San Francisco

Hey lovelies! We just had a marvelous time on our trip! We saw great cities, stunning beaches, different interesting landscapes and even a national park! After almost 3 amazing weeks of traveling I finally made it back to New Orleans.

I still owe you the pictures from our last stop though... San Francisco, what a colorful lively city!

Fishermen Wharf

Alcatraz

a cell in Alcatraz

a ride on the cable car

Santa Barbara, Malibu & Highway #1

Tuesday evening, Klaus and me arrived in Santa Barbara which is located around 1,5 car-hours north of L.A. Wednesday we drove to Malibu and spend some hours on the beach. You can’t imagine how hot it was, the ocean is pretty cold though! Most mansions here are just incredible!

 

 

The evening we spend exploring Santa Barbara. Unfortunately there isn’t a lot going on at the moment, probably because it’s off-season. 

Today, we drove up Highway #1 which runs directly on the coast. We stopped on a beach to watch seals and sea elephants. I was surprised how huge the sea elephants are, they weigh up to 3 tons! We heard that they return to the coast in December after a several month journey up to Alaska and back and then spend three months laying on the beach without eating, just sleeping and giving birth before getting pregnant again. 

L.A impressions

The guys and me started Monday with a car-tour through Beverly Hills to spot some celebrity houses for example Paris Hilton’s or Tom Cruise’s residence. In front of Leonardo DiCaprio’s house we didn’t see much except a big entrance door and the middlefinger of a security guard… ;) Afterwards we strolled around on Rodeo Drive, the famous shopping street located in Beverly Hills which is known for designer and luxury labels. Then we visited the UCLA campus (University of California, L.A).

streets of Beverly Hills

Rodeo Drive

 

In the afternoon we drove downtown and had lunch in Little Tokyo. In downtown there’s not much to see except skyscrapers. Hollywood is much more interesting!

Tuesday we participated in a Hollywood-Hills walking tour organized by our hostel which was great because they know exactly on which spots you get the best glance on the Hollywood sign. It is not allowed to go very close but we got a faboulous view, both on the sign and on almost whole L.A. It was really really impressing!

 

After checking out of the hostel, we went to Santa Monica beach which is another very nice beach. 

 

Santa Monica pier

News from L.A

Saturday, we visited the Universal Studios which is basically an amusement park but it gives you also a little inside in film making, including some classic sets and explanations about how special sound and visual effects are achieved. I really liked the Studio-Tour on which you see different filming locations, for example the Desperate Housewives one.

Desperate Housewives set

The New Years Eve we spent mostly in our hostel which is a really good one by the way (well with almost 40 bucks per night also the most expensive one I ever slept in…). We partied with a lot of young people from all around the world. That is the really great thing I love about hostels, there’s always a very nice international crowd and everyone is pretty laid-back and just loves traveling (and talking about it a lot :-) ). Shortly before midnight we went on the Hollywood Boulevard and crashed a Scientology-New Years Party (which we realized way too late…ooops! Haha). Fun night!

 

Sunday, we started pretty chilled into the New Year with a trip to the beach. We (or probably I…) chose to go to Redondo Beach because there are some filming locations of OC-California to visit. Since the boys were not in a condition to drive by noon, I put all my courage together and drove the car (hey imagine driving in L.A on a 8 track highway..!). Fortunately we arrived well and I was more than excited about having lunch in the OC-Diners!

Alex, Victor, Klaus & me