Los Angeles

I had spent 12 weeks in Redmond and I got to like the Seattle area. I also got to like working at Microsoft a lot more than I originally thought I would. But it was never meant to be for longer than three months. It was time to leave.

Once again, my life was reduced to a suitcase. I was going back Down Under, but I was looking forward to have a 5 day layover in Los Angeles first. As a city, L.A. doesn’t really exist. Well, to be precise, there is an actual place called Los Angeles, but all it is, is a bunch of grim roads with bleak giant parking spaces, a few unimpressive sky scrapers and a small train station build in Spanish colonial architectural style. There is nothing there to see. I didn't believe it, so I went to check, and that was right. Nothing to see. But what Los Angeles really stands for is a giant suburban area stretching for over 100km each way. L.A. is Hollywood, L.A. is Santa Monica, L.A. is Long Beach, Beverly Hills and a lot more. There was something to see after all.

Not knowing anything really about L.A.’s geography I chose to stay in a Hostelling International hostel and the only one I could find around L.A. was in Santa Monica. The HI hostel Santa Monica is certainly just as clean and tidy as I am used for other HI hostels, but it was nevertheless one of the worst HI hostels I ever stayed in (still, better than many other hostels in general, but also more expensive). Although the check out time was at 11am, the cleaners came into the rooms at 9am and started to vacuum clean, without really carrying that the rooms were full of asleep people. Somehow, other hostels manage to keep rooms clean after the checkout time. Besides, the wireless LAN stopped working every day at 5:45pm sharp, and although we reported it at several occasions to the reception, every receptionist came up with a totally different lame excuse why it is not being fixed.

What I quickly learned about L.A. is that it is impossible to get around there. Wherever you go, it always takes more than an hour and you almost always need a car (or pay for a cab). There are some buses, but they take even longer (much longer) and you normally have to walk vast distances (really vast) to get them. Because of this, you should stay as close to the area of your interest as possible. If you are interested in a beach, Santa Monica is a good place to be in L.A., but I was on my way Down Under and beaches did not bear any interest to me. I was more interested in the sights, Hollywood and the night-life and staying in Santa Monica was a mistake. I should have looked for a hostel in the Hollywood area.

I took things easy. I explored the local area, chilled out a lot after an eventful departure from Redmond, saw some sights, and went out every night. There are some places to go for a drink in Santa Monica and by the time I was leaving, I had eight straight nights drinking behind me (obviously, my last days in Redmond did not pass dry either). I took one of the common tourist tours around the celebrity areas and went to the Universal Studios. In the hostel I met a guy called Ryan. It turned out, we had very similar ideas about how to spend a holiday in L.A. and also about life in general, so we got on quite well. We went to L.A. downtown and explored the Hollywood area including the walk of fame and related sights. At night we used the chance of being as close to Hollywood as we possibly would not be again for a long time and thus decided not to waste any more time in Santa Monica. We went to the Viper Room; I normally have no idea about celebrities and such, but I was told that it is a very famous rock venue, and indeed the music was good. The other night we went to Avalon, apparently also a very famous place. When we got back to the hostel it was 8am. Good times.

Overall, I had a good time in L.A.. I wound down after a busy last week at work, got some sun, ticked off various famous places off my to-visit list and made a new friend. The excessive partying was starting to demand its toll and I was feeling a bit rough on the way to the airport. I did not yet know that on the plane this roughness was going to develop into a nasty cold that would to tie me to my bed for over a week. After over 4 months I was heading home to Oz. I knew that I was going to face some very difficult issues there, but I was looking forward to being back.

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