So we made it!...now what?
At first LA was a bit underwhelming- we came out of the airport to a dirty street and a boring old brick wall. The heat is enveloping, like someone wrapping a warm duvet around your shoulders. Eventually, our shuttle came to get us- the awesome driver cutting across 5 lanes when he spotted us at last minute (Angelos are amazing drivers!)
Picked up rental car with no hassles, then had a great moment wondering "Hang on...how do we drive in the USA?" So far we've been winging it when it comes to the road rules. There are some awesome ones; like if you are waiting at a red light and turning right (which would be the equivalent of our left hand turn) and the way is clear, you can just coast on through- because the red light is just a guide line (YUS! My kinda people!)
Chad was petrified at first and we laughed our way through the first trip to our hotel. Going from LAX, we passed through the poorer parts of LA- certainly not the glamorous version we are shown on TV. It seems quite segregated; half an hour passed before we saw a 'white' person an then suddenly the neighbourhood changed, palm trees appeared, cute little houses lined the cleaner streets.
Our hotel is great with a relaxed, indie vibe- budget definitely but dressed up nice and we are missing nothing.
We had been planning to just rest up and get some much needed sleep but decided to go explore instead. We are right in the middle of Hollywood so everything is so close.
Hollywood: wow, oh, wow. If our entrance to LA was understated, this made up for it. Hollywood is a crazy, overwhelming, kinda scary, sensory overload. It's FULL of people; lots of tourists, even more people hawking various things to tourists, and a lot of the neighbourhood locals who were either dressed up as cartoon/movie characters, drugs users, homeless, or quite likely a mix of all three. It's very gritty and grimy.
We found a McDonalds and had a look and a taste test: everything on the menu was labelled with the calorie content and burgers were referred to as 'sandwiches'. Otherwise it was pretty much the same! Chad reckons the meats better and the coke tastes different though.
With Hollywood being as intense as it was, we didn't go too far along the walk of fame. Did get this for Charli-Rose though
We did go souvenir shopping and then found Madame Tussards Wax museum. Like a lot in this city, you've got to let yourself go and not let worrying about what others think of you or being cool, you just gotta be crazy you and have fun!
The wax figures are amazing, soooo life like. I kept thinking they were real people and lining up behind them lol.
After finishing there we hunted down some food at a mini-mart (with no checkout operators- wonder if that's the way we'll go in NZ?) and headed back to the hotel. After checking in with Debbie and the girls at home we went off to sleep. The time difference isn't too bad. LA is 19 hours behind NZ which works out to be 5 hours to our body clocks. It's worked out great so far as we've actually been able to stay up without falling asleep.
It wasn't til we got here that I realised how stressed we were back home. On the plane and arriving here I felt grey, lifeless, with a bottomless pit of tiredness in me, like I could sleep for days and would still be tired. Now we are here we are both slowly loosening up and becoming alive again.
Yay for holidays :-)
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