LA Times - California Here We Come

So, I'm already back in good olde Germany, but I still haven't told you about our last few days in the States. And yes, I actually had that song on my mobile when we were in the US. 

I stopped writing when we arrived at the West Coast, where we stayed in Santa Monica, because let's be honest; I did not want to drive through LA at night without a navigational system looking for a hotel or motel with a vacancy. So we just drove past Pasadena, around LA until we hit Santa Monica Boulevard, where we just stopped at the first Inn we saw, which happened to be the DaysInn. We managed to stumble into the lobby, where David, the night clerk, listened to us babble for a while, and then suggested we take a king deluxe room with a patio, because that way, we'd be paying the least for staying in relatively comfortable quarters.

 Santa Monica Blvd at 5am

The patio was the best thing ever. The next morning when I woke up to a hazy LA sky (well, Santa Monica sky, as SM for some reason isn't part of LA), I did some morning yoga on there before searching out the next Starbucks as the others got themselves sorted for our first day in LA. 

Now, let me tell you, LA is a strange city. Because...there is no such thing as the City of LA. There is Beverly Hills, there is Downtown LA, there is Hollywood, Universal City, but... it's all so weirdly spaced out and every neighbourhood is so different from the next, you just can't get a feel for the city. In Hollywood, you have to be overrun by tourists who saw something or someone they want to take a photo of, or gang-harrassed by five different "up and coming" hip hop artists wanting to sell you their records, asking you your name and then telling you they signed the CD for you so you had to pay for it. And when you want to leave telling them to fuck off, somebody tells you, you are disrespecting them. It's scary and scarily organised tourist rip-off over there. But the Dolby Theatre and the Chinese Theatre were actually nice to see, there was a great vibe inside and the Walk of Fame, in spite of getting old pretty soon, was kind of nice, because you've seen this thing so often, it's such a big part of our modern day (pop)cultural upbringing that something would have been missing had we not gone to see it.

Loved the Dolby Theatre

Before that, however, we did my favourite part of the tour: we drove up the winding path of Mulholland Drive and stopped at the vantage point where everybody stops. And we saw the Hollywood sign. Another thing you got to see when in LA. Also, Mulholland Drive was fun to drive along and the views from up there over the cities of LA was fantastic.

a little smoggy

After having enough of Hollywood and that part of town, we took the subway to Downtown LA, where...there was nobody. Everybody seemingly spent their days in Hollywood with exceptionally rare encounters of human beings in the streets of Downtown LA. We had a look at the third biggest cathedral in the world, Our Lady of the Angels, a...rather modern cathedral that was not really that exciting, then we saw the Disney Music Hall, which was architecturally impressive. From there we strolled a little bit through the "historic" part of town, as it was labeled, even though "historic" at the West Coast seems to mean something different from historic at the East Coast. But I really don't mean to crap on Downtown LA, as it has impressive official buildings like the Civic Center and the City Hall, the LA Times Building and so on. And then there's the historic cable car at Angel's Flight connecting two streets so people don't have to climb the steep stairs up from Hill Street to Olive (which looks cool even though it's not in service anymore).

