CALIFORNIA

Wassup Dawg!

(I am learning to speak American)

I am happy to report that I am having a great time in California.

I ended up seeing some reasonably nice bits of LA in the end, but overall I still wasn't too impressed. I managed to get a little taste of the night life, though, which was fun.

On Sunday I took a bus from LA to San Francisco. We got a bit of snow fall on us just out of LA!

The drive was a grueling 6 or 7 hours but the scenery was quite interesting, as was the company.

Upon arrival in San Francisco, I immediately liked the place much better than LA.

I am staying in a backpackers hostel right in town, and its a very nice place. I am living with two Aussies from Perth and some other guy from elsewhere in the world. I have met heaps of other travellers (but mostly people from the UK) and have had a ball hanging out with them.
It's always interesting staying at a backpackers! The other day I was checking in with a mate and they didn't have enough keys. So they gave him and his room-mate only one key and said that my mate will just have to knock to get in. The problem was, however, that his room-mate was deaf!!

San Francisco is a beautiful city! I am completely in love with it! The people are very friendly and polite, and it is hard to be standing anywhere in the city and not have a great view of the hilly streets, the interesting architecture, the bay or one of the huge bay bridges.

My legs are very sore from walking up and down the hills of San Fran. It is just like in the movies, except I haven't seen anyone jumping their cars over the hills. San Franciscans must be very fit, because walking the streets really takes it out of you. The hills are soooo steep!!

I am starting to get used to the American way of doing things. Buying stuff is complicated, because the quoted price usually doesn't include tax, so even though you are buying something for a round figure like $1, a dollar bill won't do because you have to add on 7c of tax (the amount of which you don't know until you are at the register). And then there's the tipping, which I still haven't totally worked out but I try to do the right thing and tip bar staff and the odd bus driver.
I was originally meant to leave SanFran today and head back to LA for a night before proceeding on to San Diego in the South of the state. However I decided I would extend my stay for one day here and bypass LA. So I went to Alcatraz Island today to check out the jail, and I'm flying to San Diego tomorrow.

I am looking forward to going shopping in Tijuana, just over the Mexican border. After that, it's Vegas baby!! (where I will be doubling my holiday budget of course)

I hope everyone is having a good time back in nice sunny Australia. Take care and please write back some time.