Welcome to the Jungle
Trip Start
Mar 08, 2008
1
7
9
Trip End
Mar 28, 2008
Los Angeles,
California,
United States
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
The drive here took longer then expected, courtesy of some deteours we took along the way but also due to the fact that you just can't drive from A to B as the crow flies in this country. We drove down mountain ranges, through valleys, accross dry rivers (California is also in droubt), in some cases descending thousands of feet in not more then a couple of miles. The scenary coming in was spectaclular as we headed for our first destination - Santa Monica. Not only is this a song by Everclear it is easily my favourite place in LA and somewhere you can just chill out and watch the world by. We hadn't booked any accomodation as we weren't sure where we were going to be that day and turned up at 1 hotel only to be told it was full and we went to the place next door. Spring break hadn't hurt us until this point in the trip, and although we haven't seen the makers of the classic video series, 'Girls with low self esteem' in action, many people have come south for the holidays. Our hotel could only be described as 'flea bag' and easily the worst place we'd stayed at this trip. It was the sort of place people on the run stay in the movies - dodgy door, dodgy windows, dodgy bed. Indeed they save money on cleaning by sweeping everything under the bed. I got the full movie experience here. When I woke up one morning and left my room the blonde girl next door was standing in the doorway smoking a cigerate not wearing alot whilst her partner was sleeping alone in the bed with the L shape sheet.
Having already been to Santa Monica my goal was to shop, as we hadn't done alot of that this trip, and so I explored the 3rd st promedade. This is a 3 block pedestrian only mall that is unique in the sense that America doesn't have too many pedestrian only malls. I noticed a percular thing however in that Bookshops in California are smaller and less common then on the east coast. Having spent alot of time in East Coast bookstores on my last trip it was challenging even finding a bookshop. Throughout the trip I have proudly boasted my spiritual gift of finding public toilets to Vaughan but here in LA they do everything to counter this. Many shops and stores do not have public restrooms that you can easily use in other cities (Starbucks, bookshops etc) and so you need to seek other options. When checking out the beautiful Santa Monica pier I had the pleasure of seeing these 2 guys driving their porsche out of the pier (in the hope of impressing girls) and seeing it break down for all to see half up up the exit ramp (which is on a steep hill). A big black puff of smoke left the rear of the vehicle and the car only went backwards down the hill. After checking out the area Vaughan reported to me that night that he thought he saw Julianna Moore going for a jog. I noted that I saw a pretty redhead girl going for a jog but wasn't sure if it was Julianna Moore because there were lots of pretty redheads going for jogs. So it remains in doubt if Vaughan really did see Julianna Moore.
After surviving our dodgy hotel experience we moved onto our next destination - Malibu. Home for many of Hollywoods rich and famous our goal in coming here was to do some starspotting. In particular we were hoping to see some Australian stars as we thought we might be able to get them into a photo. Anyone would do - Portia de Rossi, Isla Fisher, Alan Dale, Guy Pearce or even one of the brat pack - Britney, Paris, Lindsay (although we wouldn't approach them). However it was all in vain and we spent our time lazzing about Malibu village, a qaint shopping plaza that could easily exist in numerous towns around Australia. ie It was no great drama, a bit like ER. It was possible we saw Heather Graham but again I'm pretty sure it was just someone that was trying to look like her.
We then left Malibu for the east side and checked out Pasadena. This is a lovely city featuring 20 blocks of shops set admist old style Spanish Colonial buildings. This was really just a stop for shopping and to give Vaughan experience in driving accross LA - something that is incredibly fun & I'm glad to have done. Our main destination was Disneyland and so we headed back to Orange Country - the place where our trip begin. Set in Anaheim, a city in its own righe (& not LA) Disneyland is a place I went to as a kid and loved. The experience of coming here as a kid was not only a childhood highlight but worth 1 extra point for my parents when giving them a score out of 10 in their assessment as parents. Of course no trip to California is complete without a theme park and I chose the most popular one for nostalgia purposes.
