Hi Folks,
That's right, we're blogging. And I'm going to skip all the formal stuff and just tell you what we did today, probably in no particular order, because I'm tired.
Jeff and Peta are in LA!! The city of beautiful people. Firstly, it's amazing and I may never come home. But we'll get to that later. Once again, do not expect this to be logical or make any sense. Just go with it.
Mum and Smell dropped us off at the Brisbane airport on Monday morning. Thanks to time zones, we arrived here 5 hours before we left. As we stood in the line waiting we wondered just how long we'd been there. Lucky guess for what I forgot? A watch might have been helpful. But no need to worry, that wasn't our first laughable forgetful moment. The next came as we were told we needed a street address on our departure cards to be able to leave the county. This one I'd actually reminded Jeff to do the night before. Needless to say, we had a giggle and hoped that they didn't check to see if 7 2nd street existed. Before we decided to forge official documents, we had the brilliant idea of calling mum and asking her to look it up for us. If one of us had a phone, this probably would have been more successful. It was all fine.
The plane ride was like most others. I slept for 2 hours at the start and then we both had a 90 minute nap at the end. We got lunch 2 hours after takeoff... followed by breakfast 2 hours before we landed. So in one day, before 6am LA time, we'd had breakfast, lunch and breakfast again. Of course we then had another breakfast at around 10:30 on the way to the hostel (guessing of course, no watch). Customs here took forever to get through. We lined up for a couple of hours before being allowed in the country. Of course it was a little more entertaining than that though. The address thing came up again on the arrivals card. The lady came to everyone in line and made a big deal about having a valid street address and that a hostel name was not enough. Panic faces. We stood there quietly chuckling to each other about how we would spend our holiday in an American jail. That was until the girl behind me asked to borrow my pen. My response? Sure... Can we borrow your address? Ok we looked a little weird but she needed my pen so who was she to judge. Yes mother, your children are smart, we swear.
Next stop, border security. After being stared up and down by the creepy baby for 5 minutes in line that is. We went through all the questions and Jeff had to get all his finger and thumbprints scanned. Me? My right four fingers were enough. I must look trustworthy. So if we are committing any crimes, we'll just do it with my left hand.
We walked outside, surprised by how warm it was. Found our way onto a bus and train station, caught a bus to Santa Monica beach, a nice few blocks from Venice beach, where we're staying. So we thought. The map also made it look close to the airport so the 40 minute bus ride there probably should have been a heads up. Figured we'd grab second breakfast on the walk to Venice. You know how in Australia there are dozens of cafes by the beach and generally lots on the street behind that too? Well not here. We walked out of Santa Monica and couldn't find anything. It was just the burbs.
We gave up after it got hot and sweaty and seemed like we'd been walking for hours (turns out to be about 40 minutes). And by gave up, I mean we found Subway. $5 footlong on cool flatbread? Yes please. Would you like a drink? Sure. What size? He holds up a paper cup and it looks like a good size to share... It was the small. I got the "what hell are you talking about look" from the poor boy after I asked for capsicum. He kept asking me to repeat, I kept repeating capsicum until Jeff looked at the sign and had to explain that we meant "bell peppers". After our deliciousness we continue our adventure and get there 15 minutes later. We only know this because we have to ask the time. We decided to have a quick nap and get up for lunch. For the first time ever, I didn't just sleep for the next ten hours. We had another 90 minute nap and showered and all the rest of that responsible stuff.
There was one other boy in our dorm room at this time. Jakob, a 20 year old boy on his way to South America who came from Sydney. We convinced him to come to Hooters for lunch. I love that place so much! Our waitress was Haydee, a cute little brunette with great big double D personalities. Jeff and Jakob got the $6 Monday cheeseburger special. Both were dumbstruck when asked how they wanted this cooked. The both replied with "cooked". I got the chicken strips, they were so greasy they made an actual puddle in the tray. Mmm, heart-attack-alicious. Haydee kept trying to convince us to get cocktails and beer so after lunch we finally agree. After pushing us, she then asked if we had ID. Well, no. Not ones that say we're over 21 anyway.
We walked back from Santa Monica, which was much nicer without the backpacks, along the beach (and by that I mean the concrete path next it). There were funky market stands and shops along this beach path and very weird people. Although (and this is a side note from what happened on the walk to Hooters, along the same funky road), we were walking along and a big black man walking the other way looks at us and asks if I'm Jeff's girlfriend. The quickest "No!" you've heard comes from us which made him tell us that I am "a black man's dream". Why does this never happen to me, ever, in Australia? But yes, this road had some very interesting things. There are all these little shops with doctors in them. And the smell of pot everywhere. Guess where medicinal marijuana is legal? And apparently there are lots of sick people here. Yep, you can go in to one of the many doctor's shops and get some medicinal marijuana.
A short while after returning from lunch, and it's almost dark by this point but only 4pm, it's time to go downstairs to the sports bar to watch the football game between New York and New Orleans. We drank Budweiser and ate chilli cheese chips. Pretty Americaned up.
And that leads us to now, bed time on our first day in LA. I love this town already and if I had any self control over the disgustingly/deliciously greasy food they have, I would move here. Tomorrow we're off to Hollywood.
I will apologise now for not proof reading but dont take that to mean that I will proof read or write in a logical order any further updates.
Safe, sound and sleepy,
Peta
