Headed to the US of A.
Trip Start
Jun 26, 2008
1
66
67
Trip End
Ongoing
Los Angeles, California
Monday, March 30, 2009
Well this is our first full day in LA and although I'm tired and Kim even more so we head out into Santa Monica to sample what it has to offer. Jamba Juice was recommended to us by the girls we met in Fiji so we grabbed a couple of breakfast drinks and an Oatmeal before heading down along 3rd Promenade. This area is beautiful and we wander from shop to sgop, stopping only in Guess to see if they have the jacket that kim wanted when we were in Singapore. We head straight to the Santa Monica Pier, fast food joints and cheesy fairground rides everywhere and once at the end there isn't really much to see either. After this we go to the beach and wander along checking out Muscle beach which happens to have none of the muscle-bound freaks I had expected and then further down. Having walked for alittle while, taking in the variety of architecture and the inordinate amount of homeless people we finally get to a place to rent bikes. Kimmy grabs a iridescent blue bike with a little basket on the front, appealing to her occasional girls nature and I unfortunately get a matching boy bike both with white wall tyres. Hitting the bike track next to the beach we head down the coast to Venice beach where funky tatto parlours and food shops line the beach, with groups of guys rapping together just like in 8 Mile, and crack addicts wandering from bin to bin. It sounds gross but its a lively place to hang out but with a a bit of an edge. We head further on, taking in the marina and out towards Fiji way. Eventually its been around an hour and we decide to head back so that we don't exceed to two hour rent mark. Racing back with a quick stop at subway we get back with 5 mins to spare.
1st april
Well after the poor performance yesterday it was today that was to be our LA sight seeing tour. I will try to put as much in here as possible but we saw a lot of weird crap and a very short space of time so I'm sure that I will have missed quite a bit.
We faffed around in the morning, taking our time getting ready and eating as much as humanly possible at the free breakfast. (I am also currently reading 'turning thirty' so am in a bit of a weird mood). Getting ready we pick up the leaflets we need to be able to do LA in a day and head for the bus stop. Today is to be Beverly hills, the farmers market and Hollywood in just a few short hours. We get to the bus stop and find we don't have the right change but he lets us on anyway and says we can pay on the next bus, which I don't quite understand but we go with it anyway. First stop is Beverly Hills so that we can take in the scenery and Rodeo drive. Beverly hill is somehow not quite as glamorous as you see on TV but I guess that is to be expected. However, Rodeo Drive is just as upmarket as we imagined. Immaculately manicured sidewalks and greenery set against the biggest names in fashion. We peruse the shops, quite aware of how traveller we look. In fact at one point I think we worked out that kims entire outfit, including her underwear cost about $20. Anyhow, we wandered up and down the road looking in the windows only and only stepping into Guess as Kim was looking for something specific. Greeted in a rather more friendly way that I had expected and the shop assistants not looking down their nose at us too much. Heading back we hopped on the bus after the obligatory rodeo drive pics and headed for the Beverley hills farmers market. This place was gorgeous, like a mix between the Camden markets and something a little more French but loads of designer food stalls, pies and coffee and cheese and tea and Gumbo. All squeezed into a small covered area. We wandered around but it being so close to breakfast I couldn't really eat a lot so we decided to head for Hollywood and to come back here later when we could enjoy in further.
On the bus to Hollywood and pretty much as soon as we saw the walk of fame we hope do the bus to wander around. Cornered by a guy trying to sell us a tour we managed to escape and head over to the Chinese theatre where the rich and famous make those hand a foot print autographs in the concrete. After picking out some names we recognised and avoiding Lara Croft, Spiderman and captain jack sparrow we wandered down Hollywood boulevard along the walk of fame, most of whom we had never heard of course. At one point I got asked to listen to a guys demo cd, gangster rap, and quite why he wanted my opinion I couldn't fathom until he had sold me a copy for a paltry $3. Avoiding having to listen to and buy more music I would never listen to again I caught up with kim and we headed further down, stopping for a while in the tacky souvenir shops and deciding of whether to buy really crap t-shirts for some people back home. Marianne nearly got a beauty but I thought it was a close call on whether she would appreciate it. Having bought a few bits we headed further south and wondered what else it is we wanted to see from Hollywood apart from the bizarreness that is the boulevard. We decided that the Hollywood sign was a must see and we skirted off the main strip in search of it. Sure enough we managed t catch a glimpse and even get some distant pics before turning back past shop after shop selling bongs and wigs. Eventually we decided that we should go do something so we ended up in Ripleys believe it or Not. A bizarre collection of tales of the unusual and collection of crap which included a real shrunken human head. After an hour and $30 we emerge slightly bemused and wander further down. Heading back to the theatre we head upstairs and manage to get a much better view of the Hollywood sign before getting back to the bus stop. Sitting there at the bus stop waiting to head back to the market we remarked that we hadn't seen anyone famous, but then I suppose Hollywood is mainly a tourist trap during the day and a honeypot man trap at night. But then I looked over at the car sitting at the lights, an Audi S6 with a huge v10 engine, subtle and understand with good tints and spot a woman who looks rather like Claudia Shieffer. Kim on first sight though it looked like Kim Basinger but I couldn't be sure. However when she pulled off the licence plate read C.L.S, which I guess could easily stand for Claudia L Shieffer. I guess we will never know.
