7/02 Arriving in Los Angeles

Technically, my flight took off on the second of July, Taiwan time zone, but then there is the 15-hour time difference which caused me to get back into time to again the second of July in LA after flying for more than 14 hours due to delays and turbulences. It’s my first time to be somewhere which has such a big time difference to my home country but luckily, I wasn’t suffering from any of the jetlag. I didn’t really sleep on the plane, watched a bunch of great movies and ate for two meals. The seat wasn’t very comfy but since I’ve got it at a very decent price in the beginning, there wasn’t really much to complain about.

The thing is, after arriving in the LAX airport, it was far bigger than I had anticipated and all of a sudden I was clueless. There are so many terminals and so many options to go to “other places”, and so many different kinds of shuttle buses and vans waiting to pick up the customers. So in order to reduce the chance of getting money slaughtered by one of the drivers, I decided to go for the safest way, to take the free G-line shuttle bus to the Aviation Metro Station, there I can take the light metro to one of the stations that’s closest to my hostel, Backpackers Paradise.

(Because you just can’t go and drag your luggage and walk for 1 hour on foot though the airport and the hostel are on the same boulevard)

Backpackers Paradise is more furnished than I had imagined, and there were already many foreign backpackers waiting to check in. I was assigned to one of the mix 20-bed dorms and it was a mess, but at least the smell was okay. Right after I moved in, two Japanese guys also moved in and occupied the bunk next to mine. We chatted and decided to explore together. They were kind of shy though, but at least they seemed to be trying their best to make conversations and communicate.

We didn’t take the bus but just walk and explore the exterior of the “town”. There was a very big park with lots of kids playing around; the Hollywood casino that we didn’t get the chance to go inside (we were all in shorts and vests); we bought some weird looking grande beverages at a store and cheered. 

There really weren’t much thing to do for we’re not really in the city, but the location was equipped with all kinds of fast food chain stores, smoothies and yogurt shops. I’m still trying to figure out the best way to get to the greyhound station for tomorrow’s 7am bus to San Diego, and it’s a 4-hour walk from where I am staying at the moment so there’s no chance I can make it on foot. 

But both the metro bus and light metro don’t start that early and even with the public transportation it’s around 1 and a half hour away. So maybe the best way is to go tonight and stay at restaurant somewhere near the station.

First sight of Los Angeles isn’t what I had imagined, but it must be because we’re still quite near to the airport and not in the city. But we still have many days to come in LA afterwards so there’s really no rush. 

The most important thing for now is to figure out what to have for dinner, Wendy’s Burger, Jack in the box, In and Out or Churches.