On our way
from Fiji to Ecuador, we managed a quick stopover in Los Angeles where we visited a good friend of ours that
Louise met when she was travelling in Peru a couple of years back: Benjamin
Weiss (hereinafter referred to as “Ben” ;-)).
Ben really went
out of his way to make us feel at home and to take us to some good old American
entertainment. Day one when we landed
from Fiji,
we were pretty jetlagged to be honest, but we all agreed that we needed to stay
up if we were to be able to enjoy the rest of the ministay in LA. Staying awake turned out to be no problem though
as front row tickets to a Dodgers (LA’s baseball team) game were organised
through a friend of a friend who works for the Dodgers (LA is all about
connections). We were ducking balls and
downing sausages all evening. As neither
Louise nor I had ever been to a baseball game, this was the perfect
introduction to the sport. A great
evening!
The next
day (Sunday), we were feeling a little more rested. After a delicious American breakfast, we went
on a tour of the Bruery. The Bruery is a
relatively new microbrewery in LA, where Ben happens to work. They brew mainly Belgian varieties and have
been reasonably successful and won a number of awards already even though they
have only been in business for a couple of years. We were lucky enough to be able to go with
Ben to visit the place and have a taste of the good stuff. Delicious, although I must say some of it (like
sour beer) is a bit of an acquired taste.
Really nice, but you need to be a bit of a beer fanatic to get it. All in all a really good day out though. After having sampled about 10 different beers
(don’t worry – small glasses) and having had a quick tour of the brewery,
including an explanation of the actual brewing process, we headed down to Venice beach to catch the
Lakers game at a bar. Unfortunately, the
Lakers lost and a bit of a gang fight broke out. No worries though, LA PD was there in a
minute and broke it off, and no one was hurt.
It was just like COPS on TV (Bad boys, bad boys, watcha gonna do, wathca
gonna do when they come for you…)!
Probably a good thing as well, since at this stage, we had all had a
couple of Margaritas too many with the game.
Suffice to say that I fell asleep in the living room when we got back
home and would not let anyone move me (or so Louise claims).
On Monday,
Ben had taken the day off to hang out and show us around at his alma mater,
University of Southern California (USC).
It was really interesting to see a big American college campus. This place is huge with something like 35,000
students and complete with frat housing I thought only existed in the
movies. Amazing! With these kinds of resources, no wonder the
Americans keep on churning out Nobel Prize winners… After a tour of the grounds, we went to have
traditional American BBQ. This is not
the kind of stuff that you cook up in your back yard. Barbeque is actually not the same as grilled
meat, a common misconception. It comes
from the south and the meat is really slow cooked (i.e. ten hours plus) and
comes served with corn bread. The result
was delicious but left us all stuffed and a bit tired. We decided to just head back and chill out at
the house for a couple of hours. In the
evening, after having stopped over at a Taco truck (another thing that we wanted
to do in LA – we love Mexican food), we headed for a concert with the cover
band Steel Panthers. Think Europe, complete with long hair and makeup. The songs ranged from covers of Bon Jovi to
their own lyrics, which were pretty dirty but fun to listen to. Oh yes, there were boobies displayed on stage
as well.
On Tuesday,
Ben had to go back to work and Louise and I decided to just take it easy in the
house. It had been a hectic few days,
with plenty of partying, so it was nice just to relax and do some washing ahead
of the trip to South America. In the evening, we went to a delicious Middle
Eastern place for dinner and even managed to spot a celebrity: an actor in the
American version of “the Office”. Sadly,
Louise and I didn’t recognize the guy as a celeb (and we don’t remember his
name), but according to Ben he was hot stuff and it felt good to have had a
run-in with the rich and famous to complete the LA experience.
If you are
reading this Ben, thanks a bunch for taking such great care of us and showing
us around in LA. We really had a
fantastic time and obviously look forward to welcoming you over to our home at
some stage (wherever that will be – watch this space!).
All the
best,
Lars (and
Louise)
