5 days in LA...

Time for an L.A. update? I think so...

LA is ridiculously spread out and my legs found that out the hard way! The hostel was "centrally" located in the city. The location was pretty good but being LA everything just happened to be a long long walk or 2 buses away.

Day 1 I decided to just take it easy on the walking so I took a 2 buses to Santa Monica and spent most of the day around that area. I walked from Santa Monica to Venice Beach which is a pretty lively place, bikini clad women roller-blading, "natives" playing basketball and trying to sell their latest & greatest rap albums, street performers and beggers litter the walkways.Day 2 I spent at Universal Studios which was interesting but less exciting than what I had expected. It was interesting to see the movie sets that they use to film shows like Desperate Housewives. Apart from that there were a few rides and live shows to be entertained by. The next few days I spent wandering the city seeing the sites it had to offer, Hollywood sign, Rodeo Drive, Sunset Strip and the Walk of Fame. Walking to the Hollywood sign took me about 3.5hrs of solid walking from the hostel just to get there! I climbed up a large mountain to bring you all a good photo of the sign. Then I walked along to the Walk of Fame and watched a movie in the Chinese Theater where a lot of the premiers are shown! Didn't get any red carpet treatment tho :( Over my last 2 days in LA I think I walked about 40kms. My last day I was bored so I took a bus toward Venice Beach which went through Inglewood, I didn't get out but it did look very dodgy, lots of "natives" and rubbish lined the streets, just like in the movies! Spent the day relaxing down by the beach...

So I'm now in Miami and its raining so I cant spend my days taking in the sun on the beach. Ludacris is playing live at a club tonight for Scott Storch's B'day, I'll try and get in but the place looks a bit too classy for my current status. Might just have to get a box from the supermarket ($20) and drink that @ the hostel with the others... Tomorrow I'm off on a tour of the Everglades on a hovercraft so looking forward to that.

Next stop is New York and will be meeting up with Mick which I'm not looking forward too... ;) haha

Will update you all again from New York...

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas...

If I was going to stick with the famous phrase I wouldn't have anything here to write about...

Welcome to Vegas!
This city is very amazing, hussle bussle 24/7 and pokies no more than a min walk from anywhere! Even the airport has pokies! The hostel I stayed in was more like a motel but it was clean and ok fun.

Second day I was there I went on a Grand Canyon tour. The canyon is absolutely amazing and definately one of the 7 Wonders of the World! Its just sooo massive, deep and rugged.Apparently there are heaps of suicides there, the best one I heard of was a guy jumping out of the helicopter on a tour over the canyon! We got delayed an hour on the way home because some guy didn't return to the bus, maybe he jumped? We never saw him again...

For the rest of my time there, I walked the streets and listened to live music and checked out some of the casino's, but no gambling. Only ever put $1 into a pokie and left it there until I was satisfied with the free bevs they kept bringing. 5 beers for $1... Ok?
The last night of my Vegas stint the hostel organised a party cruise down the strip and a nightclub VIP entry. We went in this pimped up bus which was so cool then to the nightclub which didn't live up to the bus :( We got to the club at 12am but got pissed and didn't end up home until 6am. I was due to be picked up by the airport shuttle at 8am...

Holy shit! Its 7:55am and I'm still in bed! Quick... I quickly got ready and ran out to the bus, fweeeh just made it! I was so bugged that I fell asleep on the plane prior to takeoff and didn't wake up until we landed in LA.

So in LA now, this hostel is massive, 40 dorms! Its a good place, they organise heaps of tours etc so should keep me busy here for a while!

Time to go to Venice Beach...

San Fran Experience...

My time is up in San Francisco now. Just packed up my bags and getting ready to leave in the morning, early wakeup for my flight to Vegas.

So what have I been up to? Alot... Ive probably walked over 50kms in the last 6days! Ive been down to Fisherman's Wharf, a bustling tourist area down on the docks in the bay where looking out into the water you can see Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge! What else, I hired a bike for a day and rode over the Golden Gate Bridge, only to get over the other side (about 15kms from where i hired the bike) and find myself with a flat tyre... F*&K! So I just took the ferry back but was pretty disappointed! Took a tour on Alcatraz for a day, let me just say that its not like the movies! No terrorists or flaming underground mazes of pipes! :( But it was an awesome experience well worth the 20bucks!

Went out with the gang from the hostel to the pub the other night, was an awesome night apart from the fact that all the bars close at 2am! :( Don't worry I had a bunch of Americans chanting "More Beer" to the tune of the OLEY soccer chant. With all our efforts we were ONLY offered a viewing of the bar chicks tits in return for our silence! Aren't you listening woman, we want beer not tits! So we kept singing and we got neither the beer nor the tits! Oh well, maybe next time?

