Mexico!
what warm hearts Ive encounterd here ! its polor opposite to its neighbour... theres good and bad people everywhere but my goodness these people really have hearts you really notice it after the states which i like to nickname the land of the big bully , it i dont know what it is but many people get their kicks out of being a bully there some of the things i saw in californina ive nevcver seen anywhere else i know there are other parts f the states which are much better,... 0 its really apparent and clear there, its like they get a thrill from it asserting their power because basically they have none, the government doesnt let them have any and any inch they get many abuse i suppose its liek what hapens at elemenetry school many kids that get bullied at home or by othetr kids can sometimes end up being the biggest bullies later i life its their turn to be the bully instead of being bullied. yeah most travellers enjoy america ive met have enjoyed the state alot to see and its clear there can be alot of opportunties for people that succeed , it you work hard and stuff people over or are the best in your field but land of freedom ah...no;) anyway about two days befor e i left for mexico i went out on a hostel tour to tijiuna it was crazy i personally love it, we took the trolly bus over the border i wanted to take photo of the biorder crossing but none allowed anyway tijuiana is really really cheap $1.25 tacos the best meat i have had in north america by far... some one said to me the other day im a veggie at heart because i complain so much about the meat in americawhich i cant stand i throw up at the sight of it ! we went to soem fdifferent bars, did tequila tasting went to a casino played pokies in spanish, had lots of cheap drinks, drank moonshine which apparently you shouldnt drink and it it burned my throat i had trouble digesting it, it was really really strong. one girl passed out at a bar we had to take here to a hospital in tijiuna we went to two different hospitals but tehy were goingto charge here alot of money so we decided to try and take her over the boarder she passed out , at the boarder US officials put her in awheelchair and examined her teeth to see if she had any drugs in her mouth it was pretty crazy then she wasnt allowed to sit in the wheelchair to wait for the trolly bus so we picked her up and put her
My wallet got nicked in tijuiana i lost $20 USbut none of my cards as left them back in san diego but then when i crossed the boarder i found $20 us on the ground bizzar! thats happened to me countles stimes in the states! I got pretty drunk at one stage and in tijuiana i almost got a TATTOO in a bar , as there are tattoo parlours in all the bars ... i was pretty keen to get my star sign tattooed in japanese Kanji characters ..on my back thank goodness i had enough sense to not get it dione its like getting married in vegas to a randoma nd elvis being your priest .. haa funny, great story t tell trashy and could have bad consequences!
Crossing the boarder really really drunk is crazy so many people took hours to cross... i took a matter of 3 mins . we had to wait for an hour for the trolly bus tehre was nothing open so had to hike for ages to find a toliet.
after that experience i decided im going to mexico! So me and this irish guty treked down to tijiuna stayed oovernight at the airport waited for a cheap flight to come up...we got a cheap flight to guadalajara Going through customs was different really relaxed far different from the states, once we arrived in guadalajara we caught a bus into town , but we had to catch one bus to the next and we miseed the connecting bus so then we got picked up by a off duty bus driver who drove us to the outskirts of downtown. stayed ina cheap hotel for $16 for the night°!
Guadalajara was enjoyable , the center was ver pretty colonial architecture some parts looked like england some looked very much like spain. Its apparently the most mexican city in mexico its the land of the mariachi= i went to a mariachi bar where men dress up in funny mexican clothes and belt out mexican ballads. In some parts there are men in mariachi COSTUMES everywhere the entire street lined up withthem its really cool also guadalajara is close to the town of ... get this TEQUILA! the town tequila is where tequila is from you can go and see it getting made! after some fun times in guadalajara caught a night bus to mexico city they drive really fast here i fell of the seat when i was sleeping on it have a bad bruise now hahhhaaa:) buses are great lots of legroom we arrived at 6am in the morning caught a cab who had no idea where to go but asked the police who are everywhere here so it makes you feel a bit safer but they still look like terriorists though and now went and saw some of the sights of mexico city, athropology muesum and cathedrals, Im going to see mexicos largests pyramid later this week and tonight im going to see a mexican wrestling match WWf style but where they wear a crazy scary masks which i took a photo of its in my facebook photos They call it lucha libre!IT reminds me of the film with jack black nacho libre . we are going to some cantinas first! mexico cxity is very uraban , cosmopolitian and downtown is pretty safe. but I will see how tonight goes I´ll still be keeping 100 pesos in my shoe to be safe!
till next time!
