Los Angeles, United States

22nd October – 23rd October 2017

After leaving a sad Sabrina behind, I got the Uber to the airport ready for my flight. When I arrived at the airport I was still a little early for check in, only by fifteen minutes, so I was glad that I didn’t rush at the hostel. I sat by the check in desk and waited for it to open. By the time the staff arrived, the queues were huge but I wasn’t in a rush, so I wasn’t particularly bothered.

I got into the line that I thought was for baggage drop off and waited in that. A man who worked there was going down the line asking questions but it was all in Portuguese so I had no idea what he was saying when he got to me. After watching him a little, I realised he was asking for people’s end destination, so I showed him my boarded cards. I was worried at first as he took me out of the queue that I was in, but he was just moving me to another which was actually bag drop and was moving a lot quicker than the first.

After I reluctantly saw my bag go (I’ve heard three different stories of bags going missing or not arriving, in the last three months), I walked down the airport to security. When I went through the security door, it was silent, there wasn’t one person in the queue, it was very strange, so I got through there very quickly. I then went to passport control which wasn’t much busier, before I was through to the duty free section.

I didn’t really look at much duty free, I just went straight for the gate, which seemed to be miles away. By the time I got there, I don’t have very long to wait until they started boarding the plane. I boarded near the end because the less time I have to sit on the plane, the better. I was sat on an aisle seat to it didn’t matter if I was on last because I didn’t have to disturb anyone, which again worked in my favour during the flight as I needed the toilet an awful lot!

Not long after take off, lunch was brought round to us, I had chicken, mash and veg but I wasn’t keen on the chicken so just ate the mash and veg instead. While I ate my lunch, I watched a film, which lasted ages, so took up quite a portion of the flight, which was nice. As we flew over the Amazon, I could feel the difference in the weather: it was so much bumpy, with a lot more turbulence – I think it was the Amazon’s fault anyway.

After the film, I caught up on blogs and watched a few different things and before I knew it, they were bringing us food again.

About an hour before we landed, I was brought a chicken sandwich, which was like a second lunch as we had gone back in time, it was about 3ish in Panama when I got the sandwich.

We landed in Panama at around 4.30pm local time, after the seven hour flight. I couldn’t believe how quick the flight went, but I certainly wasn’t complaining. When I got off the plane, I checked the gate for my next flight and started walking towards that. I’m glad I did because I think the gate that I got off at and the gate that I was going to were the most furthest apart that they could be!

I arrived at the gate about half an hour before boarding started, which was perfect timing as there wasn’t much waiting around. As the gate was so busy, I sat on the floor to wait, but while I was sat there, I was rammed with a wheelchair by accident – it wasn’t comfortable.

I boarded the plane and was sat near the back, next to an older couple who were very noisy at first, I just hoped it wouldn’t last the whole journey. I don’t know if we had a lot of nervous flyers but people were up and down going to the toilet and getting drinks, before we had even left the ground – it was a little annoying to be sat at the back during this.

I really struggled to keep my eyes open during the first part of the flight, but I didn’t want to miss the food because I didn’t know when I would next be fed. However, as soon as I had eaten and the trays had been taken, I got out my pillow and put my head down for a while. I managed to get a couple of hours, which was useful, but I didn’t get more than that.

After another shorter-than-planned journey, we landed in Los Angeles just after 11 – slightly ahead of schedule. We didn’t make up any time though, as we were sat taxiing for about twenty minutes before we pulled into a gate. Even when we had pulled up to the gate, it wasn’t straight forward: we had to then get a bus to the actual terminal, before going through customs and passport control. Despite everything else taking us a long time, the bags still didn’t come through for about an hour. It didn’t bother me as I had no plans, other than to chill in the airport for a bit, but I can imagine that others were getting frustrated by it all.

Once I had finally collected my bag, I could go through to the arrivals section and try to get comfy. I found somewhere to sit for a little bit, but there wasn’t anywhere that I could lie down because all of the chairs had arm rests in between. Instead of napping, I organised and researched what I could do with myself once the sun rose, considering I had 24 hours (in total) until my next flight. After a little while I moved seats: only because my phone needed charging and there wasn’t a socket nearby.

I found a new are to sit in – which was quite busy for 3am – and tried to get comfortable. I managed to rest the arm rest under my knees and snooze for about an hour. It wasn’t comfy at all, but I had no other option. When I woke up, I was faced with the toilet dilemma: I really needed a wee but I didn’t want to have to take all of my bags with me because there weren’t many people around, but I also didn’t want to get in trouble. I waited until my phone was fully charged, I collected all of my things together and went for my wee. I sat in the exact same place when I can back out, so I’m sure it would have been fine but I didn’t want to take the risk.

When I got back from the toilet, I still had a couple of hours left before sunrise, so I sat doing more research, as I couldn’t get back to sleep. I moved again just after 6: I went to the toilets to freshen up and get changed, ready for my day of exploring.

