Hello!!
Time to say adios amigos. We’re safely back in London and coming to terms with the fact that our travels are, for now, sadly over.
Although we were only in Los Angeles for a couple of days, it was long enough for both of us to decide we love it. Our final air bnb was definitely the most fun; Saf booked an airstream in echo park which overlooked the entire city, just down the road from the Dodgers Stadium. (If you look really REALLY hard, you can see the Hollywood sign from the outside dinner table.) Saf also, to his great excitement, hired a soft top Mustang to drive around the city in. I don’t think we could have been non-verbally screaming ‘TOURISTS’ any louder if we tried.
So it turns out that traffic in LA doesn’t move very quickly (who knew??) so we kept our plans fairly loose. Our first stop on Thursday was to stroll around the Original Farmers Market and Grove shopping centre. The plaza and market have a very European feel, and after a quick detour into Dominique Ansel for cronuts we had a great time wandering around the stalls and stores.
A while later, Saf dragged me out of Barnes and Noble so we could head across town to where he had discovered an English pub showing the Arsenal game – exactly the kind of culture that we travelled around the world for. I have to hand it to English football fans in America – they definitely know how to cheer extremely loudly when quite literally nothing happens. Their use of expletives is also particularly creative. That’s the kind of enthusiasm from fans that keeps a team on top. Or not.
We eventually left, with Saf appropriately miserable about the full time score, and headed over to the La Brea Tar Pits. We started off walking around the park, seeing (and smelling) the tar bubbling up through the water pits, and paeleontologists continue digging in one of the pits, before heading into the museum. Inside the museum we saw full skeletons of mammoths, sabre tooth tigers and (umm) six-foot tall sloths, all discovered in the tar pits having been buried there since the last ice age.
Fun fact, apparently ‘Brea’ is Spanish for ‘tar’ therefore the English translation of La Brea Tar Pits is “The Tar Tar Pits”. The more you know.
(I feel like the above wall of wolf skulls looks like a window display for the launch of a new Nike football boot.)
That evening we (I) made dinner at the airstream and we sat and lorded over the city from our vantage point. Despite the clouds joining the infamous smog, the view was super beautiful.
Friday was the BEST DAY.
The sun was giving us its all, and we had always planned on having at least one beach day, so we got up early to head to Santa Monica Pier before it got super busy. The Pier is fun just to even look at – the rides and colourful kiosks make a great backdrop for pictures. The Bubba Gump Shrimp Company was packed even so early in the morning, and their weirdly pink shrimpy mascot was loitering round, ready to waylay anyone who stood still too long. Saf ended up being cornered by this giant boiled crustacean, who stood staring at him till I took a picture of them both, then wandered off. Bizarre.
But the BEST bit of Friday, was a little after midday when JACKIE AND CHRIS SHOWED UP fresh from Las Vegas. For those of you who don’t know, Jackie and I met in university, but Jay lives in New York so we only get to see each other maybe once a year. It worked out so well that the exact dates that we were in LA, Jackie’s work took her to Vegas, so we were able to meet up on the beach for the day. Jackie arrived prepared, having read on a previous blog post about Saf’s regular hangry outbreaks, bringing a box of the best doughnuts in town to ward off impending sulks.
We walked along to Venice Beach, via the picturesque canals after which the city was named, and back along seafront till we passed Muscle Beach, before jumping in an uber back to the pier. We had planned to head up to the Griffith Observatory to make the most of the views that afternoon, but by the time we got back to the car, traffic was so bad that we would never have made it in time. We decided instead to try and make it to the Getty Centre, but again were caught out by traffic. Instead we drove around town with the top down just making the most of the weather. We headed in the direction of the UCLA campus, where Jay and Chris led us to the best ice cream sandwiches in town. Despite being the oldest people in a two mile radius, we unleashed our inner kids in the ice cream shop.
Our final stop of the day was to head to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. I’m going to be honest here – I’d fully forgotten the sheer size of American portions, and between us all, we probably ate about a quarter of the food that was brought to our table. But it was a beautiful evening and I’m so glad we got to see Jay and Chris, and meet LA locals James, Felipe and Caroline.
In keeping with our newfound habit of deciding on where to go in LA and then underestimating the traffic and missing it completely, on Saturday morning Saf and I aimed again for the Griffith Observatory, but completely misjudged how busy it would be, and found ourselves unable to park anywhere within an hour hike away. Oh well. Next time.
Amazingly, our last day was not only a Saturday, but it was also Cinco de Mayo – the Mexican celebration of the time the French army tried to invade and a bunch of Mexican peasants scared them off. I actually hadn’t realised this at the time that I had planned for us to go down to Olvera Street, so it worked out v. v. nicely for us. There were so many stalls selling Mexican souvenirs, kitchens selling Mexican foods and people milling around the length of the pretty street. At the end, a group of dancers were performing on the bandstand – girls dancing in amazing dresses and guys (some definitely children, just saying) juggling actual machetes. It was wild.
We were absolutely not going to leave without more Mexican food, so we stopped at a tiny hole in the wall kitchen and ordered. I wanted to try Tamales and Taquitos (both great) and Saf ordered a burrito without knowing quite what he was getting himself into. When it arrived, it was the full length of his forearm, and twice as thick. He gave it a good go, and got through about half of it before admitting absolute defeat.
Eventually, we had to start heading towards the airport. Despite a few (less than ten) wrong turns, we made it in time for our flight, and got ready for the long haul home.
We’ve had the absolute best time since we’ve been away, and had some pretty life-defining moments. It’s been so amazing to visit some of the most beautiful places in the world and I’m so grateful that we got to see them now. Our favourite moments have been when we got to see family and friends, so thank you to everyone who made time to see us!!
Okie dokie, I think that’s me done for now. Thank you so much for reading and sharing in our journey with us.
Lots of love!!!
Bye
X
Claudia Bow 