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Sunday, January 27, 2008
San Francisco/ Pacific highway/ new years in LA
So after my arrival in LA i spent acouple of crazy days partying watching funny as open mic nights and comedy nights in the hostel. They were very very good the talent was fantastic from phil pub crawl leader at the hostel who rapped in away i had never heard before and a candian magician who had me to be his assisstant ,teh level of talent was high.. so many artists in hollywood get away from the plasticness the down to earth artists who have a love for their craft are brilliant i went up to san francisco,- took a small door to door shuttle with otehr travellers up to usa hostels went through the desert boring as scenery. But ppl cool.
I loved san fran , height asbury area little italy, misson district, cool neighbourhoods especially all those unique shopson height street great people were great friendly, a hint of reserdness, passive agressiveness going on there but sincere but always worrying about how they were going to pay their rent.That seemed to be the main topics of converstation in san francisco( it was easy to meet locals or other people who had moved inter-state)it was how am i going to pay my rent this week in LA it was how am i going to pay my car payments ,,,? or if not that check out my car! well a guy in ahot car in La will get the girls i suppose i admit i tdouble take when i see a hot car.. tehn the guy suddenly becomes hotter.
Surprisingly i found well san francisco. really romantic you know its wasnt teh bridge or scernery as such which was nice .. but just the whole energy of things there. It really sems like asiide from rent prices would be a lovely place to live longer term . it was like melbourne (cultural things emphasised here) witha touch of sydney energy (not as brash but cosmopolitian like sydney and faster pased like sydney like in the financial district , and the the bridge ewaterfront remninded me oof sydney
) and geographically the hills reminded me like wellingtonand also easy to get around liek wellington and melboune if not gbetter and more interesting if you found a job you really likes and paid excellent well you would really be set. some parts were a little bland and sterile, i liked the areas that were nice but a bit edger had character, the richer areas seemd well a little dull.Everyone in san fran would go " i love your accent its so cute!!"especially the guys. I have to admit while i wa sthere i had a great time..yes it was romantic, on xmas eve , francois made me a made me a three course french meal it was amazuing he went to so much effort and got me work at cafe bastille in san francisco as holiday help over xmas.. tehy speak spanish in the kitchen and french in the restaurant i wa sthe only fluent english speaker.it was a little crazy. A really nice guy pierre i worked with him and helped me to get free french food every day i worked it was great!we got a three course meal .. really home style french food.
xmas was fun at the hostel... we would go across the road to this italian owned store grab bottle of millers beer for $2 every night leading to xmas and lots of drinking games.we also had a buffet meal at thge hostel which the food wasnt that great but better then nothing
after teh xmas festivities i wanted to head on as i wanted to head to mexico.. iknew that this could be my only chance for a while!
so italked to this irish guy who had a car who was wanting to go down teh pacific highway road ...i was excited as i had always wanted to do this. we headed off early i went and picked up my pay check and cashed it then off i went.
we stooped off in santa cruz it was fantastic i liked there .. nice park we went and wondered around the boardwalk then had dinner on the waterfront at twilight irt was a really flash restaurant amazing views witha ll the pelicans..had a great fish i think called mahimahi i cant reamebr its from hawaii i was great i had it a few times in america.after santa cruz we went or montereey and staye dthe night on a highway hotel cheap as only $60 per night for two .tafterwwards went to carmel by the sea drove around took photos then went to the big sur .. took more photos. its a rea;ly lovely drive great photos. which are on facebook. then went past santa barbara and ended up in LA. stayed at venice beach hostel for two nights then got a ride with these guys from Finland who took me to the hostel in hollywood went for look at hollywood rock shop and went to areally famous place which sold guitars to teh richa nd famous liek johnny depp came in one week before and eddie van halen is a regular customer.he bought a guitar for $6,000 dollars! apparently when we were in the shop a guy who featured in nickolton movie was in the shop. i didint recognize. LA was fun over new years crazy as though.. the hostel is just off hollywood blvd and sunset strip smack bang in the middle of hollywood. on new years there was apaarty at the hostel , then decided to go out walking along sunset strip was crazy all tehgse guys passed out on the ground who taken too much of everything , guys getting into fights with guys for losing keys for their guys (but the guys were crying not fighting) see in hollywood its all about the cars!
