Today I set for Flagstaff in Arizona. Quite a long journey from San Diego. A journey of yet another twelve hours. There is not much to say, since the whole day was spent travelling. Though I must mention the scenery was the first good scenery I've seen on a greyhound bus route. Between the borders of the USA and Mexico, there was desert. Lots and lots of sand, and I found it quite beautiful. Then it was into civilisation sooner or later. We stopped at a Jack in the Box for lunch - where the servers were speaking only Spanish. Seriously, this is getting annoying. I sooner or later got to Phoenix. It was quite hot here! But at least it was dry heat. I was transferring here for Flagstaff - and I almost missed the ... read more

Today was a really awesome day. And it was awesome because I got to meet a really good friend of mine from the internet. A web developer, a graphic designer, as well as a gamer guru from the company Razer; Melonie Mac! Melonie and I have known eachother on a video game forum over the last four years or so. Finally, we get to meet in person! So this morning, I had to make for Razer Headquarters. She'd be able to visit me during lunch break, between 12:30 and 1:30. I had to make sure I got there on time. I was a little bit worried at first, because the next train I had to catch was at 10:50. Razer Headquarters is about half an hour north up the coast from San Diego, at a town ... read more

Today I decided to visit yet another theme park. This time, it's Sea World, San Diego. I had to take a tram and a bus to get there. And once there, there was some interesting stuff to see! The first thing I saw was an Orca whale swimming around! What a beautiful creature. I wanted to see all the sea life while here - I didn't care too much for the rides. Although I did go on one after having seafood salad for lunch. It was the raft! I got soaked on this ride. I then went into a 4D theatre, much like the ones at Universal Studios. Instead of actually seeing something cool, like 3D underwater life... It was a show of Sesame Street. In 3D. I wasn't impressed at all. I couldn't wait to ... read more

It was time to say goodbye to LA. I really enjoyed my time in this city, especially at Universal Studios. That place was great! I had laundry to collect before check-out time, so I headed over to the laundromat. And that visit was quite eventful. My laundry was all mixed up. All put into different bags, and the owner wasn't too happy about it. Although, I must say that something very good came out of this incident. Not that it was a big deal; I found all my stuff anyway, except for a few pairs of socks. But I ended up having a great conversation with the owner. He noticed that I was a forgiving person and that I didn't consider this mess up a huge deal, and so a good conversation sparked. He asked where ... read more

Today was to be an eventful day. The most exciting part of which takes place at Universal Studios. It began with a quick tour of Hollywood. I was booked to embark on this tour at 8:30, but my guide was half an hour late due to a roadblock on the freeway. So I saw the same things that I saw yesterday - Walk of Fame and celebrity foot and hand prints. There's more to come. Our guide took us through Beverly Hills. This was an interesting and pretty area of LA. We were shown many celebrity and former celebrity homes, as well as told eventful stories. He also took us through Bel-Air and Rodeo Drive. He then dropped us off at Farmer's Market for about an hour. I had spaghetti for lunch and walked around for ... read more

This morning was my last chance to meet up with Judy. She’s already become a good friend, and I’m grateful to have gotten to know her. I made my way to Hollywood, which was quite far from downtown, so I had to take the metro. I got myself a day pass. Judy and I met outside Hollywood Highland station – her hostel was on the same boulevard. We hung and walked around, along the walk of fame, and checked out the celebrity footprints in front of the Chinese Theatre. Hollywood was nice! We tried to spot the Hollywood sign, but we couldn’t find it. Either it was taken town, or covered in fog. We were both confused. The fog seemed to be a repeating trend for me though – has it followed me all the way ... read more

It was time to say goodbye to Heath and leave San Francisco, which started taking place at 4:30am. I had to get up early to catch the bus to Fresno at 5:40. Or apparently, 5:20. Yes, that's what they told me at the bus station, when I'm pretty sure the bus schedule said otherwise. I literally made it by just a minute. Some start to the day. I set off and rolled into San Jose. The bus driver was only making his announcements in Spanish. Only Spanish; no English. I thought to myself, does he expect everyone on board to know the language? Welcome to California, I guess. Or should I say Mexico? I used the Wi-Fi on the bus up until Fresno. I was stopping here for an hour to see one of my friends ... read more

Today I planned to visit the Golden Gate Bridge. First I had myself some pizza for lunch. Or should I say brunch? I soon made my way to Union Square and caught one of the trolleybusses to the bayside. The Golden Gate Bridge is quite far from downtown, so it took a while even for the bus to get there. In about half an hour, we were at the final bus stop – the rest had to be walked, which was still a fair walk. Unfortunately, the bridge was covered in fog. Apparently, it is quite a lot of the time. It was a letdown. Still, I decided to walk across the whole bridge – and I did find that it was clearer on the other side. There was very little fog, and good sunshine. A ... read more

I got up and left John’s at 6am and made my way to the pickup point for my tour today, which was a few blocks away at the Best Western Hotel. My tour for today was for Yosemite National Park. I made it to the hotel just in time – 6:45am, where I was picked up by tour guide Rick, a Brazillian and we set off. It would be a long, four-hour journey to the park. On the way, we stopped for lunch at a supermarket, where I bought some water and got myself some tacos from El Taco across the parking lot. We then proceeded to head through to the entrance of the National Park, up a series of windy, twisty roads, seeing some eagles soar over the hills. First of all, we visited the ... read more

I awoke as we arrived into Sacramento. We shortly transferred from here to the San Francisco bus - and the driver seemed very unpleasant. I avoided talking to him at all costs. Then we arrived into San Francisco at 9:35am. I was in a new place. Yet a familiar one. I've seen this place in the movies, lots of times, and I can see the Golden Gate Bridge in all it's glory. I'm meant to be staying with John today, a guy I met through couchsurfing. This would be my first experience with it. John had told me that he would finish work at 5:30pm, so I had until then to look around. I took a pretty long walk, with my luggage behind me too. San Francisco is huge! I sat down at Starbucks for a ... read more