California Daze

15/07/2013

I have finished my trip! I am on the plane ready to come home! And I tell you what…. I AM READY! Too broke to think otherwise.

By the way I did a San Fransisco post a week or two ago but got no comments or likes so I am guessing that facebook screwed it up and not that you are all boycotting my blog or something... Feel free to read it :)

Ok first off I have to warn you! DO NOT catch red eye buses! FARRRRRRRRK that was horrible. I left at 11.30 and arrived at 7am and felt like I slept on the underside of the bus not inside it. I barely got any sleep but oh well.. From arriving in downtown LA, I caught another 2hr ride on public transport down to santa monica. May have taken 3 times as long but $2 is an awfully cheap taxi. Unfortunately my couchsurfer wouldn’t be off work until 7.30pm so I had to fill in time from 9.30am until then with all my bags. Ohwell I guess shopping and the beach it is.

I treated myself to a delicious breakfast, went for a peruse through the promenade and then headed down to the beach with my sophisticated hobo setup (I mean how many homeless people carry around a mimco tote?). Thankfully, with my head resting on my backpack and my arms draped around the rest I got a good sleep on the beach (sorry mum but I did get a little “sunkissed”, falling asleep does that to you).

In my quest not to catch anymore unnecessary buses (thanks to Kai and his obsession with them), I decided to walk the 35 blocks from the pier back to Steven my couchsurfer’s house. Took me a while but I had nothing better to do and felt guilty about eating the happy hour buffalo wings at the British pub on the way. Steven was lovely! He was the perfect host, offered me anything I liked from his overstocked vegan fridge (very Californian) and left me alone when I told him I just wanted to shower and head to bed for the night. The next morning he made me eggs and a kale super juice before I headed out for the day. Again I just headed down to the beach and the promenade for a shop.

I tried to do the whole run/walk 30km thing again but nup didn’t happen.. haha Santa Monica doesn’t have the same bay breeze that San Fransisco does so it was just toooo hot for me. Now this is where I get in trouble and blow all my funds on shopping and have to starve myself for the rest of the trip. Only kidding but not really…. But in my head it made sense because I have a lot of birthdays, namely 21^st ‘s coming up and well its cheaper to buy things over here and entertain myself.

Well I made my way back down the 35 blocks with a new suitcase, 2 tops, a wallet, some jewelry and a couple of bra’s (only the necessities of course). Again Steven just left me to my own devices and gave me free run of his kitchen so I stayed at home, watched GOT and ate my delish tuna concoction in bed.

Next day was 4^th of July, so I thought it would be better for me to book a hostel room for the night. I might have a little more fun with people my own age. Sure enough as soon as I checked in I met these two Aussie guys from Sydney se we headed to the beach with my left over bottle of smuggled mystery rum from Brazil and a bottle of coke and Gatorade for me. On the way down we met this ex-pat Aussie who invited us to a pool party in Hollywood hills. Sadly we had no way to contact her so we went on our way to the beach and then onwards to the Bungalow to continue on our celebrations with some locals. The Bungalow is this pretty posh bar/ beachside club where all the swishy gold diggers headed with their botox lips, boobs and sugar daddies hanging from their arms.

It was fantastic though, for despite being decked out in my thongs and zinc smothered face, I was invited to sit at a table with Kely, Dimitrie (loaded wog) and Nick who were more than liberal with their $300 bottle of vodka and champagne that I could not pronounce let alone spell. All I know is that as a non-champagne drinker it tasted damn good.  The rest of the night was spent learning from the best, meeting lots of gorgeous women teaching me how to spot a richy-rich hahaha. Since being distracted by my gold D’s I lost the Aussie boys so I decided to head back to the hostel. On the way I grabbed a soup and started chatting to this lovely Texan couple and their 5 year old daughter. So after exchanging numbers, emails and the promise to visit in the future, they left to put the little bubba in bed and I made my way back so I could collapse as well.

Now I was quite content in my comatose state after my massive day, but my peaceful sleep was not to be. At 1.30am one of the hostel staff came into the room and demanded Angela (the schizophrenic African woman) to leave the room after several complaints from the other girls in the room. Now poor Angela wasn’t hurting anyone with her muttering but no apparently she had to go. So after refusing to leave (I  mean where is she going to go at 2am) the polpol came up and escorted her out.

All in all I didn’t mind because the next morning when I demanded a discount for the disturbances, the reception staff happily gave me a 50% refund. WOOHOO! One more meal for dee! (I actually did spend it later that day at a really nice health food restaurant that was recommended to me).

