some people post essays
It took 5 extra hours to get here, which is 17hrs all up. But fuck! California is so cool. Seriously. Now I know why so many people sing about it, harp on about it, rant on about it, whatever. It’s the funnest place on earth and I haven’ t been that many places. Err.
No seriously, even if I had - I imagine that it’s one of the funnest. You know what I mean…
I got here yesterday right, after spending a painful additional 5hrs on a plane ‘cause the morning sea fog wouldn’t lift from LAX. Believe me, it was painful… I imagine there’s really no novelty in flight delay, ever. But…Really, it was worth every suffocating second.
Palm trees, random shops, weird people, normal people, crazy people, whatever people - everyone seems larger than life in some way. The landscape and neighbourhoods are so cool too, they’re l a r g e, s p r e a d o u t and flat, but then some mountainous, even. Hillish, whatever. Hell, even the roads are cool - they’re massive! I went to an atm today and it was the most exciting moment in my life.
No, seriously.
Some road crossings, you don’t even have to hit a button - they just stop traffic automatically at intervals. Awesome!
I think it’s just being here though, there’s something in the air. It’s so laid back, so chilled out…But almost, on the edge of something…Something. I don’t really know what that is? Some underground feeling…Or something? But, it’s like this city has secrets and stories and a million years of experience…It’s seen and done it all before…Been to the gutter then up to the stars… Something I’d never really feel back home - maybe in Melbourne, but not that much.
It really sucked that our plane didn’t land when it was supposed to…It was meant to right, at 6:45am? I was listening to The Best of David Bowie and it took me forever to choose the most appropriate ‘landing’, song. It crossed my mind to go for ‘Let’s Dance’, but I decided on ‘Heroes’, simply because I like his kind of dreamy, nonchalant, almost arrogant vocals in that song and I thought it would sound cool as the plane slowly lowered into LAX. The decision was obviously prominent, so you can imagine my disappointment as we circled the holding pen and I had to rewind it like a million times…In the end I just switched it off completely and the next 5hrs were tragedy, but whatever…What can you do.
When we finally got in to the LAX terminal after flying back from a holding area at Ontario airport, I was kind of disappointed again but, let me note, these are the only disappointments I’ve experience so far in my now 29hour encounter with California.
I was kind of expecting that big sign saying ‘Welcome to Los Angeles LAX’, (and was secretly looking forward to it) running across these amazing escalators as per Mulholland Drive, but alas! No escalators, no sign. Instead, just this kind of mangy entrance to some exit thing almost…Kind of dirty. My shuttle bus driver got confused thinking he had to pick up someone else (he didn’t!) and drove around the airport driveway ring thing like three times, so I got a pretty good view of that…But luckily, he then made a clear route to Hollywood and it’s worked out pretty sweet ever since.
It was funny, just driving here from LAX made me feel like I was in a Tarantino film. I dunno why, there were just heaps of these cool kind of retro looking take out places, which were pretty run down, some quirky looking houses and this kind of pale sunlight…I don’t know what made me think about that - just the vibe, kind of. I asked the driver what area I was in and he was like ‘Inglewood’. Awesome! How good is that!
Checked in to the hostel, then hung around Hollywood Blvd (Hollywood Blvd!) that afternoon…Made friends with another Aussie girl and hung out with her later…Saw The Walk of Fame, Grauman’s and this really wrong looking Bugs Bunny impersonator (wtf) before heading back to the hostel and getting some sleep pretty late…
Today has been really fun… Met up with this really cool guy Alex that I hooked up with on the Couchsurfing website, he drove me up for the mandatory visit to the Hollywood sign and around to check out the Beverly Hills area and Rodeo Drive. Tonight we’re heading to his friends’ Birthday party near Echo Park. He lives in Hollywood in this awesome apartment, which used to be a hotel in the 20s…I was going to stay in a hostel again, but he’s really nice and not creepy at all, so I’ll stay here tonight for sure. I still can’t get over how cool the place is and he made the best sandwich ever. Tomorrow, I’m meeting up with some people to look at renting my own room and will chill out in the Venice area, before my internship starts on Monday.
Sweet!
So busy! I’m on holiday tho, can’t complain about so many leisure plans.
Well, this is pretty long but I have a lot to write about…Going to post some pics soon so I can enthuse even more. Maybe it’s just ‘cause it’s my first day and maybe I’m just excited…But, I’m so glad I came to LA…It’s the best place, hey.
