What happens in Vegas...

.....goes on Facebook.

So I've just arrived in San Fran and am staying at my friend Phil's house (he has a spare laptop for me to use which is great!) but this entry isn't about San Francisco. I seem to be doing a city at a time, so this is the time now to tell you about Las Vegas.

What a crazy town. Essentially it is Disneyland for adults, a playground where instead of swings and slides, you have gambling, booze and sex. And lots of giant replicas of famous buildings. Walking around the main strip of the town, is a bizarre sight. The Pyramids, Eiffel tower, the Statue of Liberty and Venetian canals complete with gondolas give you a bit of an idea of what this town is like. Each hotel has a theme, a casino and sometimes have free shows or drawcards inside (or outside) the hotel to get people into their casino.

My favourites were "New York New York" complete with a rollercoaster and authentic New York Streets, Paris, with the Eiffel Tower and The Venetian with the canals winding their way inside the hotel and transporting inside into outside. Very cool.

In MGM grand there was the lion's habitat, Treasure Island had a boat and a nightly show, Bellagio had beautiful fountains that dance on the hour in time with the music. Circus Circus has circus acts every half an hour, The Luxor has a Pyramid and the Sphinx and one of the most brightest lights in the world that can be seen from space, and The Mirage has a live volcano every hour erupting outside the hotel.

It's all quite beautiful and bizarre, and when night comes, Las Vegas transforms itself into a beautiful array of neon and what should be garish actually becomes quite amazing.

Of course Vegas isn't just all about the free shows that the hotels put on as drawcards. Mostly it is about gambling and drinking. I didn't do much of either, but on one day, I met up with the lovely Dee, an Irish woman I had met in an animal sanctuary in Bolivia last year, and together with her very cool Irish friends, we played the slots and $1 Blackjack. So much fun. Unfortunately Dee promised I would win(as she had had some good wins) but my gambling contribution of $20 got swallowed up into the abyss that is Vegas with no return. I suppose it could have been a lot more. When you gamble, you get free cocktails (you just tip the waitress $1) so it is possible to get very drunk very quickly, which is what I did with the Irish guys. After losing my $5 on Blackjack, we went down to Fremont Street, which is where they have this amazing light show every hour on the hour on this audiovisual screen on the ceiling. It is hard to explain but basically lights and music and a lot of very cool visuals appear above you and it is quite surreal and beautiful.

I felt like I had a great mix of most things that Vegas has to offer. I went to almost all the free hotel displays and shows on offer, I gambled (a little bit), I drank (a little bit), I went to real shows and I went to the Grand Canyon.

The real shows came in the form of a free one (The Rat Pack) which was a tribute show to the famous 4 classic Rat Pack. The woman that worked at my hostel (yep I slummed it by staying in a hostel,but it was a really good one) gave free tickets to anyone that wanted one because she worked there. It was a good show but not amazing. I wanted to see more. So I decided to go see Lance Burton, an absolultely phenomenal magician, and also Criss Angel and Cirque de Soleil (not a full Cirque show) which was also pretty good although after Lance, it was mildly disappointing. I was expecting more from CirqueDe Soleil as well, but some of the illusions were amazing, it was just not a very well put together show. I could have watched so many more shows, but my budget was starting to break at this point, so I got out of this great but expensive city.

Of course, I also took the opportunity to visit the Grand Canyon, which is without a doubt one of the most impressive things I have ever seen. So beautiful, so rugged, so spectacular; absolutely none of my photos do the real thing justice. But you get the gist.

Paris in Vegas
Hanging out with Spongebob and Dee
The Grand Canyon
TheFremont Street Experience
The Venetian Gondola (this is INSIDE)

LA Confidential...

Oh alright I'll tell you.

I'm sitting in my hostel in Vegas at the moment on a German girl's laptop. The states are so set up for people with laptops, that everywhere there is free wireless, including this hostel. Conversely, there are virtually no internet cafes and so it is really difficult to check your email. I have been lucky with couchsurfers lending me their laptops so far, not to mention lovely German girls taking pity on me.

But I digress. Back to talking to LA. Before getting to LA, everyone I had spoken to that had been there, told me I'd hate it. I was nervous. I had visions of a nasty violent town where everyone walked around waving their guns in the air, and police randomly pulled people over, cuffing them whilst singing 'bad boys, bad boys, what you gonna do? What you gonna do when they come for you'. OK so maybe I have been watching too many episodes of COPS.

