Beach Bums

From Greg's Instagram. Be-a-u-tiful.

Yesterday we didn't get up to too much and it was glorious. We spent most of the day lounging on Venice Beach in the sunshine and 'frolicking' (another Gregism) in the Pacific Ocean. The weather was wonderful and the water was lovely and basically I want to move to LA and open a hostel on the beach.

 

'Look, look! I'm hugging the ocean!'

No, Greg isn't wearing fake tan on his face.

My natural habitat.

We took a walk down the board walk to Santa Monica beach and Muscle Beach. A large part of the walk was a bit of a hippy paradise, with loads of stalls selling bracelets made of hemp and sage for burning, so of course I was loving it, even though my ice cream melted all over my hand and my clothes and my face...

My favourite part of the day however, may have been Greg's super exciting 'tan', which consists of being totally red aside from his eyes and a white patch on his stomach because he sucks at putting sun cream on.

This is just a taster, but it did look kinda like he was wearing a strapless mini sun dress. I laughed so hard I cried.

This morning were packing up to get ready for our Mexico stint of the trip; our bus for Tijuana leaves in just a few hours! I'm super excited to discover an entirely new culture and country, it's been too long.

Hollywood Boulevard

We're currently lounging in the beautiful morning sunshine on our second full day in LA, eating another signature Rochester breakfast at the Mansion (our hostel), which turns out to be the old home of Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson, who acted in Gone With The Wind, and has been converted into a hostel which is run by his son! It's such an awesome hostel that we decided to stay another night before heading off to Tijuana tomorrow.

Yesterday we spent most of the day in Hollywood, firstly visiting universal studios then walking up and down the boulevard. We went with two of the guys from our hostel called Daniel and Peter who are from Poland.

En route to universal studios.

My feet and Fleetwood Mac.

Moon landing!

My fav ❤

We also managed to get a pretty awesome view of the Hollywood sign and paid a visit to the Chinese Theatre, where I got to put my hand where Rupert Grint's and Johnny Depp's hands had been and it made my life complete.

After a morning chilling with the stars, we decided to go off and explore downtown for a little while. It turned out to be, to quote Greg, very accurately represented in Grand Theft Auto, and also strangely empty compared to London or any English city. We mainly wandered aimlessly, but did come across a few gems along the way, such as the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Greg's arty Instagram of inside the concert hall.

In the evening we came back to the hostel to enjoy some beers in the pool and take some hilarious underwater pictures, involving a lemon picked from a tree and a lost button. It's the simple things eh? However, as I don't have access to a computer yet to upload my camera shots, you'll have to sit tight for Greg's sexy underwater snaps.

Today's plan so far consists of heading to Venice Beach (because I want to make myself feel as ugly as possible for some reason) and perhaps a trip around Beverley Hills. So I have to attempt to dress a little more 'fancy' than usual. Wish me luck! 

What happened in Vegas...

First of all, no, we did not get married in Vegas. Let's just clear that up right away.  Not to say we didn't consider it though... (I'm joking)

We spent three days there all in all and if I'm honest, I wasn't really a fan. I was really quite relieved to get out of there yesterday, not only for the heat but mainly for the sheer hedonistic excess of the place. However like in everyone I meet and everything I do, I like to try and find the good stuff, so I'll try and write a little about that first.

Of all the things that Vegas has got so so wrong, it's impossible to deny that it really is a testament to man's skill and creativity in architecture. Seriously, in the space of a couple of miles you can visit the Eiffel Tower, New York City and King Arthur's Castle. It's completely nuts.

Before I'd visited, I'd heard stories that people wouldn't leave their hotels at all, and it's easy to see why. Each one is like it's own little city with shops and casinos and pools and shows and the best air-conditioning ever in the world ever. One even has its own aquarium and another a roller coaster! We spent an entire day just exploring the hotels and ended up walking for about 11/12 hours (we guesstimated about ten miles in the blistering -literally for our feet! - 43*C heat).

