Day 6 of our travels.
Distance traveled so far: 8,750km
I was looking forward to see this city as much as everyone else would. Reputation definetly precedes this city. Growing up watching all these movies and TV shows that took place in this majestic and famous city added up a lot to my excitement. If you share this idealistic idea about LA and want to keep it then you would probably do better if you choose to not come here.
If you hear anything overly positive about this city then it would be most likely from one of those illegal immigrants who chose to live here just to check in twice a day that they are in hollywood and constantly posting pictures about their life in LA to make you envyous or whatever.
47.5% of population in LA is hispanic, the rest seems to be Asian and African (30% should be white but my guess is they live in different areas), so you might get feeling that you are in central America rather than north.
Another fact about this city is that you probably won’t make it around the corner of the street without passing by a homeless, junkie or both in one and I’m talking about any street almost anywhere in this city. It is really serious problem.
Now the bright sides, and that will be some remarkable landmarks although some of them are significantly ruined by presence of forementioned people who also produce unpleasant smell. Now I’ve got in mind particulary:
Venice beach
The beach itself is huge and beautiful with iconic life guard stalls and Santa Monica pier which also marks the end of famous trail 66. Waves are quite strong so there’s often helicopter on patrol alongside of coast. Venice beach boardwalk is also remarkable altough it’s vibe is ruined by guess what.
While I’m talking about Santa Monica I’ll mention
Malibu
Because you can hop on bus that takes you directly there from Santa Monica. Reason I chose to visit Malibu was of course 2 and half men. It is truly beautiful scenic route alongside coast with beach houses on the shores while some of them have access directly to the beach. Malibu has few smaller beaches that are not blocked by houses and these are used mostly for surfing.
Venice canals
I simply chose to visit this place because of GTA V and yes it does look exactly as in game.
Hollywood
Place with famous walk of fame, but apart that it did not resonate with me in any other way.
Beverly Hills
Who would miss this place? espcially if you’re a fan of 90210 show. It has really nice city centre and urban area is simply posh.
Downtown
It’s basically a homeless village with infamous ‘skid road’ where homeless lives in their tents build on pavement along main roads. Naturaly they dump everything around them plus some of them are aparently hoarders too. It’s really not nice view. What’s worth visiting in downtown is definetly rooftop bar called Spire 73 which is free to enter until certain hour and that view from there is amazing.
Griffith observatory
My favourite piece of city. You’ll get the feeling that the whole city is laying at your feet. It’s simply breathtaking. Inside of observatory is small planetarium with quite interesting things, you can find here mechanism that was used in past as proof that earth is rotating or a real piece of moon. It is really beautiful to visit this place before sunset and wait until dusk too although if you decide to hike to Hollywod sign I would recommend to come earlier. It seem to be close but you need to think about curved path that leads there so actual hike there would take more than hour plus another hour and something back. You need to watch out for rattlesnakes and also for the edges of trail as it is easy to fall over, that’s why i wouldn’t go during night as there are no streetlights.
How to survive
Weekly travelcard cost 25$ what is fair price. Public transport in LA isn’t the most reliable in world but takes you generally wherever you want and buses abides a simple rule: They all go straight forward.
Although I consider California expensive taking in account prices of bread, milk, meat, fruits, sweets even chips (bag is about 4$) even that their packages are bit bigger, cheapest option for me was to shop at Ralph’s especially with a membership card that saves really a lot money. If you don`t have one, cashier will happily scan their instead.
There’s not much unnecessary expenses than transport, accomodation and food as seeing things mostly doesn’t cost anything. And if you avoid getting penalised, for example for drinking in a public transport (yes, in London they encourage you to drink in a tube even though there’s like 5 minutes of summer, in Los Angeles where’s constantly hot, they ban it) you should be good.
We spent here a week although 5 days would be enough too in my opinion
To give it a conclusion, climate is lovely but I wouldn’t choose this place for living unless it would be in Bel air for example 🙂 , but speaking as mortal, wouldn’t .
As much as I was disappointed with this city when I first came in, I had to confess that this disappointment slowly fades as time goes and in the end I have to say, maybe there is something little magical about this city.
Thanks for reading, here is a dog skating through Venice boardwalk as reward 🙂
