Welcome to America...and my first post of 2016!

Happy New Year guys! Uh, bit late I know. I'm not sure how much I've mentioned but the last few months have been quite hard for me and I've taken an extensive blogging break. I didn't want to do any half-hearted posts so I thought it was better for me to take the time for myself and figure out myself and what I want from life. Anyway, fast-forward to now. The beginning of this year has been of a mixed bag; I've been off work due to depression and anxiety yet I've just been on a pretty much life changing holiday. 

I booked a trip to California to get away for a week and sort my head out. A few days ago I flew from Heathrow to LAX and picked up hire car from the airport. I planned on getting a Ford Focus; a smallish but effective car to get me from A to B but low and behold this is what I ended up driving away...

So this upgrade was bloody ridiculous! I've never driven or even been a passenger in a car this fancy in my life so getting to drive this is America of all places was a bit daunting. After an 11 and a half hour flight with very little sleep, two hours in immigration and picking up my luggage, I had to to try and navigate myself 2 and a half hours down the West Coast to San Diego. It's safe to say this was such an adventure. I've never driven in another country before, let alone one where you drive on the opposite side of the road. It took me a good 45 minutes to get to grips with the car before I drove off. I feel really proud of myself for jumping out of my comfort zone, trying something new and going on a complete adventure. 

Driving in California was surprisingly easy! I had weeks of anxiety before I arrived, worried about it. I Youtube'd American driving lessons (I know right) to get to grips with driving on the right hand side of the road but all the worrying was for nothing. I found it a lot easier to drive in the states to be honest! There are hardly any round abouts and mostly the roads are in a grid system. 

One of my favourite spots in San Diego was a place called La Jolla. Here you can find seals moping around on the rocks and beaches and get up close and personal! I was a bit scared because some of them kept barking at me but it was hysterical really. The area was absolutely stunning as was the scenery!

Of course what I was really looking forward to on this trip was the shopping! I visited a couple of Malls in San Diego and my favourite was called 'Fashion Valley'. They had loads of designer shops such as Burberry, Louis Vuitton and the big department stores such as Bloomingdales and Macy's. I finally got to visit Bloomingdales and even though I've been to New York twice, I never went there.

I also loved hitting up all of the fast food places such as In-N-Out Burger, IHOP and Denny's. I literally ate my weight in pancakes and burgers. One of my favourite places that I went to was in an area of San Diego that was I staying in called Ocean Beach. Hodad's was a surfer themed burger place where your eyes will most definitely be bigger than your belly. The burgers are the size of your head and you get these crazy big onion rings and wedges. I've definitely put on 5 stone haha.

During the week I managed to snag free tickets for the Conan O'Brien show which is filmed at the Warner Bro's Studio in Burbank which is just north of LA. I thought instead of driving, I would try the Amtrak train which takes you up the coast with amazing views of the ocean.

The photo of the buildings is the view of Downtown LA from the train. For those of you who haven't heard of Amtrak before, they're these MASSIVE double decker trains which run all over the U.S and as I work in Railway in my day job, I was slightly geeking out at getting to ride one of these. The entire journey from San Diego to Burbank took 3 and a half hours in total! 

I arrived in Burbank in the morning so the first thing I eager to eat was IHOP. I needed all of these pancakes. Whilst I was there, I also visited Pinup Girl Clothing, Besame Cosmetics and Unique Vintage. 

I pretty much used Uber everywhere whilst I was in Burbank because it was the easiest way to travel around and most journeys only cost me around $5-9 in total! I couldn't get to Pinup Girl Boutique QUICK enough. I was full on fan-girling! I was so excited when I got there and the staff were incredibly friendly and helpful. I jumped on the sale racks like mad and managed to nab this Jenny skirt above in the sale for $60. I also managed to get some super cute B.A.I.T footwear shoes on sale for $32 and took a couple of belts home too. I really hit up the bargains which I wouldn't have got at home. 

Across the road was Besame Cosmetics. Literally the MOST amazing cosmetics shop I've ever been in. It's a pinup girl's dream. Besame are a vintage style make up brand that creates beauty based on the 40's and 50's. Again, the staff in the Besame store are literally incredible, they could not do enough to help you and were really sweet and attentive. They definitely made my trip memorable. I walked up to Unique Vintage, another repro store I couldn't wait to visit and I didn't really realise how far the walk was. Even though it's on the same road, the walk took me almost 20 minutes. Damn you America and your large roads! It almost made me late to get back to the Conan O'brien queue at the Warner Bro's Studio. I have to come back again and revisit the shop as I didn't have enough time to look. 

Conan O'Brien was loads of fun! It was really interesting seeing how a talk show is filmed and I was really suprised how quick it was. I really find Conan funny so it was awesome seeing him in person. Even if I did get told off by security for checking my phone. Woops! 

I'm already bordering on making this post far far too long and boring any of you reading it. I've tried to keep this as brief as possible! I apologise for all the pictures but I think pictures speak better than words for this trip. 

I'm entirely grateful to Fatima who graciously let me stay in her apartment for the week I was visiting. She was an incredible host and showed me all the best places and took me out with her and het boyfriend Luke - who spent a small time teaching me to surf! It was really cool to hang out with some people in America as I didn't feel alone. I feel so happy to have made some new friends! 

This trip has done me a world of good. I adventured out of my comfort zone, trying things I never thought I would dare and I feel so bloody happy. 

Now I'm home, I'm concentrating on saving as much money as I can. I want to keep coming back to America and having more trips. I eventually want to take 6 months off of my job and move to California for 6 months. 

Have you been to California? let me know your thoughts!