Los Angeles, CA

Today was a long tour of some of the sights of LA. While we were on the street waiting for the tour to begin, we again experiences one of the constant realities of LA – people asking us for money. A minute later there was something new – people asking of we wanted to buy drugs. No thank you. Thankfully the tour soon began and we were on the bus and on our way. I shouldn’t be so harsh on people who have fallen through the cracks and ended up having such a tough time living on the streets. But after meeting one every few minutes.., you can’t give everyone a few dollars, you can just hope the city gets itself together and is doing enough to help the people that really need it. One other constant of LA: traffic. Just the thing you want on a bus tour – but hey it’s a genuine LA experience I guess. Our first stop – the famous Venice Beach. To be honest, it left me wondering why it’s so famous. It was a little grubby, a little dodgy, and … people asking us for money. Also there is the also famous Muscle Beach – which ended up lacking both beach, and muscles. So… Not a big fan of Venice Beach, can’t say I’d recommend a visit. Next stop wasn’t Santa Monica Pier. Which was a shame – it looked interesting. So finding our way there might be a task for Friday. One nice looking part of LA was the historical part of downtown East LA – it looked a lot like New York, might explain why I liked it. We stopped in he heart of historical LA – the ole pueblo, they call it. Home of the oldest home in LA. And, umm…. Nobody asked us for money! Moving right along we drove along Mulholland Drive, where all the rich and famous live. I can see why they choose this area, it’s up above the rest of the city with some lovely views – including the Hollywood sign, which was great to see in person. Our last stop on the tour was Rodeo Drive. Home of the fanciest shops where the rich people spend a fortune and it always looks so glamorous and beautiful on the TV. In real life… It looked pretty much like one of the fancy northern or eastern Sydney suburbs. I’m not sure what I was expecting, and it did look flash, just not all that flash. Oh and … people asked us for money. So … Not the most spectacular tour ever. Or dare I say maybe its just not the most spectacular city ever, but hey we still have a few days to figure that out. One nice thing about having a place with a proper kitchen is that tonight we’re eating in … Very classy (but delicious) microwave ready-meals. Yum! And no people asking us for money. 🙂 Tomorrow – another tour, all about food so hey that’s gotta be good!