San Diego: So, so, suck your toe all the way to Mexico

So I took the Amtrak train to San Diego. The trip was interesting, a lot of it was along the coast. When I got there I made my way to the Hosteling International Hostel. As it turned out to get there you walk straight past the Hostel USA hostel, and not knowing the difference, I booked into and stayed at the USA hostel, which then meant I stayed at USA hostels from then on until I got back to Santa Monica.

That night we went out on a pub crawl, which was fun, one of the bars was a Piano bar where people made requests and the guys on the pianos played them – good atmosphere. We ended up going to one bar where I started dancing with a girl, turns out she was a good dancer, and even more surprising was that I managed to hold my own too. So she and her friends were moving on, so with the blessing of the other pub-crawlers I went with them.

So not long after that her friends disappeared, which suited me just fine, so we just danced the night away, pulling some flash moves, and considering we were surrounded by Latino couples (who are great dancers) I reckon we did pretty well.

The next day I mucked around a bit, sorting out how I was going to get to Vegas. I booked a ticket for a Greyhound bus – the latest one, so I could sleep on it, and then set about trying to catch up with Pam – the dancer. Ended up she was heading towards Mexico to get her hair done (why so far I don’t know). I decided since it was only two stops from San Ysidro – the border crossing into Tijuana, Mexico, that I may as well go there. Up to that point I had been debating whether to go because every second person I talked to said it was rather dangerous. But I decided that I may as well, and at least then I had achieved/seen something in San Diego.

Anyhow I marched into Mexico (as the Mexicans don’t really care who comes in, so there is no customs on the way in) keeping an eye out for danger. I went to the main street, but felt a little nervous about it all, so I only stayed for about an hour (I also wanted to get back to catch my bus.)

Fear & loathing in Los Angeles

Hey all, since its been about 23 days since I left home, I should at least make a start on writing up some blog entries. So naturally we start with LA...
Got there after the 12 hour plane trip. Went for a little walk. I had slept a little on the plane, but not heaps, so by 7pm I was ready to sleep. However I then woke up at about 1am, and couldnt go back to sleep, until 5am, and then slept to 9am. The next day I tried to get my phones to work, but no avail, so had some lunch and checked out the beach, including biking down to venice beach. That night I went to an acting class held at the hostel, but it was a little bit airy fairy for me, seemed more like the lady liked the sound of her own voice. Anyhow, what annoyed me was we had to do some relaxing exercises, and I had my money belt over my shoulder, (being a good safe little traveller) and she told me to take it off, so I clipped it to the chair. Anyhow when I left the class I forgot it, and when I later remembered, and returned, it had gone. Naturally I s#@t myself, and we called her (and only got her answerphone) anyhow, the following morning she called, and it turned out she had taken it home (not knowing who's it was, obviously not remembering events as I did) and she dropped it off that night, despite my subtle hints that I would rather have it as soon as possible (as I would have liked to have headed somewhere else by that stage) so I had to stick around LA for another day .

Anyway, made the most of it and did the Hollywood etc tour, which showed you Venice beach, where the stars live, (at Adam Sandler's house the gate opened, but it turned out to just be his groundsman) Rodeo Drive (very pretentious shops, I was walking around in my Canterbury of New Zealand t-shirt and shorts) and Hollywood (which doesn't seem all that cool now) and nearish to the Hollywood sign. That night, in my room came another a guy from NZ, so we went out for a drink.

The following day, I got a bus across town to the train station, to take me to San Diego.