New York, New York

Saturday - Despite the dangerous whether surrounding Amsterdam delaying our flights and scaring me to death (well, almost) we finally arrived in the city that never sleeps at about 10pm. It was so magical when we landed as we could see all of the snow on the ground from the wintery week before we had arrived, and decided that we would go to Central Park the next morning to make the most of it. Once we got to our hotel after getting the subway from JFK to Times Square, and avoiding some suspicious looking characters I may add, we asked the hotel staff for some good food that we could take back to the room to eat. Just around the corner was a deli that sold a selection of sugary blue drinks, family sized bags of crisps, pizza slizes the size of my head and monster sandwiches. I got food envy as tom chose a  salami and jalapeno 'panini' and I chose a chicken, pesto and cheese one, with a radioactive-looking drink with 400 calories in it! We ate our dinner watching the awful Fox News with this for a view:

Sunday - When we woke up we were so excited to go exploring, and as we walked up our street on 48th and 8th street, an Applebees caught our eye and we ate there for breakfast. This was the start of Tom's first tipping experience, and he was horrified at the amount we had to leave for the waiters and waitresses for very little service. Tom had a savoury omelette with potato and I had this:

Our day just kept getting better and better as the waitress complemented me on my coat as I walked out of the restaurant, so with a spring in my step and a search for some gloves for Tom, we headed towards Central Park. Now, a walk that should have only taken us 10 minutes max took us over half an hour as we weaved our way through the streets half trying to find Tom some gloves and a scarf because of the freezing cold weather, and half trying to hunt down Central Park. We got there in the end and found shelter in the Time Warner Centre in Columbus Circle near Central Park.

With Tom's new scarf in hand, we walked over to Central Park, and this view, for some reason, is what I remebered from New York last time I came:

We used my selfie stick and had a lovely walk through Central Park....

We then decided to head to the Apple Store where I could buy Tom a phone cover he had been pining over since before Christmas. After this, we headed to Times Square where we took lots of photos, I spent way too much in Sephora and we went to an Irish pub where I ordered my first and last (sa far) raspberry cider - cider with raspberry liqueur.

We then headed back to the hotel to have a nap as we were surprisingly jet lagged, and woke up again at about 8pm to have a meal as The Hard Rock Cafe. Despite the restaurant looking great with all the costumes of famous singers throughout the years, and the best service we had probably all week, the meal was a bit of a let down. We both had burgers and I had a cheesecake for pudding, which was a bit of a let down but we enjoyed the experience anyway. We got used to sitting at the bars in pub and restaurants, listening to the music, chatting, and watching the American sports on the TVs behind the bar.

I do have to say that I have seen my fair share of awful toilets having been travelling all around Asia... but the ones at Hard Rock must have been the worst I have ever seen in my life. I won't go into detail but I was left with only 1 cubicle in a decent enough state to use and I washed my hand twice in case I had caught any germs,

Monday - So Monday was really rainy and unfortunately took away all the snow from the ground. It was getting colder and colder, however, and would take us hours to warm up once getting back inside despite having hot showers and getting under the duvet. We went to a little American breakfast bar just off of Times Square, which we realised was only 2 minutes away from our hotel! I had bacon and eggs on a waffle which was.... interesting!

We decided we would go to Central Station in the morning, watch the passers-by, gawp at the architecture and check out the food market and restaurants downstairs. I accidentally spent $10 on literally a spoonful of lobster salad but it was the best salad I have ever tasted in my life - my mouth is watering just thinking about it!

We then headed over to the 9/11 memorial which had changed since I had last been there but was as beautiful as before.

Halfway through the holiday and so much more to write about... I will update with another post soon!

 The Business of Feminism - Sexism within Episode 1 of The Apprentice 2014

Within the first 10 minutes of the opening episode of 2014’s new series of The Apprentice, I, as well as many others all over the country, was offended by the sharp sound of sexism penetrating my ear drums. As usual, the business-centred programme was filled with over-confident and, may I add, delusional contestants who believed they could “sell ice to eskimos”. The entertaining part of this show, and the reason why most of us tune in every week, is the precise moment when these self-obsessed competitors are knocked off of their high horses by Lord Sugar’s insults and the realisation that, in reality, they could not sell beer to an alcoholic. Actions speak louder than words, and yet despite this, the contestants keep talking! Of course, the more incompetent that the main offenders end up being in each task encourages viewers to celebrate as these ‘business’ men and women are made to eat their extremely vile words in the board room at the end of each episode. I thoroughly embraced this section of the episode on Tuesday, as particularly sexist contestants were mocked by Lord Sugar, the other contestants and undoubtedly the majority of viewers.

