Today was spent in the library (again) reading in preparation for exams blehhh. So of course I did a lot of eating, people watching, and daydreaming. Since the library was, as usual, FREEZING, I found myself wishing it was this time last year when I spent the Easter holidays chilling in Californiaaaaa.
My boyfriend Charlie spent the year in Santa Barbara studying as part of his degree, so I popped over to visit him in the hols, needless to say it was amazinggg!! We spent a month travelling from LA, where we spent a few days seeing the sights, including going to a Lakers basketball which was amaazing, I'm not a big sports fan at all but the atmosphere was incredible and I had so much fun it's definitely something I'd love to do again if I ever get the chance! PLUS Becks himself was there (which, when I realised obviously meant that I spent the entire time spying on him through my binoculars) as well as Ashton Kutcher and Gerrard Butler!
On our second night we went to an incredible show at the Kodak Theatre, Cirque du Soleil, it was absolutely beautiful and parts of it made me feel quite emotional! We had quite an eventful time getting there, we spent the day in Santa Monica browsing around the shops, got some sushi, and while we were there we saw a Cirque du Soleil tent on the beach so thought great, we're right near it we can just stroll on to the beach later for the show...
...It was only right before the show when we properly looked at our tickets when we realised we had tickets for the show at the Kodak Theatre, not Santa Monica at all! So we quickly put it into the sat nav and drove as fast as we could to get all the way to Hollywood!
Charlie hadn't driven since his test when he was 17 so driving in LA on the other side of the rode pretty tricky! We definitely had a few mis-haps and close calls while we were there, finding ourself driving towards oncoming traffic a few times and I think we must have run numerous red lights without realising!
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| Cirque du Soleil |
After the show we had more problems as we couldn't find our rental car anywhere in the car park, after about 45 minutes searching its numerous levels, we asked the car park attendants and they searched with us (it didn't help that we couldn't really remember what the car looked like and everyone seemed to have a similar looking silver hatchback!)
Eventually, they asked to look at our ticket, told us we were in the wrong car park, and directed us to one over the road, so we went there, only to realise after a lot more searching that there must be a lot more car parks than we first thought because it wasn't there either! After what must have been hours of walking around car parks pressing the button on our key to listen out for our car beeping, we finally found it, but we still had to check into a new hotel in downtown LA, by this time it was really late and we still had no idea where the hotel was!
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| Our car that caused all the problems! |
When (after lots of issues with one way systems!) we eventually found the hotel, it was very much closed for the night and we genuinely thought we were going to have to sleep in our car in the car park opposite. The fact that we were in downtown LA and some pretty dodgy people had already approached us while we had been sat there, that prospect was not too appealing and not having enough money to spend on another hotel for the night we really didn't know quite what to do! Luckily Charlie went and asked in the (much nicer and more expensive!) hotel next door, who informed us that our hotel reception closed at 11pm but we could access it through their hotel! Phew! Although it was quite depressing going from that beautiful hotel to our dodgy hostel with about 4 metal mesh barriers on the windows and one toilet and shower between the whole floor, we were just happy to be sleeping inside! And of course Charlie loved it regardless, being completely orange (he's probably orange's biggest fan)..
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| Charlie blending in |
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| A policeman on a scooter in downtown LA! |
Charlie and I had no idea what downtown LA would be like, and it was definitely eye opening to see the more 'real' side of LA. I couldn't believe the extent of homelessness out there, most shocking was driving past 'skid row' on our way through LA back to Charlie's uni. It's a far cry from the glamour of LA all the advertising would have us believe, and I'm really glad I saw it as I feel it gave me a broader perspective of the country. There aren't many photos on the internet of it, and none that show it to its full extent, there were literally roads full of tents, I'd never seen anything like it before in my life. Here are a couple I found online...
Okay, sorry for ending on such a sombre note but I really must go to bed now! I'll be doing another post on our time LA and the rest of California very soon though :)
Hope everyone is having a lovely week!
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