Los Angeles

21/10/2008

Woke up rather early in our little beds - mainly due to other people being up and about and the sunlight coming through the curtains too - aaahhhh, we can get used to the sunlight (but not the other people in the dorm - how is one meant to pick ones nose?!) Anyway - Had a free breakfast in the hostel and caught the bus to Hollywood Boulevard. Spotted stars on the Walk of Fame, saw where they held the Academy Awards and played 'Rock Band' in a games shop. Joy has now left the world tour to become a professional drummer! Had a quick look around Beverley Hills, Rodeo Drive and had an all american corn dog and chilli fries in a shopping mall before heading back to our hostel - and our own room - yipeee! Did some washing as there was a faint whiff in the air - the sun makes you hot! Then had another free (ish) meal in our hostel - all you could eat pasta and garlic bread - for $3.


22/10/08




A bit of an early start and we caught a tour bus to Universal Studios. Had a tour of the studios seeing where the films and TV shows are made (King Kong, Desperate Housewives, Back to the Future...) then went on the attractions in the main park. More attractions than scary rides, we enjoyed a few thrills and spills on the Simpsons, The Mummy and Jurassic Park rides. Also saw how they do special effects and met some of the animal film stars!

23/10/08

Checked out of the hostel and headed to a cafe for brekkie. After food we headed on to Santa Monica Pier for a view of the coastline then paddled in the sea all of the way to Venice beach where we had a well deserved rest. Via the tacky shops we headed back to Santa Monica for ice cream and pizza before catching our plane to Fiji. P.S. - Greg burnt his feet walking on the beach :-(

San Francisco

17/10/08
















A big breakfast in 'Luckies' before catching a cab to the airport. It was nice to only have a short flight to look forward to again. We arrived at our hostel ('The Green Tortoise') in time to find out that we weren't in the main building but in a nice little annexe down the road, which was much more peaceful. We dropped off our bags and headed back for a free dinner, after Las Vegas something for free was much needed! Skipped the hostel's official pub crawl in favour of a more sedate wander around our new neighbourhood, we must be getting old! Wandered up hill and down hill past go-go bars, topless joints and adult theatres not really finding anything of interest - think we were in a classy part of town!

18/10/08













On our first full day in San Fran we were duped by the sunlight - a bit like Newcastle on a spring morning, nice and sunny but blinkin chilly! Looking like proper tourists in our shorts and T-shirts we headed down to the pier. Ended up glad of our outfit choice though after cycling for 5 hours, over the Golden Gate Bridge and back. Hot, sweaty and with sore backsides by the end of the day.

19/10/08













Back to the pier for our trip to Alcatraz Island. Had an audio tour of the prison and saw inside the cells and learnt all about the history. Joy's commentary conked out at one point so she had to go back and Greg couldn't find her! Back on the ferry to the mainland for a trip up 'Coit Tower' for panoramic views of the city and then a walk down 'Crookedest Street' - it really was very crooked and steep! After all the hill walking we headed to a bar for a well earned beer and burger. Spent a relaxing night watching a video, drinking beer and eating crisps in bed - Very healthy!



20/10/08



Final wander around 'Frisco' before heading to LA - the highlight of the day being a slice of the most delicious chocolate cheesecake from the cheesecake factory. Caught the BART to the airport and after a small delay we arrived in LA and made it to our hostel in Santa Monica at approx 9pm. Ready to relax and have a bit of a break we were looking forward to getting to our room - wishful thinking! We were reserved in a dorm with 8 others - D'oh!! Luckily it was only to be for one night as we managed to change the reservation for the rest of our stay - at a lot of extra expense, so we slummed it like plenty do and after a walk on Santa Monica Pier, squeezed ourselves into our little bunk beds.

Las Vegas

14/10/08













Having mastered the subway we decided to save some money and catch it to JFK, it was surprisingly quick and easy. We arrived and were promptly deemed dodgy as we were highlighted for extra security screening! The flight was cool as we were flying away from the darkness and into the light. It felt a little like Independence day or something where we were trying to escape from the Apocalypse! We arrived in Vegas at 8ish local time (3 hours behind New York) and had quite a wait for our bags. We grabbed a cab and dropped our bags off in the enormous bedroom before heading to Fremont Street (the old strip, downtown) for the light show which happens every hour in the evening. After craning our nexts to see the enormous screens (the biggest in the world ) we headed back to our hotel, the Stratosphere.
















