Raucous Roads

So, after a week toilets still creep me out (see blog post about terrifying toilets) but one thing I have gotten the hang of is roads.

Roads here are insane!! I have walked across a street of 12 lanes! 12 lanes, seven going one direction and the other five going the opposite. That is an insane amount of road.

Despite the 12 lanes of traffic in some places, the Americans have worked out the best system of crossing them.

There is no green man, there is a Red Hand of Ulster, he tells you not to go. I appreciate that, as an Irish person Ulster's Red Hand telling me not to go somewhere is quite apt. When you can go it is a white man, which to be fair seems a little racist! How come only the white man can go?
Then there is my favourite setting, blinking Red Hand of Ulster. This one means you can cross, but time is ticking down to when the mad 12 lanes of traffic will start moving again and bring your instant death. The blinking Red Hand of Ulster makes me smile, and quicken my step. The latter for obvious reasons, the former because just like how that road crossing signal is blinking so too is the Red Hand of Ulster in Ireland and might soon turn off when we become a Nation once again :D there is fun things to see everywhere you look.

So, despite largely having the hang of the really simple to use road systems here I have actually almost gotten myself killed... because Freeway.

You can't walk on Freeways and don't worry I didn't try, but also walking under Freeways and crossing their entry and exit ramps is preposterously dangerous.

To set the scene. It was about 12:45pm. I had checked out of my hotel at 11:00am and since visited the Chapel Store in Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. That didn't kill nearly as much time as I had hoped and so I decided to read the little book I bought in a nearby Starbuck's (nearby is a relative term here it turns out). So I'm walking down Harbor Blvd on the border of Santa Ana and Costa Mesa and you have to go under the 420 (I think it is). So, from the Santa Ana side all was fine, the white man and the Red Hand of Ulster guided me under the Freeway. There was another, older gentlemen taking the journey with me. When we got to the other side there was a sign that said 'no pedestrians' (or something like that) and my good friends the Fly White Guy and the Red Hand of Ulster were nowhere to be seen. However, to the left of the no pedestrians sign there were two white lines, marking out a walkway to cross the road.

At this point the older gentleman turned back, he was having none of it. I, meanwhile, assessed the situation. As I did so my green blood boiled and I shrugged and walked out onto the street, the street that was an exit from a Freeway on which cars can drive at warp three. I got to the other side without a bother.

That was my downfall, my one safe crossing filled me with confidence when I saw another road to cross and still no Fly White Guy or Red Hand of Ulster. Again, I assessed the situation. Left lane entering Freeway, second lane going under Freeway.

"You got this Waves" I told myself as I stepped out onto the road. Just then a car in lane two, one I had determined went under Freeway, decided to go onto Freeway. I had miscalculated and had to jump backwards as the driver called me a million names I couldn't hear as he zoomed pass, though I doubt any of them were pleasant.

Well, I decided not to go back that way in the end, and got the bus under the Freeway instead!

But yeah, roads are grand, even massive ones... It's only if they forget to have the Fly White Guy and the Red Hand of Ulster that it becomes tricky!

Terrifying Toilets.

Toilets...

They all seem the same right? Every toilet in the world (besides those nightmare holes in the ground they still have in some parts of France) is the exact same, right? Right? Wrong.

Californian toilets are terrifying. Have you ever flushed the toilet on an aeroplane and heard that suction noise and wondered if you would have your insides sucked out if you were still sitting on it?

Well, Californian toilets are all like that. When you flush them they just suck up everything in a noisy pandemonium of my panic at what the frick that noise was. I say 'when you flush them'... more often than not they decide when they will be flushed thank-you-very-much. They are frequently automatic and that means they can flush whenever they feel like it.

Also, they are a lot bigger than Irish toilets, so the effect and the noise is magnified by there not being a tiny little bowl but a huge one.

After a week, I'm wondering if I'll ever get used to them!

Artesian Water.

California is hot, and being hot it means you need to buy water. The first day I bought water in Universal Studios, it was almost $4 for 500ml. That was insane. I learned from my mistake and bought water in 7-Eleven that night.

The water was called Fiji Natural Artesian Water.

So, firstly I think it is hilarious that you could call water 'artesian', what exactly could be artesian about water? It comes from the rain, filtered through the land and into a spring, it's not artesian unless you say the entire country of Fiji is artesian. Appropriate words may have been: exotic, foreign, normal, filtered etc.

Secondly, if this one bottle is called artesian, what is ever other type of water on the market like?

Well, 7-Eleven's own brand is 9.5 on the pH scale, 9.5, water is meant to be 7!! On a pH scale I googled I discovered 9.5 is more alkaline than sea water, and a little less alkaline than milk of magnesia and about the same as Gaviscon or those sorts of tablets.

Fiji water is famous for being the water of choice for the Kardashians, however, this water helps maintain a non-democratic regime on Fiji.

Also, it's very popular in Kerry!

It's literally just water, Deep River Rock is nicer! Ballygowen about the same.

Madness sells apparently.