LA - a bit like olives

Hmmm, so Los Angeles, where to start? I think I better say that by the time we left LA Aimee still was not sold on it but that I had started to see the silver lining. I think that LA is a bit like olives; not many people like them first time round but if you eat enough you suddenly realise you can't put them down.

We really were in Hollywood

After surviving 3 trips across LA's mad traffic (see yesterdays post) and a full day at Disneyland (see Aimee's last post) we arrived back at our hotel around 1 am exhausted and ready to drop. Unfortunately Hollywood had other plans for us, our hotel car park was full so we had to venture next door to the cage, a private parking compound run by a group of rather tough looking gents dressed in black. Before we could even pull into the cage we had to wait for the burly gents in black to move three drunks who were sprawled in front of the entrance. Much like valet parking we then had to leave our keys with said burly gents as the cage was also full and they would need to move our car when some of the other cars were moved. Looking back I don't think that I would do this again but we were having trouble keeping our eyes open let alone think straight. Wondering if we would see the car again we walked the 20 feet back to the hotel, past a drunk who seemed to require medical help as he was hardly breathing and had fixed pupils. Back in our room still wondering if our car would reappear in the morning (in 1 piece) we tried to sleep with the sound of sirens and base beats thumping outside.

Everything looked nicer in the morning

The morning came bringing fresh donuts and the car still as we left it, dirty but unharmed. We spent the morning finding excuses not to go out before finally having the confidence to make our way to the brilliant California science centre, Hollywood it seems is a different place by day, far less threatening, even the drunks and homeless have a smile for you. The science centre will be getting one of the space shuttles in the next few months so the exhibits are a bit up in the air at the moment but there were areas looking at how science is part of our everyday lives and a very in depth look at the range of climates and habitats on earth and how they are being altered by climate change. The kelp bed exhibit was something that we have never seen before and had a really diverse range of demonstrations explaining how all of organisms work together to create the ecosystem. We had to be kicked out of the science centre when it closed we could have been in there for hours more we barely saw half of the exhibits.

The huge kelp bed

Weird things live down here

Hollywood and Vine Metro station

We used public transport to get to the Science centre as we were not feeling up to the traffic but found LA's public transport system a bit sparse compared to New York. To get to the science centre from Hollywood we had to go through downtown and although it was a Saturday the streets were eerily quiet, everyone that we met along the way was friendly but it was still a bit unnerving with the streets so desolate.

Back in Hollywood we found a Mexican restaurant that specialised in organic and fresh produce, we shared the restaurant with a group of diehard Star Wars fans who had their lightsabers (the long glowing kind) stacked on an empty table. Walking back to the hotel we saw some heavily pierced, tattooed punks coming out of Seven 11 chatting to a jogger. This it seems is that difficult to find silver lining in LA, that everyone just lets everyone get on with being who they want to be.

On Sunday we explored some of the buildings in downtown LA like the spectacular Disney concert hall and the beautiful Bradbury building. We stopped in Little Tokyo and enjoyed some tasty food from the supermarket sitting in a little square with locals reading Japanese language newspapers. On the way back to the Metro we wandered down a street filled with Mexican traders (mainly selling clothes and electronics). Outside of Little Tokyo and Mexico street downtown was again quiet, there seemed to be only us and homeless folks around. Maybe it is because most people drive in LA but it often seemed to have a slightly empty feeling.

Just spectacular - Disney concert hall

We spotted some extreme knitting

Chinese theatre Hollywood

We spent Sunday afternoon returning the car and visiting the famous sights of Hollywood along with all of the other tourists. This was anything but quiet as street performers and tourists jossled for possition on the sidwalks with LA's crazy traffic racing past feet away. We stopped to enjoy the circus going past outside and enjoyed an icecream sunday at the Disney ice cream parlour. Later on in the evening after freshening up we had tea at a Vegan/Thai/Japanesse resturant that we found recomened on the internet. It was up a tiny back street that you would easily have missed if not directed to it and it was here that I really got my taste for LA. Not only was the food some of the best we have eaten but the steady stream of customers were also interesting, especially the two guys who converesed none stop in a fluent mixture of English and French using whichever words seemed to best describe what they wanted to say. The resturtant was small having only six tables and the lady serving frequently came back to chat to us and ask us about England, she was very interested in how many vegans there were in Birmingham.

Johnny Depp

Harry Potter cast

Star Wars

Pantages theatre

Aimee did not really want her photo with this guy 

The experiences each time we arrived at a destination showed the best of LA, interesting, tolerant, friendly people who wanted to share something with us. At these times LA felt much more like the small towns that we have fallen in love with on our cross country trip.