Los Estados Unidos

So America.... I was there for 5 weeks. After Los Angeles i got the bus up to San Francisco where I spent 5 days checking out the city and the golden Gate Bridge and, for a couple of days recovering from illness. San Francisco was vastly different and much better than Los Angeles, it wasn't intersected with freeways, it wasn't a sprawling mess and you could walk around the city quite happily. I did however enjoy Los angeles despite my little rant.

After San Francisco began, what can only be described as a legendary bus trip that over the course of 2 weeks took me (and 27 others) all the way from SF on the South Pacific Coast, to Boston on the North Atlantic Coast. That's a journey of roughly 5,500 miles, most of which was covered whilst we slept on the bus.

The bus we travelled on was an old Greyhound bus that had been retrofitted so that during the day it had 2 'sofas' for maybe... 8-10 people at the front than 2 tables each side (4 in total) in the middle with seats either side, and then the same set up in the back as at the front. However the back was usually left in night mode, so one big king size bed, which enable people to sleep top-to-tail.

Over the 2 weeks we saw a crazy amount of stuff, Valley of Fire NP, Las Vegas, Canyon de Chelley, Grand Canyon, Zion NP, Big Bend NP, White Sands, City of Rocks, Mexico (we swam the Rio Grande), Austin, New Orleans and Washington DC. The tempo was pretty mental, with the exception of 4 nights where we were able to camp out under the stars (this involved a ground sheet, cushions from the bus and out sleeping bags) we were driving every night for anything from 7 to 11 hours, during which we slept. I usually slept at the front of the bus which meant 7-8 people sleeping on an area the size of a king size bed, it was brilliant.

Although, the trip was perfect for what i wanted, we saw loads of cool places, most of which i wouldn't have been able to reach on my own, i got to travel with w massive group of awesome people, and had a superb time.

It finished in Boston where i spent 5 days and I then got the bus down to my final destination, New York. NY was a great place to finish my trip, it's a great city to walk around with loads of cool districts like Little Italy, Soho and Chinatown. It also has all the world famous landmarks, Time Square, Empire State building, Chrysler building, Statue of Liberty and many more. it was fantastic.

So almost exactly 10 months after leaving the UK i returned, having had a bloody good time!!