            The first instance of sexism, and pure conceit, was proudly executed by Daniel Lassman, the owner of a pub quiz company. The way that he chose to introduce himself to the 6.6 million viewers was by stating that he “can make women do whatever [he] wants in the business world”. To give him his due, he quickly followed this by claiming that he could also make “some men” do whatever he wanted to, however, this was clearly simply an afterthought presumably made to impress viewers. It did the absolute opposite. The very strong implication of this statement is that women are easier to fool, or at least more susceptible to the deceit of sales than men. Probably the most shocking aspect of this statement is that a high percentage of viewers would have found no issue with this claim, apart from the obvious self-indulgent element of it. How is it still acceptable in this day and age to make claims that women are weaker than men? It has been proven throughout history that women and men are equally as powerful when it comes to mental strength; we have a ruling Queen, and have had many great female monarchs in the past, we have magnificent female writers such as the up and coming author of Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn, not to mention endless successful and power-hungry female business women such as Kelly Hoppen, a ‘dragon’ on The Dragons’ Den, and The Apprentice’s very own Karren Brady. The fact that this list is even needed is insulting in itself as our history is full of amazing influential women, a list that is in fact endless. If Daniel is actually able to make people do whatever he wants within the business world, and I highly doubt he is, he surely is able to do this to all people, not just to one specific gender. Women are not more likely to fall for a salesman’s games, and are certainly not more naïve than men. Despite this fact, I daily encounter situations that insinuate that this is not believed by everyone. From walking down the street and being wolf whistled at like a dog, from being spoken over by male colleagues as if I had never spoken at all, from countless comments made by male drivers, none of whom have ever even been with me when I have been behind the steering wheel, stating that I cannot drive as well as them purely because I am female; this list also seems to be endless.

            For me, the scariest part of Daniel’s statement by far is the fact that it does hold some truth. Still in our society men are unjustly paid more than women, the percentage of male managers is far higher than female managers, and when a woman attends a job interview, interviewers take into consideration whether she is likely to get pregnant in the near future. These statistics show that we are giving men more power and more control than women purely because of their gender. This is, of course, not true for all businesses within the business world, but the issue is that the problem still exists. It may well be true that Daniel can control women in business, but this is not something to boast about, it is something to be disgusted with. I recently learnt that a new word has been coined; “mensplained”. This is the action of a male within a business explaining something to a female that she has already understood. This is not only a patronising action, but one that assumes authority, and worst of all, one that assumes weakness. The fact that a new term has been created certainly heightens the importance of this issue and should draw our attention to just how often this happens. Of course there is nothing wrong with a helping hand, but as a woman, I am very aware of the fact that gender is a factor when it comes to authority.

            Another issue I have with this statement is that Daniel is hinting at the fact that he is charming enough to ‘win over the ladies’. This indirectly suggests that all business women are suckers for men, and will do anything that is asked of them if an intelligent, business-minded, and average-looking (in Daniel‘s case anyway!) man is the one asking. I proudly speak for the majority of business women, and women in general, when I say that these aspects of a colleague or manager have absolutely no relevance to whether we do our jobs well or not, or complete a task that has been given to us. We, just like men, do our jobs for more important reasons than being in the ‘good books’ of a slimy chauvinist that may or may not be attractive to look at. For whatever reason that Daniel believes he can get women to do “whatever [he] wants”, it is certainly not because he is so desirable that all females bow to the floor and beg to be his slaves.

            I have always been a strong believer of gender equality, and I know full well that men are not the only culprits of entrapping females in false stereotypes. The second moment of blasphemy was when the poor-excuse of a woman Sarah Dales, an executive assistant for a top financial firm, commanded her female team members to wear short skirts and put on lots of make-up because “most people buy from females because females are more attractive to look at.” One of her team members boldly stated, “I didn’t bring any short skirts”, to which Sarah replied, “Hike it up”. I immediately shuddered with disappointment at two significantly unjust implications within this conversation. The first, of course, was Sarah’s statement that females are more attractive than males. This claim has absolutely no proof behind it as, of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder whether male or female. There are a strong percentage of people out there, including myself, who find men more attractive than women, but also a large amount of people who find women more attractive. Aside from this, making a sweeping statement about the entire gender, when some women are much more attractive than others (and the same with men of course), just shows the instability of the claim. Another issue with this false declaration, as discussed earlier, is the allegation that a sales representative’s attractiveness solely determines whether they are a good salesperson. Surely if this is true, as both Sarah and Daniel have implied, they are undermining not only themselves but the entire show that they so desperately wish to win, as there is no business knowledge or ability needed in looking good. It seems that they both think they are on Britain’s Next Top Model.

