Flight was, as it always is, incredibly long and due to my obsession with watching as many in-flight movies as possible it also wasn't particularly sleepful. 9 hours to Korea, then a 2 hour stop over and another 10 hour's to LAX. THEN I LANDED IN AMERICA. That is when the fun officially begun.I've always been into travelling more in terms of people, atmosphere and general life than i have been of looking at all the 'to-do' things. So, like a local i ordered an Uber from the airport. Usually, that is not a particularly note worthy thing. In my case though, when i was putting my bags in the trunk (american words here) the car infront reversed into my drivers car. To me it was hilarious the interaction that ensued. My driver asking for licence and insurance from the other guy. The other guy not understanding at all. This went back and forth for about half an hour. Honestly i thought it was quite funny... i guess my driver felt a little bit less happy about it.
Good friends of Daniel (from Israel, remember him?), put me up for the week even though they weren't actually home the first 3 days. They have a beautiful apartment in Santa Monica (the beaches region of LA), with 2 cats; girl cat and boy cat. The place is so close to everything that i was able to simply walk around and explore. Unfortunately for me, due to time differences i also arrived into LA on nov 24--which here is thanksgiving.. a big big deal. Because of that, a lot of places were closed. Well, there was a couch-surfing event that i could go to, a traveler's thanksgiving. But honestly, i was smelly, tired and just wanted to crash. And after a burger with just the right amount of grease, crash is exactly what i did (at 6pm as well).
My time is La was thoroughly interesting, though i didn't do a lot of the things tourists usually might do there. I spent the majority of my time around the Santa Monica region (beaches area), just meandering around, people watching. La in general has a huge number of homeless people, which coming from Brisbane i found quite shocking. But generally it was a really nice area, a lot of hipster type places, though Coffee wasn't up to the hipster standard.
I met up with some people, which was great because it let me do exploring of areas that i might not have had the chance to explore otherwise. After i posted on the santa monica couch surfers page asking if anyone wanted to do something, a guy named Vlad replied asking if i was a friend of Stellas. Turns out he had lived with Stela ( a good friend of mine who i did a roud trip with just 6 months ago) on the Kibbutz when she first moved to Israel. Vlad showed me around LA a bit, the gay area, UCLA, Hollywood. It was so nice to get to know him, and also just a crazy coincidence. Another sign that this is a small small world.I also met up with Danielle who i'd served with in the army. Together we went up to Griffith park and the Observatory. Got a great view of the city and overall just
Mostly, that's because La is very car based and though Uber there is cheap, its still not THAT cheap. Anyway i enjoy catching public transport because it allows me to really get the know the city and the people. For instance, i've noticed that in LA in particular people like taking large speakers with them onto the Metro and blare their music. People also quite often are incredibly high or drunk and entertain themselves by talking to everyone onboard. Actually, i'd heard that La people weren't so nice, but i didn't find that. I thought that everyone was really quite lovely, and didn't shy from talking to strangers.
Overall from La i can say:
- nice city, but just a city
- Hollywood BLVD -- very meh
- Muscle beach is awesome
- Everyone is very into their weed
- i would visit again (infact i am on Daniel and I's road trip)