Anyways next stop Las Vegas, should be interesting...

San Francisco and me!

Its me again, now updating from San Francisco, California, USA!

Been here for a day now and this city is very nice, nice weather and lots of things to do to keep busy!

The day I arrived I went for a big hike across town to Fishermans Wharf. Got there late in the day so saw the sun set over the Golden Gate Bridge. I could also see Alcatraz from the wharf, which I have booked a tour to go and check it out up close for tomorrow morning which I'm looking forward to!

Also on my agenda is to hire a bike and ride across the bridge to the hilly side and ride around the area over there for a while and catch the ferry back! Should be fun... And its keeping me fit at the same time, not that all this walking and carrying the big bag and snowboard bag isnt keeping me fit!

Will update again with some photos etc soon.

My time in Whistler...

Howdy again!

Ok, well Whistler... The day I arrived in Whistler after almost 3hrs on the bus I made my way through the snowy cold weather to Jo's place, a chick that Macca met when he was there. So I was going 2 be crashing on her couch for a while till i found a place to stay.

Whistler Village...
Time to find a permanent place to stay and a job... So i grabbed the local paper and searched through for jobs and accommodation. After speaking with a member of the Chamber of Commerce Canada a was informed that I couldnt get a job without having a SIN (Social Insurance Number) which I didnt have. So after alot of thinking I decided that I would just stay in Whistler for a week get a week boarding in.

Here's a photo of the place I was staying in...
So thats what I did. Slept on the couch at night, and boarded all day during the day! What a great holiday! It was really good just to relax and not worry about anything, jobs etc... Damn, this place got cold! For two of the days I was there the temperature dropped to around -28degC which froze the snot in my nose and couldnt breath through them!!! Lol...

So off to the USA...

Squamish... getting colder!

Got up early this morning (6:30am) to get the bus at 8am. Bloody long walk to the bus stop with all my stuff in the freezing rain! Got the bus ok and im now in Squamish about 30mins from Whistler (The photo is of where I'm staying). This place is much more beautiful than vancouver! Big snow capped mountains with those pine trees on them and massive rock faces! (Like in the photo) I'll tell you what tho, its bloody freezing and raining! So I'm just staying inside all day i think...

I called a girl that Paul told me about and she has offered me a place on her couch for a bit! So I'm leaving Squamish tomorrow morning to get on the bus to Whistler and she'll be meeting me at the bus stop. So everything kinda seems to be coming together now so getting happier!

Until next time...

Vancouver... 4hrs after arrival

Well, I've been here for around 4 or 5 hrs now and have only just been able to relax, kind of. Okay, getting to my hostel was a bit of a hassle. I needed to get 2 busses to get to the hostel, I got the 1st bus ok, thought I got the 2nd okay too but after 30mins I came to the end of the route and was at the opposite end of the city to where I wanted to be! So I grabbed all my gear and got the next bus the otherway. Got off where the directions from the hostel told me to, and walked from there... After around 20mins walk with the big pack and snowboard I finally came to my home, or dump, for the next 4nights... I've only met 3 of the 5 other ppl staying in my room and all 3 are long term residents. Two are weird and 1 is pretty nice and has told me a bit about the place etc...
After dropping my bags I decided to go for a walk around town. As I walked up one of the dirty streets of this city almost 30 ppl asked me if I wanted to buy their drugs (weed). So I took note of that street and made sure I didnt go back that way on the way home. There are sooo many homeless ppl walking, stumbling, rolling and crawling the streets around here! One nice man, a homeless drug dealer, decided he would show me around for a bit. After a while he wanted some money so I gave him 25cents and went into a pub to escape. After he left, I went to Macca's for some dinner, and bought some brekky from 7/11 for the morning.

So here I am now writing this to pass some time before I hit the sack and get ready for tomorrow. Hopefully I will be able to get a bus into Whistler and check out the job scene and try find a place to stay for a few months!

Will keep you all updated as I get more news!

Catchya's...

Getting Ready!

Finally the day has drawn nearer and as anyone of you would probably expect I'm starting to get pretty excited! Its a week of hard work from now on, preparing myself for my journey, packing, organising, stressing, thinking (hard), and maybe I'll throw in a bit of drinking too... Well I guess the pre-departure isnt very exciting for the rest of you so I'll update in a bit over a week when I've got something worthwhile reading...

Until then...