California Experience

Just a bit of a late update of what happened in the U.S.A. (It's been more than a week since I got back xD) It is certainly a different experience for first timers as you hear and see so much about it on T.V., news papapers and every other thing you can think of. You just have this impression and even expectations implanted in your mind and so as you look around, you naturally begin to put this mindset and real life side by side. This is when I discovered that you should go to the states with less expectation because a lot of the time, it is not what you anticipated. Lets take Hollywood for example. Firstly, the Hollywood sign on the hill which you always see on T.V. and magazines IS NOT ALWAYS ON! They actually turn it off after a certain time =/. Addtionally I realised after walking around the streets that it doesn't really look like a place where all these movie stars come and go. As a matter of fact, I thought it looked a bit dodgey because there were old bars and random clubs around. I even found a tattoo store with a kid inside looking at them!

Well despite all the dissapointments, there were some things that met my expectations and some that even impressed me. The city of San Francisco, I would say it's like a big version of Brisbane CBD. That place was great to walk around in with all the shopping, China town, Japan town and fishermans wharf. The states with the unique billing system of tipping, I had forgotten in many occasions and it took me a while to get accustomed to. I learnt that 15~20% is the generally accepted tip in restaurants.

Changing topic, driving was much like Australia except you drive on the other side of the car and road. My friend picked me up from the airport when I arrived but apparently he injured himself playing soccer the night before so he said he drove all the way to the airport with one hand (it's a manual btw). I ended up driving back even though it was my first day there. The wide roads and unobservant/inconsiderate drivers nostalgically reminded me of driving in Brisbane. What surprised me most on the roads was that the most of the indicators over there are red lights instead of yellow ones. As a result, you have several occasions where you think, 'why are they repeatedly stepping on their brakes?' Who makes cars like that!? I think it's scary how you can easily misjudge between brakes and indicator. Although, I shouldn't be saying anything since I was driving around everywhere without my international licence xD. No big deal though, I got used to shifting gears with my right hand and driving on the left hand side of the road.

So here's the list of places where I visited:
Huntington Beach
Los Angeles (LA)
Orange County (well-known from the T.V. series)
Santa Monica
Hollywood
University of California (UC) Berkeley, LA (I saw Kevin Garnett!), Davis
Sacramento
City of San Franscisco
Japan town
Fisherman's wharf

Golden gate bridge and Alcatraz we saw from a distance xD.

Pretty much most of my time spent in California was inside the car so if there was something that I learnt from this trip, it would be that America really is huge. I say this considering the fact that I didn't make it all the way down to San Diego and didn't get around to going to Yosemite National Park. Another 49 states to cover if I wanted to see the whole of America. Let's leave that for later.