L.A. li lu

The plan was to take the Pacific Coast Highway along the coast on the way from San Francisco to Los Angeles, spend a night at a beach, enjoy the beach the next day, and arrive in Los Angeles in the evening. The search for a parking space, which was supposed to be the last of its kind, turned out to be a bigger challenge. Just as we had laid down for 40 minutes, there was a loud noise at the door and we didn't know if we should open it. I woke up Max and said, 'Max, are you ready to fight? I'm opening the door now.' It turned out to be the police and they kindly asked us to leave the place as the residents had complained. So we moved on and found a suitable place some time later. 😊 Pismo Beach, not far from Los Angeles, made up for it with great weather and a beautiful white sandy beach. Arriving in Los Angeles, we were a little glad that we could return the car the next day, as the traffic and navigation had driven us crazy. We parked right in front of the return station in order to quickly complete the return process and then go to the beach in Santa Monica. Dayra, the friend from San Francisco, picked us up and took us to the beach. Now we were in Los Angeles, the city where the beautiful and the rich say goodnight, receive awards, or have stars with their names inscribed on the ground. The city of the film industry (no matter the genre ;)) and at the same time the city that we liked the least. There are probably contradictions among the readers, but we didn't like the city because of its size and expanse. Everything is at least an hour's drive away from each other, which would be a record time due to the immensely high and catastrophic traffic. The city has beautiful spots like Santa Monica with the Santa Monica Pier or Woodland Hills. Moreover, in our opinion, the city is highly overrated and not nearly as glamorous as portrayed in the media. Curiously, we had the most fun that week in Los Angeles, enjoying being on the road without a caravan. The reason for this was my friend from college, Kian, who lives in his parents' dream house in Woodland Hills and let us stay with him. But now back to Santa Monica Beach. We enjoyed the carefreeness and the sun and later met up with Kian, where Kian, Dayra, and I had a lot to discuss from our shared studies. Max took the opportunity to touch up his carefully maintained basement tan. 😊 In the evening, the four of us went out in Santa Monica and took a round on the brightly lit Santa Monica Pier. However, we spent the first night at Dayra's place because we were going to the Six Flags California theme park the next day with her and Kian had to work.

Six Flags California may be familiar to some. It's a huge park with almost exclusively roller coasters, some of which are among the fastest and largest in the world. We actually managed to ride almost all of the roller coasters, even though we had to wait for up to 2 hours in oppressive heat. Some of the roller coasters had unusual ideas, such as virtual reality during the ride, to stand out from the crowd, but it seems that the implementation is still in the pilot/test phase. The heat affected Dayra, causing her to have circulatory and stomach problems. We took a break and let her recover. Max and I were pleased with the thought that we were more resilient than the Mexicans (😉) and that we wouldn't get sunburned like the British. 😉 After initial doubts, it turned out to be an extremely successful day, which ended with a joint dinner with Kian joining us. From that evening on, we stayed at Kian's place, who also insisted that we stay with him for the rest of our time in LA.

He gave us a little tour of his house and Max and I couldn't stop grinning. We had never seen such a house in our lives before.

The following day was supposed to include a visit to the usual tourist attractions before Kian and his friends showed us things that 'normal' tourists don't get to see. In this case, the tourist attractions were the Hollywood Sign, which is very small and unimpressive as it clings to the mountain, and the Walk of Fame, which is small, dirty, and crowded with annoying street performers. Street performers are usually great and admirable people, but these performers only care about the money and are very pushy and insult tourists if they don't give them money. We got pictures of the most important personalities and their stars and quickly moved on. We only briefly passed by Universal City with the Universal Studios. In the evening, we were supposed to dance in the Woodland Hills, but it's difficult to do so without music and a party. However, there was still a highlight that evening. Max got the name 'Mr. Give Me The Strongest Drink Available' at a bar. A new star was born in the sky. A drink with the magical effect of shooting Max into orbit, with no orientation for the return journey to Earth. 😊

After we woke up the next morning following our orbit around the Earth, we had a small breakfast and drove with many of Kian's friends to a remote area in the hinterland of the Woodland Hills. Here we had to climb and hike on the way to a waterfall with a jump into the water. Beautiful landscapes and fun company provided great joy for the upcoming experience. We spent the day at this place and went to Santa Monica in the evening to dance. It was an extremely fun evening, during which Max defended his recently acquired title multiple times, and it ended in a curious drama, as it seemed difficult for women to remember where they parked their own car, but we don't want to generalize. On the last day, we watched Germany's game and left the house with a bouquet of flowers for Kian's mom and a big thank you.

A short bus trip took us to San Diego. Traveling by bus will now be the usual way of traveling. We liked San Diego very much, especially the Gaslamp Quarter in downtown with all the bars and cafes. Once again, there was a European atmosphere in the air. Honestly, we experienced a small physical low in San Diego, so we didn't see much of the city or the great beaches and spent a lot of time in the hotel. Unfortunately, we didn't have the opportunity to make up for the lost time in San Diego as we still have a long way to go. So after only 1.5-2 days, we set off again towards the Mexican border and Tijuana 😏 Arrriiiibbbaaaa Tequila.....como estas?? ;) 😉😉

In conclusion, the first section in the USA can be summarized as very eventful and impressive. We saw a lot and had a luxurious way of traveling. The actual adventure - backpacking through Central and South America - begins with crossing the border. We are excited.

Best regards,

Max and I (Sascha)