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Published: September 6th 2011
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Another day at the beach 😞 ... lol, j/k.
We had planned on having a nice long lie-in today as breakfast is open until about 10:30am, but unfortunately, we both ended up waking up at about 6:50am and couldn't get back to sleep. Since this was way too early for breakfast we played on the netbook for a while in the room to kill some time before getting showered/dressed/presentable to go downstairs.
This was our first morning at the hostel but we did have some idea of what breakfast consisted of after reading reviews on the internet. It was fairly simple; ready-to-use pancake/waffle batter, pans (for pancakes) and waffle irons (for waffles, duh) to make them! Emma opted to make herself a couple of pancakes in the pan, whilst Craig decided he'd try his hand with the waffle iron (it's basically a George Foreman Grill with criss-cross grooves in it). We cooked up our breakfast and put some syrup on our pancakes/waffles before tucking in. It tasted very similar to English pancakes, and the waffles were the same just in a different shape! Either way, they were yummy, and were a good start to the day!
We went
back to the room to pick up some water, money, the camera and our bus passes, as we had decided that we were going to check out Santa Monica's famous pier this morning. We waited for the 733 bus from where we it dropped us off when we arrived from Hollywood, during which a seemingly normal man asked us for the time before having several conversations with himself, about how time works and the differences between girls and boys. Thankfully the bus arrived fairly quickly and we got off right by the pier.
We wandered along the pier for an hour or so, checking out the artists and entertainers (including a man dressed as a gorilla doing the lamest dance ever - basically just swaying from side to side and moving his arms occasionally) and also walked around an arcade. This was essentially like a classic America video game arcade, with machines such as Nintendo's original Mario Bros, Pacman, Space Invaders, and a wall full of pinball machines. We also had a look around the funfair that sits on the pier, which has just a few rides such as a ferris wheel (which Craig thought was far too fast
and dangerous) and a small rollercoaster.
We then spotted a park area on the beach, with things such as swings and climbing frames, and also gymnastics equipment, such as ropes, rings and bars. We had a little go on the swings and played about a bit on the gymnastics rings. We had originally planned to catch the bus back the way we had came, but as the beach was so nice, and the weather was so warm, we opted to walk the 2 miles or so back to Venice Beach along the boardwalk.
As we walked, we stopped to watch some people playing volleyball, and took some pictures of some of the street merchants. We also remembered to take a picture of the two-headed turtle at the 'Freak Show', and to our surprise there were two of them today!
Once we were back at Venice Beach, we came back to the room to grab some beach towels and apply some suncream ready for a spot of sunbathing. We made our way back to the beach, grabbing a couple of $2 chilli dogs on the way. We stopped to eat them on the grass as we didn't want
sand on them, before proceeding to the beach. We found a nice quiet spot away from the hustle and bustle - which wasn't too difficult, as even though it is a bank holiday here today (Labor Day), there was still loooads of room as the beach is so ridiculously huge - and we set up camp for a couple of hours.
After a while, we got a bit bored of just lying there, so we moved from where we were to sit in the sun near the skate park, so we could have some entertainment as we relaxed. As we watched, we noticed some police men/women speaking to some of the skaters and seemed to be searching/confiscating items from their bags after asking to see their ID (we think they were underage drinkers - it appears the police are pretty strict on that sort of thing!).
After a couple more hours, we came back to the room to change and wash off the sand. We were getting a little hungry again as it was around 6:30-7:00pm by this point, so Craig had a Subway from across the road whilst Emma got a taco from a cafe place near
the beach. It was starting to get dark and we had planned to go back to Santa Monica pier to see it lit up at night and get some more pictures. However, after waiting at the bus stop for around half an hour, we weren't sure that it was going to come, with it being so late on a bank holiday, or that there would be a bus for us to catch back later. We had also noticed a police helicopter circling above north Venice Beach/Santa Monica with it's spotlight on, so we wondered if something had happened there which had caused them to cancel the buses, as we had seen a 733 going down a different road to it's normal route a little earlier in the day. We therefore agreed that we would go to Santa Monica another night; maybe tomorrow when the buses will be running more regularly.
We are now back in the room and will hopefully have some sort of lie in tomorrow as we will be going to bed a bit later than we have been over the last week - we are normally so tired by about 9 that we fall asleep, which
is why we keep waking up so early! Looking forward to another day of relaxation on the beach tomorrow!
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