Either City Hall or the Civic Center, either way: Downtown 

Walt Disney Concert Hall

Opposite Angel's Flight there is this great market hall, Grand Market Hall, where they sell all kinds of exotic food, for example Berlin specialty Currywurst. And bratwurst with sauerkraut. Just putting everything German into one bun! :D
We returned to dolby Theatre and had dinner at Johnny Rockets, a diner chain, we took a liking to in DC. They have the greatest milkshakes!
From there on we drove down Sunset Blvd and decided to not visit the Whiskey A-Go-Go, because there was a line around the block. Through Beverly Hills' nice and cozy streets we made our way back to our palm tree-lined home street and then on to Santa Monica Pier.
The Pier is the official End of the Route 66, so we left that adventure officially behind us now. It was amazing how much action there was even at night. Even the beach was packed with people hanging around the lifeguard towers. It was a noisy crowd and we were a little tired already, but when we stumbled across an arcade, our evening was made, in spite of parking drama before (inside tip: don't drive your own car down to Santa Monica Downtown at night, you need 15min for a distance that takes you about three by foot and parking space is none existent), and the howling masses. We played games and then went on toward the end of the pier, where people were actually quietly fishing. A whole forest of fishing poles was hanging into the water and we watched for a while, looking out on the ferris wheel lit ocean in front of us. Ferris wheel lit? Well, yes, because the ferris wheel at Pacific Park ON the Pier along with the roller coaster ON the actual Pier could be seen for miles. We dropped into bed tired and still a little estranged by the city.

Pacific Park from the quieter end of the pier

On Sunday, I was able to drop in at Crossfit LA, which was only a three minute walk from us. Pretty impressive for a city in which everything is at least a ten minute car ride away. The troup down there is the greates pack, and they were bantering and included me right away into their AM-crew. I didn't feel like an outsider, but like a part of that team.
After that we had breakfast and made off to Venice Beach. Where I fell totally in love with the ramshackle buildings and almost gypsy lifestyle while the other two were a little...meh. They didn't realy like it. They were fascinated by all the sports over there. And well, for me it was paradise, there was an area with rings, pull up bars etc, a Crossfitters training heaven. And then I got to rent a surfboard and try it out, even though the fun was cut short by a lifeguard telling me the weather conditions weren't good for beginer's and I shouldn't surf without someone watching me in such weather. The rental guy was cool, just telling me, it was okay and if the lifeguard says it, it's better to follow his advice. And I should hit him up the next time I was in LA. Even though I was wearing a Patriots hat and he could never lend me a bike because he doesn't need deflated tires.
That evening and afternoon was kind of lost, because we didn't do much, exhaustion finally geting to us. And we'd have to leave kind of early the next morning.

They love this kind of lettering 

Bikers, skaters, surfers, basketball players, bodybuilders, gypsies, and survival artists

I drove down to the beach at 5am to go for a run and some yoga and when I came back, we had breakfast, packed the car and started on our way to the Pacific Coastal Highway, also known as The One. Even though it's the 101 in a lot of places. We said goodbye to a city that didn't make any sense to us as a whole, but had some pretty nice places. I will defnitely come back to Venice Beach some day, and I still need to see Malibu and Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach and Anaheim...and I want to see LA in more than 20 degree Celsius. :P

beachy panorama with lifeguard tower 16 

Morning beach yoga at lifeguard tower 18

Rogue I on the Route 66. Or: We're going on an adventure

Where did I leave you? Right, on my flight to Vegas. We arrived 40 minutes ahead of sxhedule and got to our car rental early. Funny thing though; at Hertz, you don't get to talk to the nice real life people at the counter, no, you have to get to a service point and phone their customer service via a very skype-esk connection. Then you get a car you didn't want in the first place, but end up loving as soon as you get in. I love "my" Nissan Rogue. I loved it right away, I gave the dark grey car the name "Rogue I" and felt pretty clever. 

Getting into town without a navigational system (because honestly, 150 quid in the time of google maps?!?) was a little harder than I thought, but easier than it felt. We found our just off-strip hotel all right and checked in, to meet up later and go see Vegas at night. Which was...scary to be quite honest. I've rarely seen so many people in one place and I didn't care for it either. Also, homeless people everywhere, heat as hell, and total sensual overload. Music is being blared at you from all sides, people run into you, smell badly, and lights and screens and ada everywhere. We ended up seeing a short part of the strip and watching the Bellagio fountain show, then went back to the hotel. It had been a long day after all, starting at the other half of the continent and such. Vegas felt like a theme park gone wrong.

