'For a small person you don't half have an appetite!'

Having had about 3 hours sleep after our exhausting whirlwind tour of New Orleans with Chris, we were up on Saturday 9th at 3.45am. Needless to say, some of the hostel guests were still sat outside drinking! We were pretty sad to leave New Orleans, it really is a great place and we would both love to come back.

We had a beaut breakfast at the airport: eggs, crispy bacon and potatoes... At about 5.30am. Very surreal!

The plane to LA was fine, we both slept most of the way and I annoyed Kitty by fidgeting about all the time!! LA was grey and overcast when we arrived but we were too tired to care.

We got to our meeting hotel for the trip, and sat about being dazed in the lobby for a while, before we could get into our room (it was still only about 10am). Eventually we got into the room, and decide to make use of the hotel guest laundry to get some washing done. We then had our first McDonalds of the experience for lunch, Kitty's sans bap of course. Incase you were wondering, they no longer sell still Fanta in America. RIP still Fanta.

We finally met up with our group and guide at 6 for the welcome
meeting. Everyone's really nice, 4 people from Norway, one Swedish guy, 2 German girls, 2 Australian guys and another two English girls. We all got in our van for the first time and went down to Santa Monica pier to have a wander.

We then went for dinner at Buca di Beppe (apparently Kitty visited here on last trip to LA), an Italian restaurant with huge portions that you all share between you, true Italian style! It reminded me of the restaurant they all eat at in Goodfellas. There wasn't a spare inch on the walls, they were covered with pictures and photos and random things drawn/stuck on. There was a gluten free menu which Kitty and Andrea, one of the other English girls, greatly appreciated. I shared some bread and a huge bowl of spaghetti and meatballs with the other English girl, Polly, and one of the Australian guys, Peter. At one point Peter said to me 'Wow, for a small person you don't half have an appetite.' Hit the nail on the head really. And sounded hilarious in an Australian accent!

We were absolutely exhausted, having been up since 3.45, and both fell asleep in the van on the way back to the hotel. Wild as ever.

I then annoyed Kitty by stressing out over how and what to pack as I was so tired but we got there in the end and got into bed about 1am ready to get up at 6.30am, very excited for the first real day of the tour.

Apologies if the blogs are not up like clockwork every day for the next week as we don't know when we're going to have access to wifi! So bear with us, it will all be up eventually!