Los Angeles | Anny Chih

Posing in front of the Hollywood sign

LA has the scariest freeway / highway system I’ve ever come across (worse than driving in Russia!). We came so close to being hit by tailgaters, non-signalers, and crazy weavers in the six to eight lane concrete monstrosities that less than 10 minutes in, I knew I could never live in Los Angeles. We actually considered leaving LA right after dropping Kim off at his hotel for his conference.

The city of angels is stupidly large. It’s really a bunch of big cities meshed into one that takes two to three hours to drive across. I’m sure there are lots of people who love the hustle and bustle of LA, but I’m not one of them. The idea of driving through that concrete jungle to get to work each day is just sheer madness in my books. SHEER MADNESS!

Unfortunately, LA’s metro system isn’t the best in the world and when it takes over an hour to drive from one major attraction to the next, we weren’t about to spend even more time trying to commute it. Our AAA guidebook both warns of the dangers of driving in LA while saying that it’s the best way to get around in the same paragraph.

The crowd at the 4th Annual Taste of Soul in LA

When we stopped at the AAA office for information, we stumbled across a street festival called Taste of Soul. Apparently it’s the largest street festival in LA so we were really lucky to have come across it. We may have stuck out quite a bit (Morten in particular since there was only one other caucasian person in the entire crowd) but no one seemed to care. Everyone was friendly and the food was uber-good!

We walked through the festival for a while before deciding on which food booth to buy from. As soon as I saw the booth advertising authentic Jamaican food, my mind was made up! I haven’t come across any good Jamaican food in Vancouver and I remember how delicious my first Jamaican patty was. It was my last semester at SFU and my professor for International Marketing (June Francis – sidenote: if you’re an SFU Biz student, take BUS 447 with her. Great class!) brought in a few boxes of Jamaican patties for us to try. I LOVED them but haven’t found anything that even comes close to their yumminess since. The Jamaican patties at Taste of Soul were less than adequate. But, we also ordered jerk chicken and it was ridiculously good. The meat was tender, the sauce was flavourful and the outside was perfectly barbequed and smokey.

Posing in front of the famous Kodak Theatre

After Taste of Soul, we drove over to Hollywood and did the Walk of Fame. It was over 30 degrees outside and I didn’t have any shorts so I was melting away under the scorching sun in my jeans and coated with SPF 85 sunblock. I couldn’t take it anymore so I bought a pair of shorts at Zara.

The Walk of Fame is a bit of a joke since practically everyone has a star (including Godzilla) and for the most part the star impersonators look like ordinary folk dressed for Halloween (the Marilyn Monroe we saw was about 50 years too old for the part) – we did see a good pirate and a decent Superman though. We did a bit of window shopping along Hollywood Boulevard, saw some unsuspecting Japanese tourists get mobbed by a group of Zombie walkers, took some cheesy photos, and left for Santa Monica.

Santa Monica pier looks a lot bigger in the movies than it does in real life. It’s still a nice place for an evening stroll though and a refreshing getaway from the traffic congested city. We had dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. and played Forrest Gump trivia with our waiter. The service there is fabulous by the way. Our waiter was very charismatic, funny and went out of his way to make sure we were happy. We tipped well.

Before we left the next morning, we made sure to visit a lookout point for the Hollywood sign to take one last dorky photo. Visit Morten’s post (when he gets around to it) for directions to the best lookout point.

Bubba Gump Trivia

Ang playing with the drink menu at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

(Answers are on the bottom of this post)

What was the colour of Jenny’s shoes when she got married?
What is the name of Forrest Gump’s home town?
Is Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. a real company?
Other than running, name two sports that Forrest played.
Forrest made two really good friends in the army. What are their names?

Tips for Travellers to LA

A GPS is a must if you’re planning on driving in LA. LA has a complicated freeway system – so complicated in fact that AAA has a map just for the freeways.
You can find cheap parking in Hollywood at the Kodak Theatre. It’s $2 for the first four hours with validation. You can get your ticket validated if you buy something at any of the stores and I believe the cheapest item is a piece of fruit ($1) from the coffee stand on the parking level one floor below the ticket payment office. They also sell coffee, cold beverages, and a few small snacks at the stand.
The cheapest parking near Santa Monica pier is about a block before you reach it coming from Hollywood (just before McDonald’s on your right) – $3 flat fee after 6pm.
It’s best to go to LA when you have a reason to go (ex. conference, concert etc). Although LA has many small touristy spots, they’re very far apart so if you don’t have another reason to be in that area, you may be disappointed at how little there is to see or how long it takes you to get from one place to the next.
If you plan on going to any of the theme parks or major attractions around the area (ex. Universal Studios – which is fun; I went as a kid), check your hotel / motel lobby beforehand for flyers. They usually have coupons for up to $10 off per admission.