SoCal

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Los Angeles

Arriving in LA I was glad to finally feel the warm after the chill of San Fran, finally it was shorts, t-shirt and thong (flip flops for all you non-aussies out there) weather! I was staying in a hostel in the Santa Monica area for the first couple of nights before moving in with my cousin, Anita, her postcode is 90210, now that's cool. We met up that first night and she took me to a couple of very swanky and very expensive places for a few drinks with some of her friends, a few drinks soon turned into many drinks and it was a memorable first night.

Over the next few days I visited the Venice Beach area, home to lots of wild, wacky and wonderful characters, or many not. It wasn't particularly great, a little dirty and run down and just not the shining wonderful place that I imagined it to be. I did however see a great little street performance and a bong as tall as I am! So the day wasn't a complete loss. I also got to see the making of (from what I saw) the worst movie in the world, acting of z-list quality and no discernable plot. The main character was ex-wrestling star Rowdy Roddy Piper giving a memorable performance. This was also the moment where I saw possibly the funniest legal announcement ever, Justin this photo's for you.

The next couple of days were spent just relaxing pool side and eating out at expensive restaurants, it made a great change from the hostel/backpacker lifestyle. One of the days I wandered up to Hollywood which underwhelmed me, I had in my head a classy and cool area humming with interesting characters. Instead it was humming with tourists and was just a little dingy with the exception of the Kodak Theatre (home of the Oscars) and the Chinese Theatre. Following the Hollywood Walk of Fame was a lesson in all the people that I have never heard of from before I was born so with a few exceptions it wasn't too exciting.

San Diego

My time in this beautiful city next to the Mexican border was spent mainly on the beach and recovering from hangovers from the ridiculously cheap beer on sale, 18 cans for $10, how can anyone say no. I hung out in the Ocean Beach area and ate lots of burritos it was great. I really actually did nothing for about 3 day so no blog worthy stuff in there.

The one day where I managed to do anything was when I went to the world famous San Diego Zoo. It is well worth a trip to go and see and my main interest lay in seeing all of the African animals that I could, zebra, giraffe, elephant etc etc. Another highlight was the Giant Panda which was really cool to see close up, it looked so cuddly. I also saw a Polar Bear in its own little habitat, they are huge, one swipe of that massive paw and you would be toast.

A word on zoo's: I well understand the conservation reasons for zoo's but there must be a better way. All the animals look so bored and in many cases depressed. When you have seen an elephant on a endless African savanna it just seems a little cruel to keep one in a 100m or so cage. I'll get off my high horse now.

Other Thoughts and Observations Obviously Meant to Flesh Out an Otherwise Very Very Short Blog

* You need a car in LA. Contrary to popular belief the bus system is very good and goes everywhere, it'll just take you all day to get anywhere.

* San Diego is home to an inordinate number of Irish. Literally (and I'm not taking the piss) 95% of the people I met in the hostel there were Irish trying to find a job and a house.

* I love the beach.

* I got kicked off the beach by the cops down in SD 3 nights out of 4 and the one that I didn't get kicked off I was sleeping in bed. Good track record in my opinion.

* A typical evening in SD went something like this, buy beer, drink beer, get kicked out of hostel when they closed common areas, go down to the beach and drink more beer in front of large fire, get kicked off beach by the cops. It was like clockwork!

* Los Angeles is a strange place, a real melting pot. There are loads of different cultures there and a real massive difference between the have's and have not's. I couldn't work out whether I liked it or not, its not really a great place for a backpacker due to the transport problems mentioned above and the fact that there's only really 2 maybe 3 different areas of interest in the city, its all very spread out.

* It was cool hanging out with my cousin and eating at expensive restaurants.

* California is a great state, I'd love to have had a car and spent a few months really exploring all the different areas, it has so much diversity in its people, cultures and places.



Well at last my time in the Continental North America has come to a close and after saying goodbye to my cousin I was off to the airport to catch my flight to Hawaii.

Its a tough life.

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Photos

The Kodak Theatre
Home of the Oscars

Attention: Lawyer's at Work
Jc this one is for you.

Muscle Beach
This is down near Venice Beach, notice the man in a thong. No sign of Arnie

Comments

[Joel]

You could have been a movie star!!!
After reading the sign I was sure you would have walked straight past it and done your best to stand out from the crowd??? :P

[Justin]

Our beaches sound like they are way better. Represent!
I did indeed LOVE the photo. I especially loved the bit; "... throughout the universe in perpetuity". They must believe the world is coming to an end soon! Stupid Hollywood. Note that their contractual "right to film you, etc" would extinguish once the world is destroyed. Hmm, time to teach Hollywood a lesson...