            The next issue I have with this exchange is the strong implication that women can only look good if they are wearing lots of make-up, high heels and short skirts. Sarah continued to prove how caught up she is in a man’s world by saying “let’s half of us go dressed up, the rest of us semi-average.” It is insulting that she has publicly claimed that women look “semi-average” if they are not “dressed up”. Women have been repressed by the myth of what is seen as beautiful in accordance to men (see The Beauty Myth, Naomi Woolf) for so long and Sarah has completely bought into it. Women should be free to look how they want to look and not have to dress themselves up as somebody else. Not only this, but they should certainly not have to pretend to be somebody else in order to be successful within the business world. Lauren Riley, a solicitor specialising in family law, rightly objected to Sarah’s demand that the all-female team expose their legs and plaster themselves in lipstick in order to sell by exclaiming, “We’re serious business women!”

            The complications that lie within these sexist allegations now arise in the questioning of why Sarah felt this way. It is true that she does not give women a good name, and it is true that her ‘strategy’ was insulting and oppressing to women. However, she lives in a world where ‘beautiful’ women who are ‘portrayed’ as getting what they want, and I must emphasise they are only ‘portrayed’ as this, wear skimpy clothes and hide their ‘flaws’ with cover-up make-up. We are constantly told by the media that women need to dress up as dolls to look good and to fit into the role that they are supposed to undertake, as if being naturally who they are is not enough. We are fed lies that the women who take time and effort over their hair, nails and make up will be more likely to get what they want whether this is socially, academically, in their love life or, of course, in the business world. On top of this, we are taught that women who show signs of promiscuity are desirable, allowing them to take control over how they get what they want. In reality, whether this works or not, women should not be forced to become sexual objects, as Sarah is asking of her team, in order to be successful. The request is dehumanising and insulting, and something that would never have been asked of the male team. Sarah’s view of how a woman can gain success simply reflects the world that she lives in. The world that I live in, and the world that you live in. What needs to change, fundamentally, is the viewpoint of the rest of the world, not just of this BBC reality TV contestant. 

A week in Vegas and being kept prisoner in San Francisco

After our eventful trip to Mexico, we hired a car and drove from San Diego across the desert to Las Vegas. What started off as a relaxing and enjoyable drive towards the strip of dreams and flashing lights, turned into quite a stressful journey. About an hour into our what should have been 4 hour drive, a mud guard from a lorry flew full pelt into our car window screen as Nathan was driving and cracked the entire piece of glass from one end to the other. Thankfully, we had taken out $9 insurance that covered us for roadside aid and so within 3 hours we had a new car with no extra fees and could carry on with our journey to Vegas. Thankfully we managed to pull over outside a Wendy's where we were given free drinks to keep us hydrated and were able to munch on burgers for lunch ;) We also sunbathed outside on a patch of grass because it was just so hot.

We were greeted by Vegas as we drove down the highway in the dark towards our home for the week. Bright flashing lights, loud music and hundreds of moving posters surrounded us as we settled ourselves into our very cheap and very fancy hotel. The hotel that we stayed in, The Royal Resort, was just off the strip, and because of this it was the cheapest accommodation that we had stayed in since arriving in America, and probably the nicest. As we had the car, we took advantage and drove down the strip to a supermarket and topped up on food for the week. We passed many chapels where I assume a lot of drunk couples get married after winning a bit of money on the slot machines, and the drivers were both impatient and crazy due to the sheer amount of cars on the road in one small area. I still find it fascinating how Vegas revolves around one long road where so many hotels are situated, and it's not technically even in Las Vegas, it's in "Paradise". We went to bed for the night, tired from the drive, and ready to explore the hotels in the morning. These hotels were unlike any I had ever seen before. On the first day we visited Luxur which was based on the ancient Egyptian pyramids, New York New York which had a roller coaster on top of it which had numerous 360 degree loops and overlooked the whole of Vegas, and Excalibur hotel which looked like a Disney Princess castle. All of the hotels were so extravagant and had almost everything that one would need inside them, including, of course, outrageously big casinos. 

It was almost unbearably hot for the whole time that we were in Vegas, and as you can see from this photograph, I was constantly having to drink as my mouth would just go dry after a while. A taxi driver told us that sometimes it gets up to 46 degrees and that the 32 degrees that it was while we were there was a nice and relaxing temperature. It was so hot most days that we spent the mornings by the pool, sunbathing and diving, and the afternoons and evening on the strip. On the first full day of our time in Vegas, we decided to get on the guestlist for a club in the Paris hotel where we got free entry and Heidi and I got free drinks until midnight because we were female. You cannot tell me sexism is dead because Vegas was appalling for it, although it worked to all four of our advantage. Girls almost always got into clubs for free and were given free drinks, and yet men would have to pay. Heidi and I, being the good Samaritans that we are, shared out our free drinks with Matt and Nathan so that they did not have to truly suffer for their gender ;) When we later inquired about a pool party with Calvin Harris as DJ, however, tickets for men were so much more than for women (at about $90 each instead of $30). 

