48 hours in LA (so far)

Wow. So much has happened in 48 hours since I departed Auckland I can't even fathom how I'm going to write it all down, so here's my best shot ....

Sunday

After a looooong and uncomfortable 12 hours on a plane I disembarked at LAX on Sunday afternoon - only to be faced by another long and uncomfortable process – LAX immigration. Immigration and security at US airports is chaos. At LAX queues spiralled in all directions, officials barked instructions at everyone and signs were generally either wrong or uninformative .I had to walk around for almost ten minutes because the non-immigrant visa queue I was directed too turned out not to exist .... 

However, once I had finally got in the queues being processed was relatively painless. All my angst about customs officials was for nothing - with a quick glance at my visa and a thud of stamp I was quickly sent on my way and entered the US, yay !

I caught a very expensive taxi from LAX to Venice Beach where I checked into my hostel and met my new roommates. I thought I had booked a female only dorm but this was clearly an illusion as I was thrown in with three boys from the UK and Australia. Although initially a little perturbed when one told me he had spent 24 of 25 days in New Zealand " absolutely wasted" they turned out to be very nice people ! 

Although I was shattered I tried to refrain from sleeping by going out exploring.  There happened to be a Hari Krishna festival happening right outside my hostel –  with several stages for dancing, singing, speeches and of course plenty of food stalls ! Anyone who knows me knows I am a lover of cheap Hari Krishna food so I was very pleased with the free vegetarian meal I managed to score ...

Venice beach parade

Free Hari Krishna food

When I returned to the hostel all the boys in my room were going out and they kindly invited me with them. Although I was feeling exhausted and a little homesick I'm glad I took up their offer as I met lots of other people from the hostel and started to feel a little more confident about travelling alone.  

Monday

After very little sleep thanks to jet lag I woke up early and decided to bike along Venice beach and along to Santa Monica.  This has to be one of the best things I did during my stay in LA.  I rented the bike and lock for $20 for the whole day and saw plenty of sites including the Santa Monica Pier, Venice and Santa Monica beach, the palisades and Third Boulevard where I unintentionally ended up making purchases in Abercrombie …

View of the beach from Santa Monica

Rides on Santa Monica Pier

In the evenings my hostel ran events with Monday night happening to be a happy hour crawl. I had some problems getting into many of the bars because American dates are read month/day/year - making it look as though my ID reads 6th October 1995 and not 10th June.  

However, once I got into the bars the ‘crawl’  provided  a great way to meet people staying in the hostel and people from around the world. I ended up meeting people from Germany, Netherlands, Australia, USA and the UK. 

Tuesday

Tuesday started off with a rough start thanks to my roommate who returned in a drunken stoop and proceeded to snore for the next seven hours.  When I mean snore I mean untuneful, unrythmic howling – it was terrible. 

After finally falling asleep thanks to the “Rain”playlist  on Spotify I woke up and visited the Venice Canals with a few people I had met the night before.  For those in the know apparently these canals look just like the ones on Grand Theft Auto ! ( I was so impressed too … ). However, for me it felt like stepping into a completely different continent, away from the congestion and chaos of LA and into a quaint European town. 

Grand Theft Auto ? 

In the afternoon I visited the Hollywood Boulevard and the Walk of Fame.  Although I’m not really into ‘ celebrity’ this is definitely the place to go if you are ! Every 100 metres a tour of celebrity homes, sites, films is being thrust at you – with many people gleefully piling into the tour buses.  I was not so adventurous  and boringly all I did was walk along the boulevard and try (unsuccessfully) to take a photo of the Hollywood sign. 

When my fight landed in LAX I was SO scared about being alone, but the last 48 hours have been incredible.  Travelling alone gives you a freedom you don’t have in your ordinary life. It really is a uniquely liberating experience to be able to wake up and decide what you want to do that day!

I’m so excited for what the next couple of days will bring, but for now, I must sleep as I am going to universal studios tomorrow and I think my legs( and maybe my stomach) need to be well equipped for tomorrow !