I had an amazing day! My friend David drove all the way up from San Diego and Meghan, David and I walked down the pier chatting all the way and joking and catching up on all the UC gossip and stuff. We then drove to the UCLA campus in his (dad's) car. We drove around the area a bit, gawping at all the huge villas and joking about all the RIDICULOUS jeeps/trucks/cars with 8 meter high suspension, so high that you can drive a regular sized Dutch car underneath them...

So. Am in Santa Monica, Los Angeles. Am curled up on a sofa in front of a real fireplace in the lobby of the hostel here surrounded by other comfortable young travellers doing exactly what I am doing. Writing to the loving and (few) interested people back home. I have had a great day. Yesterday Meghan and I wandered around until we were dead tired and it was near midnight at which point we joined a bunch of locals in front of a screen and watched the New York...

So to thank Tammy and Jeanine for letting me stay I cooked them dinner! Dad's special recipe of onion and goat's cheese tartlets and an apple crumble for pudding. Yum. The onion tartlets and crumble went down a treat :) Even the cats wanted some and begged me to feed them onions but I thought it might be best to keep them off french vegetarian cuisine.. The redwoods in Muir woods are huuuugggeee. Of course they are, that's what the Lonely Planet said but real...

I have been wandering the streets of Frisco for 2 days now and my calves are killing me. Holland so does not train you for hills like these. They're worse than in the Alps cos they go straight up and go on for EVER. But it's good fun!! Yesterday I met up with Joris and was thrilled to see him! Yaaay!!! So nice to chat and joke and laugh with him after having not seen him for half a year! Was so chuffed! We basically wandered the San Fran streets, through Chin...

So. Hello California! I am now curled up comfortably on my double bed in Tammy and Jeanine's guestroom in a lovely area in San Rafael, north of San Francisco. There are two gorgeous cats wandering the house and Nala, a lovely Labrador (I think) by the front door. They're lovely. Anyway, to start at the beginning, the flight here was pretty ok. I was not in the mood for sleeping as it was daytime so amused myself by watching the final Harry Potter film and bri...