17 May 2014

Los Angeles, USA

The last leg of my All American Roadtrip and the most anticipated. LA.





We were staying in the LA Mansion in Rochester Circle for $20 a night. It's quite far away from central LA, but it's only a 15 minute walk away from the train station and for a week pass it was only $20. No complaints from me!


We woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed the next day, ready to start our LA adventure. We headed to Hollywood Boulevard to have a stroll along the Hollywood Stars. I was thrilled when I found my childhood idol Shania Twain. I guess I was destined to be a country lover. But on arrival, I was slightly underwhelmed, other than the stars there was little more to see and discover.


I am ashamed to say we did the touristy, creepiest and most stalkerish thing you can do in LA. That's right, we took a car ride around the Hollywood Stars houses. IT WAS NOT MY IDEA. Sophie has an out of control obsession with Justin Bieber, his house was on the list. The views kinda made the trip worth it though!



We headed to the Disney restaurant for an ice cream. Best $7 I spent all day.


Sophie was craving a pie and I was craving any English food. After much strolling around we found a British pub. A BRITISH PUB! They sold sausage and mash!! SAUSAGE AND MASH! We also found marmite and a variety of other British treats.




Sophie is more of a shopping person, I am a beach person. I headed to Santa Monica for a chill on the beach and to explore the pier a little. Santa Monica is picture perfect LA. Everything is so vibrant and vivid.



We headed to Malibu the next day. Much to my delight there was a rather good looking lifeguard nearby who kept us entertained for a while...


The next day I was reunited with my cousin who I hadn't seen in 15 years. We went "beach hopping" as she called it, we started at Newport and headed over to Hermosa where I finally got to surf. The waves at Newport were huge, bigger than I had ever surfed before and I had no wetsuit. Nevertheless I grabbed my board and charged into the sea. After a few rough and tumbles I got into the hang of it again and had the best surf of my life. I stumbled out the sea covered in bruises but with a massive smile plastered over my face! It helps that after an exhausting surf, we went to potentially the best burger bar ever called Umami at Hermosa! If you have the opportunity to go, GO!




The next day we moved to another hostel as a "well done for surviving" treat. This hostel was incredible. It's called the Venice Beach Hostel and costs around $40 a night. The location is worth the extra money. It is literally on the board walk, the absolute perfect location. I found Venice was like Santa Monica, I would go back to Venice in a heartbeat. The music, the people, the street dancers, the occasional rollerblader who would zoom past and of course the promoters for medical marijuana. Right next to our hostel was J's rentals where we could hire surfboards and rollerblades... It's safe to say I'm a better surfer than I am rollerblader. I spent most of the time on the floor.






I tried to teach Sophie how to surf and failed epically. After she took a tumble she decided her long legs made sure surfing wasn't for her. It doesn't help that we were on the wrong side of the rocks.



After one amazing last meal out, we headed to bed to get up at 5am to start Sophie's 20 hour journey home and my 35 hour journey. I had a 13 hour gap in New York. It's safe to say I arrived home exhausted. My American Roadtrip was everything and more I could have wished more and ending my posts about my trip brings back those America blues.







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