Our days in Los Angeles

We have now spent a fair few days here in Los Angeles and it has been moderately enjoyable. We have found LA to be a fairly nice city but I don’t see us returning here anytime soon. The city is very large but there doesn’t seem to be too much to see. There is no real town centre - it is more like a collection of small interlinked cities or neighborhoods. Each neighborhood has its own charm and character but we haven’t found any place that we are completely amazed and stunned by.

As we got here, our guide refused to refer to LA as a city. He claimed that it is better described as an area, and he referred to as the “LA area”. After having visited and traveled around the area we certainly agree to his statement - we continue to say city though…

We have found that you have to do loads of traveling to get around the area. I have previously heard that you really need a car to get around and I can certainly agree to this. We did manage to get around using buses and other public transport but it would have been easier with a car. The public transport is fairly basic. The buses don’t run very frequently and it can take a very long time to go across the LA area..

We did like some aspects of the buses though. They allow you to take bikes on the buses by having a bike rack on the front of the bus so you can just hook it onto the bus before you get on. It was also very cheap traveling by bus - each ticket only cost one dollar - and you could go as far as you wanted (or to the stop of the line). However, the buses were not frequent and they stopped running quite early in the evening. Interestingly, it seems to be mainly female bus drivers on the LA networks.

LA is probably a pretty nice place to live. There are plenty of beaches for you to do sports and enjoy the sun. The climate seems fairly nice (Mediterranean) and enjoyable although it was much colder than we expected. It is after all mid-September as we are visiting. We managed to go for some walks in more residential parts of town and the houses were quite pleasant with nice gardens. It had a Wisteria Lane (from Desperate Housewives) feel to it.

The main thing we have enjoyed in LA was the beaches. They are really nice and there are loads of people on them - so plenty of opportunity for people watching. In particular we enjoyed walking along Venice Beach looking at people. The beach where we stayed - Hermosa Beach - was very enjoyable as it was fairly quiet and didn’t have that many people.

As we have previously written about, we got to LA last Friday and ended up in Hollywood. This was more by accident than design. We were dropped off on Hollywood Boulevard outside Mann’s Chinese Theatre. This used to be the main theatre where most of movies had their premier in the old days. They would also host the Oscar awards here until they moved to the Kodak Theatre next door.

Outside the theatre, a lot of movie stars have left their hand and foot mark in the concrete. There is also a Walk of Fame where movie stars have their names in golden stars engraved on the sidewalk. It was interesting looking at all the names and realizing how few we actually managed to recognize. It appears as if Iris and I aren’t too clued up on movie stars and other famous people.

The Kodak Theatre is a newly built cinema and shopping complex next to the Chinese Theatre. It is here the Oscar awards are held. The place wasn’t amazing and we weren’t impressed by it. However, we managed to catch a glimpse of the famous HOLLYWOOD sign from one of the skywalks. The sign is actually a fair bit smaller than expected.

After about an hour on the Hollywood Boulevard we were driven to downtown LA where we jumped off the tour bus. We managed to see a few sights along the way - Sunset Boulevard and the school where Grease was recorded a long time ago (when John Travolta wasn‘t obese).

We were dropped off at downtown LA. The bus we had joined wasn’t heading our direction so we were on our own. Downtown LA was fairly uninspiring. We managed to see the Disney Concert Hall and the LA Civic Centre before diving into the subway. After spending less than 15 minutes in downtown we really felt that we had seen all we wanted to see and we didn’t feel any urge to come back (ever).

The LA subway is just being built and it is actually reasonably nice. However it only covers a small part of the town. And it didn’t go directly to Hermosa Beach where we were staying. We didn’t have accurate directions to Hermosa Beach and we found it very difficult to find out how to get there. There was hardly any staff working in the subway. We decided to go to the final stop of one of the subway lines - Redondo Beach. It is meant to be pretty close to Hermosa. However, as we got there, we were in a bit of a shock. The stop was in the middle of nowhere in some sort of industrial estate.

At the station there were a few bus stops but no time tables or anything. Not knowing what to do, we ended up standing at the station and hoping that a bus would turn up. Stupidly enough we hadn’t done our research well enough and we didn’t have a sufficiently detailed map to start walking. Thankfully, a bus showed up a few minutes later and we were able to get to Hermosa Beach after changing bus somewhere in the middle of nowhere outside a liquor store.