cops everywhere ... which i took photo os cops they chased us alittle then once they heard my accent and i said i was just a tragic tourist they laughed walked away.
it wa sfunny when i went back to the hostel it felt like a 2nd home ...last time i was tehre nicole australian girl from perth was in my rooma nd i went back and she had been in hawaii and taddahh there she was coincidiently inmy room. after new years we were pretty hung over went to ruhyon canoyon were all famous clebs walk tehre dogs , orlando bloom apparently very snobby though he runs up therea ll the time.saw jack nicolson house, went on a tour of LA and beverly hills saw playboy manshion and arron spellings house. apparely on one tour once a guy tried to climb on to arraon spellings gate to take a photo and teh security guards came out with a gun and almost shot him, ppretty intense!
WENT TO LITTLE TOKYO HAD YUMMY ramen learned about japanese americans assimilation into american life . china town wss cheap as , clotehs for $1 , nice pretty tops, cute bags, shoes, yum cha for $5.cheap as chips. live smakes everywhere.
after seeing what i wanted to see, booked a bus online to san diego through mega bus for $15 (no way in hell was i ctaching greyhound in LA)
out of all teh places i visted in my travels i found lA the dodgest by far, (except Kula lumper- if your blonde is probably more dangerous) a girl got beaten up by a group of guys while i was stying therealmost got raped but escaped (this was outside the hostel), countless people got held up by gunpointand mugged at metro stations , i got chased by a junkie , (actually in san francisco i went out with these nice turkish guys ended up in abad neighbourhood by accidient- tenderloun- everyone was junkies, homeless but somehow they were wearing more expensive clotehs then i was wearing,and was begging for money , i got circled by about ten junkies and the guys in the local corner store told me to get out pretty fast- as everyone was circling me in the shop wondering what a blond well dressed white girl was doing here- .
on my last day i waslked to teh metro station with my backpack in broad daylight thinking it would be fine what a mistake that was i got followed guys tried to grab my bags , it was really scary. La is really not made for the backpacker .
The first day i arrived these guys came over to my friends car and tried to grab all the bags out of teh boot we slammed it down fast and walked inside fast,.
so that was the end of my time in la, san fran
= i had this one saved in my draft box for ages - so only oublusehd it on my blog when i arrived back in NZ
I loved san fran , height asbury area little italy, misson district, cool neighbourhoods especially all those unique shopson height street great people were great friendly, a hint of reserdness, passive agressiveness going on there but sincere but always worrying about how they were going to pay their rent.That seemed to be the main topics of converstation in san francisco( it was easy to meet locals or other people who had moved inter-state)it was how am i going to pay my rent this week in LA it was how am i going to pay my car payments ,,,? or if not that check out my car! well a guy in ahot car in La will get the girls i suppose i admit i tdouble take when i see a hot car.. tehn the guy suddenly becomes hotter.
Surprisingly i found well san francisco. really romantic you know its wasnt teh bridge or scernery as such which was nice .. but just the whole energy of things there. It really sems like asiide from rent prices would be a lovely place to live longer term . it was like melbourne (cultural things emphasised here) witha touch of sydney energy (not as brash but cosmopolitian like sydney and faster pased like sydney like in the financial district , and the the bridge ewaterfront remninded me oof sydney
) and geographically the hills reminded me like wellingtonand also easy to get around liek wellington and melboune if not gbetter and more interesting if you found a job you really likes and paid excellent well you would really be set. some parts were a little bland and sterile, i liked the areas that were nice but a bit edger had character, the richer areas seemd well a little dull.Everyone in san fran would go " i love your accent its so cute!!"especially the guys. I have to admit while i wa sthere i had a great time..yes it was romantic, on xmas eve , francois made me a made me a three course french meal it was amazuing he went to so much effort and got me work at cafe bastille in san francisco as holiday help over xmas.. tehy speak spanish in the kitchen and french in the restaurant i wa sthe only fluent english speaker.it was a little crazy. A really nice guy pierre i worked with him and helped me to get free french food every day i worked it was great!we got a three course meal .. really home style french food.
xmas was fun at the hostel... we would go across the road to this italian owned store grab bottle of millers beer for $2 every night leading to xmas and lots of drinking games.we also had a buffet meal at thge hostel which the food wasnt that great but better then nothing
after teh xmas festivities i wanted to head on as i wanted to head to mexico.. iknew that this could be my only chance for a while!
