Farmers Market
Other random LA stores
Night out with the Aussies
Seth Rogan's film set
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Total Distance:
I like walking round places just to get a feel of it all. Not going to anything specific, just seeing the people and place- who's about, what they're doing, what's available, what's popular. Having had quite a lot of American friends at university along with all of the movies/documentaries/propaganda I felt like I had some idea of what to expect so complete shocks were limited.
Farmer's Market is a location which was once a stalls and fresh produce place. Now most of the stalls are permanent, and much of the service is for hot food, along with a bar, a few fruit stalls, and a couple of souvenir stores. It's a nice place, quite busy, with old Mediterranean architecture and shade from the heat, although, like most of LA much dirtier than Australian and Kiwi cities.
Outside of the main market are a number of larger stores, supermarkets, and dinners. There is also something of a modern extension which looks like a Hollywood take on a French or Italian city, with fountains; white, modern stores; and small street kiosks.
I had to also go to T-mobile and Target, which was in the other direction. After a free American style coffee in the hostel I went north.
The stores could be quite weird here- there were a few places that tried to look very up market, clean layout, and just one rack of clothes. One of these places had a queue of over 50 people outside it. No idea what made it special. There were also tattooing places, psychics, pet food specialists, a "humane" pet store where all of the puppies in the window were apparently rescues.
Between T-mobile and Target I was met with the scene of a cop and a security guard going through a bag on the cop car's hood. Someone's been shop lifting! And is evidently terrible at it. The number of security guards is quite noticeable here. There's one in or near just about every store. Not to mention the number of houses that have an "Armed Response" warning on their security signs. The reason is because of the number of guns in the country- they need a good gunman in case a bad gunman turns up. Ah, America!
That evening the hostel did a $5 barbecue with $2 beers. I sat with the Aussies I'd met the night before, who spawned a few extra Aussies they'd met. Was really nice to have a group to chat with about this new country in a manner I understood. We made a few comments along the lines of:
There's a drought on in California yet the toilets fill with twice as much water than anywhere else I've ever seen.
The streets are so dirty.
Can't find a public toilet anywhere (they're everywhere in Aus and NZ)
There's no switch on the electricity sockets- they're always on, which seems dangerous.
The light switches go the other way.
Packaging and advertising is weird, as is the amount of "organic" food in this area.
But the internet is very good. :)
We chatted with our waiter/barman/chef who suggested a "dive" bar down the road, which is where Guns and Roses formed. One of the Aussies came to check it out and have a beer there. The bar is joined onto a large dinner via a doorway. In the far end of the dinner they were in the process of filming a new Seth Rogan film, Futureman. So we decided to wander down and have a look. For two minutes we stood quietly on set, until the Aussie started talking. As filming was once more about to commence a very angry director noticed us and threw us of the set. I've been thrown off a film set!!! Life goal completed.
Outside we found that they were setting up to film the blowing up of a cop car. We found a small bar to wait in until they where finishing. But as they began the Aussie got bored of another 10 minutes of them messing around. He walked off and so we found ourselves in a 24 hour dinner at 2am being served by a rotund Napoleon Dynamite. As we made our way back to the hostel we found the cop car broken and on its roof in the street, apparently blown up already.
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