We arrived at our hostel (Surf City Hostel) between eight and nine in the evening. The hostel was fairly nice and had a much more relaxed atmosphere than any of the other hostel we had previously stayed in. Hermosa Beach is considered one of the best places for surfing in LA and it catered to this crowd. It had more of a party atmosphere than any of our previous hostels. The hostel had a very good location close to the pier and above a restaurant and shopping street.

We stayed in a four person dorm and it worked very well. We have found it better to sleep in a smaller dorm than a larger one as the likelihood of anyone snoring is much lower. The room had beautiful views over the Pacific and we woke up every morning to the roaring sound of the waves - very nice.

After arriving, we went to bed pretty quickly. Both of us were feeling quite tired after all early mornings on the bus trip and really wanted to get up when we were feeling rested rather than when the bell rang. We had our left-over pot noodles for dinner. I’m really starting to hate noodles now after our experience on the Trans-Siberian railway. Surprisingly, Iris still likes it…

We woke up around nine the following day. It was really nice having a late start and sleeping as much as necessary. My muscles were really sore this morning for some bizarre reason. Breakfast was included in the price for the hostel and it was simple toast with coffee/tea and/or orange juice. Nice with a proper breakfast rather than buying something from a petrol station during the first comfort stop on the bus.

We spent the rest of the morning surfing the internet (not the waves outside). We almost had a bit of withdrawal symptoms after not having access in Las Vegas. There are so many things to check and do on the internet. Most importantly we managed to book accommodation in Lima - a task we have postponed for a long time. We ended up booking a hostel in Miraflores in Lima.

More importantly, we made the decision to purchase a better camera than the compact camera that we have. Although, we have been able to take some pretty amazing pictures on the bus trip, we feel that they haven’t come out as well as we have been hoping.

For example, we have been very disappointed with our Grand Canyon pictures and felt that they really don’t do the landscape justice. They have just been out of focus, too blurred, too hazy… Most other people on the trip have had digital SLR cameras and they have been able to achieve much better picture quality. We decided to buy a basic SLR camera as we’re hoping to see some amazing scenery on the rest of our trip and we really want our pictures to be as amazing as the landscapes (and our memories) actually are.

The rest of the day we ended up walking from Hermosa Beach to the Torrance area where we were told that a good photography store was meant to be. After two or three hours of walking in the LA suburbs and along the boulevards we managed to find Silvio’s photography store.

Before arriving at the store we had lunch at a local café. We shared a steak sandwich and Iris felt that it was the best steak sandwich she has ever had in her entire life. Well done to that store!

A really nice guy (Daniel) managed to help us choosing a good entry level camera that should suit our needs and ability. In the end we bought a Canon EOS 500D camera that should really meet our needs. It has got a lot of features that we should be able to explore and hopefully use to our advantage. It wasn’t cheap but it was probably quite good value. Interestingly, the recommended retail price is the same in both dollars and pounds. However, one dollar is only 60 pence meaning that we effectively got the camera at 40 percent discount to what we would have paid in the UK.

I’m really happy with the purchase. Iris is ecstatic! She is in love with the camera and out of the 500 odd pictures that we have taken since leaving the store she has probably taken 90 percent of them and I have taken 10 percent. However, we’re somewhat concerned that we can’t blame bad pictures on the camera anymore…

We left the camera store at around six in the evening and stopped by Barnes & Nobles to have a look at a few books but we didn’t get anything in the end - except for a Spanish phrase book and a more user friendly manual on how to use our new beloved purchase. Rather than walking back to Hermosa Beach we took the bus to Redondo beach and walked 15-20 minutes back to the hostel. At the local supermarket we bought some grilled chicken and potato salad for dinner and had it in the hostel. It tasted very nice with some reasonably simple and home cooked food after all junk food on the bus trip.

We let ourselves sleep as late as we wanted on the Sunday but ended up getting out of bed well before eight in the morning. It was a fairly nice day with some clouds and some sunshine. The waves on the Pacific were very nice and loads of people were already out on the beach surfing or sunbathing. There were also loads of people playing beach volleyball as well.

After breakfast and some obligatory (internet) surfing we decided to explore Santa Monica and Venice Beach. We left the hostel around ten in the morning and caught the 232 bus to the LAX transfer centre and then bus 3 to the Santa Monica. The trip was surprisingly quick - probably due to little traffic on a Sunday morning.

