Off to the beach!

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After an early night I decide to take advantage of a sunny day and head over to Santa Monica Beach. At the bus stop I meet a nice guy named Robbie who takes me to the interchange where I need to change buses. We discuss food, as I usually do. He is surprised I'm Australian, probably since my accent has already started to change as people find it difficult to understand me. The next bus takes quite a long time to get to Santa Monica but was well worth it. The beach is immense! At the end of the pier is a small theme park with the only solar powered ferris wheel. People are fishing off the edge and they seem to be catching quite a few small fish. I grab a chilli cheeseburger (I find its chilli con carne not chillis on it) and some sweet potato fries... nom nom nom. Damn seagulls come close and they are all mottled and dirty looking 😞 not like the nice looking ones in Sydney!

After lunch I walk from Santa Monica Beach to Venice Beach which takes a relaxing hour or so along the beach. The sand is cakey and walking on caked up tyre tracks gives a pleasant massage. The beach is covered in shells when you walk close to the water and I think they have living mussels or whatever they are inside. It kind of gives me the creeps as they have lil floating hairs and pulsate... I have a rest when I get to Venice Beach and find that someone is trying to light up some pot but the wind stops him until he covers his head with a towel first lol. There are so many places to exercise and fitness buffs are lined up everywhere working out. No wonder it is called Muscle Beach. I walk along the boardwalk and find a doctor prescribing medicinal marijuana... yeah right! I have some period pain doc, need some weed lol. The boardwalk takes me all the way back to Santa Monica and people on bikes, skateboards, rollerblades and whatever with wheels pass me.

I spend a while trying to find a way back to the bus stop and I have to walk back couple blocks! By this time its peak hour and after I fall asleep on the bus I freak out thinking I have missed my stopped but the bus driver tells me I'm ok and I eventually get there after an hour or so.

By the time I get back to the hostel its dinner and I meet some awesome people before we all head on a pub crawl. The first stop is an Irish pub where Snoop, the leader from the hostel, suggests getting Jamieson instead of my usual JD and coke. Next is the Piano Bar which has a great jazz/rap group and here I test this "Jamieson" which has now come to become my first choice 😊 Thanks Snoop. It is here that Kevin decides to show up after cleaning the BBQ from dinner. Finally we head to a club which really wasn't any of our cup of tea so we leave to grab a hotdog. It may have been the alcohol, but these hotdogs taste a MILLION times better than the ones we have. This is followed by hitting up Kitchen24 which have epic milkshakes that they blend a Red Velvet cupcake in. OMG was sooo good. I just had a TINY bit but my gosh was sooo tasty. I don't know how Sarah, Michel and Kevin finish theirs. We head back to the hostel and say good night to Michel and Sarah. I stay up with the graveyard shift workers and Kevin as I have to head off to the airport at 5am. Kevin and I try find another hotdog in Hollywood but alas they had packed up and gone so we get the next best thing... a burrito from a dodgy looking van. Still tasted good though. First time I've ever pulled an all-nighter! WOOT!

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