So once we had signed up for the guestlist and visited a number of the hotels, we headed back to ours to get ready to party in the Eiffel Tower. When we go into the club I looked up to the ceiling and it was painted as the sky so that it felt as though we were outside. A statue of the Eiffel tower ran through the many stories of the hotel and up into the sky so that it really did seem like we were by the Eiffel Tower. We entered the club as if we were VIP and had to take a lift up from the first bar up to the main dancefloor and other bars. It was a great night out and Matt and I made lots of friends after Heidi and Nathan went home early. You can't really see me on the photograph below but you can see the statue Eiffel tower coming from the floor below and going up to the floor above. 

The next morning we went to Denny's, a cheap American Diner that sells burgers, pancakes, steak etc. We ended up visiting this Denny's 5 times during our 7-day stay here, and I think Matt, Heidi and Nathan actually went 6 times. After every visit, no matter how much of the portion first put in front of us had been eaten, we all felt as though we needed to be rolled out of the door. Any main meal could be made bigger by adding pretty much anything to it, including macaroni cheese, mashed potato, fried shrimp, cheese etc. I ended up always ordering a side of vegetables because I miss them so much! 

On another day, we managed to get on the guestlist for a pool part in Caesar's Palace, my favourite hotel on the whole strip, and the one used in the first and third Hangover film. Thankfully it was free for us to get in, due to our guestlist, as once we were inside we were told that to sit on any sunbed by the pool we would have to spend a certain amount on food and drink at the pol bar. The least comfortable type of bed had a minimum of $50 each to spend, and the most expensive was over $250. Obviously we politely set our towels down on the floor by the pool so we had no minimum to spend and ordered a bucket of 8 Coronas. To our horror, each Corona was $11, when we had spent $1 in Mexico. It was worth it to spend a day relaxing at the prestigious hotel and dipping in and out of the luxurious pool. All around us was blue sky and extravagant Roman-esque architecture and yet all I could envision was Mr Chow flying out of one of the bedroom windows with a jet pack on his back! We were served all day by skinny and tanned women in bright orange bikinis, and all chaos broke loose when one of the drunk guests showing off to a group of girls ordered the $1000 champagne bath as every member of staff got involved in walking (and sitting in) a wheelie bath full of bottles of champagne, squirting water out of water guns and wearing Mexican hats (?!). 

While we were in Las Vegas, Matt and I went to watch Penn and Teller and met them after the show! The hotel that they were performing in was not on the strip so we took a free shuttle bus across the freeway and spent an afternoon on the computerised blackjack table where we did not win any money but got many free drinks and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. When we got into the Penn and Teller Theatre (their show has been on for 13 years and so the theatre is named after them) we were greeted by a 2-man jazz band who announced that all members of the audience were to walk down to the stage and sign their names on an envelope and examine a box which Teller then magically appeared out of at the start of the show. As Matt and I were queuing to do these two things, the Englishman in front of me said to his son that the bassist of the band looked like Penn. I looked over my shoulder to the stage where the two magicians were, and realised that the bassist was in fact Penn. Once we had sat back down in our seats, Penn left the stage and got ready for the performance while the pianist carried on playing. 

Some of the tricks that they performed were incredible. The first one began with Penn picking a random lady out of the audience and asking her for her cellphone. He then got her daughter, who was also in the audience, to ring her phone so that her ring tone (Call Me Maybe) could be heard by everyone in the theatre. Penn and Teller then messed around with the phone, saying that they would put it in a cup at the front of the stage for safe keeping, but Penn threw the phone over the head of the lady and into Teller's hands, who in turn put it into a bucket that was hanging from the ceiling. That was the last time I saw the phone, and I kept my eye on the bucket the entire time that the trick was being done. Penn then asked the lady's daughter to ring her cellphone again, and a muffled version of Call Me Maybe could be heard somewhere in the theatre. We were told to all point at where we thought it was coming from, and most people pointed at the bucket, but others pointed at an area of the audience in the middle of the theatre. A spotlight then shone onto a man in the audience and Penn told him to reach under his chair and pick up the box that had been placed there. Different audience members then passed the box from row to row until it got to the stage where the lady picked it up and opened it under the instruction of Penn. Inside the box was a fish, clarified by the lady who said it smelt disgusting. Her daughter was then instructed again to ring the phone and Call Me Maybe was heard coming from the fish. I then watched Teller cut open the fish, blood and guts spilling everywhere, and retrieve the cellphone from its insides. The lady then took the cellphone to make sure it was hers, and she said it definitely was. Penn then told her that the way they did the trick was revealed by a video recording on the phone and she was only able to watch it after the show. I have no idea how they did it, it was so complex and truly fooled me. I need to look on youtube to see if the lady, or someone else from one of the shows, has uploaded the video anywhere online. 

