California Girls.

This, alongside the equally awful Miley, accompanied us across the States. It's aptness in this post made it too hard to resist putting it in .. :) 

Cali - San Fransisco

So. California brought all it promised. Jodie and I had both been to San Fransisco before so we were especially excited, but I  have to say I had a very different experience to when I travelled California with my parents, particularly in San Fran. Now the hippyish side to the city really shone for me... 

We spent our first day wandering around Union Square, going to see the UC-Berkeley campus, checking out the hippy Mission street and the Golden Gate Bridge, and finishing the day at the Cheesecake factory. 

Now, if you have never been to the cheesecake factory, know two things. 

1. They are the ULTIMATE exemplar of sheer American gluttony. 

2. The best one you will ever go to (and we have tried a few between us) is this one. San Fransisco. Union Square. At the top of the multi story Macy's building. It is magical. 

3. (I know I said 2 but I just thought if another); their strawberry Martini's are awesome.

We prepared ourselves all day for the meal, its not entirely a student budget one, but filling up on half a main and leaving room for only a few mouthfuls of desert (a must... its a factory FOR dessert...even 'weird' people like myself who don't like cheesecake can find yummy things to eat), this meal is definitely worth asking for a doggy bag and taking home for later (or next days dinner, in our case).

 When Britain clocks onto the whole idea of the doggy bag, as miss Natasha mentioned in her foody-blog, (check it out: http://thetable-top.blogspot.com/), then it'll be a wiser place. 

Day 2 we met Aoiefe, an Irish exchange student who was friends with Faye at Carolina, and headed off to Haight-Ashbury. We went to Amoeba, an old music shop which is set up in an old bowling alley... We wandered around the Golden Gate Park (WARNING: passive drug abusive is unavoidable here). I'd read about a garden dedicated to the flowers of Shakespeare's plays, so we spent quite a while trying to locate it... -bearing in mind the park is about twice the size of Hyde Park, at over 1000 acres.

We actually saw a high school graduation whilst we were wandering, which was interesting! They were all stood in this impressive marble dome, with their gowns and hats and going up to collect scrolls.... they are SO INTENSE. But it was cool to go and crash the ceremony for a little while, see how the high schools roll over here.... We did find the Shakespeare Garden, too.

You can follow the park on twitter, if you so wish:

http://twitter.com/#!/GoldenGatePark

Exploring China Town was another high point of San Fran. Of the ones I have seen in the US, this one is definitely my favourite! [[DC wins on the gate front though. Hands Down, it is beautiful!]] 

We cautiously stepped over the thin line drawn between the familiar road of street lamps and the street of lanterns, dangling between us and the cloudless California sky. A little box of Asia within thick American walls, the Chinese bustle around in their markets and bargain stores, hanging up dead meat and shouting about how unique their umbrellas and sparkly purses are... The only thing it lacks from the real thing, so I hear, is the smell -- so I'm not complaining! We found a tiny fortune cookie factory, which looked like how I imagine Roald Dahl's chocolate factory to be like had he have been born Chinese. There were mini metal conveyor belts and little flat cookies whizzing about, with a pot full of empty fortunes ready to be thought up and folded inside. You could watch it all being made and take a photo for a dollar, and the "bad" cookies were not thrown down the garbage shoot but instead handed out in a wicker basket as tasters. Yum.  

The concept of China towns, or indeed  Japan towns or any other "town" intrigues me. We were talking about what an English town would include, and its interesting that people would chose to walk down a street with rain machines no matter how much they wanted a cream tea... 

LA, Hollywood.

So, 12 hours later we reached celeb-land. Hollywood was touristy, cheap and not so cheerful, -just as I remembered. Ironically, our hostel was the best we'd stayed in and we were only there for one night... We had a wander around when we got there and saw the walk of fame and Chinese theatre, etc...Had some sushi...then escaped.

Once you have seen 50 stars on the floor you begin to give up looking for the one you really wanted to see and then there's nothing left for it but to take some photos with the footprints in the cement, and perhaps a movie character or two (for a fee, of course.)

The best part was getting to see my good friend, Ashley, who did her masters at Kings during our first year. "Why are you staying there? No one in LA goes to Hollywood!" she said as she pulled up to Madame Tussaud's in her typically American gIAnt car. She showed us the celebrity hang-outs and some houses, casually namedropping people she's partied with and dated (oh the life of an intelligent yet hills-lifestyle young woman!), then took us to Santa Monica. We walked along Venice beach ("get-your-marijuana-prescriptions-here"-land) and to Sprinkles, - the incredible cupcake shop! Better than Sugarland's and maybe even wholefood's.... Such a lovely day. 

LA - Laguna Niguel. 

Laguna Beach? Yep, you got it. 