Anyway, for the most part I was pleasantly surprised. People here are amongst the friendliest I have ever encountered, and I only witnessed one woman being dragged off a bus and handcuffed (pretty interesting sight by the way).

So anyway, after my cultural first day spent wandering through museums, I thought it was time to go see the tourist Los Angeles. So I dutifully wandered across to Hollywood. (by the way, although I took public transport everywhere to get places, NOTHING is close together in LA. It is the most spread out city I have ever been in, and getting anywhere generally takes two buses and at least an hour).

Wandering into Hollywood was kind of exciting. Seeing the stars on the ground, the Chinese and the Grauman theatre, and all the grown men and woman dressed as cartoon characters or famous stars was kind of interesting in itself. I had decided to take a walking tour of Hollywood (as no-one walks in this city this was the ONLY walking tour that existed in LA) which was excellent. Our guide was great, and told us interesting history and info about the locations and cinemas, whilst casually dropping into conversation the famous people she had happened to see on her tours. We were impressed. We kept our eyes peeled, but not a celebrity did we see (although I did see a fake Jonnny Depp having a beer). I took a photo of the Hollywood sign and sat down to people watch for a bit longer. Before leaving, I booked a VIP backstage tour of Warner Brothers for the following day, and was told that I should return to Hollywood to take my tour the next day. I didn't really want to come back as I felt I had seen enough fake celebrities and tack for me, but as I was couchsurfing and not staying in a hostel, I didn't have any option.

I swapped couchsurfers, and my next one was so much better than the first. Vera, my first couchsurfer had been lovely and we got on really well, but we didn't really do anything and she spent most of her time on her laptop. Linda, my second couchsurfer, was amazing. Full of energy from the beginning, she announced 5 minutes after I had arrived that we were heading out to a bar to play 'Drag Queen Bingo'. Being a couchsurfer, you tend to go with the flow, so this was fine with me. The bar was called Hamburger Mary's and my dinner of Hamburger and chips was amazing! They brought the bill to us in a stiletto shoe, and the bar had a similar eclectic crazy feel of The Wunderbar in Lyttelton.

Onto the next day, and it was begrudgingly back to Hollywood to get my tour. Not wanting to see stuff I had already seen, I was ready to just get out my book and find a quiet spot for half an hour to wait.

That was until we pulled up to the main bit of the Hollywood Boulevard, and I saw a huge crowd gathered. Wondering what was happening, I wandered up to the crowd and asked. It turned out that a star was being presented to Shrek (yep fictional characters get stars) and some special guests were coming to speak. I had a good spot (and a fantastic zoom on my camera) and so settled in to wait for the celebs, hoping that they would come before I had to report for my tour.

And I wasn't disappointed. I got to see ANTONIO BANDERAS AND MIKE MYERS!!!!!! In real life!!!!!!! It was awesome, and the highlight of my trip so far. Of course the Warner Brothers Studio tour was never going to live up to that, as no stars were seen, however I did get to sit on the real couch in Central Perk (on the set of Friends) and it was a pretty awesome tour.

Getting back to Hollywood, I decided to go to see the film playing at El Capitan. It is an absolutely amazing old authentic cinema and just to sit in it and watch this movie was a pretty amazing experience.

I finished my great day with a trip to Santa Monica Pier, befriending an Ozzie on the bus, who I hung out with for the next couple of hours. The pier itself reminded me a little of Brighton Pier in England but far far tackier. I did get to see sunset there though, which was pretty cool, and the pier was used in the movie 'Forrest Gump' so there was a real theme to it, with a shop called 'Bubba Gump Shrimp Company'.

I had one day left in LA, so I decided to head to Venice Beach, home of the crazy and colourful characters and the complete posers running up and down shirtless on the boardwalk. It was a fantastic spot for people watching, and watching performers, and I got some great photos. Venice Beach is also colloquially known as Muscle Beach and there is an outdoor gym of that same name so that everyone can see the aforementioned posers flex their muscles. It was a great day to end my trip in LA. I went back to my couchsurfer's house and cooked her some dinner. Really enjoyed the couchsurfing in LA. Took me to some amazing spots that I would never have seen otherwise.

Today it was on the Greyhound bus, a company that everyone (well the Americans I had spoken to) had tried to convince me not to travel on, but again, I was pleasantly surprised as it was comfortable friendly, and most importantly free of the crazies.

