Hawaii !!!

San Francisco 6 am, I am sitting, freezing, waiting for the metro which takes me to the airport, a woman approches towards me, sees my suitecase and asks me :
"Oh, Hello, where are you going?"
"Hawaii for 3 weeks, you?"
"OH MY GOD you re so lucky! I m just gonna work"
"oh yea true, sometimes I forget that people works..." she looks at me and just leave without saying goodbye..
oups.


Anyways, after spending 10 days in SF and its countryside I am finally ready to go over Hawaii! I m so excited for two reasons, I will stay 3weeks in Hawaii to discover all that I can and also to see my friend Ian that I met in Slovenia for my exchange programme 1 year before!
Even if I had a great time in SF I m really happy to leave the cold and the rain to get some warm ...
As I landed to the country of rainbows, I took off my jacket, sweater and I felt the warm rainy weather, Ian was waiting with flipflop in his hands for me, summer time here we go !
For theses 3 weeks, I ill discover three incredible islands: Oahu, Maui and Bigisland. 

OAHU

As my friend is a tour guide in Honolulu, (Oahu) he brought me to his tour with some other tourists. The tour takes about 4hours from when he picks people up (mostly at their hotels) until he drove them back to their hotels. The tour is divided in 2 parts: the first one we drive throught Honolulu to get the jungle so Ian explains the History and shows some interesting monuments in town, and the second one is the hike into the jungle, its around 1.30/2hours, it's easy, and we saw waterfalls, hawaiian flowers etc. 

While Ian was at the school, I used to walk down by myslef in Honolulu, mostly in Waikiki for few days.
As its name, the area of Waikiki looks unreal: half nature half industrial, it's plenty of hotels, tourists people, big blue skyscrapers, students chilling on the beach, and of course surfers surfing waikiki's waves... All the hotels entrances along the sea are free, so I went several times to the hot tube of one of them after admiring the sunset in an amazing overflowing swimming pool with seaview.

Obviously we went to North Shore best know for its famous surf competition takes place, I was expected to see massives waves and unfortunately waves were kind of ... normal, not that big, ok bigger than Waikiki but I was still disappointed, my friend explained that we can see these famous massives waves only during the winter, at that time this surfers' dream area can host the Pipeline Master (surf competition) and gather all the surfers around the globe.
Few days after, he brought me to an amazing race the WARRIOR DASH. and I wasn't disappointed at all!!!
 ==>  http://www.warriordash.com/
It's an extreme running race with obstacles followed by a music festival where costumes are highly encouraged!
Unfortunately, all tickets were sold out but we went free as volunteer, we encouraged people, drank some beers, danced at the live music area and I met Mister T!

San Francisco

After one week in Nature it's time to go back to the civilization! San Francisco is the best city to re-live in a big city, it has still the children's flowers mood and for somebody who lived like a hippy even for few days the change is not too hard...
I took the train from Merced to SF and obviously I thought booking a hostel in the train, when I checked it online I realized that they were all booked.... and PLUS my phone did not want to work.... I though I will arrive by night in a big city that I do not know by myself without phone and a place to sleep, OK I started being panicked, I sent some mails to my friends in L.A for asking help, one of them called my phone operator and another one called some friends in SF. I was saved ! I slept for the week end at Lora and Kevin's place who used to have couch surfers.
I arrived downtown by the bay bridge and discovered for the first time San Francisco and with its big buildings shining in the night...

I have been here for few days now, I had only one sunny day and unfortunately a rainy and foggy week... But I still love this peaceful and colored city.

The foggy Golden Gate

I crossed the bridge and half way I felt I m going to the heaven!

The famous cable car in Union Square

  I was looking for a bar after a long walk in SF and found that one really cool, old guys were playing country, crowded of american people, unfortunately I heard that this bar, called Gold Dust Lounge on Union Square, is closing soon ....

woofing at Bears, Yosemite National Park

Some of my french friends traveled in Australia as a Woofers and told me all the advantages of that kind of  "work", I was really interested and I started learning more about Woofing (world opportunities on organic farms). It's actually a large community of farms that helps volunteers to live and learn on organic farms. Woofers work few hours per day and can eat and sleep for free. I immediately thought that it will be a great experience for me and though the website Help X I met this incredible guy, Bear, better known as the double rainbow guy. We started sending mail when I was still in France about farms details and his lifestyle, I was so excited that I decided to meet him beginning of march and to stay with him for one week in his farm in the middle of Yosemite near Mariposa. 

