It turned out that the website we'd booked the hostel through had given the wrong address, so first we turned up to the wrong hostel, then had to walk several blocks in the heat with all our gear to the right hostel. Then we weren't allowed to check in early, so we stayed in the lobby for a little while, then headed out again to see LA. Our hostel was in a good place just off the Boulevard, so we saw a lot of Hollywood just by walking to and from it. It was very near a shopping centre, so we got some smoothies to revitalise ourselves and went in a few shops. For lunch we had some tasty sushi, we decided to head downtown to see what that was like.
Well, it turns out that downtown LA is, basically, horrible. We made the mistake of venturing too far east into a very poor area, and felt very exposed and vulnerable walking around. Also there just didn't seem to be any nice shops or sights around. So after wandering around for a while we got back on the underground to Hollywood Boulevard again. I bought some pizza for dinner and we spent the evening in our room working out how to get to Burbank the next day.
On Wednesday we felt we'd seen enough of Hollywood, so after breakfast at Starbucks we got a bus to the La Brea Tarpits ("La Brea"actually means "The tarpits", so that's like saying 'The "The Tarpits" tarpits', but anyway) where we spent a pleasant couple of hours. It was a good museum. I like it when museums are kind of antiquities in themselves. This one had a definite seventies vibe to it. We saw lots of skulls and some animatronic mammoths and things, and a video about the tar pits and the excavations/scientific discoveries they were making there. Then we bussed back and had lunch in the shopping centre again, this time at a place where you have a computer screen in front of you and order all your food through that. You can also play games or do quizzes while waiting for your food. It was a bit silly and slightly expensive for what we got, but kind of worth it just for fun. Afterwards we went back to the hostel and sat outside waiting for our taxi to take us to the airport. I would like to go back to LA, but next time with a car or to the coastal bit, as that was too far away for us to get to this time.
Sunday 5 October 2008
El Paso
We got into El Paso later than anticipated, as the trains were delayed. So it was about half past nine by the time we got to the hostel. It was rather empty. We found a film to watch on the TV in the common room, so crashed out on the sofa to watch that. It's surprising how travelling by train can make you tired. I think it's worse when the train is delayed becuase it's all very tedious, especially when the train is barely moving for hours at a time.
The next day we weren't really in the mood for doing much, so we mainly just hung out in our room reading, after going to the shop to get some food. Not many places were open as it was a Sunday, so it was good that we weren't in the mood for doing much. In the late afternoon Oz decided he was bored and we should go out, so we went downstairs to get some food first, where we met Suzanne, another hosteller, who was from Leeds. Then Antonio, who works in the hostel, appeared and said he was taking us all out for fried ice cream in the evening and to see the city lights from a viewpoint high up in one of the hills surrounding the city. So we stayed in the kitchen for a while chatting to Suzanne before piling into Antonio's car to drive up to the viewpoint (you can't get there by foot or bus).
Views of the lights:
Most of these lights are actually across the border in Juarez - the border is the bit about 1/3 from the bottom of the picture that sort of looks like a road going horizontally across.
Lights and mountains all artistic-like.
Afterwards we got fried ice cream, which was very tasty! It was ice cream rolled in sugary rice crispie-like things, then deep fried. Then we went back to the hostel and played some pool.
The next day we ventured into Mexico with Suzanne and a German guy who was also staying at the hostel. Safety in numbers, etc... We had no trouble getting across - you pay the 25 cent toll for the footbridge then walk across. Juarez was... interesting. Every other shop was a pharmacist or optician. The main road (leading to/from the bridge) was mainly in one piece, but when you looked down the side streets to the roads running parallel you could see that the buildings were very shabby - one had an entire collapsed corner and there was just a big pile of rubble in the road. We wandered around looking for the market until some Mexican man led us there, then wouldn't leave us alone. We stopped for a drink and he wandered off to a tequila shop opposite (saying something about how we should get chocolate tequila...) so we tried to pay quickly then disappear into the market, but he popped up again. Then we tried to go out of a random back exit of the market, but he still managed to catch us up then wouldn't stop being our "tour guide" until we gave him a few dollars. After that we decided to find some lunch, so we filed into the nearest cafe we could see. We were slightly off the beaten track by this point and it turned out that nobody in the cafe spoke any English. None of us spoke any Spanish either, so we basically had to guess what to order, using the few paltry bits of vocabulary we knew. I ordered eggs and the waitress asked me if I wanted them with ham or on their own, which of course I didn't understand, so she had to get another customer to translate. The food itself was very cheap but also pretty terrible, so afterwards we decided we'd had enough and headed back to the bridge that would take us (hopefully) back to sanity. It was a lot slower getting back into the USA, as there were many people going that way and everyone had to have their documents checked. Of course we had no trouble getting back into the USA, which was quite a relief as I think we'd all had enough of Mexico by that point!