so italked to this irish guy who had a car who was wanting to go down teh pacific highway road ...i was excited as i had always wanted to do this. we headed off early i went and picked up my pay check and cashed it then off i went.
we stooped off in santa cruz it was fantastic i liked there .. nice park we went and wondered around the boardwalk then had dinner on the waterfront at twilight irt was a really flash restaurant amazing views witha ll the pelicans..had a great fish i think called mahimahi i cant reamebr its from hawaii i was great i had it a few times in america.after santa cruz we went or montereey and staye dthe night on a highway hotel cheap as only $60 per night for two .tafterwwards went to carmel by the sea drove around took photos then went to the big sur .. took more photos. its a rea;ly lovely drive great photos. which are on facebook. then went past santa barbara and ended up in LA. stayed at venice beach hostel for two nights then got a ride with these guys from Finland who took me to the hostel in hollywood went for look at hollywood rock shop and went to areally famous place which sold guitars to teh richa nd famous liek johnny depp came in one week before and eddie van halen is a regular customer.he bought a guitar for $6,000 dollars! apparently when we were in the shop a guy who featured in nickolton movie was in the shop. i didint recognize. LA was fun over new years crazy as though.. the hostel is just off hollywood blvd and sunset strip smack bang in the middle of hollywood. on new years there was apaarty at the hostel , then decided to go out walking along sunset strip was crazy all tehgse guys passed out on the ground who taken too much of everything , guys getting into fights with guys for losing keys for their guys (but the guys were crying not fighting) see in hollywood its all about the cars!
cops everywhere ... which i took photo os cops they chased us alittle then once they heard my accent and i said i was just a tragic tourist they laughed walked away.
it wa sfunny when i went back to the hostel it felt like a 2nd home ...last time i was tehre nicole australian girl from perth was in my rooma nd i went back and she had been in hawaii and taddahh there she was coincidiently inmy room. after new years we were pretty hung over went to ruhyon canoyon were all famous clebs walk tehre dogs , orlando bloom apparently very snobby though he runs up therea ll the time.saw jack nicolson house, went on a tour of LA and beverly hills saw playboy manshion and arron spellings house. apparely on one tour once a guy tried to climb on to arraon spellings gate to take a photo and teh security guards came out with a gun and almost shot him, ppretty intense!
WENT TO LITTLE TOKYO HAD YUMMY ramen learned about japanese americans assimilation into american life . china town wss cheap as , clotehs for $1 , nice pretty tops, cute bags, shoes, yum cha for $5.cheap as chips. live smakes everywhere.
after seeing what i wanted to see, booked a bus online to san diego through mega bus for $15 (no way in hell was i ctaching greyhound in LA)
out of all teh places i visted in my travels i found lA the dodgest by far, (except Kula lumper- if your blonde is probably more dangerous) a girl got beaten up by a group of guys while i was stying therealmost got raped but escaped (this was outside the hostel), countless people got held up by gunpointand mugged at metro stations , i got chased by a junkie , (actually in san francisco i went out with these nice turkish guys ended up in abad neighbourhood by accidient- tenderloun- everyone was junkies, homeless but somehow they were wearing more expensive clotehs then i was wearing,and was begging for money , i got circled by about ten junkies and the guys in the local corner store told me to get out pretty fast- as everyone was circling me in the shop wondering what a blond well dressed white girl was doing here- .
on my last day i waslked to teh metro station with my backpack in broad daylight thinking it would be fine what a mistake that was i got followed guys tried to grab my bags , it was really scary. La is really not made for the backpacker .
The first day i arrived these guys came over to my friends car and tried to grab all the bags out of teh boot we slammed it down fast and walked inside fast,.
so that was the end of my time in la, san fran
= i had this one saved in my draft box for ages - so only oublusehd it on my blog when i arrived back in NZ
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
LA LA LAND- like Japan?
