasn't until 11.30pm that evening, so we had booked ourselves into a day room in an airport hotel to get some well needed sleep. In our room we had TWO DOUBLE BEDS - we were in AMERICA NOW WHOOO!!! After we had caught up on some sleep and got ready we found out we had a bit of a journey to get to the greyhound station so we had to make a quick get-away. We were starving as hadn't eaten all day - and our only option was 'Denny's take out. Well this was our first taste of delightfully deep fried huge portioned American cuisine. We had to eat it pretty damn fast as we were waiting for our shuttle to take us back to the airport to then get another bus to Union station to then get cab to the greyhound station to then get our bus to San Francisco!!! We ended up getting there pretty early but at least we weren't rushing about and panicking. We had to get our bags weighed and then scanned and we had a body frisk (which seemed kinda extreme for a bus journey) and Ben got his pen knife (that was in his suitcase) taken away!! It was a little scary in the bus station full of strange people. We boarded the bus pretty early and had the most ridiculous driver on a power trip laying down all his 'rules and regulations' making sure none of us had bags on our laps or by our feet - they HAD to be in the overhead compartments!! The bus was absolutely FREEZING and there were no overhead lights - Ben and I weren't overly tired as we'd slept that day so were hoping to read, so we got out our torches and read for a while, until old Hitler pulled over the bus, got up, and shouted at me for 'shining my flashlight in his eyes' (I was not), so then I had no choice but to try and sleep in the rickety old ice box of a coach. The bus stopped at 3am at a Burger King for our half way break which we really would rather have done without. We eventually arrived 8 hours later, around 7am in San Francisco and attempted to catch a bus to our hostel. We found a German girl who was also on our coach and also going to our hostel. So all 3 of us attempted to first find the damn bus station from which we needed to catch our bus, ended up going round in circles and once we'd actually found the stop we were supposed to be at and waited an absolute age for the bus, I got very fed up and went to find some more information and found out that the buses weren't running. So we ended up having to go back to the greyhound station to get a cab!

Luckily when we reached our hostel they let us check in early and we even made it in time to get some free breakfast….PANCAKES - so that was a nice surprise!! The hostel was actually really good - we had a 4 bed en-suite dorm which was pretty nice, the kitchen/eating area was pretty big and clean and fully equipped, there were a few social areas and breakfast was free every morning. So after breakfast we got ready and headed out into the city for the day. By this point we had realised and faced up to the fact that we were not going to be in the lovely hot sun anymore - it's winter in America and we were not equipped for it - we were cold!! So the first thing on our agenda was to go buy coats, hats and gloves!! After we had both purchased some appropriate winter wear we walked down market street to the Ferry port and took a few photos of (what we thought at the time was) The Golden Gate Bridge! After getting some lunch we strolled down along the pier walk and the Embarcado to Fishermans Wharf. We had a look in a few souvenir shops, saw the Sea Lions at pier 39, got our first glance of Alcatraz, bought the first in our collection of 'I <3 …' tops and saw the historic pier full of old penny arcade machines. It was getting rather cold by now so we were definitely glad to have our coats!! We went for dinner in China Town (yes shocking that we ended up back in bloody china town!). We had a very disappointing meal and decided that from now on we were done with China Towns and this would therefore be our last visit to one!

Tuesday we visited Alcatraz which was well worth the excitement. The ferry to the island took about 15 minutes and after our welcome speech we went to watch a little discovery channel video about the history and background of Alcatraz. We had a look through the museum and then walked up to the cell block where we had a 45 minute guided audio tour which was really interesting - it took you through loads of the different cells, the dining room, library, visitor place, courtyard, we got to hear stories about escape attempts, and the view from outside was unbelievable you could literally see the city like it was in touching distance, but obviously for the prisoners it was an impossible lifetime away. After about 3 hours on Alcatraz we got the ferry back and went to Fishermans Wharf to get some famous clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls and a pint of Anchor Ale - yum! Next on the itinerary was to get the bus to and go up Coit Tower to see the amazing views of the city. However when we got there we found out it was shut for renovation which was massively disappointing though we still got quite a nice view of the city. So we got back on the bus to Lombard street and after walking up this incredibly steep hill, we reached the famous 'crooked street' took some pictures at the bottom of, middle of, and top of the street. When we reached the top we saw a spectacular sunset and view down this busy street. After that we walked through Russian Hill to find a bus stop to take us back to our hostel. That evening after sorting out boring laundry and internet stuff we asked the receptionist to recommend somewhere close by that would be lively for a few drinks and some food. She recommended 'Tommys', so off we went to find this place. The walk wasn't fun it was rather dark and scary and full of homeless people, and when we eventually found it - it was certainly an experience! The food was awful, the place was pretty seedy and old, and just bizarre, however the cocktails were cheap and it wasn't completely lifeless so we stayed for a few drinks and had an interesting night!

