L.A. (or just outside of it)

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I arrived in Downtown L.A. at about 10pm after the bus arrived 2 hours late (and I have no idea how that happened, we were never stuck in traffic or anything - I guess the bus driver just took the wrong route or something?). Got a cab to Santa Monica where Peta (my aunt on my father's side, for anyone who doesn't know) picked me up and we drove back to her place near Malibu. Overall I think she lives roughly 90 minutes outside of Downtown L.A. and Santa Monica is about halfway. Although the weather was actually not fantastic while I was there (very cloudy, what the locals call "June Gloom"), when the sun did break through then the beaches were glorious. We walked down Venice Beach just as the sun was shining, and it was pretty much exactly how I imagined California to be like (sunshine & beaches, skaters, crazy people, legal pot clinics etc). L.A. itself is huge and I didn't see too much of the downtown area (from what I gather I'm not missing much), though I did spend half a day in Hollywood with 3 'cubers' from the area, which I really enjoyed.

Peta's house is amazing, and so was her hospitality. It was really nice to have a comfy bed and proper meals for a few days. Peta's friend's daughter Thea offered (or maybe her mum offered on her behalf!) to show me around Malibu, which was really nice. We drove down the Pacific Coast Highway (a.k.a. Highway 1, the one that goes up Big Sur and is famously amazingly beautiful) and went for a short hike into the hills just north of Malibu, then headed to Santa Monica for the afternoon. The 2nd evening I was there I went with Thea and her friends to watch a Congolese percussion band, who were great, despite being maybe slightly repetitive.

Alice and Paul made an appearance soon after I got there too, so it was great seeing them all, even if I couldn't stay as long as I'd have liked to (need to keep moving!)

Oh, and by the way, I'm not gonna bother uploading photos onto this blog anymore as it takes too long, I'm just putting them on Facebook instead. If you don't have me added on Facebook then I can be found under Jude C.Wright (with no space between 'C', '.' or 'Wright')

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