Another trick that they did completely fooled me. Penn set up a table with a board behind it and walked behind the board where there was a camera which was projecting onto a big screen that the audience could see. He told us that he was going to get a member of the audience to hold the camera and film his slight of hand tricks so that we could watch him doing tricks close up and from the perspective of someone who was not involved in the performance. He then picked a member of the audience with "experience" in filming and he walked up to the front of the stage. This man seemed as though he may be drunk, as he almost stumbled to the stage, he wore quite baggy clothes and had greasy blonde hair. He looked like a typical American that you would see walking down the strip in Vegas but I remember thinking that Penn was going to regret choosing him as I thought he may ruin the trick. Anyway, Penn handed him the video camera and everything that he was filming was being projected onto the screen that the audience could see. This volunteer had the camera up to his eye the whole time that he could not see the screen and he could only see what he was looking at through the camera. Teller then popped up on the screen and told us (with a paper and pen of course, as he does not say anything) that this trick was not actually the trick that they were pretending to do. It was a trick within a trick. We then found out why as the volunteer filmed Penn turning toy cows into many toy cows and then vanishing again. What he could not see was Teller passing Penn more toy cows over the board behind the table and then taking the toy cows back over the board, making it seem to the volunteer that Penn was doing magic. From behind the board, Teller changed the tablecloth on the table and also changed the picture that was on the board by the table. This was hilarious for the audience as the volunteer was so amazed by the toy cow trick that he had not even noticed the tablecloth or the board. At the end of the trick Penn told the volunteer that he had not noticed these big things such as the tablecloth and the board, and as he told the volunteer that he has changed the board, he flipped it 360 degrees as if it were an old fashioned chalk board. As Penn flipped over the board, revealing nobody to be behind it as we though Teller was, the volunteer's hat and hair flew to the floor as Penn announced that he had changed the volunteer into Teller. The volunteer then turned round and low and behold he was Teller. 

There were other tricks in where they sawed their assistant in half, showing the audience how other magicians usually make their assistants bend their bottoms so that they only saw the part of the box where their assistant is not placed. They showed us what this looked like, revealing their assistant's folded body between the two boxes. They they used a chain saw to cut right through her body without the boxes being there and blood and guts spilled everywhere. Teller also performed the trick where he turned water into gold coins and Penn performed his nail gun routine. These were both on the Penn and Teller: Fool Us programme that was on in England. 

We were only supposed to stay in Vegas for 4 nights but we ended up staying for a week. It was a lovely mix of relaxing by the pool, going out at night, and seeing over the top buildings. We also went to the coca cola factory where you could pretty much get any flavour drink that you wanted. I got another cherry coke vanilla and remembered only to get a small as they are the same size as our larges in England, whereas Matt ordered one the size of his head! We also went out on another night out to Pure in Caesar's Palace where we left at 2am but kept ourselves occupied in the casinos and on the strip until 4am. Nobody ever sleeps in Vegas!

We took a 14 hour bus journey on the Greyhound from Las Vagas, back to LA, and then to San Francisco where we would be spending our next week. I was really looking forward to exploring San Fran as many people, including Anna, had told me what a quirky place it was. We arrived at our hostel, "The Amsterdam", and relaxed in our 4 bed room with en suite. Our hostels have been much better than in Asia, with hardly anything to complain about, but we have started paying around $28 per night which is slowly adding up to be quite a lot of money. The next day we woke up late, tired from waking up at 2 am the night before the catch the greyhound, and then took a walk down to the pier. I had not appreciated quite how hilly San Fran was until we went for this walk. You cannot walk for longer than 5 minutes before either walking up or down a hill, and for once there is no satisfaction in walking down one as you know in a few more minutes you will have to walk up one probably twice as steep - my nightmare! The pier was beautiful though, and we watched an artist balance rocks from the harbour on top of each other in what seemed to be impossible positions. There are trams that tavel around San Fran as a means of public transport and we walked past the turn table at the end of one of the tracks as we walked toward the pier. It was very windy and very cold and reminded us of Reading, it did not feel like we were in America! Standing on the pier enabled us to view the sinister Alcatraz island which we would be visiting in 2 days time and gave us a good view of the Golden Gate Bridge. 

The next day we walked through China Town and I bought some souvenirs and presents for those lucky enough to get some. It seems very strange to be thinking about going home after being away for so long, but we only have 3 weeks left now. I felt as though we were back in Asia again with the little shops that were packed full of trinkets and we stopped off in an Asian bakery to enjoy the extremely cheap food being sold. We had forgotten, however, how odd Asian food is in comparison to the English food that we are used to. I bought a chicken pie that had pastry that was too sweet for even me to eat. Nathan's pork turnover was also made with sweet pastry and he bought a beef roll that looked like it had brown mould on top of it. We then headed towards Pier 39 which is famous for the amount of sea lions that rest on the dock. The whole are smelt of fish and the only thing to be heard were the barking of the sea lions. They were so funny to watch as hundreds of them all fought to lie in the same place and they would just walk over each other in order to get a good spot to lie on. We saw 2 particular sea lions who were play fighting constantly which often resulted in one of them slipping off one of the docks and falling into the water with a splash. We all joked how they were the sea lion versions of Matt and Nathan as they are constantly fighting with one another. It turned out that the sea lions were in fact mating, and they were trying to attract one another by performing a sea lion mating dance. Definitely Matt and Nathan! 

