When the 3 Toronto girls asked me this morning where I was from, I barely mumbled a hardly audible "Australia".
I've found myself back in Venice Beach, staying at this pretty hip hostel on the beach. I am not at all ashamed to be an Australian, however, being at this hostel makes me feel as if I am back in Sydney. I would say that at least 75% of the occupants in the hostel are from Australia, tonnes from Sydney (I was hanging out with some peeps from Cronulla and Baulkham Hills yesterday). When I left over 6 weeks ago I was expecting to have the hunky Australian card in my arsenal, but in this hostel I just blend in... sort of.
This leads me to the title of this post; Coachella? I know I am not the hippest, partiest coolest dude around but apparently I must have been sleeping under a rock. When I first heard "Coachella" the other day I asked "Where is that?". As it turns out, it's a HUGE 4 day festival where you camp out and probably smoke, pop and crackle everything in sight.
Happiest tourist in San Fran.
Simon, my new travel bestie is keen to go (they had the first gig last weekend and another this weekend, or something like that?) 90,000 people - majority Australians, apparently. I considered it. We can purchase rather cheapish tickets on Craigslist for a few hundred dollars, but I am not that keen, so no thank you.
PLUS the reason for me being so inactive with my entries is because I have been hibernating in the woods with bears, snow and a bag full of dirty, dirty sock & undies. Lets go over the past week of extraordinary events, shall we?
Last Thursday I set out with Victoria, Simon and a lady named Maxine from Melbourne (She basically lost all her stuff, drivers licence included and needed a ride - she is 47, from Melbourne - Go away Australia!). Victoria and I went to pick up our little camper van from Fisherman's Wharf at around noon whilst Simon sorted out a temporary passport because it was stolen two nights before, remember? Our van was beautiful... until I crashed it. Yep, I had my first car crash and man did I shit a brick! I can't imagine how everyone else felt, but it wasn't pretty.
No one was hurt!
I had just put a full tank of gas in and I was driving through downtown San Fran, going to pick Simon up so we could get out of the city and in touch with nature! (By the way, our destination was Yosemite National Park). But within 45 minutes of receiving the swanky new hire van, I ended up side swiping another van... great!
So that was an interesting start to our little road trip. Fortunately Victoria and I mutually agreed when we paid for it that we would also take out the full comprehensive insurance package. There was no excess and I had to pay another $40 for some more insurance on our new van.
After waiting in horrendous traffic for about an hour we (Victoria) drove over the Bay bridge and we were off! I think got out of San Fran at approximately 5:30pm. My bad.
The following four days were some of the most amazing in my life. In particular on the Saturday. Simon, Vic and I did a 6 and a half hour hike up one of the mountains and it was friggan... COLD! But amazing. Truthfully I was expecting to rock up, swim in beautiful rivers and do some hiking in great conditions but in the end it was just an abundance of snow, rain, fires, getting lost, marshmellows and other little tid bits. I bellowed "I LOVE MY LIFE" numerous times on the mountain.
Another highlight of the trip to Yosemite was driving in. Because we were arriving so late, darkness eventually consumed our bubbly van and it started to snow, heavy! We had to pull over because we did not have snow chains at that point and it was to dangerous. We were going to camp by the side of the road, but in the end a snow plow cleared the road and we rolled down to a very small motel and slept in the parking lot (The manager was not impressed or happy the following morning!)
Shifty looking drive... No exaggeration.
B-E-A-UTIFUL!
6.5 hour mammoth hike. Nearly at the top!
Great view from the top...
There are some photos from the park. We left on Sunday (the van had to be returned Monday morning at 10am in LA). We dropped Maxine off in a little city, she had to carry on to Vegas. The three musketeers then headed west... You want to know why? This is why...
Yep, we cruised down highway 1. It was beautifully ravishing! I am such a sucker for all this natural scenery and I must say that I am immensely impressed with parts of America.
In the end, we dropped the van off at about 5:30pm on Monday arvo. The trip was done without a GPS, just maps and intuition. Getting lost is seriously fun, and besides, how else are you supposed to find yourself if you never get lost?
We were not charged anything extra for the late drop off. $1 got us on a bus where we were pretty much celebrities and it was back to the hostel for a free dinner (black beans, rice and veggies - I like!)
Did I mention where I currently am? Well right now I am actually sitting outside a starbucks, mooching their wifi. I came to the realisation that I don't write my best, or at all when I am distracted by other travels, or in a noisy environment (derr, good one dickhead). Oh I did state where I was. Nice.
Round 2 in Venice Beach is proving to be immense fun. I must give a special mention to my new brother, from another mother. Simon is from Cornwall, England. He is 21 as well. He smokes like a chimney and drinks more beer (or any alcohol) than water. He hates exercise, thinks I am "hippe-ass vegetarian douche". We met in Portland, Oregon and since then have had some super-phun times. It is great to have a dude friend, who despite the surface differences, is very similar to you. Last night we got back home at about 4am. I rolled out of bed at 8am, love it! He is still in bed now, I think (it is 11:15am). Like I said in my last, brief post... I am really enjoying this young, wild and free thing.
Anyhow, I am incredibly tired, lacking essential vitamins and minerals and a tad dehydrated. I already jumped in the chilly pacific this morning freshen up and now I am going to go purchase some very expensive, but fulfilling vegetables and whip up a big plate of colour! Then it is laundry time (I have no clean socks, undies or... pretty much anything). Simon and I will then probably decide on where we are going tomorrow (check out!). Possibly the Grand Canyon, then onto Austin, Texas? Who knows what tomorrow will bring...
I haven't been to worried about much lately. I even forgot about important papers that need to be attended too before I commence Summer Camp. I should probably head back to Canada soon. For now though, I believe that is everything up to date.
All in all, life as I know it right now, is a beach. I am loving the California weather.
How can I love my life more than I do right now?
