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I’m home! I arrived back in Heathrow on September 3rd. It was an amazing trip but it’s really good to be home again. I’m moving to Nottingham on Tuesday so it’s been quite a hectic week of arriving and leaving again. I will write about Canada and the USA some time so check back, but to summarise, I went to: Montreal, The Laurentians, Quebec City, Toronto, Boston, Weymouth(!), Newport, Washington and, finally, New York. There were many highlights, but probably the top one was going to the US Open and sitting in the front row to see Roddick play a night match: an unbelievable atmosphere.

A Little Bit of California

So I’ve now actually left New Zealand. I had a fantastic three weeks there, catching up with old friends and making new ones. I don’t have time to write about all of it now, but I do have time to write about my 72 hour stopover in California instead.

I arrived in Los Angeles early in the morning, left my bag at the train station and spent the day doing some sightseeing. I had a short walk around the centre of LA , which turned out to be pretty generic and boring. I wanted to seeing something unique, so I went to Hollywood instead. Hollywood was everything I expected it to be: tacky, touristy and, to be honest, one of the most dreadful places I have ever been. I took the obligatory photo of the letters and went star-spotting along the Walk of Fame, then left to catch my train towards San Diego.

I stayed at Encinitas, just outisde San Diego, with my second cousins. Like my cousins in Brisbane, this was the first time I had met them, and I had a really nice couple of days there. I went to San Diego to see its sights, and much prefered it to LA. It’s smaller and more walkable (although hardly anyone does…) and I found it more interesting too. I had a look around the historic Old Town then went to the centre for lunch in a Mexican cafe. I walked along the sea front then took the bus across the spectacular bridge to Coronado Island (actually a peninsula), home of the Hotel del Coronado. I can’t upload photos at the moment so here’s a photo I’ve borrowed instead.

Hotel Del Coronado

I went back to LA and spent my last day in Santa Monica, which is, I think, officially a separate city but practically a suburb of LA. Anyway, it’s a resort with a very nice beach so I had a pleasantly relaxing day there.

Two things struck me about California, or at least the little bits of it that I saw. First, I was surprised at how Spanish it is. I already knew about the place names, but on public transport, notices and adverts it’s practially a second official language. Second, loads of people ride around on these electric scooter things, especially in San Diego. I had only ever seen them before on TV, and I didn’t think any normal person would actually buy one, but they are almost more popular than walking.