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Published: March 9th 2006
Clouds Over Santa Monica
Here's where we stayed for the first 5 nights... well around the corner actually but this was about 2 mins walk away ...Okay I finally get the chance to get this journal going, it's taken 13 days to find a hostel/internet cafe cheap enough for me to economically type up a very long journal and I have a huge amount of stuff to talk about here, so get ready to be bored. Understand that this blog is very much for me to look back on in 6 months time just as much as it is for people like
you to read if you're all all interested. So let's Begin this tale...
Friday, the 24th of February at 9am we blasted off from Adelaide airport after an emotional goodbye from family and friends which would have been great if Horse and I weren't so tired from about 3 hours sleep each the previous night! We landed in Sydney about 2 hours or so later. We had to make our way to the International airport from the domestic which was a short underground train trip which happened to cost $4.50 (
note: I will be complaining about prices all the time, just like I do in real life 😉) We eventually got to the International airport and got our bags prepped and all locked tight and then proceeded to board. It was a pretty awesome feeling stepping onto the plane, thinking "we're gonna be in a new country next time we land" ... this feeling was the only positive thing about being crammed into a giant flying tin can for over 13 hours. The flight
was very uncomfortable but I guess we paid for the cheap airline hehe. I just tried to sitback and enjoy the scenery which lasted about 15 mins and then it was just ocean the rest of the way. Actually I lie, we saw Fiji at night with weird light configurations which was pretty cool (I got pics!) Okay enough about the flight apart from my playlist:
- The Blueprint - Phenomenology (because I like this band it wasn't too harsh for my ears at the time)
- Pineapple Thief - Abducting the Unicorn (because PT are a great band and Private Paradise is an awesome opening track)
- September Plateau - Occasional Light (because I was trying to fall asleep and this is a great sleepytime album - which didnt work this time)
Pretty short list there, not sure what I did for the rest of the time ... O_o
We eventually landed in Los Angeles and it felt cool to be in the USA yeeah however the customs officials weren't so impressed with our choice of holiday destination and we were horded like cattle through the checkpoints and given scornful eyefulls as we marched to our outside freedom. We decided to work out the public transport system to get to our Hostel which was in Santa Monica ... a suburb/county of LA, about 20km from Downtown LA. It ended up costing 75c (woohoo) to catch the bus and 30 mins later we were at our hostel! The bus ride was an eye opener for sure, we got glimpses of
real americans doing
real american things like heading to work, buying groceries etc. I realise it sounds stupid making observations of such simple tasks but it's all part of creating a better understanding about a culture which is slandered so intensely back at home. Apart from people doing stuff, I also noticed a MILLION burger places, so many different chains! each looking more greasy and gross than the next!! oh and Mexican food chains too!! "Los Taco's" being my fav haha.. ahh well yeah apart from that the bus ride was loud/bumpy and the LA eternal veil of smog was breathtaking (hehe).
We strolled to the hostel after getting off at the wrong bus stop but it was only a 10 min walk. The Hostel reception was cold as was to be expected. The mexican girl wasn't really a "people" person (a persona which she held up for 5 days) but then again, I actually booked it for the wrong nights so it was I who screwed up. Luckily there were no issues getting a room for that night instead. The room was cosy and nice, the beds were made and it all looked comfortable. This is when we first encountered our first "roomie". His name was Ahmed and he was a north african guy who lived in France, he had come to Santa Monica to study english at a Uni/college they have there. Okay enough about him. After our showers (cold water mainly!) we realised just how jetlagged we were... I mean, we landed at 10am the same day we took off from Adelaide, so we were awake for about 27 hours or so (if my calculations are correct!) We tried to shake it off by walking around the local area. Which is where we met our friends ... the homeless (known from this point on as bums) I think on average in all america we get asked 10-20 times a day for money (apart from santa barbara when it was about 5 times a day) It gets annoying but you cannot afford to give money to the poor when you yourself has a budget to adhere to (lame excuse I know but the amount of homeless here is sickening and very sad, however it's not my problem and that's that). First meal was Mc'donald's because a)curious to see how it tasted here and b)quite cheap (well about equal to $1.50 cheaper here than back home. It tasted like Macca's but the beef had a strange flavour .. hmm..
Tried to crash at about 17:30 (we arrived at santa monica about 14:00) and failed, so after being in a restless haze for about 2 hours we decided to go out and get a beer. So we did and after our 2nd hamburger (this time from Jonny Rockets) it went down a treat (after being asked for ID to get in because you have to be 21+ here, so they're more extreme) After the 2nd Imperial pint we felt pretty damn tired and headed back to the hostel weery at about 00:00 and managed to get to sleep woohoo.
