Los Angeles

Day 120

The longest day of my life!

Up at 6.30am, in auckland at 8am, airport by 10am, plane around 12, LAX at 7am, hostel by 10am – oh god its morning AGAIN! Lol

Immigration and customs take forever, this place truly is as paranoid as it gets, they're worse than biosecurity in NZ, making everyone queue for ages so the sniffer dogs get a chance at everyone and taking your fingerprints and photo etc etc. grr! And as an aside old people who think they can push in deserve to be slapped! Especially when they turn to you and say 'some people dont like queuing'! I got one sneaky whack with the didgeridoo box, but not nearly hard enough as I would have liked!

Anyway our hostel is pretty cool, free shuttle, breakfast muffins, afternoon cookies, wifi, tea and coffee, buffet of chips etc at dinner, cake for pudding, champagne/soft drink vouchers – all free as can be! And in a 20bed dorm we are only paying $14.35 a night!

Days 121 – 127

Not a lot really happened in LA, mostly we hid at the hostel, using free wifi when we left our room and to be honest just feeling generally intimidated by the whole americanness!

Our area isnt very nice, so our excursions after finding theres no kitchen to cook, were mainly to subway as thats a lot healthier than burger king, and within walking distance those were our lunchtime choices!

We also had predictable hostel issues, the water was off for one day (yeah hes just fixing a pipe, itl be on in half an hour my ass!) and for 2 days one of the taps in the boys bathroom was stuck on which made sleep time a little noisy, but all in all its been a pretty good hostel for us, new towel and a freshly made bed every day and clean and friendly dorm mates!

We also did one tour of La city, hollywood and downtown. The downtown was an addon that the driver said we could do for tips (instead of the $14 it should have cost) after I explained I literally only had $4 left! I think he did it because he keeps his tips, and he doesnt care how many people are on the bus, but it was still very nice of him!

The tour of LA, rodeo drive, venice beach etc was quite boring, yada yada its big and famous and expensive! And venice beaches homeless just showed how large the gulf between rich and poor is (never have I appreciated the UK so much!) which just saddened me. But if I had money and time both the farmers market (where I got SALAD for lunch :-D) and downtown would have enchanted me, especially downtown with its little market of worked leather goods and pretty little stalls in a small street, by a square filled with beautiful trees and fountain!

We also got to see the walk of fame and all its stars, the chinese theatre with its hand and foot prints, the hollywood sign etc... all the stuff it is kinda obligatory to see if you go to LA!

I guess thats pretty much it, life gets boring when you run out of money (just so you know my overspend is nearly £1000 now)! WE did have a hilarious american guy in our dorm though who couldnt believe “you have roads only one car can fit down!?” and didn't know what a hedge was! He also had a gallon of mouthwash which we laughed at him about!

Anyway I cant wait to see you all! We are leaving tomorrow, and I cannot wait to be HOME!