As soon as I was ready, I started walking towards the bag locker place – it wasn’t in the hotel but it wasn’t very far – or it wouldn’t have been if I didn’t have to walk. On the way there, it was amazing to see the sunrise over the airport and see the planes coming in to land in front of the sun – it was quite a surreal thing to see, as the planes came so close over my head and they were very noisy. Luckily, I found the locker store quite easily and I managed to fit all of my things into the smaller sized lockers, so it was cheaper than I was expecting.

After I had ditched the large and heavier things that I had with me, I began my walk back to the airport, so that I could get transport to the rest of the city. It was much quicker walking back and I didn’t have to go as far as the international terminal, because the free shuttle to the metro line was available at all terminals, so I waited for it at the first terminal I came across. I didn’t have to wait very long for the bus to arrive and it didn’t take very long from there to get to the metro line.

When I got to the metro stop, I had no idea what I was doing, but I knew I needed to buy and ‘TAP’ card for $1 and then top it up with either a day pass amount (which was $7) or a single ride amount (which was $1.75). As I wasn’t sure whether the day pass would work on the bus too, I just bought a single rider, as I knew I was only going to be getting a couple of metro rides. A very kind lady swapped some money with me because I only had a $50 note and neither of us knew if the machine would give change and it was a lot to risk – it did in the end but I think I would have got it in coins, so it was a good move and generous of her to offer.

The first stop of the day, was Union Station, after getting three different metro lines to get there. When I got off the metro and walked into the older part of the station, it was so beautiful. Built in 1939, Union station is the last ‘great railway station of America’ and I could see its beauty as I walked through: the tiled décor, the old wooden seating area, the piano in the corner. Everything inside created a nice atmosphere, including the passing passengers who stopped to play the piano for everyone to enjoy.

As I walked through and out the other side, I walked straight into some sort of filming. I’m not sure exactly what they were filming – I even overheard the station police say that they didn’t know – but it looked like an advert for something. One of the crew members had to stop me from passing through while they filmed that particular bit, but I think I could have been in the background still – I knew I was going to LA but I didn’t actually expect to see any filming.

Once I had got passed the filming, I crossed the road to the square which was all decorated for the ‘Day of the Dead’ festival at the beginning of November; I wandered through Olvera market stalls which were also full of ‘Day of the Dead’ souvenirs, before getting myself a churro from Mr. Churros for breakfast. Although the square looked pretty and the markets were right up my street, I didn’t stay around for very long as there were lots of homeless people around and it didn’t feel completely safe; plus I didn’t have loads and loads of time, but I had lots that I wanted to do with my day.

Before getting back on the metro, I walked to City Hall. I had read online that it was possible to go inside and up to the top floor to get views of the city, but I didn’t know how easy it would be and again, I wasn’t sure how much time I had spare, so I left that part. The outside of the building was very pretty though.

I walked back to Union station – where they were still filming – and wandered back through. I asked a lady who work there about my TAP card and she told me I could use it on any metro line or any bus that said ‘metro’ on it, so I topped up with a day pass and it was a lot easier to not have to think about it. I hopped back on the metro and headed for the Hollywood and Highland centre.

After getting off the metro, I walked into the centre, which was a pretty, outdoor shopping centre and walked up to the top floor to get a view of the ‘Hollywood’ sign. It was a clear view but it was still so far away from where I was stood. I took some photos and asked a lady to take a photo of me, but because of the distance, it is just a blurry white blob in the distant background.

After getting a tiny bit lost (google maps made it look like I should have walked behind the centre, when in fact it was in front), I saw the Dolby theatre and the beautiful Chinese theatre – which was very busy. I walked part of the way down the Walk of Fame, taking lots of photos, before coming to the top end, where the bus stop was.

Waiting for the bus, I had to stand in the shadow of a palm tree, as it was so hot and I was melting just standing still in the sun. When the bus arrived, I got it down to the Original Farmer’s Market, where I got off and had some lunch. Walking into the Farmer’s Market, I was in awe of all of the food stalls and how beautiful it all looked. As it was all street food, from all over the world, it all smelt so good and was all relatively cheap. I wandered around a few times before I came to a decision of what cuisine I wanted; I wasn’t overly hungry, but I don’t think my body knew what time or what day it was. I opted for some nachos from the Mexican stand and I was very happy with my decision – I even got free guacamole on top, so that was a bonus.

Once I had eaten lunch and was happy that I had seen enough of the market, I got back on the bus and carried on down towards Venice beach. I had to get two separate buses to the beach and when I got on the second one, there was one very hyperactive child who asked his mum if every stop was theirs – not what I needed when the tiredness was beginning to kick in. At least I didn’t need to worry about missing my stop as they were also going to the beach.

When I got off the bus, I walked towards the beach. I reapplied my sun cream before stepping onto the sand and heading for the sea. I only dipped my feet and didn’t really want to get too sandy because I didn’t have anywhere to shower before the flight.