We had a great time, we visited the National Park, we worked on rebuilding his garden for vegetables, I met several people : he had 2 couch surfers and one friend who came to visit him.... And I also discovered that he was famous! He posted a video of a double rainbow on YouTube 2 years ago and has now more than 32 millions view... Sometimes people in Yosemite recognized him and took some pics with him. He has a channel on YouTube where he posts everyday a video about his life  http://www.youtube.com/user/Hungrybear9562?ob=0&feature=results_main

So anyway in his farm he has 3 dogs and 7 puppies, chickens and roosters, vegetables and fruits, he lives in a trailer and enjoys a amazing view every days and nights.... I felt cut of the world and I enjoyed my week in this place because firstly after one month in this big city of L.A it's important to take some resources in Nature and secondly because just before coming to the USA I read a book called "Rencontre hors du temps" of Eric Vali about american people who lives "off the grid", that means living with the basics stuff : no job, own food, nature and some thousands of dollars per year (at least 5). I wanted to meet this kind of people so bad and when I went to Bears I realized that I met one of them!

To get there I first took the Amtrak train from L.A to Fresno (around 4hours) and one friend of Bear picked me up at the Fresno station and brought me at Bears. The easier way to get Yosemite is to get Merced by train and to take the YARTS bus (important to check schedules) which goes to different places in Yosemite like Mariposa.

The view from the living room....

The trailer from backside. He built everything around it in order to make more space

 

CHICKS & ROOSTERS, I used to take eggs mornings

one of his dogs feeding her puppies!

Bear brought me and Martin (guy from Czech Republic who spent few nights with us) to the Yosemite Valley

this only gas station in Yosemite...

 Martin, Bear and me at the Tunnel view on the Hwy 41. This place offers the best view of these incredible mountains: El capitain (7 569) foot and the Half Dome (8 842 foot) 

JUST ONE PART OF ONE OF THE BIGGEST WATERFALLS OF NORTH AMERICA

The rooster that wakes me up every morning at 7am....

His garden that we rebuilt for vegetables.
So pleasant to work in this farm with a amazing view and nice weather!











 Mail boxes on the main road for all the people who lives around

 

KELLY AND OUR NICE NEIGHBOUR



Kelly and me ready for the night: 2 jumpers, 2 blankets, hat, gloves ... good night Yosemite!

 

week end camping!

The cabin that we rented on that week end, near a lake, really peaceful place

fortunately for us, guys thought to take matters and sleeping bags...

Let s discover the environment

Me eating marshmallow melted with crackers and chocolate, young american people are used to eating it when they go camping... it was the perfect time to try it ! 

The day after we went on the coast for surfing

Las Vegas

2 days 1 night in Vegas for Gianluca's birthday...
So we rented the cheapest Van ever for 7 people, we put the music on, opened the window, and drove 4hours from L.A towards that unreal city...

On the road our excitation started increasing, just arrived at the Imperial hotel in Vegas in order to put our stuff they brought me in the center for a walk. It was getting dark and all the lights started shining and in one second I forgot that we were in the middle of the desert! People are here just for having fun, everybody drinks, smokes everywhere, I feel weird first because I think I used to live with all the restrictions in California like you can t drink outside.... Anyway, we crossed the city and I discovered that you can cross the city without going out ... all the casinos are connected!
The awesome point of that city is you can have a drink in the most famous cities of the world in only 1 night.... and have the huge hangover ever the day after!!

 But first we stopped at the famous fastfood In and Out to get some energies for the trip

Me and Fabrizio

from the left to the right:

Fabrizio, Gianluca and Erika

 the unique landscape until  to get VEGAS

So we went to Paris, Venice, NY, Bellagio...

THE BELLAGIO SHOW

CLAUDIO IN NYC

FROM BROOKLYN BRIDGE

Before going out...

Dancing on the top of the Tour Eiffel... the only pic of our party night because "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas"