still so cal

We made friends with a few of the hostel workers. Noellie (nole-ee) is from either England or Ireland and is going to school in the other. He introduced us to his friend Mary... He was a fun guy; tall, lanky, and freckly with a thick English accent. We also became aquainted with the desk guy, Colin. He had the biggest, creepiest eyes. He often called us "love." -No strange intentions, just a unique, foreign habit/custom/whatever.

We saw Andrea Echeverri perform (LIVE) on the pier in Santa Monica.

We rented bikes and rode them around the pathways bordering the beach. Rollerbladers and skateboards accompanied us. -Just like in the movies.

We went to Hollywood and walked the walk. While there, we visited a Wax Museum and a Sex Museum. Several people ran up to me asking for my autograph... Apparently I was so beautiful that people mistook me for a celebrity. I laughed sheepishly and waved them on each time...

next few days: venice beach

Our hostel was RIGHT on the beach, literally 30 seconds from the ocean/sand. Leah and I hit the beach hard. Got nice and sun burnt right off the bat. The people in our hostel were really friendly and cool. We were the only Americans staying there. We met people from:

France
Britain
Germany
Ireland
Amsterdam
Italy
England
Spain
Scotland
Australia
Russia

Anyway, the beach and boardwalk was full of exotic people. At the sidewalk market we saw lots of homeless people. -One of which attempted to entertain tourists by riding a unicycle with a stick on his head and two fake snakes in his hands. Multiple “Psychics” decorated the grass area along the walk. -It was shocking how many ESP gifted people existed in the area (HAHA).

day 1: to cali

Sitka to Seattle to Portland to to LAX = 10.5 hours.

We arrived in the airport @ 11 pm. Our plan was to crash in the airport until the morning to save one night’s worth of hotel. We had to get our bags which were outside of security and outside of security there were no benches, chairs or even carpets to lay on. While Leah stood among the 200 other passengers waiting for our bags, hoping they’d get to us before a suspicious bum snagged them, I began calling hotels from the “Hotel Board." Most of them had no vacancy. But just as I was beginning to feel homeless, I spotted the “LA Adventurer Backpacker’s Paradise.” Below the title it read:

FREE SHUTTLE
FREE BREAKFAST
FREE HAPPY HOUR
FREE T-SHIRT
FREE CAKE

-With all THAT free stuff, we just had to stay there. I called and after booking us for the night, a shuttle was sent.

After gathering our belongings, we began walking outside with the honking cars, buses, shuttles, taxis and travelers with excessive baggage. We walked, and walked and walked and waited and waited and waited. Then we saw our big “FREE” bus and hopped aboard. Let me remind you that buses are not built for 80 MPH on the freeway. The thing clanked so loud, that we didn’t think it’d get to our hostel in one piece.
On the way there, we saw “Adult Video Booths.” Now, there is only ONE clear reason for such a thing… Nice neighborhood...
Anyway, the hostel was nice and cheap and took us to our other hostel in Venice Beach for FREE the next morning.