My American Review

no katie the sea lions were definately alive, the noise they were making was unbelievable.

the Las Vegas photographs weren't great i'm afraid, thats why I havent posted any. and for the few that were any good, again for some reason i cant right-click ther mouse on these Hostel computers and so I cant rotate the images so that they are displayed the correct way up.

So now to my review of my 12 days in America.

it's been fantastic, I dont think i've met a single unpleasant or unhelpful person in all the time I've been here. In fact I think the whole "Have-A-Nice-Day" cheesy stereotype we have in Britain of American customer service rather masks the fact that people back home can be extremely rude to people who they are supposed to be serving. Also I dont think I've had a bad meal whilst I've been here, in fact even some of the fast food resteraunts serve really good properly made food. I went to an "In and Out Burger" takeaway and the food was reslly good and cheaper than it would be in a Mcdonalds at home.

One of the things I will be disappointed with at a later date was that I dont think i saw enough of LA whilst I was there, between the problems getting money and the struggle of finding my hotel it meant that i only really had the one day to spend in Santa Monica, which was really nice, but it meant i missed out on more of the city.

The TrekAmerica tour was fantastic. San Diego is a great place, Death Valley extraordinarily beautiful and it was also great being able to spend some time with the group In San Fransisco as well even though the trip was supposed to have ended. the only place I'm not to sure about was Las Vegas. It is visually impressive at night and there is no doubt i had a great night out drinking with the guys whilst I was there. Unfortunately the place was even more seedy and unpleasant that I expected, and there was something really depressing about watching all these people blowing their money away in the casions.
I think before I left home I was expecting to enjoy the places I saw on the tour, but I didn't really expect getting to know the other people in the group. I dont know why it just hadn't occured to me. However I think possibly the best parts about it where the nights spent with the group, either round the campfire in San Diego and Death Valley, or In bars drinking in Las Vegas and San Fransisco.

San Fransisco is another great place. the trolleys are fantastic fun to ride, if a bit frightening, and even walking up and down the hills is enjoyable, although walking up to the Coit Tower just about killed me. Alcatraz was not what I was expecting, but still amazing. and the evenings spent in the Wharf area have been really pleasant too.

Down sides - well as said above I didn't enjoy Vegas as much as I liked and the money troubles were a pain in the arse, but that's about it. The expensiveness of the US i was kind of expecting, but it's still been a bit worrying, I'm going to have to be a bit more careful in NZ and Oz, but at least i wont be going out as much as i have done in these few weeks.

So all in all it's been fantastic so far, and if the rest or the trip is only slightly less fun then i will be coming home with a lot of damn good memories.

it's 11:45 on the 11th of February as I type this, i'm flying at 19:00 tonight for 13 hours and arrive in New Zealand at 05:00 on 13th February, by which time I wont know, to quote Terry Pratchett, if it's arseholes or breakfast time.

Speak again soon

Lv Paul