Got up at 9:30 today and started the search for a payphone again, having bought a new phone card. Laura phoned Lee and Claire and I got through to our Mam! We had to check out of the hostel by 11am (or they'd probably arrest us...maybe!) but the bus wasn't until 1:30 so we had a slow walk to the station, collected tickets, got some (very early) lunch and sat waiting...and waiting.. for the Greyhound. The bus to a town called Salinas was fine, then we had to take another bus to Monterey, followed by another local bus to our hostel! The best part was that, yet again, the local buses were really cheap - $2 and $3 fares! Arriva should take note...

We checked in at our hostel - very nice, despite our 16 bed basement dorm room! We went to sleep for an hour and then got ready to go out. I rang and booked us on a whale watching trip for tomorrow and spoke to a very nice lady who told us that because we were staying at the hostel we'd get 20% off the price! We asked the hostel receptionist about where to go to eat and she recommended the local brewhouse, where we had some fantastic local beers and amazing burgers.

After dinner, we headed to 'Sly McFly's' jazz bar and watched the band and the people on the dancefloor for a while - some were really good and some were just really drunk! The funniest moment was when two old local ladies wearing raincoats had a little dance on the way out, then danced off the dancefloor, out of the door and all the way down the street outside - they had rhythm!

After that, we found a 'British' pub called Bulldog, except the only thing British about was the name and the dartboards! It seemed like a local bar for local people and not very friendly so we drank up and left. We went back for an early night as we were exhausted from our bus marathon. Looking forward to the whales tomorrow!