We then walked along the pier which was filled with restaurants and sweet shops. I was shocked, again, at all of the American food as I found a packet of bacon and maple syrup crisps, buckets and buckets of taffy that were flavoured by every flavour you could possibly imagine, and the world's biggest gummy bear. They also sell a lot of clam chowder in bowls made out of bread rolls, but I am yet to determine what the difference between chowder and soup actually is. 

The walk back to the hostel, as always in San Fran, was cold and very hilly, but also enjoyable. I was excited when I went to sleep that night as we were going on a tour around Alcatraz the next day! We arrived at the pier ready to board our ferry in the pouring rain, this, however, made the trip all that more exciting as it was dark and gloomy, much like Alcatraz. Once we got off the ferry and into the prison I was in my element. We walked past rows and rows of tiny cells where some prisoners had spent 30 years of their lives. We learnt about famous criminals who had been imprisoned for serious crimes such as The Birdman and Al Capone. We also learnt how 3 prisoners escaped the prison, which is over a mile away from San Fran mainland, by using spoons to carve away the stone surrounding the vents in their rooms over a period of about a year. They then squeezed out of these holes and into the corridor running behind the cells that contained all of the pipes for the prison. They climbed the pipes up onto the roof of the prison and jumped into the sea. This was the last time that these prisoners were seen, and nobody knows if they survived the cold and vicious sea back to San Fran or if they died during their escape. In Alcatraz, there are Wanted posters for these 3 prisoners with photographs of what they think they now look like on them. 

One of the former prisoners of Alcatraz visited on the day that we were there to do a book signing for his book about his time in the prison. He was only jailed for bank robbery and had changed his life around, but now he was back in the prison where he had spent a significant part of his life locked away. I can only imagine how strange that must be. He said that he had never seen the Warden's office before as it was strictly off limits to any inmate, and the only time he was able to see what it looked like was when he came back to the prison as a visitor. As we walked around the prison we saw the dining room where the inmates were made to eat pretty much in silence 3 times a day, the place where they were allowed to talk to close family members who had come to visit them, and the prison cells of the serious criminals who were kept in isolation and had to live in the dark. The whole place was so sinister and yet it echoed of the life that it had once contained. 

We then went to Angel Island as part of our tour, but it was so cold and wet, as well as being so badly run, that I could only laugh at our situation and look forward to getting under the covers in my bed! The island was pretty much deserted as only 25 people lived on it, and it would have been very beautiful in the sunshine. We drove past some old buildings that were used during the war, including a chapel, and the hospital used to contain people who needed to be quarantined after catching illnesses. 

Our next day was spent exploring the main city of San Fran as we wandered around the shops and spent most of the afternoon at The Cheesecake Factory hoping that Penny from The Big Bang Theory would show up. I ordered a macaroni cheeseburger (only in America) and bought a chocolate mousse cheesecake which was the bet cheesecake I have ever had!

We then took a crazy and bumpy tram ride to Fisherman's Wharf where we looked around the markets and climbed a hill to see the zig zag hill which is so steep that the road is zig zagged rather than straight. Heidi and I also visited a very American diner which looked like something from Pulp Fiction. I had a 'grilled cheese' which was so cheesy it was unreal! 

The guys left early yesterday morning to go to Denver and Heidi and I are waiting patiently for our flight to Hawaii where we will be spending the next week! We unfortunately woke up to find that our flight had been cancelled but we have now been put on another one for this evening. We are so excited to go!

USA: Hollywood, San Diego and Mexico

So we arrived in LA having technically been in New Zealand, Fiji, and America all within 24 hours due to the time difference. My head could not get around and for once we were behind England in time, being 8 hours difference. We got a cab from LAX (I was so excited!) to our hostel where a group of 20-30 year old men had placed themselves outside to smoke and drink. We got there way past check in time, about 12.30 am, and were greeted by a very intoxicated "handyman' who was on duty for the night. We later found out that he basically ran the place as the manager only visited the hostel between 5- 10 pm. That was a first for us, and we have stayed at many many hostels. The "handyman" was called Nick, and he had no computer system to find our booking (or the email we had sent to inform them that we would be checking in late) and so we were offered the "Moroccan room" as there were no beds available. We walked up the grimy set of stairs into the upstairs hallway and looked right, as instructed, at the Moroccan room. Which, as the room gives no allusion to, was actually just the hallway. So with it being so late, and it being a Sunday when all shops and hostels close early, we decided to take up the offer seeing as we would actually get a roof above our heads and a mattress, unlike the times where we have slept at the airport. During the night the others were disturbed by a number of incidents (I, being a heavy sleeper, was only disturbed once) including one person throwing up and someone skyping a family member in the Moroccan room. We were very unhappy with hostel, as you can imagine, it was disgustingly dirty and I refused to shower for the whole 4 nights that we stayed there because it made me feel sick to go into the bathrooms. We managed to get the first night for free, as you would expect, and then ended up staying in an RV in the back garden for $20 each.

