Posts Tagged With: Los Angeles

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As soon as I finish writing this final post, I am off to LA International Airport for my flight to London. I am on my way home and looking forward to seeing my family and friends again. Something that I really appreciated while I was away is the wonderful supportive network of family, friends and work colleagues (also friends) at home. I include here those who followed the blog from England, Spain, France, the US, Australia and elsewhere.

I had a brilliant holiday. I saw so much, did so much, had a lot of fun and (in the words of the song), I did it my way. It felt like I was really living. By the way, apart from a handful of backpackers in their 20’s (who were travelling in groups), I met nobody else travelling on their own in either Australia or the US. It’s not very common, it appears. I am so glad that I didn’t know this in advance 🙂

The blog was really good for me. It gave me a focus, an enthusiasm for photography, a way of sharing and indulged something that I have always enjoyed – writing. It also fulfilled its primary purpose of keeping in touch with family and friends. It never ceased to amaze me that people actually read and enjoyed the blog.

The comments on the site and by private email were wonderfully encouraging and keeping a daily watch on the site statistics was exciting. In total, the site received almost 1,800 visits and this doesn’t include people who signed up to receive updates by email, unless they actually clicked through to the site.

Thank you so much to everyone who followed the blog on a daily basis or came on the site for a quick look.  And a huge thank you for the comments and emails.  You really made the holiday for me.

Ann x

PS  I found out on my last day here that Santa Monica is a great place to shop.  I tried my hardest to resist ……..

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Grand Tour of Los Angeles

LA is like anywhere really – it is the people who make a place interesting.  In LA people are friendly, frantic, fun and sometimes a bit mad 🙂  To make the most of a short stay, I decided to go on tour.  I consulted the Guide to Los Angeles and selected the “Grand Tour”, described as the “most complete tour where you will see many attractions”.

In typical LA fashion, our driver (dramatic) Eddie, reeled off all that we would see and do:  7 cities (apparently there are 88 cities in the county of Los Angeles), 6 stops, 3 hours out of the bus, leaving 4 hours on the bus and 100 miles of driving.  Food and drink were allowed on board (opposite to Australia) and alcohol was allowed, provided there was nobody under 18 on board.  A quick look around confirmed this, lets just say I may have been one of the youngest on the bus 🙂

In case you wondered, the 7 cities were Marina Del Rey, Venice Beach, Santa Monica, Westwood, Beverly Hills, Downtown LA and Hollywood.  My Mum will be pleased to hear that Santa Monica, where I am staying, is the 5th safest city in the US.

Eddie was very entertaining and the 5 couples on board were all lovely.  We had a lot of fun – a good day all round.

Ann x

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Day 33: The Longest Day

Today I travelled backwards in time.  I recovered the 11 hours that I lost between Dublin and Australia and then gained an additional 8 hours by crossing the international date line to arrive in Los Angeles.   I estimate that today, 18th January, will be 43 hours long.  Confused?  Me too 🙂

Before leaving Sydney this morning, I had the great pleasure of meeting Monica’s friend, Teresa and her little girl, Jayla.  It was so nice meeting Monica’s good friends and hearing all about their lives in Sydney.  It sounds like they have great lifestyles.

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 I arrived in Los Angeles at 9.30am local time, on 18th January.  LA is something of a culture shock after Sydney.  It is bigger, louder, brasher and the conversations that you can’t help overhearing on the street, sound more like psycho-analysis than normal chit chat.  I wanted to come to LA mainly to spend time around the beach area, which had particularly fascinated me when I was here with Mick three years ago.

So in spite of only managing to get one hour’s sleep on the 13 hour plane journey, I spent the afternoon on the beach soaking up the atmosphere.  This is the ultimate people watching destination.  I just love it 🙂

Ann x

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