15/10/08













American style buffet for brekkie which was a mixture of everything imaginable then a trip to the top of the Stratosphere tower for panoramic views and pant-wettingly scary rides which Greg obviously skipped (due to a full stomach - definitely not the vertigo!)
Headed on the 'Deuce' bus down the strip to the Venetian which was amazing - it was decked out with canals and all, we then popped into Caesar's Palace and the Bellagio, where Joy's tummy took a turn for the worst - at least she has good taste in toilets though! Greg waited outside where there was a collection of expensive art and overheard the salesman commenting on the price of one piece - It was fair to say that Greg's jaw dropped! After a swift recovery we headed outside to watch the fountain before heading to Excalibur for our 'Tournament of Kings' show and meal. Shouting 'hazar' for our Emperor of Austria we watched him jousting and fighting against other nations and eyeing up the serving whenches! We enjoyed our medieval banquet with our hands but without flagons of beer unfortunately! After seeing the lions in the MGM we headed home for a spot of gambling (once we were explained some of the rules and etiquette) at which Joy fared much better than Greg!













16/10/08











A 6am start for a flight to the Grand Canyon, over the Colorado River and Hoover Dam to the West Rim where we landed and visited an Indian Village, there wasn't much to do apart from gaze on in wonder at the views so we ate a spot of lunch with the spectacular backdrop. We survived the trip back to Vegas in the tiny aeroplane, and had an hour or so by the pool before heading out for beers with Joe (Greg's mate from Burnham) the highlight being the Ghost Bar on the 55th floor of the Palms Hotel which must have the best view of any bar in the world.

New York

11/10/08











We arrived at Heathrow at 10am with plenty of time to spare before the flight. Enjoyed Terminal 5 and had a good wander before boarding the flight. The time absolutely flew by (pun intended!) and we watched our fair share of movies! When we arrived in New York we caught the Super Shuttle and got a good look at some of the sights, the sun was setting behind Manhattan which was pretty spectacular. It took a fair while to get into the city and we were one of the last to be dropped off so we had a whistlestop tour of the city without even thinking about it! Arrived at our hotel on the corner of Amsterdam Avenue and W 76th Street (in the upper west side) and headed out for a wander. We stumbled across a spit and sawdust bar on Columbus Avenue so had our first pint. The next stop was a little different - lured in by the happy hour sign we didn't realise it was a gay bar! Swiftly moving on to the pub under our hotel we grabbed a lager that was blatantly a bitter and bumped into a very random drunk guy called Mike, we tried to remain polite and seemed interested in his conversation and in the end he did point us in the direction of a few nice local restaurants. Off to our basic room for the first night of our holiday!












12/10/08
























We had an enormous breakfast at the Manhattan Diner on Broadway planning on it keeping us going until late afternoon, we then caught a subway to Downtown where we did lots of walking and sightseeing. (Wall Street, World Trade Centre site etc) Next was a trip on the Staten Island ferry before a walk over the Brooklyn Bridge for some amazing views, then on through Chinatown, Little Italy and Soho before a sandwich at Katz's deli! (When Harry met Sally) Finally we had a walk around Time Square and gauped at all of the bright lights before heading to bed with very achy feet.






















13/10/08













A visit to the Natural History Museum in the morning and a walk through Central Park where we scoffed a hot dog and pretzel for lunch. Joy had a quick tinkle on the big piano in F.A.O Schwartz ( a la 'Big') before walking past all of the posh shops down 5th Avenue to the Empire State building, stopping at the Rockerfeller Centre to watch the ice skating for 10 minutes or so. We took a trip to the top of the Empire State for some fantastic views before heading back to the Upper Westside for a mexican meal. After dinner we headed for cupcakes in the Magnolia bakery (famous from Sex and the City) which were superb.