So another day of traveling and walking around with my bags was ahead of me. I was now off to see Kami and Gamon (two 17yr old cuties I met at Coachella). It took me 3.5hrs, 3 buses and one train to make it to Westminister to find Kami’s mother’s house. These people are ridiculously nice and actually were accommodating me last minute after my couchsurfer bailed on me the day before. They fed me dinner and we chatted for hours before heading to bed.

So the next few days were all a little bit of a blur, I went down to Huntington beach with Kami and had a waffle sandwhich! WHAAAATTTT yeah that America for you..

Next afternoon after Kami’s work, Gamon came home with us as we hit Newport beach for a few hours. Before the beach though we headed to the “Childa’s” house. Now this is literally dejavu for me. The Childa’s is like a California equivalent of the Molan’s and Kami and Gamon are like little Alex and Emma minimee’s! I tell you it was a weekend of reliving highschool. Except this time I didn’t have to say no to everything! That night Gamon and Emily came over and we all just chilled in the garage drinking beer while listening to music.

A few times in the night the girls brought out the ukulele and had a little jam sesh. Kami would play and Gamon and Emily would improve sing. It was really really good, so nice and chill. Emily got really drunk and it was so funny to watch how Cadbury they all were! But meh I guess a semester at college teaches you a thing or two about hard liquor ;) (don’t worry girls, you will get there).

Next morning we all headed off to Disneyland! Wooooo I had so much fun! And thanks to Emily, I got in for free and we all got free fast passes to skip all the lines (fake anxiety on Emily’s behalf… brilliant!). We stayed the whole night, and got to watch the fireworks over the castle.

That night we all crashed at Gamon’s place before I had to pack up and leave. The gorgeous girl had kept my 25kg of luggage in her garage for 2months while I travelled around. Unfortunately I had to finda  way to pack it all into my suitcase… and yep I had to throw out a lot L no more shopping for poor little dee. One thing I was NOT leaving behind is Gamon’s present! Yes that’s right, she got me a vintage leather jacket to take home to the blustery Brisbane winter! I am the luckiest person ever! Free Disneyworld and free clothes!!! So much love for these girls.

Ok so from Huntington beach I caught 3 buses and a train back to west Hollywood, back to the hostel before my last couchsurfing stint! I was meant to meet up with some brissy boys but the slackers were homo and dogged it. That’s fine I was more than happy chilling in the hostel with my new found BFF roommates. I know I sound sarcastic there but im not, they were really really nice and we had a great chat while they packed their bags for the morning!

So my first proper day in the LA/Hollywood basin I went for a big walk to the walk of fame and then up to the Griffith Observatory.

It was unfortunately a pretty grizzly day and it was sooo humid! I was sweating like a mofo when I had finally reached the observatory! But it was worth it J On the way back down I decided that I deserved a cookie (after walking about 20km) so I urbanespooned a bakery and found the most amazing cookies ever! Literally. I have to give a shout out to De’Lushious (I think… just google it) honestly, MELT. IN. YOUR. MOUTH.

From there my next lot of couchsurfers (Ben and Justin) picked me up and took me to the sunset strip for a gig. We hit up the Roxy bar and watched INC. They were pretty good but to be honest I loved the supporting act! Sadly cant remember her name. But they were all really chill and trancey type music. The night ended with a trip to a taco truck (the amount of Mexican restaurant’s in California rivals the number of independent coffee shops in Brisbane, seriously they are everywhere!) and then bedtime at the house.

Day two in LA and I headed back down to Santa Monica to chill on the beach (another shitty overcast day ruined that idea), eat copious amounts of froyo (weather cant spoil that luxury) and have lunch with the girls before hitting up the Twilight Concert Sreies.

The band featuring was Surferblood which was pretty good but not as good (again) as the supporting act Terraplanesun! And yes I am proud to say that the drummer from Terraplane fully liked and commented on my instagram post! Booyeah! I’m in! pity he was my third pick out of the 5… guess beggars cant be choosers :P But all in all we sat on the pier ate kettle corn, drank and listened to fantastic music.

Day three (I feel like im writing a science report here: Day one…. Day two… Day three… lucky there is only 3.5days) in LA and I started off in Silver Lake (where the couchsurfers live). From there I walked down sunset boulevard past all the vintage shops (another fad in Cali), onto Hollywood boulevard, past the walk of fame again, down to the sunset strip and then back along Melrose (past more vintage propaganda) and along the “little Mexico” part of Santa Monica Boulevard.

It felt like I was back in Argentina or something! There was no English anywhere on the signs! Lucky I am a Spanish whiz now :P At the end of the walk (another 20-25km) I treated myself to a 500g pack of strawberries for 99c! Bit healthier than cookies but just as amazing! Exactly what I needed to quench my dying throat.

