California
Trip Start
May 27, 2007
1
3
27
Trip End
Dec 23, 2007
San Francisco to San Diego,
California,
United States
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
I met my new group of people on 17th June which consisted of 2 Swiss German, 1 French Swiss, 2 French, 1 German, 1 Korean and me - again the only Brit! It was a good mix of people and we all got on fine. The French guys didn't speak much English (more than I speak French though!) and were quite shy to try in the beginning. Our first day was spent touring San Francisco and of course the Golden Gate Bridge. We had excellent weather: bright and clear, for a georgeous view.
We left San Francisco and headed down the coast along Route 1 - the scenic highway that travels right next to the coastline to LA. We had to pick up Sarah (Swiss German girl) on the way a s she was in Santa Barbara. Sarah is a vegetarian and as Jen ny (my sister) will testify, it's not easy to feed a vegetar ian and me the same meal. For those who don't know my eating habits so well: I don't like cooked mushrooms, peppers or t omatoes, I also won't eat sweetcorn (although rather strangely love corn on the cobb) and am not a big fan of pasta, ricew, potatoes or bread! It would be an interesting 2 weeks!!! We spent an afternoon at Venice beach playing football on the b each and attempting to "work out" on the public areas of muscle beach! . By this I mean we played around having rope climbing races and messing around on the bars! Our first night was spent exploring Hollywood: Rodeo Drive, Sunset Boulevard, The Hollywood Sign and of course Hollywood Boulevard with all the celebrity stars and handprints are. The following day was spent at Universal Studios were I got to meet Shrek!!! I was also picked to be an assistant on the special effects tour and I have to say I would make an excellent actress!
We left LA and headed to San Diego where we started the day shopping at the outlet malls... I have no room to carry extra stuff as I brought far too much with me anyway but I did need to buy an American hairdryer as the voltage is so low here that my English hairdryer didn't really work - it was about as loud as a fly and probably as efficient at drying my hair! I found the smallest and cheapest hairdryer ever: it's so cute and fit's easily in my pack!
The afternoon was spent at Mission Beach where the sea was warm enough to actually swim in without getting frostbite! A lot of the group fell asleep in the sun and got horrendously sunburnt: Camille was still red and peeling 2 weeks later! I managed to escape with just a few small patches of pink where I had missed reapplying suncream after being in the sea. It probably helped that I was applying glue (Stevens, C. 2004) aka factor 50+ while everyone else was around about 15!
It was Camille's 16th birthday and while she took a shower we decoracted our campsite with balloons and banners and her uncle bought champagne and a huge birthday cake. Camille was so suprised and happy that we had gone to the effort as I think she felt her day was going a bit unnoticed before!
Comments
Hair dryer
Hi Lizzie, Glad you're having a good time. I forgot to tell you about hair dryers States side. Lorraine had to buy one in Las Vegas as her UK one wasn't compatable. However, she blew it up, yes blew up the US one in Greece last week, receiving a severe shock. Anyway, she's back home now to tell the tale.
Enjoy the rest of your tour!!
Colin.XX
P.S. The tree in the grounds of the flats at the back of the house was struck by lightening!! Luck I was inside at the time!!