Arrving in LA was easy ..... immigration was a breeze:)The immigration i swear was Flirting with me he was preety hot for a governmnet official... actually theres something about men in uniform:) anyways after all the build up i think i must of looked aprahensive as he was really nice and relaxed which made life great.. i got warned that it would be tough but no it was simple took a total of three minutes. only question what job and i just said i was heading to san francisco,then i gota big ohh...:)I got asked how much money i had nad got ttold " you need more money then that... well ive survived pretty welll so far! ive seen a fair bit. Anyways i then hheaded to the hacienda hotel where orientation fo rthe work/travel participants to honest i was more keen to travel around and not stay in any one place only when i was typing my assignmnet and using resources at the local university/public library...Which i have now chosen to be san diego. due to its relaxed atmosphere, safety, affordablity and good bus routes. People say its no good here buts its way easier to get around san diego then LA apart from when you use the metro which is fabulous. After a meet and greet a bunch of us went to venice beach where we had lunch... we tipped well really really bad. The guy shooked his head we diidnt realise it was 15% of the bill . 15%! that is way too hhigh for average service...arrah i cant stand the tipping culture the US has its terriable to me its just the government not taking responsibily. like everyhing. need i say more.. many travellers have this view point. Iam the worst tipper i only tip in large groups or a fancy restaurant where im foced to anyway or if iam at a bar using Wif im there for hours and trhe barman refills my drink for free countless then he will get a buck or so.so basically i avoid the fancy restaurants and only tip minimal in large groups.I think if people start to boycott tipping then there will be strikes and then the government will be foced to up the up the wages. It annopys me that im paying these peoples wages especially since im not an american citizen.capatilism, consumerism. America remind sme of japan ESPECIALLY LA> Superficial, plastic, false, surface, laccks depth people cant be themselves but fun also. Exactly like japan well tokyo at least.Bloody hell materalistic and cosummer society everyone has their designer
bags which as so dam ugly, brands are huge here excatly like
jaapan. except the japanese are better with money i think. people say tehre are broke then they buy $500 worth of stuff what the hell? the amount of stuff peopel buy is crazy and the amount of food. Then they just chuck it awayor take it home in a tcky doggy bag the last time i did that i was 12 years old.
Anyways i really liked venice beach bough some awesome sunglasses it was funny i saw them on a stand and within 10seconds i picked them up. People said wow thats decisive and i was like nah its intuition i just knew they would suit me!
We had some funny people coming up to us saying "can you buy this painting for a dollar so i can buy some weed. and holding signs smiling " give me money as im going to rob you anyway" it was all quite amuzing, iconnic guy on rollar blades and playing a electric guitar, a model standing next a guy holding a gigantic lizard, a guy playinga piano... it was like how did he roll it down here.
Anyways everything looked familiar like scenes of baywatch an lifeguard towers. Went back to the hotel and then i went to the mall in el segundo and went looking for a adaptor for my laptop, talked to soem LA locals who were very entertaining:)
i found the mall pretty borin and bland it was near manhatten beach probably for the richies,The next day i had a lovely free breakfast and there was orientation about life in USA and working/travelling in the USA the IRS came and we filled out a social security documents ands so on. Then i packed up my stuff and waited for a friend who lives in LA for a day out.
LA is great everyone bags it i would never live there perm but to visit or to do casual work it sure is fun place:)never a dull moment.
bags which as so dam ugly, brands are huge here excatly like
jaapan. except the japanese are better with money i think. people say tehre are broke then they buy $500 worth of stuff what the hell? the amount of stuff peopel buy is crazy and the amount of food. Then they just chuck it awayor take it home in a tcky doggy bag the last time i did that i was 12 years old.
Anyways i really liked venice beach bough some awesome sunglasses it was funny i saw them on a stand and within 10seconds i picked them up. People said wow thats decisive and i was like nah its intuition i just knew they would suit me!
We had some funny people coming up to us saying "can you buy this painting for a dollar so i can buy some weed. and holding signs smiling " give me money as im going to rob you anyway" it was all quite amuzing, iconnic guy on rollar blades and playing a electric guitar, a model standing next a guy holding a gigantic lizard, a guy playinga piano... it was like how did he roll it down here.
Anyways everything looked familiar like scenes of baywatch an lifeguard towers. Went back to the hotel and then i went to the mall in el segundo and went looking for a adaptor for my laptop, talked to soem LA locals who were very entertaining:)
i found the mall pretty borin and bland it was near manhatten beach probably for the richies,The next day i had a lovely free breakfast and there was orientation about life in USA and working/travelling in the USA the IRS came and we filled out a social security documents ands so on. Then i packed up my stuff and waited for a friend who lives in LA for a day out.
LA is great everyone bags it i would never live there perm but to visit or to do casual work it sure is fun place:)never a dull moment.
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