| Los Angeles |
When I first told my friends that I am going to Los Angeles, they all told me to have fun sitting on the freeway for hours. And before I went there, I would never have imagined really sitting on the freeway for an hour only to get to a place 20 miles away. My trip was scheduled for two weeks, which many friends told me good luck since I will die of boredom in there. I stayed in a few friends' place so I saved some money there for shopping, hehe. The first impression I got from LA when I got off the plane was that it's a more populated Binghamton... And it's true in the sense that you need a car to get to places. However, after being exposed to the bus systems there, my views have changed. You can get to any place you want by bus if you have time to spare since it takes a long time to go from one place to another. So what's there to see in LA? Well, there's plenty to see there. The first week my friends were free, so I was taken to many places by car. I went to the J. Paul Getty Center, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, La Brea Tar Pits, Animation Studio, Third Street Promenade, Century City Mall, Venice Beach, Rodeo Drive, Universal City Walk, Chinatown, Koreatown, Little Tokyo, Sunset Blvd, Pasadena, Westwood, Brentwood, Beverly Hills, Monterey Park, Downtown LA, UCLA and USC campus. I also went clubbing and to a strip club o_O As school and work occupied most of my friends' time, the second week became more of a self-exploration. This is the time when I really found out what LA is like through the eyes of a local (Well, more like a tourist). I went to Hollywood where I walked on the Walk of Fame, saw the Hollywood sign from Highland and saw the Mann's Chinese Theatre (I wanted to watch a movie there, but they were showing 'Signs' and I already saw that =/). I also went to the Howard Hughes Center and Westside Pavilion Mall thinking that it would be bigger... Went to Long Beach for Queen Mary but since it was close by the time we got there, there was not much to see... Here are some pictures from the trip: Click Here Los Angeles is not a bad place to be in like I first thought it would. However, it does take time getting use to since there's so many palm trees here and it's more hispanic influenced than the east coast. I also been to many fast food restaurants that I would never get a taste of in the East coast such as: In-N-Out, Baja Fresh, Pink's Hot Dog, The Coffee Bean, Jamba Juice, Tommy's Burger, Jack In The Box, California Pizza Kitchen, etc... I don't dislike LA as some of my friends do, but it is not one of the top five cities that I would prefer to live in during my lifetime... Prehaps to come on a vacation just to relax or meet up with friends. I know I will be coming back to LA someday since I didn't bring a camera with me when I get to see all these nice places to have pictures of memories. And the next time that I come here, I will not be staying for two weeks and aimlessly =p |