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Published: September 17th 2011
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By far the trip of my life...
I don't know how to put it in words, but the pictures I took speak by themselves...and they are about 5000 in 7 days...
We started to plan this journey with the single intention of watching a Los Angeles Lakers basketball game... we've chosen the dates and bought the tickets and, for me, that was all... but my friend Nuno came up the idea of renting a car (wich I was against...driving in a foreign country didn't seem attractive to me...how wrong I was...) and went to see some places worth seeing, watch a live bad religion show, eventually drive a couple miles to Vegas..."yeah sure" I tought...lucky if we make it out of there alive...stupid tought...
In seven days we got to see almost everything in Los Angeles County - from the rich part of town, Hollywood, Beverlyhills, Bel Air, Orange County...to the poorest neighbourhoods - Inglewood, Compton (we had to pass there by car), Little Armenia... we went to the beaches... Venice, Santa Monica, Malibu, Long Beach... we went to the mountains and those beautiful nature tracks - Mulholland Drive, Grifith Park... we saw an NBA game and a
Californian Punk Show and we went to the Universal Studios for an unforgetable tour through everyplace I was used to see all my lifein TV in a 13-hour-flight distance... Almost forget: we went to Las Vegas and got back in a full day... yes, we've driven through the mojave desert from California State to Nevada State...
When we first got there, everything was new and different from Europe and it's small towns and people and cars... At the begining things were a little bit disappointing for me because I was expecting to see all those sky scratchers and yellow cabs and giant nike outlets but I soon realize LA it's not NY...I was kinda upset and frustrated because all I was seeing were chinese and mexican people all around, small and ruined buildings with not more than one floor - looking from above LA seems a 2D city, it's unussually flat...
But soon as we started walking around through Hollywood and Beverly Hills and I started to see all those typical american houses with frontyards and garages and everything gardened with flowers and palmtrees, huge cars and all different kind of people and no misconceptions...when we arrived that
night at the hotel, I saw a movie with a guy walking in Rodeo Drive and I had just been there that evening... that's when I realized where I was and how amazing a movie scenary could be... since I've returned from the States everyday I see somwhere I've been on TV...
We visited the main atractions and sightseeings in Hollywood - The Madame Tussauds wax museum, The Kodak Theatre, The Graunma's Chinese Theatre, We had breakfast at the Hooters, then at McDonald's, then we had lunch at Jack in the Box - no. we didn't just ate fast food - and we've walked to Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive...we saw apart of Bel Air also got the chance to see Kat Von D's LA Ink tattoo shop...
In what concerns to walk/drive around the city and interact with people, we've experienced a lot of things the common european it's not used to...at least I speak as a Portuguese...
Things are extremelly cheap - and by cheap I mean a gallon of fuel in Portugal costs you around 8,40 USdollars and by that time (April 2010) a gallon,wich is 3,7 litres of gas, costed us 1,80 USdollars -
and also all the food, accomodation - we've stayed at the Clarion Hotel, wich is a 3 star Hotel (it's near the staples center and about 10min by tube from Hollywood) in a double room, with tv, private bath and coffe machine with free coffee and muffins everyday = 15 USdollars per person/night...around 10eur per nigh...amazing...
I'm familiar with all the health insurance programs and all those social isues americans complain about all the time, but let's be honest: you're more likely to need food to survive, than a health insurance program...America's still being by far a better place to live than Europe (except perhaps if you're a middle class german)
Beyond all the amazing things California has to offer us, we've also went to the Universal Studios amusement park and studio tour... It's a very good experience, where you get to see all the processes of creating a movie and the special effects and there's also a tour included through many famous movies and series scenarios and some live experiences like and earthquake on a tube station or ashark attack in the ocean, among others...
We were so amused at the park that we didn't even felt
plane view
first view of LA the 7.2 moment magnitude earthquake that was happening by that time...!!
Moving into the fascinating encounters with akwardness, we arrive Venice Beach... Wasn't expecting the cold water but we were only in April. We had a swimm in the Pacific Ocean (no sharks on the way), saw the baywatch towers and pickup trucks, some guys working out, others spray painting...common things to see at the beach, until you get yourself faced with a skater dog, a freak show, lots of tattoo shops and medical marijuana centers among with street musicians and even entire bands playing (and believe me, they played very well!)...that's when you realize you're not in a common beach (or even a common place)...we even saw a guy being beaten up by 4 or 5 of his age that came running on bikes and the whole scene took like 30seconds and then they've all disappeared...nothing unusual if you're in Venice Beach...
We walked until Santa Monica Beach and saw the end of the trail, where the road turns to wood, of the mighty route 66 - the west end of the road that goes all across the United States!
At the airport, when picking up
smog
LA view from the Mulholland drive the car at the rental desk we had a peculiar episode...we weren't suppose to leave a cash deposit, but the manager asked us to, so, we went walking to the nearest ATM to withdraw 400 USD, wich happens to be in Inglewood, one of LA's most dangerous neighbourhoods... and we even took a picture of the welcome plate that says "welcome to Inglewood, city of champions"... =)
Everything went well and we got to see it all in 6 days and even watch the game and BR show. On my next blog I'll tell you about Vegas...
Cheers,
JM
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
I\'ve enjoyed hearing your take on the U.S. You must have really been on the go...you\'ve seen a lot.