Tomorrow I explore Las Vegas in a bit more depth after a good sleep. The hostel I am staying in (Sin City hostel) is excellent and I had a fantastically in depth conversation with one of the staff members tonight who is an absolutely fascinating guy from Manchester, with a love for New Zealand, travel and smoothies. Needless to say, we hit it off. Right, sleep beckons me. Here's a couple of photos from LA to keep you entertained. And if you're still reading this, give yourself a pat on the back. That's a damn good effort, as this entry has turned into a novel.

A muscle boy (read: poser) showing off in Venice Beach
Hanging out on the couch in Central Perk, waiting for my FRIENDS to arrive
My good friend Mike...
...and Antonio
Hanging out with Marilyn in Hollywood

The Trip has begun!

So my excruciatingly long day has been and gone and I'm here!

Nothing too exciting happened on the domestic flight, except it was cocktail hour! That means a glass of wine (don't normally get that on a domestic flight) and a cheese platter. Very posh! Only bad thing was that there was a huge man next to me on one side, and a sleeping man on the other. The gigantaman wasn't fat, but just huge! Probably about 6ft 5 and double my width in shoulder (and I'm not a small girl). Anyway, I got through that flight thanking my stars that it was only 1 hour 20, and not 12 hours, and sipping on my Sav Blanc, whilst trying to turn myself in a contortionist in my seat.

The international flight was fairly non eventful. We took off about 1hr late, due to to someone apparently having a medical emergency and having to get off the flight. It took a while as they had to find their flights. I didn't mind. I had movies to watch. I watched some good ones too. "(500) Days of Summer" which I really enjoyed, then forced myself to sleep before waking up to "The Men who Stare at Goats", which was quirky, before finishing up with "Nowhere Boy" which I liked but didn't love.

Got off the flight, and after only a quick chat with the customs guy, I was through and completely on the other side in only 20 mins from the time I got off the plane. I was being met by my couchsurfer Vera, and it all worked out. I was standing in the right spot, and she found me! A really nice, woman, I've really enjoyed staying here.
And my own room too! Which is a little bit of luxury before a lot of couches!

So my first impressions of LA are:

It's huge!
The people are so nice
The are lots of cars, and absolutely NOBODY walks.
There are a lot of palm trees
People can't understand my vowels when I speak
Completely normal(but then I haven't been to Hollywood yet - that's tomorrow).

Today I went to the California Science Centre which was sooo cool! My favourite part was the aquarium section where I got to see jellyfish, a school of fish and a man in a tank (he was cleaning or something) I also went to the Grammy Museum which was really interesting.

TOmorrow I head to Hollywood and I'm doing a tour which goes through some of the famous theatres in Hollywood (Kodak, Grauman's Chinese and Grauman's Egyptian). There's also the famous Hollywood hands things. I'm also heading to Venice and Santa Monica Beaches(apparently it is more about the cool things happening at the beach - buskers and the like) and then also to Warner Brothers where I am doing a behind the scenes tour. Lots of cool stuff still to see in LA.

The Longest Day

In a couple of hours I will be on a big plane, heading to Los Angeles. When I get there, it will be two hours earlier than it is now, after having been on a plane for about 12 hours. Spooky. When I get back, I miss an entire day. Travelling is weird like that.

Anyhoo, my next adventure beckons. Seven weeks up the West Coast of the states and Canada, and I don't quite know what to expect. It should be easier in some ways as everyone speaks English, but I am a bit nervous whether they will "get" me. I don't really mean philosophically, but will they understand my accent? Will they get that I'm being sarcastic? Will they understand my cultural references? Maybe not. I also understand that going in I know a lot more about their culture through TV and Movies than they do about mine. But then, I have no idea how much of that is Hollywoodised and how much is real. I start my trip in Hollywood itself, the land of the fake, but am staying with a local (who is picking me up from the airport!) and then to an even more outlandish version of fake in Las Vegas. I'm weirdly nervous about it all. I am such a no frills kind of gal, and I just don't know whether I will fit in or like it. But there is only one way to tell. I think the fact that I am almost exclusively staying with couchsurfers and friends will mean that I get a pretty balanced view of the states, and then Canada when I get there.

I am really looking forward to it. I am excited to do those quintessential American things like eat Pumpkin Pie in a diner, and wander through Walmart. Maybe I'll even go to a ball game.

I should keep a running tally on how many people think I am a) English b) Australian and c) can't understand me at all and want me to produce subtitles under my chin.

I will be very impressed with anyone that picks my accent straight away. Maybe with Flight of the Conchords being so famous, along with Lord of the Rings, people will actually guess. I'll just have to wear my "Home is where the heart is" T Shirt with a big map of New Zealand to give them a clue.