We headed straight for the pier at Santa Monica after arriving around half past eleven in the morning. The pier seemed to be the main attraction there. Loads of people walking the pier and looking at all the types of store that normally congregate on a pier. It felt very much like Brighton pier, or any other English pier for that matter. There were “artists” selling their work, hot dog stands, candy shops and the obligatory amusement ground with roller-coasters and carousels.

Our lunch consisted of a pretty decent burger in one of the restaurants. It was next to one of the most interesting things on the pier - a trapeze school. It was really good fun watching people learn how to swing on a trapeze high up in the air. Maybe it’s for people wanting to join a circus.

We left Santa Monica after not spending more than one hour on the pier and walked south on the beach heading towards Venice Beach. It turned out to be a pretty amusing place with loads of very interesting stores selling a great variety of stuff. The area was very similar to Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco and Camden Town in London. But this was probably a bit nicer as it was closer to a beautiful beach. It was really great walking along here and playing with the camera.

Two sights in Venice really stick out. Firstly, there was a skate-board ramp where loads of kids and grown-ups were playing with their skateboards. Great opportunity to get some nice shots. The second sight was also interesting - Muscle beach. Apparently, this is the first place Arnold Schwarzenegger headed to after arriving in America and he spent a fair few years here pumping iron. I had expected it to be bigger than it was - it was just a small outdoor gym with a few oversized broilers.

It was also great walking along the beach and seeing the waves rolling in. Loads of people sunbathing or relaxing in the sun. Loads of people walking along the boardwalks. Many people cycling or on their roller-blades. Great place for people watching.

I grew up watching Baywatch on TV. It is set on an undisclosed beach (probably Santa Monica or Venice) in LA and tells the story of the hardships of lifeguards. It was really great walking along these beaches and seeing real-life lifeguards and how they ran around the beaches. The series had been pretty true to reality as well - the real cars, houses, everything looked exactly like in the show. The only drawback was that the lifeguards weren’t as fit as the TV-series ones - no Pamela Andersons. And I was almost a bit upset that no one drowned or needed to be rescued so I could see the lifeguards in action…

It was between two and three in the afternoon as we left Venice beach. Since it was so early we decided to head to Long Beach. This was somewhat of a mistake. The bus took absolutely ages to get there. We didn’t get there until around five in the afternoon - after nearly two hours on a bus that rattled like mad. And to add insult to injury - there was nothing to see in Long Beach!

We quickly left Long Beach and took the bus back to Redondo Beach and walked to Hermosa. We only returned to the hostel around eight in the evening after having passed by the supermarket and picked up some meatballs, pain-riche bread, salad, and other stuff for dinner.

There were loads of people in the hostel and a lot of people were partying in the common rooms. Hence, we had to picnic in our room. This turned out pretty all right although it would have been easier to eat in the kitchen as during the previous day.

Our room was located one floor up and on the other side of the building compared to the common rooms. Hence, we managed to get a good night’s sleep despite all the commotion in the hostel. The great thing about Iris and me is that once we have fallen asleep a circus can walk past without waking us up.

Today we woke up before seven (and we hadn’t set ouf alarms). We packed our bags, had some breakfast, surfed for a bit and around nine we headed towards the local optician. Iris’ contact lenses has nearly run out and we were hoping to buy some extra ones before heading to South America. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to fetch any and we had to return to the hostel.

At the hostel we picked up our bags and headed for the bus to LAX. The trip to the airport went quite smoothly and we managed to check in without any issues. As I’m writing this, I’m sitting on the plane heading south to Peru. The service on the LAN airplane (a nice new Boeing 767-300) is pretty decent. The food wasn’t great but eatable. Unfortunately the sound to the in-flight entertainment system isn’t working (for our seats only!) and they don’t seem to be able to fix it. So we have to resort to ‘normal’ activities such as reading and blogging.

In all, we have had an amazing time in the US. I really love San Francisco - it’s an amazing city and it’s so different from LA. Everything was great there - the hostel, the sights, the food - amazing. Our bus trip was first class. I hadn’t expected it to be as nice as it turned out. We really got to travel from one end of the country to another one. Yellowstone was a true gem. So was Bryce Canyon. Grand Canyon was overwhelming. LA has been nice - especially the beaches - but I’m not in a hurry to return here.

Marcus

Sep 14, 2009

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