aa, las vegas, los angeles and now san francisco. california gurls, mixed with the california love and wild wild west songs - daisy dukes and bikinis on top :)

its wednesday morning and almost time to leave. on friday the 13th actually our trip comes to an end and we begin our "decent" towards finlad at 4:55pm, will be reaching helsinki at 11pm on saturday. and because we are flying towards time and not with it, it actually looks like it takes 2 days to get back home :) hehe. i cant sorta wait to get home and im already dissapointed that i have to leave. but hey i still have 2 whole days in SF to enjoy. hmm, las vegas, was brilliant. we stayed there at a hotel called tropicana, which is actually located next to the MGM hotel on the strip. the prices were the cheapest if compared to all of our previous housings and the rooms were also the best if compared to the conditions of our previous rooms. so win win :) in vegas we did the normal things, played, lost, won and enjoyed. we went to see a few or actually many different casinos, went to the stratosphere. this building is the highest tower or building in vegas, and from there you can easily get a great view of the neversleeping city. throughout the whole vegas experience we also enjoyd some pretty awesome buffees :) aa good food is hard to beat. especially healthy food and not those greesy burgers..
we also visited a place called the gun store, WHERE you can SHOOT with different guns from MP5 to the SAW machine gun. we all, me, tero, tero and sami took 3 different guns and went to the range. aa, i had forgotten the smell of gun powder but immidiatelly it brought my army times to mind when i smelled it .. hehe.. you actually understand why people say that are you trying to conpencate something with that big gun :)) hahaha..
the last day in vegas was nice a day, pool and a genuine las vegas show, with a hint of coctails on top :) hehe. in all and all, las vegas was what it promised to be, enjoyable, neversleeping experience of riches and fame, where anyone can win or loose their future.

after the las vegas experience (as one of our taxi drivers called it) we headed with our awesome station wagon towards los angeles. this trip would take us firstly to the hoover damn and then through the nevada desert. so we had miles to conquere and time to catch up. hoover damn was small, not small small but i would have thought it to be a bit more "wide".. you know bigger like in the movies, which apparently have falsely represented it to my mind :) it was truly very high but the width of it was a different, very different compared to my thoughts.. but yeah, okay. it was a very hmm remarkable man-made landmark and you needed to aww for a few seconds when reaching and seeing it the first time with your own eyes. and for the love off god, how expensive and crowded everything were there.. at least you could walk on top for free..
after a few minutes or tens of minutes of walking we began our ride towards los angeles, this took us right through the nevada desert and its +46celcius warmths. :) thank god we had AC in our car. we reached los angeles at 9pm and the motel we had booked for one night was a shady one. it was located at the chinese district which is close by to comptons and its gang related activities. the clerk at the desk said that never leave anything inside the car, you would not want to provoke the people to brake in :) hah. very safe and it was good that we only stayed there for one night only. the next morning we went to the beach to see the ocean and officially then we had done the coast2coast trip, from miami to los angeles, from the east to the west. Gooo RoadTRip! then we headed to a local (apparently famous) breakfast place to have some food and to find a hostel from the internet. for some reason we did not find anything so in a fit of mental illness we just decided to head to the hollywood blvd and hope for the best, and hey it actually worked because during the next 2hours we found a flat for ONE night at the hollywood blvd, in a place called los angeles international hostels. this place was just infront of the chinese theater and beside the el capitan theater. from there we could easily co-ordinate our first day trips and star searches :) I saw the star for LASSIE, to name one! and the hand prints of Johnny Depp and Jim Carrey :) woopdi woo..
Okay that night we went for few beers and also went to the movies to see the sorcerers apprentice, the next day we began our, yet again famous, motel hotel hostel hunt. after few hours browsing through the internet we found a place on main street, downtown. this hotel called cecil was our next housing project, and it coverd us from the rain for the next 2 days. these days were our last in los angeles and brought us some chinatown experiences and movie times in the form of the last airbender and movie script shopping :)
the days there went like cows in the sky, fast and ending with a splash. i did not go to any studio tours (which is a big BIG UNhappy face) but hey, they would have taken my whole day and they would have costed more thatn 60$ each.. geesh.. at least i saw hollywood and los angeles and the stars on the pavement.

.. days flew and now in sunny.. sorry CLOUDY san francisco.. and im off to bed.. so bye bye my dear Readers or READER..

after phoenix the states have changed and the destinations as well. now i'm enjoying the luxury of the hotel tropicana in freaking las vegas, and actually uploading some photos which you'll see under this text. these pics are from 11 different days and numerous different locations. firstly theres a few pictures from our ride to houston and from the space center in texas, then one single picture from our trip to san antonio and a few from actual san antonio and the journey we had after that to sonora, texas. then as you can see, van horn, el paso, the infamous fort bliss, mending, mesa, flagstaff and finally the south rim of the grand canyon.

so what has happened. hmmm.. okay, i'll let the pics tell the story :) but i have to say, usa looks very nice. especially the scenary. i have experienced many awww effects during the trip, whilst watching the grand canyon or enjoying the peace and quiet of the white sands in texas. but i have to again point out that the states is really REALLY built for cars, you can see lodging, food, gas, all kinds of roadsigns before every exit on interstates and highways. these then easily help you to choose the right one when looking for food, or even gas. so convinient and easy.. :)) but yeah picture time..

[ 20100723 on the way to houston, texas ]

[ 20100724 houston space center, texas ]

[ 20100724 on the way to san antonio, texas ]

[ 20100725 on the way to sonora, texas ]

[ 20100726 on the way to van horn,texas ]

[ 20100727 on the way to el paso, texas ]

[ 20100728 fort bliss, texas ]

[ 20100728 on the way to mending, new mexico ]

[ 20100729 on the way to mesa, arizona ]

[ 20100730 on the way to flagstaff, arizona ]

[ 20100731 grand canyon north rim, arizona ]

time has just passed in a rush again and now im in mending, new mexico. less than a week ago when we left new orleans, loads has happened. after new orleans we headed towards houston and our goal was to visit the nasa space center, which we indeed visited. the whole place smelled fishy as it was about 20$ to get in and with that you could first que for a tram line for about 45minutes, and then another 60minutes for the toilet :)) the tram was the only "high" point in it as it took us around the facilities and we got to see the infamous mission control (the one that was used during the apollo flights), we also got to see the jupiter v rocket.. from there we continued towards san antonio, where we stayed a night at a very "nice" looking motel. the next morning after breakfast we continued yet again.. now our heads were pointing at sonora, where we also visited the caverns of sonora. these caves or caverns were underground (of course). there we had a 1h45 guided tour, where the guide told and explained us loads and loads about rock and rock formations.. she also had named all of the rock formations that represented something, by different types of food. we saw bacon rock, ice cream rock, hmm.. chicken wings and etc.. hehe, you definitely know that your in the states when they begin to call rocks, as bacon or anykind of food. :)) .. okay from there we then headed to van horn, texas and stayed a night at a another motel, yet again. from there to el paso and now in mending. in el paso we visited the famous fort bliss, which is actually the worlds largest usa army base. then we also saw the white sands memorial.. its like sahara with a hint of white in it :))

okay now we are off and hopefully we will reach phoenix tonight..

taa taa my friends!