Lifestyle of the rich and famous LA LA land

Being abroad sometimes has a down side. My down side was that my birthday was approaching and I didn't really have that many friends to celebrate with. The friends I have made here are great don't get me wrong, but for me my birthday needed to be spent with people who knew my story, who knew what made me really happy.

So on this one random day, a few weeks before my birthday, my friend Louis and I have one of our vacation planning Skype sessions. These are sessions where we choose a location and shop the Internet for the best bargains for traveling and hotels. And so we start planning our weekend trip to Los Angeles, California. We were going to fly in on Friday, spent Saturday (my birthday) at Universal studios , and then if we could squeeze it in we would go to Santa Monica, Venice and Malibu beach. "Let's REALLY do it" Louis said to me and at first I was like "Well okay" but in my mind I knew he would never actually do it. What you have to remember is that Louis lives in Canada and he is only a student. But Louis was very serious about this trip.

So on May 27 I was on a plane to LA and my dear friend would await my arrival as he was already there. As fate would have it a high school classmate of ours had just moved to the States a few weeks before and guess where he was located? Torrence, California. Two is a company and three my dear friends is a party!

So on Saturday morning we got up early and headed out to Universal Studios. We had front of the line passes and it felt like we were VIP. We didn't have to wait in line for any of the shows or rides. In fact we had our own entrance and we went on some of the rides twice while some people were still waiting in line! We got to do everything were some people could do maybe one or 2 things. My favorite part was the studio tour. We got to the entrance and there was a 2hour wait BUT because of our special passes we could go straight through and we didn't even have to wait for 2seconds! We declared the Simpson 4D ride the winner of the day and in close 2nd was The Mummy. I'll admit that my eyes were closed for the entire ride the first time but my second time was amazeballs!

So after our Universal experience we hit up the town and went down to Hollywood blvd to go see all the stars, theatres and Hard rock cafe. I was a little disappointed in the stars because they look so glamorous in movies but it's pretty dirty in real life however the Kodak and Chinese theatres are beautiful. After stopping for a picture infront of a hostel (for the boys) we headed back to our hotels.

On Sunday we took the bus to Santa Monica. I wanted to go there because I like going places I've seen on TV and in movies. It was beautiful and even though the wind was crazy it was a dream come true to walk on the beach and see the pier up close. We then walked to Venice beach and what we saw here can not be explained. Weird people, ugly people, hot people, crazy people, smelly people, old people, homeless people, rich people, you name them they were there! Some of them high as a kite. We put our toes in the water and it was freezing cold and after that we checked out what we like to call "hippy beach party". We even paid a hobo to take a picture of him. That night as we went back to our hotels a fit of the giggles came over us and there was lots of laughter and videos made (private content).

All in all this was the best birthday of my life so far! And I spent it with 2 awesome friends who I adore. We are currently planning our next trip for my big 21st birthday. Can you say SinCity??

Life is a beach I'm just playing in the sand

It's Springbreak 2011 and the fam and I are heading to Destin, Florida... by car! Yes, we were driving from Virginia to basically the gulf of Mexico. We made an overnight stop in South Carolina and then the journey continued. I don't mind long distance traveling by car, but trust me when I tell you that teenagers and pre-teenagers do.

We arrived at the Emerald hotel and walked into a beautiful condo. The livingroom had big windows and a balcony to enjoy the beautiful view that the beach has to offer. We changed clothes and went out to enjoy some local cuisine. We found a very nice seafood restuarant and had a delicious meal. I also tried fried green tomatoes for the first time and it was delish!

We literaly had to walk out the door, down the stairs, past the pool, and then we were on the beach. I though places like these existed only on the pages of magazines but here i was on the whitest sand in the world. If you want to fry an eyeball then don't wear sunglasses because the sand will blind you. The ocean was crystal clear blue and green and the waves quite small compared to the South African waves. I even saw dolphines, while enjoying my morning coffee on the balcony, one morning.

My favorite part of the trip was seeing the sunset. The whole beach turns red/ orange/ yellow. The night we went out on the beach to see it, it also happened to be a full moon. While the sun was setting on the one side the moon was rising over the ocean. It was truely beautiful. Unfortunately, this was also the night that I learned my host mom had to go to Iraq for 6months. I didn't know what to say and honestly I was scared.

After a great and relaxing week, we took on the 16hours again and this time drove it all in one day. Ofcourse we had to have some car trouble first, but luckily it was just an airconditioning malfuntion :) Till next time travellers