Next few days were all about sightseeing and stuff and I wont bore you with anything apart from the major highlights of LA/Santa Monica. First off, Horse and I headed off to Hollywood and Sunset blvd. and all those places you hear about on TV and maybe even see on TV. It was kinda interesting I spose for a general "k ive been there now, whats next?" experience. Not mindblowing at all. Took a ton of pics that will fill in the blanks for those of you at home who care (let me know and Ill upload pics of specific places). We headed back to the hostel about 20:00 and once again hit the town for more boozing. It was impossible to find a decent "pub atmosphere" in LA, it's all gimmic and ready-made groups of snobs, nothing like Australian pub culture... so we never found "the world's end" or "the austral" just alot of
empty/shallow places not friendly to these new people from Australia but still we're not here to experience home-life are we? ...
My highlight of Santa Monica was my solo walk along santa monica and it's surrounding beaches, I walked along the massive pier and then walked 2 hours in one direction and cut into the suburbs and surrounding hilly areas where the views were pretty extreme. Kinda made some personal promises to myself on this walk and made some realisations and im trying hard to think back to what it actually was that I was thinking at the time because it always makes me feel better if im feeling a bit down (down about spending money mainly) Listened to the following albums on this trek:
- The Last Drop - Where were you Living a Year from now (because it's Shallow's 2nd album and I like Shallow quite alot and it sounded a bit like american stoner rock for an american scene)
- Shallow - 16 Sunsets in 24 Hours (see above 😉)
- Kinski - Be Gentler with the Warm Turtle (my fav kinski album, mentions a beach house in one lyric, seemt fitting)
- Floor - Floor (one of my fav ever albums, stoner/doom at it's highest most crushing order)
Bored yet? Thought so, well never mind, no-one's making you read this. Second best part of this part of the trip was the night after disneyland (yes we went to disneyland and it was great!) This night was the first time we "made friends" in the dorm... with 2 dudes ... Mieke and Morton from denmark, their scandinavianness was pretty crazy, their language sounded really weird and they make a hell of alot of noise at 8am (when normal people are trying to sleep!) but they ended up being cool guys, just a bit immature ... they were both 19 and im 22 and Horse 24 and you can tell the difference quite easily but still that doesn't matter right now. We shared a couple of buds (sadly, the american beer not something more interesting -
which I crave, I crave it so much-) and started talking about our countries and shared advice as I am heading to Denmark in a few months and they're heading to Australia. The most crucial advice I remember from them was "buy the milk that comes in the blue carton" ... amazing. We went out drinking with these dudes and got pretty damn trashed (the most ive been for sometime) but we outdrank those danes even though they would never admit it hehe. Oh yeah and it seems like danish people enjoy urinating in public whenever they feel it's needed. Morton even urinated on a bus while the bus driver looked in the side mirror and had a mammoth siezure while the rest of us just laughed. Drunken idiots!
Uhhhh Im sure we did something else, can't remember now but that's Santa Monica/LA for you ... no wait one more thing. Downtown LA! (it's a hole) and it's very deserted, there's very few people around and when you see them they're all very feral looking. Downtown LA is only for skyscraper enthusiasts (sp? sorry but im too lazy to look it up) because the skyline is pretty impressive (nothing on San Fran but that comes in 2 blogs time!) just seems like a nuclear winter and no humans thrive there. Everyone's out in the sattelite cities (like santa monica etc) and avoiding the actual city (unlike Adelaide/Melbourne where
it's all 'happening'.
I didn't like LA very much at all, population of 10,000,000 freaked me out to begin with and just flying in over it and seeing how many houses etc... like a beehive filled with the american public. Very scary yet interesting in a weird way.
Okay Okay Im almost done here, my friends. We decided to goto San Diego next, which is where my next journal will take place and it'll be a bit shorter and maybe even more interesting! I guess you'll have to read it to find out hehe.
Bye for now.
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Sulphuric Teabag
non-member comment
What a lovely story
Hi Paul! Glad to hear you're having a lovely time! Just wanted to let you know that Beez Neez is an awesome beer, how does it smell like honey, yet taste like beautiful fine beer? I just got a carton of Singha so i'll have to get through that (oh the agony) until the next one hehe! No amazing new albums to brag about just yet, but i'm sure they're on the horizon and you will be awfully jealous!