los angeles

MARCH U.S. TRIP – DAY 8 – REDONDO BEACH AND GOING HOME

On our last day we enjoyed a great continental breakfast at our hotel after which we spent an hour or two by the hotel’s pool and jacuzzi. We were the only ones there aside of a middle-aged couple and no wonder, it was a little chilly and windy even though the sun was shining. But the water in the pool was warm so it was great nonetheless!

In the early afternoon we walked around the Redondo Beach Pier which was a quiet and quaint place! We grabbed a random restaurant at the pier for some lunch before we headed back to the hotel to get our stuff and car.

We stopped by a mall for some last minute clothes shopping before we headed to the airport to give back our car and check-in for our flights. Luckily our planes left at pretty much the same time so we got to spend a lot of time together on the last day before we had to head to the International Terminal for our flight back to Finland and Christa had to go to another terminal for her flight back to Santa Cruz.

At this point I was happy to go home but also happy about our trip! I had a great time, experienced a lot of new things and saw some pretty awesome places. This was my third time in America, with two previous trips concentrating on Florida and New York, so being on the West Coast and the West was so different. Next time I want to go visit the Southern states or some places that are not the typical touristy places to visit!

I think before that, I will try to visit atleast London later this year but we’ll see 🙂

March U.S. trip – Day 3 Part 2 – Santa Monica & Sunset LA

After Venice beach we strolled around the Venice canals. The area was so beautiful and some of the houses were so weird but after a while it got a little boring and repetitive. So we got in the car and drove to Santa Monica where we went to the Pier to get some dinner.

We spotted a Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. restaurant and we were sold. I’ve visited a restaurant of that franchise in New York and I loved it! This time didn’t disappoint either! Shrimps, yumm.

We hurried back to LA after dinner to visit the Griffith Observatory and see the sunset. When the sun started to set it became really cold, I guess March can still be pretty chilly in LA 😀

We then went back to our appartment and wondered what we’d do since we didn’t feel like going to sleep even though we had to leave for Vegas in the morning. We then decided to go to the Sunset strip for drinks and had a great time. Coming back to our car totally ruined our night though. We had parked our car in a residential area and didn’t see a small sign in the beginning of the street saying that from 7PM onwards you needed a resident’s permit to park there. We panicked when we saw our car was gone but then spotted a guy who was cursing and calling someone on his phone. Apparently his car had gotten towed and we called the tow place and they confirmed our car was there too. So we grabbed a taxi with him and tried to laugh about the whole situation along the way but is still sucked cause we knew it was going to be pricey. Atleast we split the tow payments in three unlike the guy with us who had to pay on his own. He was a marine on leave and had gone to LA just to see a concert for an hour, such bad luck 😀

SM5

It took almost an hour for us to get our car because we didn’t have our car rental agreement with us but we managed to get it in the end! At maybe 1:30 AM we were able to drive to the appartment and tried to brush the whole thing off joking we had just had the most expensive drinks of our lives! After that we triple checked every single sign when we parked, so I guess we learnt our lesson!

March U.S. trip – Day 3 Part 1 – Venice Beach

During the first day we decided we want to go to the beach so on Friday we got ready to go to Venice Beach as well as Santa Monica beach! The day was half cloudy when we left our appartment but the skies cleared at after noon so the day was super warm.

The courtyard of our house was so beautiful, wish we had had a balcony or something like that so we could’ve looked at it all day.

The drive was very enjoyable, honestly one of my favourite things to do in the States is just sit in the car and drive around! And our timing was great so we had light traffic only.

When we got to the beach there was so much to see, Venice Beach is one of the places in LA I’ve always wanted to go to. But it was windy as hell, so at first I was really cold until the sun started to shine. And the seagulls were huge, eww. We just strolled around the boardwalk, looking at things and people, occassionally stopping for something to eat or drink. We spotted a filmcrew filming something that looked like a car commercial and I have to say, most of the actors involved failed badly. 😀 They were supposed to do all kinds of different motions and acts in rhythm and most of them were out of sync. But some of them were very talented, juggling basket balls while rollerskating around and stuff.

I seriously could have spent my whole day just going around the beach because, I am a boring person so I absolutely LOVE people watching. I hate doing it in my own home country because I know all the surroundings and I feel the people are very predictable, mostly because they are stereotypical Finns that I know so well. But in other countries, people watching especially together with friends is so fun. When I travel I usually just want to go and hang out at places where locals hang out and just have fun, eat and drink something good and just spend time watching people. Not all the time haha, but like every once in a while or a day or two! Anyway we spent a few hours at Venice Beach and then moved onto see the Venice Canals and the houses surrounding them as well as Santa Monica beach and pier before heading back to LA, but that I’ll leave that to part two because this is already kind of picture heavy.

March U.S. trip – Day 1 + 2 – Travelling + Los Angeles

We stayed in a hotel in Helsinki the day before we had to travel and as I was working late the night before so I got maybe 3 hours worth of sleep. We had about 19 hours worth of traveling to get through, which turned out to be a really long time. My previous flights have been almost as long as our Stockholm-LA flight, take 1-2 hours but if you add a 1h flight to Stockholm and 6 hours of layover, then it becomes a little bit too much. And the 6 hour layover was boring and tedious as hell, I didn’t remember Arlanda was such a bad airport. All the cafes and restaurants (or more like, the lack of these) were shit, the airconditioning was shit, the taxfrees and seats were shit. But the real challenge of the journey was the flight to LA, it was so hot inside the plane that I managed to sleep for maybe an hour? I watched Fight club and The Book Thief and something else that I can’t remember. Ever since I turned 25, seriously it must have been some magical number, I’ve been scared of flying and oh boy did the flight have turbulence so I was so scared. ;_; When we arrived in LA we were so exhausted from the waiting and the long and uncomfortable flight that I almost passed out at immigration! As soon as I got Wi-fi our friend Christa sent me a message saying her plane was over 2 hours late so we decided to just jump in a cab and head out to our appartment.

We stayed at an appartment reserved through Airbnb that was located in Hollywood. It was really close to convenient locations but at the edge of a slightly dodgier area so I would not have been very comfortable walking around the dark on my own. As soon as we arrived at the appartment my sister dozed off and I waited for our friend to arrive with our rented car.

The next morning we got up early and drove to Hollywood Walk of Fame where we just strolled around being tourists and had breakfast. Oh and I did a little shopping!

After that we just drove all around LA, visiting the Hollywood Hills, Beverly Hills, drove on Rodeo Dr. etc.! Stopped here and there for sights or food, overall it was a great day!

At Rodeo Drive we got stuck in afternoon traffic. But it was an experience! 😀

Upcoming USA trip

I am getting so excited about our trip to the U.S.! I’m really looking forward to spending time with my sister and one of my best friends and just experience all kinds of new places that I’ve always wanted to visit!

Our plan is to first stay in Los Angeles for three days and three nights in an appartment near Sunset Blvd and Hollywood Blvd.

Then we plan to drive to Las Vegas and stay there for two days and two nights in a huge hotel that has… wait for it… three casinos and an inside amusement park. Sweet!