Little did we know that this was an UNDERestimate.

I also have to say that it was a pretty awesome place to go out at night. On the second day, after raiding an outlet store in the morning and a visit to the 'Welcome to Vegas' sign that nearly killed us, we decided to conserve our energy for the rest of the day and re-explore at night.

We went for dinner at a place called 'Bubba Gump' which is a shrimp restaurant based on Forrest Gump which was super yummy and had a killer view of the strip.

For me I suppose Vegas was an experience, but not necessarily one I'd like to repeat, because for all its star quality, there's so much about it that makes me want to cry a little inside. It's (to use Greg's favourite phrase) an affront to nature, in that it is so unnatural. None of what Vegas is, is an attribution to the beautiful scenery that surrounds it and its excessive energy waste is so ridiculous I had to fight back my inner eco warrior from going on a rampage. It's basically a giant adult playground, that promotes so many things that are wrong with humanity, from the objectification of women to the ignorance of those in poverty - there were people gambling away $1000s in the casino and others starving on the streets outside. That was probably the most painful to watch.

I think it's safe to say that I've done enough of Vegas for one life time, though I can't say I regret going. I think it's a completely unique experience in itself and I'm glad I got to see it (and even gamble a whole dollar myself!)

We're now in Los Angeles after a loooong bus ride (actually it was only 6 hours but I'm out of practice) in the coolest hostel. It's called The Mansion, and as the name suggests it's big white mansion, with the main housed furnished in such a rustic style, we were genuinely confused about what time period we were in. It's also run by the loveliest people who make a killer breakfast (are there any other qualities to look for in a person?) I think we're off to Hollywood today with a couple of guys we met in the hostel, so hopefully it should prove pretty exciting :)

Mexico City and Berlin

I think it's about time I explained to you lovely people what's going on with my little countdown timer at the side of the screen. I may or may not (I genuinely can't remember) have mentioned that I study languages at university, German and Spanish to be precise, and due to this I am required to go abroad for my third year of study, before returning back to London to finish my degree. I am currently in the midst of completing my second year exams, meaning that my year abroad is fast approaching. I'll be spending my first term at UNAM in Mexico City and my second term at the Humboldt in Berlin, which is all very exciting.

However being the keen bean traveller that I am I don't fancy wasting any time of this almost entirely university funded year away, so I've booked a flight to Las Vegas on the 25th May (two days after my final exam) along with my lovely friend Greg. We decided on Vegas since it's much cheaper to fly there than most places in Central America, so the plan is to cover some of the major South West tourist sights and cities in the USA - Las Vegas, San Francisco, Los Angeles - before heading down into Mexico, perhaps looping through Guatemala and Belize before ending up in Cancún where Greg is due to fly home from. After that I haven't really planned the details but I have a few friends called Edgar and Adriana who live in Mexico City and San Cristobal, respectively, who I will definitely be popping in to see before term starts in early August.

That awkward moment when you both buy the same travel guide, which doesn't contain any information about the entire north of Mexico. Skills.

Here's a rough plan of the route we're thinking of taking (click on it to enlarge!)

That's about all I've got semi-set in stone for now, but I do have two friends studying their first terms in Martinique, which is a Caribbean Island and another in Rio, Brazil so we're intending on doing some visits and travelling once our terms finish in December. Then we're all moving to Berlin to join up with some of our other course mates and I'm considering flying out to Estonia and travelling down from there before my term starts in late March/early April... We'll see anyway!

*For those with USA travel know-how*

Greg and I would really appreciate any tips any of you might have for cheap ways of getting around in the US. We're on a pretty tight budget and it turns out that because of my age car hire is just out of the question. We're going to be using Greyhound and Megabus for the long stints, but we'd love to be able to visit either Death Valley or the Grand Canyon (or any other major outdoorsy spots) without having to pay extortionate day-trip fees. So any pointers on car shares, cheap car hire sites or even cheaper bus companies would be much appreciated! Also cheap campsites would be nice too :)