Kirstie's Travel Diaries #16 : San Fran Shopping & The Pretty Reckless Gig

Catch up with #15 here.

Day 16 (15/03/12)

Our first full day in San Francisco and unfortunately the weather was not in our favour (some of these photos were taken on other days, who wants to get their camera out in a down pour?!)
With an exciting evening ahead of us (keep reading) we thought a chilled day out exploring our surroundings and checking out the mounds of shops around us was a fab idea!


The night before we had mainly been looking for food outlets so fashion, beauty and other exciting things hadn't really caught our eye - so today when we actually saw what we were living by we couldn't believe it!
We headed out from our hotel and popped into the H&M which was just a few doors down - I swear H&M is always exactly the same no matter where you are in the world the stock is exactly the same!
Furthur down the hill we found an incredible Forever 21 store - it was literally 3 or 4 stories high - so beautiful!
Then over the road to Westfields! Yup it's not the England that has those, there is one in San Fran too and it is bloomin' well awesome!

This mall had everything and I mean everything! I could have spent days and millions in here - loves it!
As we were strolling round one of the department stores we got into a conversation with some of the workers who told us that BRITNEY had been in there just a few days before - I cannot believe we missed her by just a few hours!!

A place I fell totally in love in Westfield's was - Yoppi! A DIY frozen yogurt place - I am dead serious when I say I was full-on addicted to fro-yo! Some many flavours to choose from and incredible selection of toppings, yum!

The one thing I didn't like about shopping in the mall was the amount of people trying to sell you stuff - ahhh leave me alone! Although a woman sitting my friend down and starting to straighten her hair did make me laugh.... alot.

Daytime coming to an end we decided to head back to our hotel and get ready because - we were off to see The Pretty Reckless!

A couple of months previous when we were back in England, they had announced their tour and the fact they were playing in San Fran the day after we got there was just fate so my friend bought me tickets for my 22nd birthday (what a babe!) and we had been so excited for it ever since!

Now the day was here, so I headed to the off lincense - got some vodka and we headed back to our room to get ready!

 Back at the room we had the genius idea of ordering Dominos to our hotel via their website - and yes it worked and it was amazing! (we were turning into pro hotel regulars!)

Ready - we called a taxi and were on our way to the Bottom Of The Hill club! It wasn't that far away and we were a little nervous as we weren't sure what to expect - but I was so excited it wasn't long before I didn't care where we were and we were in the queue outside chatting away to everyone!

There were a few support acts (who of course we had never heard of) and then it was time for Taylor and her guys to hit the stage! The club was super small - so we had an amazing view - I loved how intimate it was in there!

The were amazing - and my love for them grew even more! I felt so lucky to have seen them live and so close aswell - best birthday present ever!

Now we were exhausted so it was time to call a taxi home (after going outside to spot Taylor strolling upstairs after a smoke of course!) - we had a seriously early morning so it we went back to our hotel, ate the leftover pizza and hit the hay!

NEXT TIME : Tour of San Fran, The Golden Gate Bridge & Alcatraz! 

Kirstie's Travel Diaries #15 : Flying to San Francisco

Catch up with #14 here.

Day 15 (14/03/12)

Our time in LA was up - there were some major sad faces looking at us in the mirror but only for a split second because it was time to head north up the west coast to the legendary San Francisco!
We'd packed our bags and were up and ready to go bright and early! We wanted to go and say a little goodbye to Hollywood so we popped next door to the Hollywood & Highland centre where we got some super nutritious breakfast of..... Nestle toll house cookies *yum* and walked down to see the walk of fame for the last time!
Our flight wasn't until early afternoon but we knew traffic in LA was pretty horrendous at times so we left ourselves plenty of time to get to the airport and get checked in before departing the glitz and glamour of Los Angeles!
And yes we were a bit OTT with our luggage.....and it only got worse as the trip went on!

Of course there was only one person taking us to LAX and that was our fabulous driver Harry (remember him?) and as always he had us in hysterics from the moment he loaded our suitcases into his car!
We talked about "the Kim Kardashian, the bling bling, the rappers" and after alot of giggles, some final LA sight seeing and drive up to a limo to try and check out who was inside we were at LAX and saying our goodbyes! (we definitely should have given him a bigger tip - sorry Harry!)

For a second when we arrived we suddenly had a feeling of dread that we were in the wrong airport - we hadn't seen any signs for LAX and we just felt a bit lost.... that didn't last long though and obviously we were both just being a bit blonde - opps!

Went to check in and my friend's suitcase once again was too heavy so it was time to take things out and ram them into any nook and cranny in our bags that was left! 
Then security... and it was the first time I had ever been in a body scanner thingy-ma-jig! A very strange feeling! 
An airport trip wouldn't be an airport trip without a Macdonalds and a Pinkberry - lunch complete we headed to a shop, picked up Jessica Simpson's issue of Elle and went our gate to start waiting.

Our plane was delayed - which wasn't fun but it was only for an hour or two so it went quite quickly thank god! Before we knew it we were on our 50minute flight up to San Fran and the fact I had my face in Mockingjay for the whole flight made it 'fly' by!
The weather in San Fran was well... pants - which wasn't a fabulous start but we are from England we are used to clouds, wind and rain!

We hailed a taxi to take us to our hotel which was in the general part of town, which ended up being a pretty tight squeeze with all our bags and my suitcase ended up riding shotgun which we found hilarious!

We checked into our hotel which was in a great location - in the middle of the hussle and bussle of the stores and tram line and had a good old sit down! What is it about traveling that makes you so tired?!

Our room was .... well it was blooming well tiny - with our suitcases down on the floor it was hard to move around and after having a whole apartment in LA it felt even smaller! 
But, we didn't care we were having a great time and that's all that matters!

We decided to brave the rain and pop out to find some dinner - and what we did find was Westfields - oh yes this mall was HUGE with every store you could think of in it! I couldn't wait to come back in the day and have a good old fashioned shopping spree!
Subway was our meal of choice - lazy I know, we took it back to the hotel and had an early night ready to explore San Francisco in the morning!

NEXT POST - Hello San Fran & The Pretty Reckless Gig!