On my last night in the USA, I headed over to Hollywood hills area where one of my new “roommates” was holding a gathering in a place he was housesitting for a few days. It was a good night, I got to meet some more wonderful people, got to stay in an amazing house! The next day, my last day, I rest of the day I spent sleeping and eating the remanence of last night off with a remedy of fish tacos, a hazelnut malt, a shady garden and a cold shower before it was time for the airport which is where I am right now, sitting nice and snug in a perfectly air-conditioned, leather clad admirals lounge J . Spoilt I know.

Well, this is my last post L its going to be sad not having wondrous adventures to write about every week or so but I suppose it is back to reality and back to being an actual person… eek

Lots of Love,

Dee

San Fran Pride Fest

26/06/10

Ok may as well get day one of LA out of the way while I have 7hrs to kill on the bus. I arrived at Banana bungalow at 3.30 in the afternoon and went for a little walk to the grocery store to stock up for the bus today. I was astounded and very excited to find that nectarines were the same price as granny smith apples! Wooooooooo my favourite! Definitely put two of those in my bag for breakfast before the bus! It turned out that the place I was staying was in this Jewish neighbourhood on the dowdy side of Rodeo drive. It was really cool though because they had all these Jewish bakeries and vintage stores. So off I went basking in the sun and making my way around the goodwill stores.

Back at the hostel I met the boys in my room. Yep mum I was the only girl in a room of 12 but you needn’t worry! They were all gay! It was great fun! So we all sat down to our free burgers, beer and comedy show that the hostel put on and chatted away. Luckily they had an early morning flight and had to leave the same time I did. Which is lucky because they went out after the burgers and were soooo noisy that no one else in the room would have been able to sleep. It was pretty hilarious though listening to the alarm go off, recognition of the time set and panic set in. It was a room full of “F@#K F@#K, SH*T SH*T” (they were British too so their accents added to the hilarity).

Ok now off to San Fransisco, so I arrived via a successful 8hr bus ride. Due to lack of funds and the determination to start exercising again I walked from the train station to my hostel. Yep that was a slight mistake, My hostel was in SOMA which is South of Market street which is the black area. It’s a no go zone apparently, but I decided to wade through the rubbish, debris and insolent outcries from the homeless with my 15kg backpack, suitcase, and designer handbag. I made it in the end but it was quite an experience to say the least. Once settled in I made my second big mistake. I decided to walk along Market street towards the city centre to do some shopping/ browsing. I thought being a major road it would be pretty safe, however I was wrong, it was still black country (I know I am seeming very racist at the moment but its hard not to when describing this scene). It was also feeding time for the homeless on one of the corners. Yep that was fun but on I walked, key protruding from my fist. One thing I must note is this, I got told by a black man that I had a “dayum fine asss” life goal achieved right there! Haha also got offered a job at a gentleman’s club the next morning when I was out walking in my pjs (yeah mistake number two). Thought that was pretty funny but at the same time I rushed into the nearest grocery store asap. Scary stuff when your on your own.

Next few days were cool, I spent one of them bike riding around the bay, I managed to half ride/ half walk up Marin Headlands to have a look at the bridge. It was worth the effort, especially for the free ride on the way down the hill! The next day was a walk through the Golden Gate park where I sat reading in the daisy fields.

I also found this amazing little food store that sold bread pudding. I know it sounds really weird but it was sooooo good! They sell it like icecream and scoop it into a cup and add toppings to it. You can have it hot or cold in so many delicious flavours. I had a cold choco-coconut pud with caramel sauce and coconut flakes. HEAVEN.

Come Friday I was finally off to Kyle’s (Kai Chi) place. Turned out he lives 40min from the city on the university campus. He was nice at first but is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo annoying! He is chinese and is very pushy and just annoying in general he is one of those people that wont leave you a moment alone. I want to strangle him/ think of the most gruesome torturous way to die (maybe attach his balls to a fishing line and cast out into the bay???).

The Friday night that I got in we went to a baseball game out at Oakland to watcht the A’s vs the St Louis Cardinals.

It was great fun! I got to meet a family that he had met though his church who had some kids around alices age that I got along with very well indeed. Best part of the game was that the family had a free ticket so I got dinner and a seat for free! Woohoo! From there we caught the train back to Castro which was FILLED with gays and transsexuals due to the pride festival. It was hilarious looking at all the costumes and nakedness surrounding the area.