Jodie's internet pen-pals she made years ago writing online journals live in south of Hollywood and let us stay there for 3 nights, which was awesome. They literally took us everywhere we said we'd like to go and were the best hosts we could have asked for. And they are twins. Awesomeawesome. For some reason I have always had an unusual love for twins and all things double... they just fascinate me!! 

We went to Knotts berry Farm, the first ever themepark! Pretty awesome even for a roller-coaster-wimp like myself. I went on some flipping ginormous big spinny flippy fast things. 'nuff said. Also got churros and went on a stupidly steep get-soaked-in-30-seconds ride just before closing time. At least the car was warm.... 

They took us to a drive in movie theatre, too! OHMYGOSH. It was just like Grease, but better. We saw the Hangover II and then Bridesmaids, all for 7 bucks.So good! 

It was also memorial day whilst we were there, and one of the twins is married to a soldier who is recently back from Afghanistan. It was interesting to drive down the highway, passing one man with a huge banner saying "Good loves you" and another saying "hoot for veterans" or something along those lines. 

Oh, America.  

Chilly Washington

A very late update! The snow of DC seems far away now but we had such a wonderful weekend.

And comical from the off.

 We left on the Friday evening, a hair-raising journey by one of the girls’ mentors as we got a bit lost and nearly missed the coach! I was let out late from class so also got back later than expected, & I have never laughed and been so scared in a car. At one point crossing into a gas station she shouted to the incoming vehicle: ‘please don’t hit me’ whilst veering across the lane and stopping to run and ask directions from a lady who couldn’t speak English and didn’t know her right from left. Then the car wouldn’t start as she’d stopped it funnily so we ended up pushing it. [note: everyone here has HUGE cars, even students!] We made it somehow, though.

We got to DC and went out to China town, and the whole place was covered in snow and very chilly! Such a contrast to Chapel Hill. The taxi man who drove us to the hotel managed to fit all of us in his taxi. Somehow. I jokingly suggested I sit in the boot and so he just went, 'ok', and started patting down the bags for me! So all 7 of us piled into the one car... My mentor, Imani, came with us too which was amazing as she lives in Maryland and spends her holidays wandering round the museums on the Mall, so she’s an expert! We could have paid for her guidance. . .

Saturday we were at the Smithsonian castle for 8.30 (suprising, I know). There’s a model of the whole mall in there so we chose the things we were going to do, and mapped our day out a bit. Then Imani took us round lots of the sights: WW2 memorial, Korean & Vietnam War memorials, the Jefferson, Lincoln Memorial – v. grand, and the reflecting pool was frozen! And then of course, the Whitehouse. – Pictures with Obama came later on, too ;) We did the American history museum, the natural history, (not as good as London, wasn’t as cool or realistic. I felt like there were just plastic things all over the place), but the history museum was awesome. Got to see the original star spangled banner, Dorothy’s shoes from the Wizard of Oz film, and the original Muppets! So many interesting things in there.. and went through a couple of the art museums. We packed in a lot, before heading out for dinner.

Sunday we split up a bit, people had different interests but a couple of us went and walked along embassy row, which was really intriguing. Some of the embassy’s are SO grand looking and some are tiny. Tested our flag knowledge too… I found the Greek one and took a photo for my Granny :) We walked to Georgetown after which is a really pretty old place, with nice shops. They have a famous cupcake shop too. It has its own TV show! [only in the US…] I also met up with the friends for lunch! They took me out to a restaurant on the harbor, and we had a seafood buffet. Perfection in a bucket.  And I tried my first Oyster! Ooh er. Was so good to catch up with them, and I may go back and stay with them on my travels after uni… we’ll see. They gave us all a lift after too which was really kind.  We went to a place called Mongolian grill, in Bethesda. An experience in its self. You choose yourself a bowl of stir fry vegetables and meat  sauces toppings etc, then give your bowl to the cooks and they cook it for you in front of you! Was pretty good fun. And the guy gave us a free chocolate brownie/ice cream thing to share after – ohh the perks of being international!

An interesting journey home too… We got back to Durham at 3am to find that the uni taxi company wouldn’t pick us up. Great. It was FREEzing and at that point all you want to do is go to bed… The one taxi cab there couldn’t fit us all in his car [they’re not like the DC drivers here… ;) ] And he was just having an argument with his boss on the phone, when I saw blue and red flashing lights.. So Jane and I ran over and asked the lovely police men if they could give us the number of a taxi firm, and the guy just went “ haap in…”. So we all got a lift home from the 'cops'! The guy got on his speaker phone saying “We’re just assisting some stranded citizens back to their homes…” What an adventure.

So a vunderbar weekend.

It felt so good to be back in the city too. And to the Londoner's out there, DC even has its own Cockfosters:  Foggy Bottom.

Oh metro designers…  

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