The next morning I actually got up at 5:15 am to get to Crossfit Max Effort, where I realised that my cold wasn't quite as over as I'd have liked it to be, we did a lot of volume and I had to shift down a gear to baby my cardiovascular system. But I got a few good pointers on the kettlebell swing and my push presses. As well as my jerk technique so it was totally worth it. Afterwards, I meant to leave right away so we could get breakfast quickly, but got held up by a nice conversation with one of the regulars, who told me how he came to Vegas from a small town in Missouri and what kind of cultural shock it had been. Then we got to talking about politics, especially the upcoming elections in America. It was quite interesting to get an Americans view on the matter, because there's a bunch of things you really just don't get from a European perspective. Then home, quick shower, breakfast, and off to see a little Vegas. We went through most of the popular hotels, gambled away in some of the casinos, rode the rollercoaster at the New York, New York, bought some MGM Grand merch, and stared in wonder at the replica of a mediterranean city in the Forum shops. It was a frigging 40 degrees celsius out and we were happy to spend time indoors.

Around four in the afternoon we made off to Williams, Arizona, where our motel would be and we arrived there after admiring the Hoover Dam and Lake Meat, the old Route 66 and life on the American highways. In Williams, all that was left to do was go to sleep and be happy we didn't have to see Vegas again. 

And then the Grand Canyon. We spent most of our day there, just staring at this wonder of nature from different vantage points.

This is The Abyss:

Things that only happen to you when visiting the Grand Canyon:

- sitting next to a child called 'Jedi'

- the bus driver announcing "Please be sure to take all of your belongings with you when you get off the bus. This is...The Abyss" in a horror movie voice. 

I'd love to say a lot about the Grand Canyon, because I gathered some experiences to last me for a lifetime, but the thing is: you can't put this feeling into words. You can't capture those vistas in a photograph. You can try, but you will always fail. There's just no words for it. Let's just say, looking at the Grand Canyon makes you understand why people here believed in Mother Earth, why they believed in higher spirits, in something that has created landscapes like this.

You feel incredibly small and meaningless and at the same time like part of something that's bigger than you. As I said, words are insufficient, but at least I tried.

The next morning, we were supposed to leave for LA via the old Route 66, but...we only got as far as Seligman, AZ until our motor started sputtering and complaining that there wasn't enough oil pressure. So, off to the Shell at Seligman, I-40, ramp 123, to buy some oil. Which is when we discovered that the guy who had done the basic maintenance for our car had obviously forgotten to screw the oil tank cap back on, as it was neatly stowed away next to the cooling system. But not where it belonged. The whole motor block had been drenched in oil for three days and basically we were lucky nothing more had happened. Except that our Route 66 trip became a real adventure. We called Hertz and they sent a tow truck to come and get us back into the next big city. Which happened to be... Vegas, never-come-back city. Now at 42 degrees and about a two hour detour. I had to name the car "Rogue I", implying that there'd be a "Rogue II". Rogue II is jet black and even bigger than Rogue I, same model, but more perks. Love it. Though the detour still sucked.

BUT: we met so many nice people in Seligman. If you ever go to the Grand Canyon, stop at the Shelll station there. People there restored my faith in humanity. They let us use their phones, hang around the gas station, tried to calm us down, tried to help us where they could, wanted to try and clean out our motor block themselves. We met a Mexican that had been parked there by his girlfriend and her mother, and who was waiting for them to come fetch him, shaving his head, talking about the weather. Our tow truck driver was the kindest guy, he even saw to it that we really got a new car, when there was some slight communication error. And then, suddenly, we were on our way to LA, driving through the Mojave desert, down the mountains and toward the City of Angels. Dusk in these mountains was beautiful. Longwinding roads and hilltops gleaming in all the colours of sundown, the view down into the bowl LA is located in. I loved every minute of the drive. And then there we were. At the end of the Route 66, Santa Monica Boulevard. We found a hotel right away and turned in pretty soon after that, because boy, were we tired. But we made it. The second part of our trip was done. Now we are at the West Coast. California.