After I had paddled a little bit, I walked along the shops at the front, looking for somewhere to rent a bike so that I could cycle along the beachfront. I found one for only $6 per hour, I didn’t plan on staying out too long as it was just after 3 at this point and I had a couple of other things I wanted to see, so I only rented it for one hour. I got on my bike and cycled along the beach towards Santa Monica.

When I reached Santa Monica, I could only stop and take photos of the pier. I wanted to get off my bike and walk along to look at it closely but the man in the bike shop said he didn’t have any chains for me and I didn’t want to risk getting the bike stolen – it would be just my luck – so I just admired from afar. I cycled a little further passed the pier, before turning around and cycling back.

On the way back, I stopped off and got a frozen pink lemonade to enjoy on the beach. It was very nice but it didn’t melt as quickly as I expected it would, so I had to put it in my bike basket and drink the rest of it when I had returned the bike. I enjoyed my lemonade on a different part of the beach, before deciding to move on.

I wasn’t leaving the Venice area, but I wanted to go and see the Venice canals that had been built in the area. They were surrounded by very big, very nice houses, some of which had been decorated for Halloween. I walked along the beautiful canal side and crossed over some bridges, before I decided to walk back to the beach.

Back at the beach, I wanted to watch the sunset. I walked to the beach front near to the canals, but as the sun wasn’t setting for another forty-five minutes, I decided to walk up the beach a bit, so that I was closer to my bus stop. I took a few photos along the way and when I got to the part of the beach where I was earlier on, I sat down. I took a couple of pictures and enjoyed the view, but I was beginning to feel very tired and I really was starting to flag. I decided that it was best for me to head back to the airport and miss the sunset, rather than falling asleep at the beach and missing my flight.

The bus stop that I needed, to get to the airport, was a different bus stop to the one I arrived at. I had previously googled it and had screen shot the map on my phone but I didn’t screen shot enough of the surrounding area, so I found the difficult to find my way – it also didn’t help that the street signs were placed in weird positions so I couldn’t always tell which road the sign was for. After about half an hour (when google maps said it would take sixteen minutes), I found the bus stop I needed.

Waiting at the bus stop, I was reading the sign to see when the next bus was coming; as I turned around to the road, there was the bus I needed driving straight passed me – I put my arm out but it just drove straight by which was annoying because it was the only bus going to that stop so surely the driver would have seen me waiting. Another bus arrived quite soon after, luckily, but once I got on, I wish that one had driven passed me too because the driver was very rude. When I got on, I asked her the price and she mumbled something, which I only got ‘25’ from, so I questioned her, asking if it was $25, thinking that was very expensive. She then responded in a very rude tone saying it was ‘ONE dollar, twenty-five cents’; I paid, thanked her, and sat down. The journey wasn’t a smooth one though and she had the worst road rage I have ever witnessed: driving right up to the back of cars, shouting at other drivers and having no patience at all – we were all sat in the same traffic and not much could be done about it. This went on for most of the journey. As we turned down one street, I asked her if the road we were on was near the airport, she said yes, so I asked her if I could get off at the next stop (as it was right next to where my bags were). She drove passed the stop and I asked her again – fair enough I didn’t pull the cord to stop her, but there wasn’t one where I was sat because someone had just pulled it down by accident – but she wouldn’t stop. She said that I had missed the stop and had told her I wanted the airport (which I didn’t), so as we were stopped at the lights I asked her if I could jump out and she said no, she wasn’t allowed and that I needed to get another bus back up – I’m not sure anyone would know but she wasn’t for letting me out and made me wait until we got to the airport. I didn’t want this to ruin the great day I had already had, but I had to then walk half an hour back because I didn’t have the change to get a bus back, for one stop – it didn’t help my incredibly tired mood at this point.

When I eventually made it to the airport, I went to the toilets to freshen up and get changed back into my plane clothes. I felt much better and cleaner after a wash. I checked my bag in and went to security, which was a very different experience to what it was in Rio. By the time I had got through the chaos that was security – I think it might have been chaotic because I think someone had last their passport because we were told to make sure everything was in our bags, we didn’t have to get our liquids or laptops out or anything – I had a couple of hours to chill before my flight.

In the airport, I had to keep moving around to keep myself awake. When I eventually went to the gate for boarding, I think there was some sort of problem there because they didn’t start boarding on time and I could feel my eyes dropping as I sat waiting, but I luckily made it onto the plane to head to Fiji for a couple of weeks.

To say that Los Angeles was just a 24-hour layover, I think I made the most of it and I am so glad that I did. I also really enjoyed being on my own for the day, as I didn’t feel like I needed to please anyone or keep to anyone else’s time scale, I could just do what I wanted when I wanted to. As lovely as the day was, it wasn’t technically on my agenda for the year, so it’s time to leave and head for a new country, on a new continent: Fiji, Oceania.

To travel is to live, Katie x