That evening we hung out at the hostel. We made some cookies because we'd bought some eggs and there was sugar and flour that other people had left, only then I left them out on the side and the next day they had all been eaten, I hope by the people running the hostel because we did say they could have some. Our train on Tuesday was at some time after 5, but we got up late and weren't inspired to do much as it was so hot, so we bummed out some more in the common room, playing pool (it was free) and I made some more cookies because I found some oats this time and there were still ingredients left. We had a slight hiccup getting on the train - Oz phoned up the automated hotline that tells you what time your train is at soon before we were planning to leave just to check it wasn't delayed, and it suddenly decided that our train was half an hour earlier than the time on our tickets, which meant we had 15 minutes to get to the station. So we hurriedly grabbed our stuff and practically ran to the station and jumped on the train... to sit there for half an hour until it left at the time it was originally meant to.
The journey to LA was long (had to go across the whole of New Mexico) and overnight, but it was quite busy so we couldn't stretch out over two seats as we had been doing previously. I couldn't sleep for a long while and wasn't very comfortable, but we arrived in LA half an hour early, around 10am. We were both pretty tired and ready to go straight to San Francisco, or at least to go to our hostel and relax for a while before taking in LA... alas, it was not to be.
The next day we weren't really in the mood for doing much, so we mainly just hung out in our room reading, after going to the shop to get some food. Not many places were open as it was a Sunday, so it was good that we weren't in the mood for doing much. In the late afternoon Oz decided he was bored and we should go out, so we went downstairs to get some food first, where we met Suzanne, another hosteller, who was from Leeds. Then Antonio, who works in the hostel, appeared and said he was taking us all out for fried ice cream in the evening and to see the city lights from a viewpoint high up in one of the hills surrounding the city. So we stayed in the kitchen for a while chatting to Suzanne before piling into Antonio's car to drive up to the viewpoint (you can't get there by foot or bus).
Views of the lights:
Most of these lights are actually across the border in Juarez - the border is the bit about 1/3 from the bottom of the picture that sort of looks like a road going horizontally across.
Lights and mountains all artistic-like.Afterwards we got fried ice cream, which was very tasty! It was ice cream rolled in sugary rice crispie-like things, then deep fried. Then we went back to the hostel and played some pool.
The next day we ventured into Mexico with Suzanne and a German guy who was also staying at the hostel. Safety in numbers, etc... We had no trouble getting across - you pay the 25 cent toll for the footbridge then walk across. Juarez was... interesting. Every other shop was a pharmacist or optician. The main road (leading to/from the bridge) was mainly in one piece, but when you looked down the side streets to the roads running parallel you could see that the buildings were very shabby - one had an entire collapsed corner and there was just a big pile of rubble in the road. We wandered around looking for the market until some Mexican man led us there, then wouldn't leave us alone. We stopped for a drink and he wandered off to a tequila shop opposite (saying something about how we should get chocolate tequila...) so we tried to pay quickly then disappear into the market, but he popped up again. Then we tried to go out of a random back exit of the market, but he still managed to catch us up then wouldn't stop being our "tour guide" until we gave him a few dollars. After that we decided to find some lunch, so we filed into the nearest cafe we could see. We were slightly off the beaten track by this point and it turned out that nobody in the cafe spoke any English. None of us spoke any Spanish either, so we basically had to guess what to order, using the few paltry bits of vocabulary we knew. I ordered eggs and the waitress asked me if I wanted them with ham or on their own, which of course I didn't understand, so she had to get another customer to translate. The food itself was very cheap but also pretty terrible, so afterwards we decided we'd had enough and headed back to the bridge that would take us (hopefully) back to sanity. It was a lot slower getting back into the USA, as there were many people going that way and everyone had to have their documents checked. Of course we had no trouble getting back into the USA, which was quite a relief as I think we'd all had enough of Mexico by that point!
That evening we hung out at the hostel. We made some cookies because we'd bought some eggs and there was sugar and flour that other people had left, only then I left them out on the side and the next day they had all been eaten, I hope by the people running the hostel because we did say they could have some. Our train on Tuesday was at some time after 5, but we got up late and weren't inspired to do much as it was so hot, so we bummed out some more in the common room, playing pool (it was free) and I made some more cookies because I found some oats this time and there were still ingredients left. We had a slight hiccup getting on the train - Oz phoned up the automated hotline that tells you what time your train is at soon before we were planning to leave just to check it wasn't delayed, and it suddenly decided that our train was half an hour earlier than the time on our tickets, which meant we had 15 minutes to get to the station. So we hurriedly grabbed our stuff and practically ran to the station and jumped on the train... to sit there for half an hour until it left at the time it was originally meant to.
The journey to LA was long (had to go across the whole of New Mexico) and overnight, but it was quite busy so we couldn't stretch out over two seats as we had been doing previously. I couldn't sleep for a long while and wasn't very comfortable, but we arrived in LA half an hour early, around 10am. We were both pretty tired and ready to go straight to San Francisco, or at least to go to our hostel and relax for a while before taking in LA... alas, it was not to be.
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