Yankeeland Part 3: Lessons From Day 2

THESE EVENTS TOOK PLACE: June 1, 2009 (USPDT)

So my second day in LA was a day of learning. I learned a few key points about travelling that I'd like to say I'll never forget, but once you've heard the back-to-back errors I made to learn these lessons, you'll probably doubt it too.

I slept in as late as was borderline possible. Checkout at the Lodge is midday so I slept until 11.20am, speed-showered, packed my crap up and made the dash with my ample luggage down to the lobby in a record breaking 25 minutes.

The speed-showering was a miracle all in itself as this experience provided my first lesson. Having toiled with the All-In-One Foreign Shower the night before, I now knew that the little knob-latch on the bath tap has to be pulled up to redirect the water flow to the shower rose.

Easier said than done, the knob-latch doesn't like to be pulled up. Also, this particular All-In-One Foreign Shower had a strange dial-like hot-cold-tap that was a challenge all in itself. Add to that the "water-pressure threshold" that means that the water doesn't start coming out of the shower rose immediately as it should, it stuffs around a bit before gracing you with it's presence.

So toiling again I was, bewildered as to why I couldn't get it working this time, I was leaning right in to the taps and contraptions... and I think you know what happened next. My entire fringe and the first few inches of my scalp: soaked.

Naturally, I was thrilled. Without a hair straightener purchased yet, I had no plans on getting my high maintenance hair wet just yet. (You'll all be relieved to know there was a mini hairdryer in the bathroom, so that solved the problem mostly.)

Lesson Learned: Stupid, stubborn All-In-One Foreign Showers should not be leaned into and should generally be treated with all caution.

My next lesson came in the form of a cab ride. Deciding it was probably worth it for the convenience of not hauling luggage on buses that may not even drop me super close to the hostel, I asked at reception roughly how much the journey might cost via taxi and accepted their offer to call me one when I felt "no more than twenty dollars" was reasonable.

Try a few cents shy of thirty!

Lesson Learned: Either don't trust vague advice on cab fares and/or be prepared to pay through the nose for convenience.

My excitement about my travels really set in upon walking through the gates of Banana Bungalow - Hollywood (as opposed to Banana Bungalow - West Hollywood, which is just 10 minutes away and features in later activities) or "Vibe Hotel" as it's also now being called.

Excitement? I loved the place instantly. I just got such a buzz arriving and seeing it with my own eyes. It's like something out of a movie (sans empty moldy swimming pool), y'know: character arrives in the big city to follow dreams and checks into cheap classic American accommodation, think "Stuck On You".






My room, 209, from across the way, getting cleaned



From the loud and lurid paint to the potplant palm trees, I love it all.

I waited while two girls were checked in and taken to their room, then it was my turn. I paid my $175 for 7 nights, got my tour and rundown of the place then was taken to the same room as the girls before me: Denmark, Emma and Sara, travelling the US for 3 months. There was an awkward moment where the bubbly Hostel Guy introduced us all in that oblivious teacher way where students meeting for the first time are expected to like each other and become best friends instantly.

I had my choice of top or bottom on the remaining free third bunk, I chose bottom. My particular bunk was in the most pokey corner of the room with the least amount of floor space for luggage amidst the door, ladder and Sara's bunk. But I loved it no less. (Just maybe a little less when Thai Lady [elaboration later] went up and down the ladder several times an hour and then turned out to be a snorer.)

After getting myself sorted, Priority One was to seek out a beverage. No amount of water drinking and moisturising since landing had helped me shake off my dehydration. Forget Jetlag, it's Hydrationlag for me. Thank goodness for the Vending Machine Enclave here, I'd have deteriorated into a crisp by now without it.

Only in America could Coke be cheaper than water. For the same amount of liquid, 75c vs $1. Ha!



Post-hydration, my next priority was to replace the products confiscated by Customs and pick up a few necessities, i.e. a hair straightener, which some helpful Camp America Alumni advised on the forums could be purchased cheap at discount outlets such as Target and Wal-Mart, etc.

No Wal-Marts in Hollywood, but I'd found a Target on Google Maps two main streets down from Hollywood Blvd. This is when my next lesson, and a major one, took place.

Armed with the map on the BB welcome brochure, I visited the desk to ask about buses and route directions. (At this point I hadn't yet discovered the brilliance of the Metro.net Trip Planner, or had the brains to consider Googling something like it.)

Hostel Girl said it'd be easier to walk half of it and bus the other half to save swapping buses. This seemed fair and evidently my Advice Lesson Learned less than an hour ago hadn't sunk in. And so I hit the pavement.

The first of several sidenotes throughout this longwinded Lesson Learned: I stopped to take a snap of Hollywood Blvd, the view from my hostel gates, and could hardly believe the building diagonally across the road was "The Museum Of Death". But of course! Naturally.





It's unlike me not to be curious, but at the time I immediately passed over the thought of "What on earth would they get up to in there?", I decided I didn't especially want to know. Curiosity killed the cat though and I've just Googled it. And no, I won't be doing a tour of The Museum Of Death folks.

Pretty much where the vision of my Hollywood Blvd photo ends, the Walk Of Fame begins. I couldn't help myself walking along staring at the ground and stopping periodically to snap photos of the goodies. I had to exercise restraint not to take a photo of every second bloody one!

Soooo much fun. I went a bit arty-farty creative on occasion and felt the need to put my shoe in the shot or cast a cool shadow or two.



I'll exercise further restraint and not post all of them in this entry, but do make sure you check 'em out!