Looking back, we really should have refused at that price, especially because Nathan and Heidi were basically sharing a single bed in there. But, again, it was warm and we all managed to get to sleep. The manager had not even checked his bookings and so had no idea that we were coming. When we asked him to check there was proof of the booking and of the email we sent, I just think they were not used to receiving bookings because their reviews were so bad that they had stopped looking. The one good thing about the hostel was how close it was to Hollywood, as not many affordable places were, and we made the most of it on the first day.
I think day 1 in LA was my favourite day of travelling so far. We woke up pretty late because of the jet lag, and after a quick discussion about whether to stay in the hostel for the next few nights or not, we begrudgingly left our luggage in the Moroccan room and took a 10 minute trip on the metro into town. We were greeted by dozens of salesmen attempting to get us onto their tours of Hollywood. I am so used to ignoring salesmen now that I usually don't even listen to what they say, but I was caught off guard when one of them told me that I could see Miley Cyrus' house. I was sold. Unfortunately, as is always the way, Miley does not even live in LA anymore so I didn't get to see her house. I think I was more upset about the fact that I couldn't rub it in Tom's face (yes you!) that I had parked outside of her house, than actually seeing it. However, the tour was well worth the $20 that we paid as we got a drive to the Hollywood sign, our photos taken by the funniest driver ever, a tour around celebrities' houses in Beverly Hills, and a drive down Rodeo Drive where Julia Roberts gets taken to shop in Pretty Woman. I felt like a child at Christmas I was just so excited by what I was seeing. On the windy road to the Hollywood sign we saw "Cinderella's" house, with massive turrets and a fairytale style design, 'The Wizard of Oz's" house which had a sparkling yellow brick road leading all the way to the front door, and a house that had mushrooms as the roof. In Beverly Hills we saw a house that was designed for a film set and was officially called The Witch's House. Horton Hears a Who was filmed there and it looked like something straight out of a fairytale. Nobody lives in the house, it is just for filming purposes and it was positioned on the street as if this was a normal thing!

When driving around Beverly Hills, our amazing tour guide downloaded Weezer's 'Beverly Hills' track and we saw the sights whilst singing along very loudly to the song. In Beverly Hills we saw a number of different celebrities' houses including Ellen DeGeneres' (who I have been watching a lot of since being in Australia and here in the US), Gene Simmons', Jennifer Aniston's old home, Micheael Jackson's (1), the Playboy Mansion, Ringo Star's, Marilyn Manroe's and Lauren from The Hills'. My favourite house was Versace's (2) which was made out of real marble and was absolutely huge. 

(1) Michael Jackson's house

(2) Versace's house

The rest of the day was spent consuming our first greasy American meal from a build-your-own-burger restaurant and walking along the Walk of Fame. We spent hours looking at all the celebrities who had stars on the Walk of Fame and took photos with the hand and foot imprints that many had made outside the Chinese Theater.

Johnny Depp's hand prints

So went back to the hostel and slept in the RV, ready to spend the day with Auntie Mary (Nathan's family friend) who lives in Hamosa Beach in LA. We took a 2 hour train ride to see her, and spent the afternoon eating New York style pizza, napping on the beautiful beach that was surrounded by 14 year old brats who seemed to have walked straight off the tv show The Hills, and went for dinner at Auntie Mary's wonderfully expensive and impressive house. She made us sausages and mash in an English fashion and practically through free goodies fir our travels at us. This fun and indulgent day, however, was followed by the scariest moment of the whole trip. Our 2 hour train journey back to our RV consisted of a few changes in places on the way to downtown LA. We had already experienced a drug dealer selling drugs on the train to Auntie Mary's, and that was in broad daylight, so we knew what to expect. We kept our heads down and did not look anybody in the eye for the whole journey. The places we stopped in reminded me of the places that "Cake" from "A piece of Cake" by Cupcake Brown had lived in, and although I was extremely nervous to be in these places, I was actually glad to see a side of America that I had often read about and imagined. So during one of the stop offs we had to wait 30 minutes for the next train and walked down the wrong set of stairs to the platform that we needed. As we walked down we were greeted by a big group of men, I cannot say how many were there as I was forcing myself not to look at them, but they were spread out on the platform, watching our every move, most of them with a bottle in one hand and a smoke in the other. As we got to the bottom of the stairs, we asked a train attendant directions to our platform and after telling us that we needed to walk past the intimidating group of men that we had just walked past he added "please be careful guys." Brilliant. His words that were meant as both a warning and a kindness scared me half to death and I could not get them out of my head as I practically ran across the original platform and over to the other side. You'll be glad to know that we made sure to do no more late night journeys across LA. As we got off the metro at the stop by our hostel, we were greeted by a rather odd transsexual who Heidi and I had briefly met the night before. We were drawn to her attention as she started singing extremely loudly through the metro station and exclaimed "yummy yummy in my tummy" at Heidi's legs as she stood on the step behind Heidi. This was not the strangest part about this meeting. I politely exchanged small talk with her as we had met her before and she was staying in the same place as us, during which, she skipped off in front of us and had a very heated debate with somebody who was not there. This is just an example of the sort of people that we met in LA as we rarely went anywhere without seeing someone dancing on the train or wearing a tight fairy outfit when they really did not have the figure to do so. It really was a crazy place. 

