West coast
6/10/23
I flew into Phoenix, AZ for my last big trip on my exchange. It was once again with Belo USA! I couldn't be happier with this organization, the staff are wonderful people and make it such a great experience.
I landed, this time without any complications and went to the baggage claim. I saw a bunch of exchange students so I came over and introduced myself. We immediately became friends and got to talk about our year. Then we got to the hotel with a shuttle bus and checked in with the other two staff members. We also received our shirts with all the people on this trip printed on the back side. I started investigating and there were 5 of us from the same district.
Later in the day we had group dinner where they explained all the rules and after that all of us went to the pool since it's so hot in Phoenix. We also managed to explored the surroundings of our hotel and ran into a bunch of crackheads which was quite unpleasant. The streets were dirty and full of homeless people, it was a sad thing to see.
6/11/23
On the first whole day we went to the center of Phoenix and even though it has around 1.6 million inhabitants it felt completely dead. There was no-one outside and the heat was unbearable. I immediately noticed how different the vegetation is, there were so many cacti everywhere and every leaf was tougher than usual. After downtown Phoenix we went to Papago park where a beautiful stone structure lies. We climbed on top of it and enjoyed the view. There was not a single cloud to be seen. I then explored the oasis a little more and it felt like a whole different world. I was never in a desert and the Sonoran one left me speechless.
After lunch we drove over to the "Red Rock Country" or Sedona, Arizona. The cars movie is inspired by these rocks. I read in the station where we stopped that the colour is caused by iron and of course over time that corodes when combined with water. We took pictures with some lizards, walked around and you know, just enjoyed the view because it was magnificent. We stayed the night in a small town around 2 hours away from the Grand Canyon.
6/12/23
You heard right, the Grand Canyon was the plan for today. I remember people telling me how the first sight is mind-blowing and they were absolutely correct. It's crazy how there is nothing and suddenly the gigantic hole opens up in front of you. It was unforgettable. We had a lot of free time and the weather was good for most of the time so we walked around and looked at it from different angles. It is one of those things that look good on photos but you cannot transfer the feeling from it completely, you just have to see it for yourself.
After lunch we had an organized group spaziergang around the edge of the canyon. We divided into 3 groups and I was in the last one. We had to wait for some buses and it was taking forever. It took us good 4 hours to get back to the bus and it was just in time because it started raining again by the time we were geting on the bus again
6/13/23
Our next destination was Las Vegas babyyyyyy. We drove on the famous route 66 and got some souveniers. We went to some gas stations and gambled a little and then we had a fancy dinner at a mexican restaurant. I remember that on that day the Stanley cup was won by the Golden Knights, an NHL team FROM Vegas. So it was all over the TV and when we went to the Fremont street later they had banners all over the place that the Knights have become this years' Stanley Cup champions. After this our limousine was there so we divided into 3 groups and got on. It was a party, there was money flying around and the only thing that was missing was some alcohol :P. They dropped us off at the Bellagio fountain and we got to see the show after that they drove us to the famous "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign. I got to touch it, and we took an unhealthy amount of pictures too.
6/14/23
Today was basically a free day in Vegas. We had like 7 hours of free time there so me and the group of guys I was talking to went to the famous Caesar's palace from the movie Hangover, that we watched the night before. We walked around the Casino and the Forum shops there. Then we got lunch at five guys. We managed to take a lot of photos with the Flamingo girls and other interesting characters. We had so much fun there I'm still laughing as I write this. Next on the list was the STRAT tower where the whole group went together again, unfortunately the rides there were closed due to windy conditions. At least we enjoyed the pretty view. Then we had some more free time and we headed to the hotel around 10 pm.
6/15/23
We woke up early and were on our way to Los Angeles. The traffic got worse by the second but nevertheless we made it in time. Our first stop was Universal Studios in Hollywood. We got on a bunch of fun rides and took pictures with the characters there, later we left Universal and went to the famous Hollywood Boulevard where we visited the Madame Tussaud wax museum. It was almost scary how precise the art was. At times it felt like there was someone just staring at you and I was quite uneasy.
6/16/23
Today we went to Santa Monica. The ocean was extremely cold however we got in anyways. There were some of the biggest waves I have ever seen. It was so fun to just jump around in the water with my new international friendgroup. When we didn't swim we played some samba and just had all in all a great time. After a while I put my shoes on and went to the pier. I explored the location that I already knew from GTA and it felt surreal that it is actually there. For dinner we headed to the downtown and ate at a nice Italian restaurant where all the Italians from our group were saying how bad it is haha.
6/17/23
This was a bad day for me. I felt really sick and I couldn't swallow at all. We went to Disney that day in Anaheim, however I had to leave at around midday since I was so sick and then I just slept all day at the hotel.
Today was Fathers day and we were in Beverly hills. There was a car show which you know I enjoyed a lot. There were so many supercars even without the car show. You could just look around and see like 3 Porsches a few Ferraris and a bunch of other fancy car brands. We also went to the Griffith Observatory, however it was too foggy to see anything really. So that was kinda sad. We had lunch in the area and it was surprisingly cheap. We then drove to our new destination which was Yosemite National park
6/19/23
We stayed in a place called Merced which was potentially the worst hotel ever. My friend got stuck in an elevator for a good hour and half and it made a bunch of them sick. The breakfast service was terrible and there was a dirty pool a jacuzzi that did not work and a lot of problems with the rooms too. We then left to go to the National park and enjoyed the beautiful views it had to offer. It was a nice break from huge cities and for once it was sunny too. We stayed there the whole day and walked a lot, we got to see the famous waterfalls which is a thing that I will never forget.
6/20/23
Now we were on our way to our last destination. San Francisco. This is my favorite city out of this whole trip. On the first day we went to de Young museum and after that we headed to Pier 39. That's the place with the sealions people! It was intereting however it was also extremely windy. The thing I enjoyed the most about San Francisco was the hilly enviroment it is built on. There are just whole neighbourhoods on these huge rolling hills and when you're on top you can see a lot. On the pier we saw the famous Alcatraz Island and even the Golden gate bridge. Funny enough, during our trip the president was in the city and my friend from Florida stayed at the same hotel as he did. We also saw his helicopters later in the day flying over the city.
6/21/23
In the morning we went on the city tram and explored the hilly streets. At some point the angle was so sharp the city couldn't just make concrete sidewalks, they had to make stairs so the people can get there! We then walked up one of these crazy slopes and saw the Russian hill, then we went to the Alamo square where a lot of movies is filmed. The final destination was the Twin peaks. We got really lucky with the weather because it's usually extremely cloudy and foggy and we had two days with nothing but sun. So you can imagine the view was perfect.
6/22/23
This was the last day. We got to tour the Alcatraz island and which was extremely interesting. I was happy that I got to explore how the famous prisoners managed to escape. We also got to see a true prisoner from the past that worked there that day because his book came out. After taking the ferry back we drove over to the Golden Gate bridge. It was huge and just to walk from one end to another took us like 30 minutes with all the photo stops. All of us made it across and then we went to the famous Sausalito photo spot.
This marks the end of this two week long trip and I must say it was the perfect ending to my exchange. I met so many new people and saw a huge chunk of the world. I am extremely thankful to everyone that made this possible and to everyone who made it amazing
Ondrej :)
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