My trip to Yosemite!

Situated in the Sierra Nevada mountain range of central California roughly 200 miles east of San Francisco, Yosemite National Parc (pronounce: JoSEmiti, with the accent on the "Se" ;-) ) is home to some of the world's most spectacular scenery, including two-thousand-year-old giant sequoias, immense granit cliffs, and a collection of thundering waterfalls.















My one-day-long trip to Yosemite has surely been one of the most wonderful experiences in nature I've ever made, and I regret not having had more time to pass at this wonderful National Parc.

I had to get up early in the morning, which was kinda tough after yesterday's "After-Show-Party", even tho I did not celebrate much. It was more like: I went to the others' room, killed one piece of veggie pizza and some Sprite and went back to my room to take a shower and wash all the glitter off my body. However, this took more time than expected, so I went to bed around one in the morning, leaving me exactly 4 hours of sleep before I had to get up again to prepare for my trip to Yosemite. In the morning, I put my new "Outdoor-Yosemite-Visiting-Kit", a Jeans with a rosa top, a woolen white sweater (Jacobs ;-) ), my new white furry boots and my white Jacket, put on some makeup, pulled up my hair (which was still full of glitter btw) and went out. Grabbed some walnut cake and pastries for breakfast at the hotel bar and went out to the Metro, which is called "BART" here btw. (no idea why).



However, at the metro the guy selling tickets was looking at me and pointed at my jacket, which I wore open. He told me: "It's dangerous at this time in the morning, there's a lot of riff-raff here... I have a daughter myself. The station where you're going is not exactly the safest one.. you have to look mean, so people don't mess with ya."


OK, that did sound very encouraging! I closed my jacket, put on my "GRR"-face (kinda difficult with pink glitter makeup and cute white fur-boots with something saying "Spring" on it..) and went down to the train area. I kinda understood what the guy was talking about thou. The station where I went out was small and in a neighborhood where I saw 1 (!) white guy passing by during an hour of waiting time. Not to be discriminating, there are white guys far more dangerous than any black guy, but in this case it was a poor area and it scared the heck out of me. So I waited in the metro, until the time for the pick-up had come. But guess what- the driver was running late. So I waited another half an hour outside the metro. (tickets are freaking expensive btw.. 2 tickets for 8 dollars each!! and when you get the change, you feel as if you are in Vegas.. 4 dollars in 10 cent pieces is the hell of a lot of change!!)

But finally the pick-up arrived and the driver presented me to the other guests. This was when I truly felt international.. we were 13 people, and it was like the whole world was united in this small 15-person-van: A couple from Africa, one from England, one from South Carolina, one from India, a guy from Finland, a guy from China (Hong Kong), a guy from Spain, a guy from Germany and: ME :-) representing Montreal, Canada. The funniest thing was that I was able to communicate with 80% of the group in their mother tongue :-))

We started our drive out of San Francisco, and the houses are so cute! Colorful, with white frames and palmtrees, just like you might imagine some Spanish village with a hint of american influence. Everything is built so tight, it gives the impression of the houses being stapled one on another. We went up until we arrived at the foothill of the Sierra Nevada mountains, and it was very impressive. Small roads, very curvy, and the landscape was marked by burnt grass, like some Savannah. I took some pictures out of the car window :-)

A little further we reached an area where there were lots of crops, and the driver told us it was one of the most fertile areas of North America. They grow about everything there.. almonds, citrus, grapes, kiwis.. name it. A little further came some area that was marked by.. Cows. Hundreds and thousands of cows.. I think I have never seen that many cows in my life. We also passed through some villages where in 1848 the California gold rush started.

After a quick stop at a grocery store to get some breakfast, we finally reached Yosemite National Park entrance. From here on, the landscape was absolutely stunning. High mountains, infinite woods and deep cliffs. Yosemite's first human residents were Native Americans who moved to the region some 7000 to 10,000 years ago, and Europeans discovered the valley only in 1851.

The beauty of the landscape is difficult to describe.. look at the pictures and try to imagine by yourself. I had the chance to have this german guy Markus with me on the trip, so I had somebody I could abuse for taking photos of me :>






In the afternoon we went to the Giant Sequoias, the oldest trees in North America, with a trunk so thick you would need twenty men to grab around. Some of them have trunks of 40 feet in diameter, and the oldest ones were born when Cleopatra was queen of Egypt! That means they already had some 700 years behind them when Christ was born.. that's absolutely crazy!

Here are some pictures of how small I am and how big they are ;-)

Late in the afternoon we left Yosemite and headed home.. and I still was amazed of this day I passed in one of North America's most beautiful National Parcs.

But now I have to get ready fast, because I don't want to miss the last evening show which will be at eleven tonight. (Again no sleep... AAAAH!!)
I hope you enjoyed reading this adventure and keep in touch for my visit of San Francisco City tomorrow ^-^