LA

After a nice and straightforward flight to LA, we arrive at LAX and contact our hostel to arrange a shuttle pickup. Struggling with the thick American accent, Andy thinks the guy on the phone says to wait at “area F”...so we go in search of “area F”...hmmm not very descriptive! After wandering around (looking much like lost souls) for about 20 mins, a surfer-dude guy approaches us and simple says “Orbit Hostel?” – “YES! Thank god you found us” is all we say. After waiting for surfer dude (aka Chris) to gather the other lost souls, we set off on our journey to the hostel.

Chris points out a few famous sights along the way, including the billowing smoke in the sky above us, which we had assumed was puffy clouds, but are in actual fact a result of the wild fires raging through the state. Shocking to see the extent of them!

We are pleasantly surprised when we arrive at the hostel – our room is about 3 times the size of the one we had in san fran and has ensuite too! Bonus! As soon as we have dropped off our stuff we head out to the local Farmers Market which we are told will have yummy food! Well, it turns out to be LA’s answer to Londons Borough Market. Stall after stall selling every combination of meat dish/fish dish/veg dish/fresh bakery items - great! Andy settles for a philly steak and myself a burger (of course) Topped off nicely with a Bennett’s Ice Cream (Yep, an ice cream stall called Bennett’s – it was meant to be!)

Little did we realise in our search for food (blinded by hunger!) that behind the food market was a big shopping plaza with everything from Abercrombie to an Apple store to a Cinema (oh and another cheesecake factory!) We spent the rest of the evening mooching around – window shopping.
On our second day we decided to get out and explore the ‘tourist’ sites. We walked from our hotel on Melrose Avenue (which was like sleeping next to the M1 – there was a proliferation of HUGE engined Harley-davidson type motorcycles going past at regular intervals. Not the most relaxing noises to go to sleep to)
First stop – Sunset Boulevard, where we stopped at Sunset Plaza and had some amazing crepes (a welcome break to get out of the scorching mid morning sun) We then walked on to Hollywood Boulevard and the “Walk of Fame”. First stop - The King (Elvis) and the Beatles! After walking for a while and getting neck ache at trying to read all the stars names, we reached the Chinese Manns Theatre - Very impressive building! Finally, we had a nice clear view of the “Hollywood” sign and joined in with the crowd of tourists trying to get a clear picture of it! It certainly put the zoom capabilities of our little camera to the test – it came out trumps! Realising quite how far we had walked, we decided it was time to start the long walk back! (With a brief intermission at a HUGE ‘Target’ Store – think Tesco Extra! We stocked up on any last minute essentials for Fiji. Bug spray...sea sickness tables....exciting stuff)

To finish off our great day of Hollywood exploration we went to a yummy burger bar – “8 oz.” And soon realised that when you order a side of ‘chips’ and the waiter says “are you sure, they’re chippy chips?” that what they actually mean is crisps! Either way, the roasted sweet potato crisps were delicious!
For our final day in LA, we knew we had a long day ahead of us as our flight wasn’t until 11.30pm. Torn between venturing out to the beach at Santa Monica and heading back to the fab farmers market, we decided to go for the latter as we couldn’t face another long journey after yesterdays mammoth walk! After breckie at the hostel (who would have thought such a basic meal of cheerios, toast and tea could be so satisfying! Its nice to have a bit of normality (also nice that its free!) ) we wandered back tot he market. After much drooling over all the yummy food stalls , we settled on pizza for lunch and bought some huge freshly baked cookies for afternoon snacks! Any fears Andy had about ever going hungry have certainly not been realised in the states!

Having resisted throughout our time in the US, we indulged in a tiny tiny bit of retail therapy. Abercrombie and Quicksilver called out to us, justifiable we think as we have heard rumours of large amounts of snowfall in NZ !

We were pleasantly surprised by LA. Andys dubious views on it from a previous visit have been somewhat abolished. We could have done with a couple more days to be able to get to Santa Monica and the beach. Our shuttle bus back to the airport drove along the beachfront which looked lovely in the evening, with all the restaurants and bars lit up. Our consolation on not making it to the beach? Our next stop - Nearly 2 weeks in Fiji!