Back in LA on December 1, I checked into Hollywood for my 3rd stint. Main objective of my stay this time round was to get out to Santa Monica and Venice Beach. I caught the free morning shuttle the next day and waltzed about with a few people I met from the hostel. Both places were pretty cool. Venice Beach was packed full of loopy hippies, drug junkies, gym junkies, tricksters and people just high on life. We had lunch there and then strolled back along the beach to catch the sunset on Santa Monica pier, which was pretty picturesque.

When we (me, Irish steve, bianca and kate) got back we had some mexican for dinner, played a few drinking games in our dorm and hit a club on Hollywood blvd called playhouse. Coincidntally, we had ran into a couple of aussies after dinner who had made friends with one of the djs there a few nights previous. So we scored free drinks for most of the night and it turned out to be quite a big one.

After not much sleep, I checked out and zombie-walked to the greyhound station the next morning. Took the first available bus down to my next destination, San Diego. I didn't end up getting there till 5 o clock though as my bus broke down on the middle of the highway. Was a pretty painful day really. After I checked in to my hostel I crashed almost straight away.

The next day though I was up and at em, pumped to explore another new city. I went for a walk down to the pier and ended up catching a ferry across to Coronado island. Didn't stay for long but took some good photos of the city.

When I got back I had some lunch and prepared myself for the hostel's weekly saturday Tijuana tour that kicked off mid afternoon. Tijuana was a little different to what I expected but in alot of ways the same. I never imagined it being freezing cold (I guess it is winter). However, the free pouring tequilla, delicious fajitas, provocative mexican and breastmilk squirting strippers was more what I expected.

On Sunday I just hung out until Steve arrived at the hostel. Fresh off the plane from sydney I thought I'd introduce him to the standard American Sunday - pub, football, beers. Chargers were playing their rivals, the Raiders, so there was a bit of atmosphere about in the pubs which was good.

The next day Steve and myself headed out to seaworld for the day. Shamoo the whale was the star attraction. Whales are stupidly big. The shows were pretty good, but the rides were a bit lackluster.

That night the hostel took us out for some Monday madness. Pre drinks may have gotten a little out of hand, some may have not faired too well in drinking poker, and most of us got kicked out of the pub. I also added to my spew count for the trip (2). Unfortunately, this one was all over the floor in my hostel room. A pretty funny night though.

Tuesday was tough, as expected. Me and steve finally got out of bed around mid arvo and made our way to the USD campus out near the beach. We met up with one of Steve's friends Roxy, who goes to school there and she gave us a tour round campus. We blew in to their food hall (which was ridiculously good) for a free all you can eat dinner. After that we attempted to get into a pub down by the beach for taco Tuesdays but I forgot my passport, which put a sharp dent in the evening proceedings.

Steve and I headed back out to the beach the next day for some sunbaking on mission beach, cheap Mexican at PB and we also checked out wavehouse, which was on mission too. Wavehouse was sick, couple of artificial waves on the beach and looked a promising party destination for San Diegons in the summer.

That night the hostel ran a pub crawl, which we of course took part in. The pubs were pretty basic. There was one with a stock exchange system for drinks (price based on popularity), which was kind of innovative i guess. I had another run in with a mechanical bull, while steve had a run in with the American softball team at our last pub. On our way home we thought it'd be a good idea to stop by Ralphs (Geoffreys, Godfreys, Carlos', jisepppes, oscars) to get a few snacks. We also thought it'd be a good idea to bring the trolley back with us and carry it up two flights of stairs in our hostel.

Thursday I headed to the zoo with steve and some other mates (steve and steve). The panda bears were cool to see. Steve and I headed to Roxy's place that night for pre drinks before we all went to sandbar on mission beach to party with USD students. Our friends from the hostel came out and met us aswell. Steve was at his menacing shirtless best. Was yet another awesome night in San Diego.

On Friday it was times to say goodbye to some awesome people that we had met (Roxy, the 2 steve's, leah and Christie) and make our way back to LA. Steve and I caught the Greyhound back up, had a burger for dinner and crashed. 6 o clock start Saturday morning, early flight to my last destination.. Cabo San Lucas!

To be continued..