We Got More Bounce in California

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There's not much to report on my time in Los Angeles. I arrived at the hotel about 5 hours before check in, so bought a ticket to a shuttle bus to Manhattan Beach + shopping, mainly as something to do to keep me in the sun so I wouldn't get jet lag (I'd heard that somewhere). I was tired, it being 1am according to my body clock, and me stupidly not really even attempting to sleep on the plane. But my aim was to stay awake 11 more hours, til about 6pm, which would bring my sleep pattern almost to normality (I didn't make it, I had a 2 hours nap at 1pm). Even without the jet lag factor, I had to kill time until check in, so yeh, I went shopping.

I could have stopped at Manhattan Beach, but the weather wasn't so great while I was in LA. By the last day it was getting a bit hot, but the whole time it was pretty darn windy. No wonder they had such bad fires while I was there (on the first day I could smell the bushfires and missed home). Anyway, not to bore you with details but I went to buy a watch and a SIM card, got sent on a long fruitless walk to find the latter and instead bought myself a delicious bagel. In the end though, I did get both items I desired. I went back to the hotel room and spent the rest of the day napping/ watching TV. It was fun watching the Colbert Report especially, knowing Australia gets the same episode 7 hours later (which i would probably be watching if I was home).

On my second day I took a city tour- partly because I was too lazy to try and navigate public transport, which was enhanced by my long fruitless walk looking for a SIM card- which made me remember how easy it is to get lost in foreign cities; but mainly because I buy into all the Hollywood tack and secretly love it. I was also hoping for some fat American tourists to make stupid remarks that I could giggle at. A bit of a stereotype, but still. Also, for the record, there hasn't been a large amount of fat people here (despite the fact that I am yet to find any restaurant not exclusively serving meat and fat), and everyone here has been uncommonly friendly. Like, friendliest city I've ever been to. By far.

Anyway, the tour was good- it mainly took you to places of interest and let you wander around by yourself for 45 minutes, which is the way I like it. I got to see Venice Beach (which was good, but I don't think you need more than 45 minutes to see), and a fun drive through suburbs so well known- Santa Monica, Beverley Hills, Melrose (which looks like it has fantastic vintage shopping- who knew). Then we went to Farmers Market where I had a Bluth banana (obviously not actually called that- they're strange but delicious). Then we headed to Hollywood. Which was pretty good, and I'm glad I saw. And bought a T-shirt from the place where Disney films are premiered- heaven!

I didn't really do much on my last day, except go to Manhattan Beach (where there was a REALLY cool aquarium on the end of the wharf, I totes touched some starfish!), and got my watch taken in, and treated Borders like a library. I also ate some disgustingly fried food at a diner. Exciting stuff!

I really enjoyed LA. Everywhere I went or any place I saw on a map a scene from a movie/ TV show/ song would come into my head relating to that occassion. You don't realised how saturated LA is in pop culture. It's great. And I love how on the tour I went on we'd pass places and the guy would say "that's where Winona Ryder was caught shop-lifting", "that's where Arnold Schwarzeneger used to work out for his movies". So yeh, friendly people, warm weather (minus the wind), and large location related quotability factor- A+

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Photos

Venice Beach Sign
But backwards...