I will put this one in, as I was rather fond of it:



I must have looked like such a typical tourist step-snap-step-snapping, not to mention the dozens of unsuspecting victims that probably wanted to holler "Oi! Install some brake lights, Leibovitz!" when they ran up my backside. (Pretty sure Yankees don't say "oi" though.)

So it was pretty much halfway along my traversed chunk of Sunset Blvd that I began to realise I was buggered. Of both the tired and without a paddle variety.

I started studying bus stop signs but little of it made sense given that at some point, no doubt somewhere between a step and a snap, I had dropped my hostel brochure map. I had a fairly clear idea of the lay of the land, so I wasn't lost, but I had no sense of distance without smaller street landmarks to rely on.

Definitely buggered.

I kept saying to myself (not out loud, there are enough crazies in Hollywood) "just a bit further... I'll get a bus in a minute... it's not that far...". Far it was. At least I chose to walk Sunset as my main route, there were plenty of attractions and distractions. None of which I stopped to enjoy or photograph until the voyage home as I was too, you know, buggered.

See how stupid-far Nic The Naïve walked (and no, I think it was much longer than 41 minutes!)

Lesson Learned: Maps are not a trustworthy source in judging distance, unless you have the common sense to "Get Directions" on Google to tell you exactly how stupid-far a location is.

Common sense might also have told me stop and ask someone about buses sooner than Vine. The 300-odd metre break from walking between Sunset & Hollywood was still heavenly though.
Seeing the "Target" sign rise up in front of me neighboured by a "Starbucks Coffee" sign was like seeing an oasis in a desert.





As I sat drinking my "MocFrap" [Starbucks speak] in the beautiful little courtyard full of little eateries surrounding Target, I saw, for the first time, the Hollywood sign. Far off in the distance and just visible between foliage, but right smack in my line of sight nonetheless.



I just BUZZED with excitement. Apart from my wave of adoration at my hostel, I still really hadn't gotten truly and crazy excited about the fact that I was in Los Angeles. I just sat there, totally jazzed, trying not to grin too much and scare the natives.

Target was fun in and of itself. It was absolutely enormous, probably at least twice the size of Penrith's BigW or Target, I'm talking almost of Bunnings proportions. I got Shampoo, Conditioner, Deoderant, Razors and Facewash for US$13 and also bought a pair of Revlon straighteners for US$25, which I'm surprisingly impressed with given my usual GHD-snobbery.

Check out these mini straighteners! The larger ones next to it hardly do them justice given they're a bit smaller than standard too. But my goodness! Teehee.



With a few people in front of me in the queue at the register, I marvelled at how beautiful the black checkout chick girl's hair was, just really lovely, smooth, straight. You can imagine my surprise when my turn came and she had a five o'clock shadow. Blimey, it had been a long day, I just wasn't quite ready for a trannie.


The view from Target: La Brea-Santa Monica Blvd intersection and the Hollywood Hills

A bit snap happy on the trip home:


For Lachlan, the biggest frigging movie billboard you'll ever see, photography doesn't do it justice


Classic


Nicole Was Here 2009


The CNN building, larger than words can express


LA Film School, that graphic on the side of the building is basically a giant screen

I found the most phenomenal music store I could have never possibly imagined. Apart from being enormous, AMOEBA had everything from vinyl to vintage tees to memorabilia to cassettes:


Just one small corner of the vinyl section, see the poster-lined walls?!


A bit more deep than "50% off!" or something


A small section of the cassette tape area


A shirt I most certainly plan to buy if it's still there before I depart LA for Sydney in 6 months

Nikki, you might very well be getting a fantabulous "The Cure" shirt if the 6 months thing falls in your favour.

I got the stinkeye for taking photos, so I left it there.


Home at last!

A bit of dorky snap-happiness as a result of the dorm being empty of any of it's 6 inhabitants:


That's my bunk with the red bags and my black/gold Adidas jacket, note the sheet I hung on the window coz most of the blinds at BB are broken and the light really beams in!


The kitchenette, the lockers and Emma & Sara's bunk, note the luggage in the middle of the floor in the bottom left coz it's so crowded and Sara's giant Homer doll that freaks me out sometimes (the googly eyes work in cartoon TV form, but in doll form they're quite unsettling when they catch you off guard)


The view from my bunk, little red sofa next to Liz & Tracey's bunk, bathroom door, heckloads of luggage again!


The kitchenette


The bathroom

After completely and totally buggering myself, it was a quiet night in from that point.

The other lesson took place at "Best Buy" behind Target where I was advised I would find the most complete and huge cheap electronics store around. I had been planning on getting wireless internet once I got here and, being that my Three modem broke weeks before I left, I had some research and shopping to do.

Even in the shadow of my Extreme Hike on the same day, I could never have fathomed myself so daft as I discovered myself to be at Best Buy. I'll just do it like a Band-Aid, the respect of my friends and family out the window: I had no idea my laptop had Wi-Fi.

I should really have gotten a crash course from Lachlan pre-flight on the ins and outs of mobile communications. What a flippin' idiot.

After paying a whopping fee for an hour of internet usage at The Lodge, then waiting in line for half an hour the moment I checked-in at the hostel to use their free internet, I could easily have flicked a switch "ON" and connected free.

Lesson Learned: Being relatively geeky, an internet junkie and a computer-worshipper does not a clue give you. Having superior expertise in several aspects of the aforementioned doesn't prevent you from being a complete ignorant ass.

Note: So having free wireless here at the hostel is just about one of the biggest blessings I could have hoped for. I can sit here, in my bunk, hammering away as long and as often as I like. Fabuloso.

I will post a separate instalment dedicated to roomies and clueless Thai lady babysitting, etc. Plus, standby, my Day 3 instalment is gonna rock your socks off.