We then moved to a motel near Venice Beach for a couple of nights as we could not wait to leave the hostel. This was the nicest and most expensive place that we had stayed in by far and took full advantage of it. We went to Venice Beach where we watched a brilliant street dance group who made the point to "joke about racism because racism is a joke". They were very good and very funny and also pointed out that they were doing the show to stop themselves from doing many other not so legal things on the street. We then walked to Santa Monica pier and enjoyed the gym playground on the sand and a couple of beers at a very American pub. We then went on our first proper supermarket trip and went crazy. They have food that I have never seen in America, such a birthday cake flavour oreos and poptarts, microwavable breakfast bowls of egg, cheese, bacon and potato, and 6 layered dips for crisps. On top of that, everything was enlarged by at least 50%. The day after, we went to the Griffith Observatory where we got an amazing view of the whole of LA, sat through a talk about how to make your own meteorite and watched a demonstration on how to create lightning. Being cheap backpackers, we walked all the way up to the Griffith Observatory (which was high up hence being such a good view point) to save a few bucks on a cab, which I was not happy about. 

Santa Monica

We then took a bus to San Diego where we stayed in the best hostel that we have stayed in so far. We got a free breakfast of pancakes or cereal every morning and on one night we got a free dinner. We were in a 4 bedroom dorm, which we always love, and the toilets had a hair dryer! We spent the first day exploring San Diego, a small and quirky city that was much cleaner and safer than LA. It was lovely to go back to feeling safe as I walked around and not being interrupted by strange people trying to make it famous. On our second day we went to a baseball game and San Diego won which was lovely to experience. The game itself was a bit repetitive and I got free WiFi in the stadium so I spent a lot of it on WhatsApp rather than watching the game. I did see the home runs though and many people watching catch the ball when it was hit into the stands. I then went to get some new vans which were much cheaper here than they would be in England. When we went back to the hostel to have our free dinner, 3 of the friends that we had made at the hostel sat with us and told us that they were going to Mexico for the day in the morning. We jumped at the chance as we thought it would be a great experience and I prepared myself for a relaxing day lying on the beach in the sun. The train journey to the border took only an hour and we walked through the border without even having our passports checked. We were met on the Mexican side by hefty patrol officers with guns bigger than any I had ever seen before (and I mean real guns not muscles!). I was so shocked at the qualifications needed to get into the country as it was so easy, but was then met with a queue of people wanting to enter America which went on as far as I could see. Knowing what was in store for us on our way back through the border, we headed to the beach in a taxi that let 8 of us into one normal 5 seater car. The beach was a let down as it was pretty windy and not very nice looking, and so we headed into the centre of Tijuana and sat ourselves down in a few pubs. A corona cost us 59p and the food was just as cheap. It was like being back in Asia for the day as we soaked up the rays on the balcony and took advantage of the free nachos that we were given. Trucks of policemen drove past, each holding large guns as they were on patrol, and owners stood outside of their restaurants begging us to go in. We managed to get ourselves free shots of tequila which was a bonus, although I very nearly threw up as I can never shot alcohol. We left the restaurant that we ate in for £3 each at 5 pm and managed to get back into the US at 8 pm, spending all of this time standing up in a queue. The officer checking my passport and letting me back into the country asked me what I was bringing back with me, as in what I was taking into America, but I didn't understand what he meant and said I didn't know. He then turned to the officer next to him who was checking somebody else's passport and they both laughed at me, saying over and over "she doesn't know what she's taking back in". He then waved me through as if I was an idiot, but because I was English he has no questions. I then had my apple confiscated as I walked through the security x-ray because I was not allowed to take fruit from Mexico into America. As all this was going on, there was an increasing line forming of Mexicans who were applying for a visa to just visit America that lasted only 30 days and allowed them only to travel within 25 miles of the border. Most of them looked as though they were ready to camp there for the night as the queue was so long and at a standstill. It's crazy what advantages being English can have.