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Hello!

It has been awhile I know… I’m almost feeling too lazy to even bother writing about my latest adventures!

Currently situated in Vancouver, back at my mums friends place with Jo. I’m havin’ a lazy, lazy day which feels so good. Watching tele, doing washing, sleeping and not a lot more! Yay! It’s been so long since I’ve done this… can’t remember when the last time was – ages prior to leaving Big White.

Hopefully, I’ll get a few more restful days in before this months over =)

Anyway… After Seattle, which was amazing! We travelled via train (26 hours or something) to Sacramento. We both had never really planned to stop there but as the train ride was SO long we thought we’re break it up a bit! In the end I was super glad to have stopped there. It’s the Capital of California – where Arnie works most of the time! We were there on a Sunday so it was a bit strange – the city was sooooo dead. We stayed in the most beautiful hostel I think I’ve ever stayed in. It was an old mansion that they had renovated and kept in pristine order! We were the only people in the hostel other than one huge group of Republicans from all over California. So it was a strange but nice experience! I went to Capitol Hill and we had a tour of the building which was wicked. The lady who did our tour was quite hilarious as she had some very strong viewpoints on politics in the US and wasn’t afraid to make them known hahaha… good times.

So the next day we were back on the train. The train rides were really nice and quite beautiful at times. We went through the mountains, and even saw some snow, on our way to Sacramento. We always got them quite early (like 5am) so it was interesting and nice way to see in the mornings, but it did mean we had quite a lack of sleep. Anyway, we spent all day on the train and bus and arrived in Santa Barbara about 430pmish.

Santa Barbara was amazing. The houses were just like you would imagine. Mediterranean massive places settled upon the hills looking over the beach. It was so cool. The bus ride took us through Saint Louis Obispo… which was the most lovely place I’d probably seen since heading down the coast. We were lucky as it even stopped at the University of California there and it was interesting to see. I think this was the first stage we looked out the window and were like ‘THEY’RE WEARING THONGS! AND SHORTS! AND SINGLETS!’ The bus was freeeeezing so it’s hard to imagine the lovely weather!

We spent just one night in SB and hired a little two person bike thing to cycle along the beach. We saw quite a few typical situations – volleyball on the beach, rollerbladers on the sidewalk and lots of plush cars driving by =p It was quite the ‘California dreaming’ stereotype’ and wasn’t the last time we found ourselves in that situation!

So… next stop was Disneyland. We caught the train all the way to Anaheim and then taxi to the magical kingdom! Now, some people had told me that I was crazy to go at such an ‘old’ age! But, it was soooo wicked! I had the best time! We went to both parks – they have a new-ish one called California now – and it was just incredible. I went on scary roller coasters that I never thought I’d go on =P And did silly things like meet Mary Poppins!!! How coooool is that people – I met Mary Poppins!!!

After a day in Disneyland we headed back to Hollywood where we met up with a the people I was heading out to Coachella with. (Kiwi, Andy and Michael). The boys had been in San Fran so we had a chilled night catching up with all the Goss and ridiculous situations that three guys seem to get themselves into!

Next day was Hollywood, LA time. As we only had a day we did a bus tour of LA, Hollywood, Santa Monica/Venice Beach etc. The dude who was a tour guide was a real twat and at times I wanted to slap him around the head. But, ah well, you get that ey? He took us around Hollywood, up to the sign, to the beach – including Venice beach muscle beach, around sunset strip and rodeo drive. He also took us to all these houses – that were supposedly the houses of stars. Not too sure if I believe him, but either way it sort of rubbed me the wrong way =/ I don’t think you should encourage such star spotting. He seemed to think that the stars don’t mind the ‘fans’ just the paparazzi! Whatever…

So… the next day was Anzac Day! Hurrah! I parted ways with Jo (☹) and headed out to Indio with the boys. What a bloody disaster I tell you! We got to the Hollywood Greyhound Station and everyman, woman, cousin and dog was there waiting to get on a bus! Ba bawm! Luckily, we got on the bus and made it to LA. But, not before the other ten thousand people got there. So, like good little people we stood in line and waited, and waited. We missed one bus and got another so it wasn’t too bad. I suspect some people were still there hours and hours later…

Luckily, the lovely bus driver decided that he’d take us all the way to Coachella. The stop is quite a hike from the festival and it was SO HOT. Like high 90*F (this didn’t change either). So we hit the campground about 4:30pm and up our tents went!

So… the first night was pretty lax. Didn’t do a lot. We did realise however that beer cost $7 – that’s $7US folks. You do the conversion. It’s a complete rip! And this was INSIDE the campground. We could only imagine what it would cost inside the event. We also noticed that security barely padded us down and that we’d have a high chance of getting beer in for the evening! So begun the stealth mission of sneaking beer in – along with water and a bunch of food. We were allowed water etc just not the alcohol.

We succeed – like any good Australian…

We had a quiet-ish night and got to know our neighbours the first night. We had a foursome of Canadians on one side and a heap of Irish on the other! It was a really international crowd – quite exciting really =)

Friday morning we woke up an early 7:00am. Uh yes, the joy of tenting I guess. The sun was up and so were we …. And the rest of the campground. The heat was already beaming down and was easily in the high 30’s. Oh dear…!!! This is when we realised there was ZERO shade. No tree’s and no tents big enough to give us anything. So we sat about sculling water and chillin’. We went into the event about 2pm that day and by midnight we were all exhausted. The heat seriously takes it out of you!!!! But, we saw Artic Monkeys, Bjork, DJ Shadow, Interpol, Peeping Tom (amazing), Stephen Marley, a bit of Peaches and a bit of heaps of others…

So… Saturday, 7am. Wakey wakey! Now we got clever! We went to the shops down the road (one girl had a car) and bought like 3 cases of water, 2 cases of beer, 1 litre of a range of liqueurs and enjoyed the air con of the shops while doing it =) So, this time we set off into the concert later – about 5pmish. Vodka in tow and lots of water had been downed prior to entering. We had also bought an umbrella cheap to give us some shade. It would have been quite amusing to watch the five of us move around this thing all day as the shade moved. We also hung out in this covered area they called a bar for a little while and I had an in-depth discussion with one of our Irish neighbours about the state of Irish politics and the feminist movement!! Amazing…

Again, another star filled line-up meant there was a bit of running about! Managed to catch all the Chilli’s – who were down right fantastic. I swarmed into the pit for about three songs but after way to much touching, pushing, kicking, falling and sweating we moved back to enjoy the warm but cool feeling breeze on our sweaty backs! I also saw some of Arcade Fire and a heap of others… they all blur now=)

Sunday was cool. We knew what was going on, and how to handle it all. I missed Lupe Fiasco, unfortunately, as he was on sooo early and the heat would’ve killed me by the time Rage were on. And it was a HUGE DAY line-up wise. In no order I saw… Pendulum, Placebo, Air, Crowded House (sooooo freaken good), RATM (not as good as hoped), the roots (fantastic!!) and heaps more. I also saw Kings of Leon over the weekend who were also really good.

So there you have it. That was Coachella. Next story starts with the sweltering heat, a major three-day hangover and a broken car in the desert outside of Arizona… but I’ll leave you all in suspense ey?

Meanwhile, I hear the eagles are still the kings of AFL. My life is going back to saving as I’m literally on my last $35 Canadian until I get paid next. Oh life is good hahaha.

Oh, and my flights got changed. I was meant to be flying home on may 25th. Its now October 18th…. So maybe I’ll make it home for a birthday bash? Probably not… but I’ll keep you all wondering =P

Love ya, miss ya, will get some emails sent sooon….. I’m still so exhausted..

Xoxoxo peace