We got Kai some more dinner and then headed up a hill to see the bridges all lit up. He called it a “hike” but it was really a 5min walk up a street.

So the first day we were together was a Saturday and so he took me to the Ferry building farmer’s markets. It was wonderful! I could have spent all day wondering around the fresh food stalls. If only I was allowed to cook I would have been in heaven buying all the fresh produce.

Sadly, Kai was not as enthusiastic about the whole ordeal so we continued on up to Coit tower to get a look at the bay and city.

From there we walked back down to fisherman’s warf (which I had done two days earlier on my bike but faked anyway just to keep the peace) and onto Ghiradelli square where I had a legendary hot fudge brownie Sunday. Yup was prettts amazeballs. It was safe to say I didn’t actually eat for the rest of the day due to the size of the thing and the guilt trip that comes with it. From there I insisted that we walk instead of bus along the Marina to the GG bridge. I am so glad we did because it was such a nice day and all of the families were out on the little dirt beaches by the bay tanning and playing volleyball.

It was quite picturesque under the bridge. From there it was to the historic Fort Point and then sadly a bus was demanded by Kai to return to Ocean beach and the sutro heights park. We then continued up the hill past the Cliff house restaurant and the old sutro baths ruins to lands end where we sat, ate chips and drank beer while the sun set over the pacific.

Urgh this is where Kai (after ¼ of a bottle of beer) got his nerdy ass drunk and found the balls to put his arms around me for the sunset. Honestly my skin was recoiling from his touch. Urgh. So annoying! I suppose he doesn’t get much action. The only friend of his that is a girl that I met was blind and had a beard better than most guys my age. Sorry that was mean and I know I am going to hell.

By the time the sun set and we went off to get dinner (Asian food again..) it was already 10pm and so I couldn’t eat. All I could do was think of my bed but no it was not to be. Another 2.5hrs of buses, dinner and walking was ahead. Definitely what I would call a big day. One plus side though was we got to see fireworks over the bay on the way home.

Sunday came about and we headed off to the pride parade on market street.

It was fantastic! I was actually quite moved by it all. The first group to go past was the “dikes on bikes” hundreds of lesbian couples all on motorbikes ride by in their fanciful costumes all with beaming smiles from ear to ear. It was their sheer happiness that made it so special. I could really see how much the legalization of marriage had meant to them. I actually almost cried at the sight! Weird I know but I kid you not it was very moving.

After hitting up the gay parade, we went down to the Sterngrove summer music festival and watched this weeks feature Deltron 3030. I mean I wasn’t the biggest fan of the actual music but the whole scene was fantastic.

There is a little stage in the middle of a park/grove thing that was surrounded by trees. All throughout the area there were bubbles floating through the dope haze and screaming semi naked children. All through the trees on the opposite hill, people had set up their picnic rugs and eskies full of booze, cheese and crackers. Unfortunately we were unprepared and couldn’t find a spot but Kai being the chinese that he is pushed through and asked if we could share a rug with these two guys. I was outraged and so embarrassed but am semi glad he did because they were more than hospitable and welcomed us with a nice clean rug to sit on and fresh homemade guac and chips (still felt bad eating their food as well but man it was good guacamole).

Next on my day by day account is my first day of peace and quiet! I realized after my attention was totally consumed by Kai’s presence that I quite like being alone. Probably why I liked swimming so much. But anyway I went for a walk around the lake near the university, down to the beach (sadly too foggy to enjoy), along the coast back to the GG park, through the park past the bison fields to Lindley field where I sat in my new (conservative) bikinis and lay for an hr or two reading.

After that I was in quest for a birthday present for a certain younger sister from a certain unmentionable store. Turns out the store was a little further away than I thought and with a 4pm meeting time with Kai looming, I had to make haste and decided to run.

By running it was very grandma-ish as I had no bra on and a backpack so I didn’t want the ladies flying around everywhere and well running with a backpack just sucks full stop. But I made my stinky way (accumulated backpack sweat from the trip) towards downtown where I found my gift, found some fro-you and a bread roll to have with my emergency tuna and Argentinian mayonnaise. At the end of the day I had managed to walk/ jog 30km. Must say I am pretty damn proud of myself with that one (sounds more impressive than it actually was). After meeting Kai again we walked up to the twin peaks where we got a panoramic view of the fog. Only kidding, we did get a pretty good view I was just in a bad mood again by that time.

We grabbed dinner at a shabu place (more Asian food) and then I made my way downtown to catch the bus to my next destination! Santa Monica. I will leave that to a new post though because to be honest this one is long enough already! (as every true author must know when to start a new chapter).

Well until the next chapter then,

Dee