LA is horrible. Especially when you’ve just been travelling for 24 hours and have no idea where you’re going. This may seem obvious to all those familiar with the US but I had no idea how long the streets were. We caught a train to Long Beach Blvd where our budget motel was situated, assuming that we’d be somewhere close and could maybe walk there. I was confronted with huge roads that take 15 minutes to cross and massive corporations everywhere. This was definitely not a place where people walk. We wandered aimlessly for a while before running into ‘Minister Mike’, a friendly Southerner who had just come back from some kind of missionary work in Australia. I was immediately wary that we might be stuck with some religious fanatic but I was too quick to judge, he was really helpful and pointed us in the direction of a bus stop. Turns out we managed to book a motel smack bang in the middle of Compton; I’ve listened to just enough gangster rap to know that this aint good! We listened to Mike’s warnings then proceeded to ignore them and jumped straight on a bus to Compton. After about an hour we got the vague sickening feeling that we were going completely the wrong way. The neighbourhood was getting better, not worse, the number of shops in business was actually overtaking those boarded up with graffiti and broken windows. When we arrived in Downtown we knew we’d definitely made the wrong (or maybe the right choice) and lack of internet or organisation meant it was almost impossible to find anywhere reasonably priced to stay. In the end we surrendered to our fatigue and stumbled into the first down-market place we could find (still way over budget) and passed out.

Santa Monica beach (thanks Katie!)

Luckily that night my experience of LA got a whole lot better, we discovered the BEST Mexican restaurant I’ve been to and stuffed our faces with tacos and stuffed chillis. It was spicy and delicious –  I was just so excited that whenever you sit down you get FREE chips and salsa (trust me, the novelty soon wore off)! This would never happen in Australia. We also asked the bartender what was in one of his flaming cocktails and he gave us the whole thing for free. The tipping culture over here definitely has its benefits!

Venice Beach

The next day we decided to check out Santa Monica and the infamous Venice Beach which meant another 4 hours on the weird and wonderful LA public transport system. Buses in LA appear to be reserved mainly for the clinically insane. One particularly amusing guy called Rene was intent on teaching us how to fly to Mars with him, while I sat there ignoring him as politely as possible, Jimmy was getting right into it and I was pretty certain he’d made a friend for life. I had visions of Rene following us around the US with his make-believe wings.

Yellow gondola. Best spotto ever!

Tranquillity in a crazy city

Venice Beach was as touristy as you’d expect but it was entertaining walking along ‘Muscle Beach’ watching all the super-fit and beautiful strut their stuff before gorging on cheeseburgers. Something I didn’t expect was the beautiful canal system, set up to mirror the European version. It  was a watery oasis away from the city, with quaint little houses bordering the canals, each complete with a kayak or gondola and a few ducks thrown in for good measure. I’ve been day-dreaming about owning one of those houses ever since. It was reminiscent of Cheyne Walk, London, with more sunshine and less pollution.

Our next fixed plan was flying across to the East Coast but neither of us were keen to spend more time in the city. San Diego seemed like a sensible choice, guaranteed sunshine and a way more relaxed life-style so we hopped on the Surfliner train for a couple of hours down the coast, enjoying gorgeous ocean views and even passing Newport Beach (if you’ve ever wasted hours in front of the OC you’ll understand). Everything about San Diego is pristine and beautiful, the train station looks like a foyer from an eighteenth century castle – its easy to see why this city regularly tops ‘Best US Cities to Live’ lists, although it comes at a price, an average house costs over $400,000! We spent the evening watching the sunset over the USS Midway, a huge aircraft carrier that was the best in its class in WW2 and has now been converted into a museum. Unfortunately all museums in San Diego have expensive entrance fees so we just looked from afar.

Spot the difference

Panda in captivity

I usually try and avoid zoos but San Diego’s is world famous so we decided to pay a visit while we were there. Its very well maintained and although seeing animals in captivity is not really my idea of fun we did see a snake whos embryo had split in two and formed two heads! Really fascinating, couldn’t get a good enough picture through the glass but apparently when its fed the keepers have to hood one head so they don’t fight. Crazy!

Skyscraper reflecting train Station, Downtown San Diego

Sunset over harbour

We found a great little place called Ocean Beach, consisting mainly of hippy shops, street musicians and tattooists which was a refreshing contrast to the glitz of Downtown. The community have actively opposed all chain businesses and hardly any exist in the area. In the 70’s they successfully protested against McDonalds and Donut King and have been fighting ever since. Long may they continue to keep the giant corporations out. The pier is also the longest on the West Coast, lots of locals were out fishing from above and surfing underneath when we walked along at dusk.

Next instalment from the East Coast coming soon!

Taking a shower at the fountain in Downtown. Apparently not the done thing…

Ocean Beach

Surfers and sunset at Ocean Beach pier