Four days in Los Angeles

We arrive in Los Angeles, or the City of Angels, early in the morning as the sun rises.

I'm pretty tired and exhausted because the flight was so exhausting. The airport in L.A. is so huge: we are not used to that after the small airport in Hilo. We find our luggage very quickly and so we also quickly get out of the airport. We are taken to the Metro with a bus shuttle. There we buy a card that allows us to ride the metro and various buses. The TAP card is like a chip card and is charged before the journey. There are no paper tickets here anymore. Either you use the TAP or you pay for the individual trip to the driver. We ride all the way to downtown Korea Town. Here is our hostel. However, the hostel is closed and no one responds to our ring. It doesn't matter! Then we'll get a coffee now. We walk in one direction: all the shops are closed. We walk in the other direction: all the shops are closed. Nothing has opened before 10 or 11 am. We find a coffee shop that is already open and treat ourselves to a delicious coffee. I'm glad I can take off my backpack. The sunburn is bothering me a bit. We search for the sights for the next few days in Tom'n Toms Coffee. Around 10 am, we finally arrive at the hostel, but not yet in our room. We can still drop off our big backpacks at the hostel. Then let's go! We explore the city.

At the visitor information center, we get some information about the sights. Since we are in the financial district, many well-dressed people walk around here, apparently spending their lunch break in the many food shops. The first building we enter is the public library: I want to see the many shelves of books, Julian wants to use the free Wi-Fi. When we enter the library, I am amazed at how modern the building is inside. The building was completely renovated after a fire.

Julian looks up the connection to a taco restaurant and the Staples Center. What I especially like is that you can also use Google Maps for navigation with the bus and metro. It is even connected to the buses and metros, so you can see the location of the bus or metro you are waiting for. We decide to walk the route.

The city is just so incredibly huge and divided into blocks. The streets are almost straight and many miles long. That means that even if you are already on the right street, you often still have to take the bus to get to a specific point.

We stop at a taco shop. The tacos are very tasty, although difficult to eat. After the refreshment, we start our little walk to the Staples Center. The Staples Center is a huge stadium or multipurpose arena for various sports and concerts. We ask about the upcoming games: today there is an ice hockey game and on Friday there is a basketball game. Since the tickets are so expensive, we decide against a visit. Later in the evening, when we meet our roommates, one of them tells us that $64 for a basketball game is really cheap. He paid $120 and those are still not the most expensive tickets. We take some photos in front of the Staples Center and then go to a bar. After refreshing ourselves, we return to our hostel to check into our room. The three people already in the room are all very nice. Since it is a men-only dorm, the cheesy foot aroma is included. In the evening, after relaxing a bit, we explore Korea Town again and do some shopping. The plan for tomorrow: visit Hollywood!

In the morning, we take the bus to Hollywood. We miss our connecting bus and decide to walk to the Walk of Fame. This way, we see many more stars than if we had caught the connecting bus: lucky us. At the beginning of the street, I don't know many stars. Then it gets crowded and I recognize the stars on the stars. Julian is approached by a Spiderman and gets into a conversation. I'm supposed to take photos of the two of them. After that, I have to pose with Spiderman. In the end, he wants money and we have fallen into the tourist trap! We immediately wave off Superman when he approaches us. We visit a shopping center and get information about the connection to Rodeo Drive and Griffith Park. On the way to the bus, we are approached by several superheroes. Julian also receives a free CD. The artist wants to sign it and engages Julian in a conversation. Suddenly, the CD is no longer free and Julian gives it back. Meanwhile, I have already walked on. I laugh because Julian has fallen into the tourist trap again. Now we have both learned. No matter who tries to talk to us or offer something for free, we always politely decline.

We get off the bus one stop before Rodeo Drive and walk through Beverly Hills. Even on the street, the parks are green and well-maintained. The houses are beautiful and have small gardens. Everything is greener, more beautiful, and many expensive cars drive through the streets. This is definitely where the beautiful and rich live.

Rodeo Drive is a street with expensive boutiques, art dealers, and shops. We stroll along the shop windows in awe. What immediately catches my eye is that there are no price tags in the shop windows. If you shop here, you don't have to worry about money. We just stroll through the street and then board the bus towards Griffith Park.

We arrive at Griffith Observatory, enjoy the view of L.A., and get closer to the Hollywood Sign. The Griffith Observatory is an observatory that houses scientific exhibitions and a planetarium. There are many hiking trails through Griffith Park, and one hike also leads up to the Hollywood Sign. Unfortunately, you can only see the letters from behind. Since it is late and the sun is setting, we decide to go for a short hike near the Hollywood Sign. As we hike up the hill, Julian realizes that I always start to complain when it goes uphill. I laugh, but I'm also glad when we have finally climbed our selected hill. We take some photos and walk back.

In Griffith Park, there are also mountain lions. Every rustling in the bushes makes Julian hope for a sighting. But it's only birds and a small rabbit.

What I find particularly exciting is that film scenes from La La Land and Lucifer were filmed in Griffith Park and in the observatory. When I research on the internet, I find pictures of the film scenes and the current surroundings. Often, small details, such as benches on the footpaths, are specifically changed for the films. We want to walk a little further down the hill and the road before we get back on the bus. On the way down, the bus passes us before we reach the bus stop. So we have to wait a bit longer for the next bus.

We make our way to Santa Monica to visit the famous pier. We are on the train now!

We take the Coast Starlight from L.A. to Seattle. The train journey goes along the west coast of the USA and takes about 33 hours. We will arrive in Seattle on March 1st at 8 pm. It is said to be the most beautiful train route in the world. We will report back!

Our conclusion of Los Angeles: We really liked the city. There were many friendly people who offered us their help when we stood there with the metro or city map in hand. We noticed some strange people, but that's the case in every big city.

I wouldn't want to drive a car here. We got along very well with our TAP card. Sometimes the buses were very late, but that's simply due to the traffic.

The weather played along very well during the four days and we always had sunshine. The transition from Hawaii was really easy.

There are many interesting neighborhoods and we are very happy that we made a short detour here.