On our last day I woke up and remembered that my backpack had broken when we arrived at the hostel and as we were leaving the next day I needed to do something about it! So at first I attempted to find someone that could fix my backpack as I didn't really want to give it up (I wanted to walk through those airport gates when I got back home backpack clad proving to everyone that I actually did it!!) but I ended up giving in and having to just buy a holdall suitcase on wheels (my third piece of luggage on this trip so far!). We got the bus after this to Golden Gate Park where we had a little walk around and but found to see any of the gardens you had to pay - well we'd seen quite enough 'botanical gardens' in our trip already so instead we went and got another bus to Haight and Ashby - the famous hippy area. It was actually quite disappointing - kind of like Camden, and full of scary weirdos and more homeless people so after a swift walk up and down we got back on the bus to the Castro AKA. gay town! After walking the wrong way it was getting late for lunch and we were starving so we settled for this place called "Crepevine" and actually had a really great meal accompanied by a little wine. We then went for a little walk around the area seeing all the rainbow flags and comically named shops and restaurants and general campness. We stopped off at a few places and got a few more drinks - one of them we got the strongest vodkas with a TINY bit of cranberry so we were pretty whoosy by the time we left!! During the course of the day we found out that the bridge we took lots of photos of at the beginning of our trip…was not actually the Golden Gate…it was the Bay Bridge! So we just could not leave San Fran without getting a proper photo of the real thing - so we got on ANOTHER BUS in an attempt to get a few snaps. The sun was setting and as we approached the pier a police car pulled by and said the pier was shutting, but I batted my eyelids and said we just HAD to get a quick photo then we'd be on our way - so we did, and we were!! Back to the hostel after this, picked up some chicken, salad and another bottle of wine for dinner at the hostel, then packed up our bags (amusing when a little intoxicated) and got an early night as had to be up at 6am to get our next bus back to LA.

Our greyhound back to LA really wasn't pleasant as the delightful people in front of us decided to put their seats all the way back so we were cramped and bored on a bus for 8 long hours. When we approached LA Ben worked out that we'd be better off getting off the bus at the Hollywood stop as that's where we were staying rather than going all the way back to the scary downtown LA station. So we jumped off and the stupid greyhound man told us we were going to need to get a cab to our hostel. Well we experienced our first American taxi man taking the piss out of tourists and taking us on the longest route to get the metre up- as we later found out that we were just around the corner from the station! The hostel was actually quite cool each room was a bit like a flat with its own kitchen and bathroom and it was only 6 beds (we were expecting 8)! Also it was quite nice to share a room with OTHER GIRLS! We sorted ourselves out and then went for our first walk down Hollywood Boulevard. We were a bit of a distance away from the main part of the strip - took us a brisk half an hour walk through we were a bit distracted and amazed by the famous people's names in the stars below our feet all the way. We saw the Chinese theatre with all the famous hand prints in the concrete and then decided to indulge in the famous Hard Rock café for drinks and dinner. We began with an exciting cocktail then had some awesome ribs for dinner (huge portions!). When we were done we had to wait SOOOO long for the bus that we gave up and hailed a cab as it was dark, cold, we were tired and there were (once again) loadsa scary homeless people around.

The next day we went on the Hollywood Tour organised by our hostel, as we were only in LA for 2 days it seemed the best way to see all the famous sights and learn about the razzle dazzle of the city. We were driven around in a private tour bus with four other lads. We went right up and saw the Hollywood Sign in the hills and got a pretty nice view of the town, Sunset Boulevard, Beverly Hills - where we saw the outside of loads of celebrity mansions - Elton John's, Britney's, The Osbourne's, Tom Hank's, the Sinatra's and loads more. We briefly saw Santa Monica Pier, we stopped at Venice and saw Muscle Beach, the famous basketball courts and the hippy atmosphere of the beach strip, we then saw Rodeo drive, the hotel where they filmed Pretty Woman and a few other things 'Hollywood'! Our silly cocky German/Italian driver was running late from the first thing that morning so we were really late getting back. Out hostel was putting on a 'party night' however it was at the other hostel across town and the shuttle was leaving at 7pm, so by the time we got back there was just no way we were going to have eaten and be ready by that time so we gave it a miss and went next door to the 'amazing thai' restaurant recommended to us by the lady at the hostel. It was rather busy inside and we had to wait a while for the table, the food was ok and not too expensive but the staff were SO rude and the service was shocking!

We were a little lost as to what to do the next day as we kind of felt like we had covered everything the day before on our Hollywood tour! So we spent the morning packing and getting ready then we walked down Hollywood Boulevard again getting a few souvenirs and booked cinema tickets to go watch the new Anthony Hopkins movie 'The Rite' at the famous Chinese Theatre for later that evening. We then walked down to Sunset Boulevard and caught the bus to the 'cool part' where there were loadsa restaurants and bars that (apparently) lots of celebrity's visit. We ended up eating at this funky 'Western American' place which was really fun. The food wasn't exactly the healthiest though and the portions were GINORMOUS!! We then walked a couple of doors down to this quirky little Mexican cocktail bar and got a couple of margaritas and were entertained by drunken Hollywood rich kids consuming lots of alcohol, nachos and generally being very 'Hollywood'! We then got the bus back to Hollywood Boulevard and went in to the theatre to watch our movie which was actually rather disturbing and quite scary! We wandered around a few shops after the movie then got the bus back, chatted to our (rich and glamorous) roommates until they went out clubbing (again) and we had another boring and early night. Did feel a bit like we were missing out by not going out, however we were quite far out from the nightlife, cover charges were expensive, I didn't have any heels to wear, and we did have to be up at 7am to get the greyhound to…VEGAS BABY so it wasn't all boring!!!

So basically San Francisco I loved - was quirky and cool and different and I just loved photographing it. The little we saw of downtown LA was kinda scary and Hollywood was a good experience - I'm glad we did it and got to see how 'the other half live', but it wasn't all that great. The most shocking thing was the contrast between the expensive excessiveness of the celebrities and the vast amount of buskers and homeless people everywhere else. It also wasn't quite as 'glamorous' as I'd pictured it to be. However, a great start to our American adventure…now on to the bright lights of Vegas!