The flight from Rarotonga to Los Angeles takes about 9 hours and a half. We spent most of the time either sleeping or eating. I accepted and happily swallowed the midnight dinner, even though I was still full from our first island dinner. Perhaps I should find a scale at some point.
The arrival at LAX airport was much smoother than expected. We're always a bit afraid of the immigration control in the US. They surely have managed to convince us that being allowed in at the border control is half way between a hard job and winning the lottery. I don't know if it helps to protect the homeland, but it definitely makes me want to go somewhere else. This time things were super easy and in a very short time we were out, ready to meet Natalia. K and Natalia were exchange students in the US at the same time and spent a whole year as friends...in 1999. Their friendship hold well in spite of the distance, and today they met again. After 14 years!
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| Happily reunited! |
The three of us hopped into a rental car and joined the constant flow of vehicles that fills freeways and highways of this enormous city. It took me some time to get used to driving on the 'right' side of the road again, after all the time spent driving on the left. Everything went fine and shortly after we were enjoying the '5 de Mayo' celebrations in downtown LA. The 5th of May is a Mexican-American celebration, which commemorates a historic battle. In the US it is mostly lived as a celebration of Mexican culture, with Mexican-themed parties all around the cities.
On the first couple of days we had to arrange a few practicalities for the days to come. (You'll know more when the time comes). Nevertheless we had enough time to visit some of the most iconic places. It's fascinating to drive around streets that you have heard about hundreds of times from movies and TV: Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Sunset Boulevard, Santa Monica, Venice Beach. The list is really endless. Unfortunately most of the hype comes from the fame, rather than the real interest of if all. Or maybe we had this impression because of the clouds (even some rain!) the had accompanied us all the way from Rarotonga?
Santa Monica has a nice beach but the pier is quite dull. Venice is a trap for tourists, beach bums and pot heads, but at least it has got a vibrant, lively atmosphere and it offers a unique environment for people spotting. I could spend hours here, watching the weirdest types of humanity walking by.
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| Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz, close even in the Walk of Fame |
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| And the Oscar to most abused prize goes to... |
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| Classic |
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| Grauman's Chinese Theater |
The next day we visited a curious place, that I had heard about and really wanted to see: the Watts towers. Located in the middle of a rather-less-than-fancy neighborhood this structure is the fruit of 34 years of work of a single man. Sabato "Simon" Rodia, an Italian immigrant without any artistic background, spent evenings and weekends from 1921 till 1954 building this inventive structure. It reminded us of Gaudí's work, a one-man Sagrada Familia built with concrete, broken bottles and shells.
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| They're actually quite high |
The story behind the towers is peculiar and quite funny. One of the strangest things is that at some point the artist decided that his work was done, left his house and the towers to a neighbor, moved out of the neighborhood and never came back to see his masterpiece. He had felt the urge to do "something big" (his own words), built it and expanded it for more than 30 years, and then just went on without ever turning back to it.
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| That's dedication |
The Disney Concert Hall is more straightforward. It's one of Gehry's masterpieces, no further comments are needed, right?
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| Disney Concert Hall |
We spent a very short time wandering around the Grove and the Farmers Market. It's a pretty area, perhaps a bit too artificial and over-polished in my opinion. The food court was very appealing though, I wish we had time to return there for lunch or dinner time.
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| The Grove shopping area |
Instead it was still early afternoon, so we drove around fancy areas for a while: Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, Bel Air Estates and Melrose Avenue, to name just a few. You feel like a superstar just driving past the many villas, mansions, classy shops and luxury cars.
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| Beverly Drive |
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| Rodeo Drive |
That is, until you get stuck in a classic LA traffic jam. We spent a veeeeery long time studying the bumper of the car ahead of us on Sunset Blvd, while trying to reach the Griffith Observatory. At least it was worth the long (and slow) drive to get there. The observatory offers a nice view of the famous Hollywood sign, although from much further away than we had imagined.
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| I may need binoculars |
Although obviously the best views are the ones over the city. From up there you can see the vastness of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. It's probably the first time that I see a city extending until the horizon and beyond, literally. We are not fond of big cities, and LA doesn't make an exception so far, but one cannot avoid to feel something when facing the overwhelming size of the city. When the sunset illuminated the skyscrapers of downtown with an orange glow and the streets started to light up for the night, even I felt the charm of this enormous, extreme and exhausting city.
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| Night lights |
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