I would have to say that Disneyland as an adult is a little dissapointing. Spring Break hurt us in that more people were there then expected but it was the little things that bug you when you're single and don't have kids of your own. Just about everyone at Disneyland brings kids and so they are everywhere and always getting in your way because they walk in random patterns from A to B. Many of the rides I went on as a kid are still there in their original form. The Haunted Mansion which is described as the most unscary mansion ever is just that! Set in a beautiful New Orleans style home the main highlight was when we entered a pitch black room and 50 kids screamed in unison cos someone turned the lights out. In fact the ride was more amusing for being so bad and for the Spanish translations they put in for all the ghosts. I'm sorry but a Spanish accent just cannot sound scary and when you say something scary sounding in english, and then have it translated into Spanish sounding like Speedy Gonzalez you just have to laugh
The jungle boatride could use some new jokes and props and hasn't changed in 25 years. The Matterhorn was fun but again had not been changed. We went on some of the newer rides, and a little scared of scary fast rides, found that they weren't that scary. Star tours was a Star Wars simulator that had you in the trenches of the death star during the daring attack in Star Wars - very cool. The Buzzlight year ride had you shooting Aliens and the Indiana Jones ride tried to replicate the experience of Indy escaping the Temple of Doom. It was fun but could've been faster and bumpier then the descriptions led you to believe.
Indeed most of one's time in Disneyland is spent in queues. In fact the only time you don't queue is when you goto the toilet. Again toilets are something Disneyland needs more of - they are few and far between. With people everywhere and a really hectic 2 week schedule we were over the place pretty quickly and left late afternoon to head off to our final dinner - at Chili's. Sadly, 2 weeks of having fries with every meal had caught up with me and I wanted fish and brussel sprouts, which turned out to be broccli (cos I can't tell the difference as its all green) and missed out on all the big burgers and mega meals they have. For the last time Vaughan and I shared a final US meal with all the usual things we've come to expect. Girls with funky accents introdocuing themselves and giving you soft drink refills when you're only halfway through you're previous glass, providing status reports on how we're going with our meals, free water & bread and arrival - the list goes on. It was here we had the judging for one of our trip games - 'The Tacky souvenir game'. We're not sure who won and so we're going to take our entries to a neutral arbitrator for judging. We decided on Allan.
We never made it all the fast food restaurants we were hoping to get to. We liked Denny's, for breakfast especially, and In & Out burger was good. Wendy's was pretty crappy (& made me sick) and Maca's has a few wierd items over here that should be avoided (who wants a McBiscuit?). Indeed Starbucks was the chain I went to the most. The main issue with Starbucks in America, and indeed many service chains, is that the staff they employ often don't have very good english (as they are hispanic) and therefore it can be difficult to relay an order to them. In 1 case Vaughan tried ordering a soda with no ice, a "no no" in America, and I suggested that if he does that again he shouldn't be allowed back in the country because the server just doesn't understand why anyone wouldn't want ice. Back to Starbucks though the service is generally incredibly slow because all these American Idoits walk in ordering their stupid Frappachinnos & iced coffees (apparantly there is a difference). Now these drinks take forever to make and only succeeded in slowing the service down for everyone. Add on the fact that the person making the coffee sometimes goes and does something else and a coffee at Starbucks generally takes about 10 - 15 mins.
And so that ends phase 1 of my trip. Tommorrow I am off to brave the American airport system once more using every bit of nouse I learnt last time I was here. I am preparing by convincing myself I am the lowest form of life imaginable and that security has every right to suspect me capable of doing anything and everything. Travelling with Vaughan was fun, although there were all these Simpsons references I didn't understand (cos I don't watch it) which I eventually picked as being all the unfunny comments he was making.
Paul.
PODWATCH - The Cheers Game
Sadly this game didn't work out as we hoped. Its actually really hard to order at Starbucks (or wherever) & use a fake name. The problem is that you need to pay extra attention for this different name and I kept forgetting! You just make things hard for yourself. Also when we did try and go for combinations such as Bill & Tony both of us wanted to be Bill because nobody would ever want to be Tony (as in Tony Grieg). Still we used the fake names from time to time and nothing interesting ever came of it. And you need to be careful, once I went back to the same place in 2 consective days and the guy remembered me and so I needed to recall what false name I had given him. I might just be myself from now on.
Comments
Simpsons
Pass on my thanks to Vaughan for the SImpson's references - someone has to do them!