We got back to the farmer market, a lot more hungry that when we were there the last time and decided to eat something nice. Its our last few days travelling and we really haven't been out to eat somewhere nice since my parents were in Sydney. So we headed to the star restaurant in the market and upmarket place with a huge wine list. I ordered excellent mussels and Kim had a goats cheese salad, mmmm. Fortunately the bill was a shade over fifty dollar and less than seventy (cause that all I had on me having forgotten to bring the credit cards out with us). After this we were quite contect to head back and after a long bus ride home along Santa Monica Boulevard we got back, having listened to two women talk like only Americans can, interspersed with lots of 'mmmmhmmm' and 'oh no she didn't' etc etc.
2nd April
Well today is our travelling day, getting away from LA and heading to the big apple. We wake up with the alarm at 6am and get our stuff together, shower and ready and checked out in under 25mins. We have a short walk with heavy bags to the corner of 4th and Santa Monica where we catch a 'Rapid' bus straight to LAX, and rapid is right cause the driver really isn't hanging about. Once we get off the bus we have to get a shuttle out to the terminal and whilst this only take a few mins we realise that the checking desk we need isn't at the stop we stopped at. Walking between terminals we eventually join the back of a queue of around 10 people which proceeds more slowly than any check in desk in the history of human kind. We had been warned about the airports in America, about the elongated procedures and security checks after 9/11 but this was a domestic flight and not only that we had proceeded straight through LAX almost without stopping. After what felt like about a week we got called to the first class desk as the queue for the first class check in had been dismissed, having checked in once and with boarding cards in hand were trying to check in for a second time. Just going to show that money in America does not mean you are smart. Kim's name got checked in fine but there was a problem with mine as there happened to be two Adam James smiths on board the same flight, the first of which had already checked in. Not only that but my name had a first class reference. Asking and hoping that I would be bumped up we waited until a second attendant was called to deal with the problem that the inept first attendant couldn't sort out. This problem was fixed by looking up my date of birth, hardly rocket science but anyhow, we got checked through and had to take our bags to a different hall to be x-rayed. Once at the correct place Kim's bag goes through but mine is stopped. Thinking that it must be due to the presents I picked up in Fiji for the lads I wonder what they will say, but they proceed to empty the entire contents of my bag, check thoroughly and then re-pack. By the time they have finished messing about with this we have to rush to security where everything, including shoes are removed and scanned before we are let through. Bearing in mind we haven't even paused since 6am to get a bite to eat we are late for boarding and have to grab a crappy croissant on the run. Once on the plane we are surround with hoards of screaming western children. The one behind be crying more times in 5 mins that the little dot I saw on Fiji did for the entire week. Eventually we take off after a good 45 min delay on the tarmac and we get airborne. The in-flight entertainment finally activates itself after a re-boot and I settle in to watch 'slumdog millionaire'. Which personally I thought was brilliant. Kim watches Marley and Me about a Labrador and spends the last 30mins of the film in floods of tears. A few episodes of family guy later we are on our way into JFK. We get in, collect our bags and get outside to desperately try to find some food as the stuff on the plane was terrible. Reliably, Subway was right outside but a combination of retarded staff in training and rude new Yorkers pushing in line it takes about 30mins to order a sub and sit down. By this time it is 12h since we got out of our hostel in LA and we still haven't found our way out of JFK. We grab the air-rail out of JFK straight into the subway system and pat $5 each and then grab $25 passes to the subway for the week with the help of a friendly rail assistant. From here we end up getting to 7th and 56th which is close to where we think we need to be for the hostel, not knowing exactly where it is but know that it is on 7th somewhere south of the park. We come up out of the subway and we are greeted with NY, it is spectacular, like Londons west end but bigger and brighter. We saunter down 7th and get to a phone to try to call directory assistance to find the hostel but after trying four phones and getting through they don't have a listing. Not good news, so we head to the nearest Starbucks, which, shockingly, was right across the street. Once online we see that the nice hostel we thought we had booked isn't the one we actually booked and we are on the wrong side of town, in fact instead of staying just south of time square we are actually in the middle of Harlem. Now, all I know about NY is what I have seen in the movies and the thought of wandering through Harlem at 10pm carrying all our worldly possessions didn't exactly inspire me with confidence. We finally make off the tube and get walking. Not on confused by the road signs we get mildly lost but eventually right ourselves and make the two block walk up to 7th and 118th. Through the door of the hostel is so different to what is just outside the hostel a am surprised. We are greeted, told about everything and then shown to our rooms which have gorgeous bathrooms and free wifi. The bed I am elected to sleep in has a Dutch man in it though so after a brief conversation with the receptionist we change to a dorm in a private room for the same price. A quick scout around and a venture outside to the shop to grab a six pack of Budweiser and we're settled for the evening. The only interlude is when I guy sticks his head through the window and asks why I'm in my room drinking beer by myself when there are girls outside. Then Kim pipes up from where he can't see her and ask exactly what kind of girls are outside? The reply to which is smooth saying 'not ones that compare to you honey'. Nice.
