Santa Cruz and the journey down south.

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So the first night in Santa Cruz we had two British people staying in our room, pretty boring but was niceto hear a familiar accent! We woke up reasonably early had a FREE (yes free...) breakfast and left for downtown santa cruz early morning, we looked round some shops, sam bought some CDs from the place he discovered Thrice (the holy shrine) and he got a rare one for rown, the peel sessions by the smashing pumpkins!
Sam then lured me into a vegan/vegetarian cafe for lunch which turned out to be filling as hell, and really nice, choclate milkshakes and pancakes with syrup for me and a stick of carot or something for sam....maybe.
Just before lunch we had spent quite a long time searching for the mystical dennys but alas we could not find it! :-( so we went to the veggy place instead. We then bought a soccer(FOOTBALL!!!) ball from the shop and walked along the baking hot cliff tops whilst watching surfers cut up the waves. We then found a smaller less crowded beach than the main one which was packed with barechested nords and girls who were too in love with themselves. On this beach we played football, knocking it around for abit to the bestranged looks of the surfing locals. British style...
We also went in the sea which sam enjoyed but I disliked as the waves enveloped and destroyed me, was horrible. We then listened to music on the beach (NOFX/LTJ) before heading back to the hostel, we then dropped our swimming stuff off and head a shower (yes mum and dad i have been showering....)
We then walked past the santa cruz board walk again and over the river towards a different part of town, originally to go see some reggae at a bar but it turned out to be 21 and over (grrr) we then spotted a local woodfried pizza place which to the side of it had a table tennis room. After eating me and sam had an epic duel to decide who was the mightest table tennis player, and predictably I won. :-) Only just but sam got on the end of a few belters, we had to put up with screaming american children who thought that those "foreigners shouldnt be playing" but we just ignored them and showed that we are the greatest at table tennis (wooo)
Then we walked back past the board walk and back to the hostel. In our room were to german girls who were irrtating as they wouldnt stop using their mobile phones, and we also had an old lady who was about 60 odd snoring really loudly all night, thank science for MP3 players and walkmen.

The next day we had breakfast toat and cereal and went back into town again. We had an American cinema experience and watched The Dark Knight which was incredible even second time round!
After that we searched for a place to have lunch, and found a place called the walnut avenue cafe. I had eggs benedict and sam had grilled chicken, pesto and cheese sandwich (yes sam the new MEAT EATER) !!
We sat next to a lady who was abit loopy, and kept asking us if we were from london, and invited us to stay at her friends house in santa barbara and said they wouldnt mind....right.
she told us of how scouser truck drivers hsad exorted money off her, and said that her grandad was engaged in england when he was 18 to an 80 year millionaire, the family disaproved so he ran away to america, the american dream huh?
She then asked us what we thought about americas politics I said kindly I thought it must be hard to govern 250 million people. She then said that the only problems us brits have is, sex scandals...oh the poor and ignorent souls....
anyway then me and sam ventured back to the boardwalk, 5$ for lots of games, we played time crisis/tekken and best of all bust a move!!! Which me and sam got a crowd on, people were impressed by our skills which were honed on windows 95/98!!!
We then went back to the hostel, before returning to the board walk for the rollercoasters and the rides!
we went on lots of insane rides, I got amazingly wet on one of them which was horrible because i was freezing afterwwards in the cold air.
The highlights were the giant dipper/the ghost train (cheesey!) and best of all this weird ferris wheell which had these spinny cages which were amazing we went on it twice cus it was so good felt like we were fallign out and our jawasss were buckling was amazing! You coudl control how much you span vertically and stuff, youy could even stall yourself upside down and hold it there whilst going round!
Thee best advice of the evening came when we were on a sky lift thign which look like a ski lift... from a little kid, " if you spit you can hit people on the head..." Oh the wonders :-)
We then got some takky food from some fast food thing and then looked at the amazing lights and went back to bed for an early start where we would set off to santa barbara!

This day overall minus one event was rubbish. We got up at 7 15 to catch the 9 15 greyhound to santa barbara, after checking in our bags we met the most awesome person so far on our trip. A Hungarian/Israli/american lady who dressed funky in black was about 60 odd and had the coolest accent ever, talked to us abouyt lots of stuff music etc, and where she lived in venice beach, and that she had been to england lots, she was really cool, and said we should come to her music festival which she runs in venice beach next year! We then quickly got breakfast at a cafe and ran back to the coach station where we were told that the coach was delayed by 3 hours because it had broken down. So me and sam messed around for abit, and then decided to search the mystical dennys! On the way we saw a borders, and sam decided to buy some new headphones and ask where dennys was we got told the general direction as well as the shop clerk saying to sam; "you came 10,000 miles to buy these, im impressed!"
We then set off in the general direction in the sweltering heat and after baout 20 minutes we foudn what we were looking for at the edge of town(the very edge!)
We then had our meal, steaks country fried (for BOTH of us) was filling and lovely, we then walked fats back on full stomachs to wear the bus finally whiksed us off to Santa Barbara.
The Journey took 7 hours and a half, various stops, anoyign coach driver, kept saying unnesary things and i managed to get throught 7 albums!!!
When we arrived in santa barbara we trudged to the hostel and dumped our stuff before going out for a bite to eat, we had pizza, and then went back to the grimey hostel...which we our sitting in right now and went to bed, surrounded by germans (dont mention the war!)

Today we woke up fairly late went to the beach and played football, in the boiling hot sun which must be around 32 degrees, its so hot here! We sun bathed for abit and then played more football before sam cut open his foot which he is nursing now, there is a plaster and antiseptic on it so dont worry he is fine and alive...well nearly.
We are now back at the hostel as the football tired us out, we are probably going to check out the rest of the town, today and get some food as it is way to hot to do anything else, setting off for vegas tomorrow woo!
will update in a few days or when I have a chance.
Rozie the calls come through as I have no credit, which means it wont let me answer, so stick to texting me I love it.
Hope everyone is well.
Love to all
(extra love to rozie)
Jamie and sitting next to me as always a injured sam

xxxxxx

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