Santa Barbara

Hey y'all

Early morning for us. Bags to the bus for 7.45am and we began our journey to Santa Barbara. Couldn't wait to see the sun smiling again especially to top up the tan...which I don't have haha.

We stopped a little while for some food. We posted some goodies that we got from Vegas...so there are some little treats on their way home for the family...aren't I nice haha.

They finally fixed the DVD player so we watched the hangover and Anchorman(which I've been dying to watch for ages). It is legendary!!

We got to Santa Barbara about 4pm so the sun was going down...we wanted to chill on the beach for a bit but it got pretty cold. Definitely NOT bikini weather. We picked up our stuff and went to happy hour at a small beach bar before dinner.  $3 vodka and mixers...it was a very happy hour. We got a bit peckish so me and Liz ordered and appetiser...as soon as we ordered them everyone got them and we ended up having a small feast.  When it came to lunch we couldn't eat the meal.  I was gutted the burger looked sooooo tasty. But my belly was full up. Not full enough to stop the drinks though. We headed back to the hotel bar for the night as there wasn't really much nightlife in the area we were staying. So the hotel bar was the place to be!

Jack had advised us to have their special cocktail...it's called 'Adios Motherf***er', says it all really don't ya think?It was LETHAL!  It had tequila, vodka, rum and gin, there was no mixer just a blue colouring.  You can imaging how strong it was I'm sure. It started to hit me instantly...this was not good news for me as it was still very early. I got through it...although it did take me a while! Back to vodka and sprites after that. Couldn't handle a second 'adios mofo'.  Soph braved it mind, she got through two!! How she did it I do not know.  

After a certain point the night is a blur to me! Apparently did some
Dancing, had an arm wrestle with some random guy and spent half the night chatting to Storming Norman!! I cannot remember anything that we were discussing...eeek. Bad news I would have definitely been talking a LOAD of rubbish.  Well we didn't talk the next day so I will never know what we actually talked about.  As we didn't talk the next day I don't   think we'll be best buds anytime soon, he's a strange chap!

I woke up in the morning and was still drunk and I had to get on the bus for 8.15,  I managed to roll out of bed at 8am! Jays laptop was in our room.  I asked Len what it was doing there, she said that I went and got it and fell asleep sitting upright with it on my lap. Have no memory of that at all!! I stumbled to the bus and wrapped myself in my big, red snuggie. Was not feeling a bus journey at all but I slowly started to recover as the day went on.  Some food helped when we stopped at 'The Grove' Farmers Market in LA.  Such a cute little place, they were filming Extras (celebrity gossip tv programme in the US) while we were wandering 'round. Sam and Jay managed to wiggle their way in to be extras walking in the background! Haha. Jammy b*****s.

Next stop HOLLYWOOD! Wooo! This is the life.  We had time to explore Hollywood boulevard before our walking tour.  We were looking forward to hearing celeb stories and having snaps by the Hollywood sign...well we couldn't have had any more of the opposite to that! As soon as the tour began our guide(a little annoying lady who breathed heavy down her mic) said 'this tour is
not about the glitz and glam, I will be telling you the history of this area and how it began'. After that sentence I'd kinda lost interest and after 5minutes of er talking I'd lost the will to live, she was far too excitable about the silliest things like a star on the wall.  This should have written on a sign 'not recommended for people with hangovers!'. She even said to a mother of a crying child...'this is not suitable for children!' and sent them out!  How I wished I was that child!  I felt like we were being rude for staying on it as we ended up just giggling like naughty school children, but we had headphones so we couldn't just ditch and run.  Liz tried to make it a bit more exciting by becoming a tour guide as well, she was teaching Dan how to walk up and down stairs. It was funny. We pretty much did the walking tour twice, because everything we saw when we had a wander, we saw again just with extremely boring commentary. An hour and a half later it was over.   I guess other ppl felt the same as us, all she got was a $2 tip.  There were  at least 35 of us. Says it all really. Thanks Jack for recommending it!

After getting a well deserved chocolate covered strawberry we got back on the bus to head back to where it all started 2 weeks ago. Sad times. Can't believe Contiki is over. It's gone far too quickly. Met some great people and made some awesome friends!

Our little group chilled at Starbucks for a bit before me and Lizzy  headed off on our own.  It's weird that 50 will now become 2. Plus we have no tour guide to show us the ropes. We are lone wolves haha.

Saying bye to Len and Soph was horrible...we all had a little cry. It was emotional.  We will miss them soooo much.

Soooooo a new journey begins...me and Liz travelling across the United States of America. This will be a test of our travelling skills...Reading a map is hard work! Thank god for iPhones ay'!!!

Heading to Orange County!  The OC baby.  Time for some more sun, sea and sand! No more wake up calls or itineraries.  Just a few days to chill before partying hard back in Hollywood.

Will update y'all when we r back in the land of celebs!!

Chow or now

Much love

J.L xxxx