Well I am here. West Hollywood California! And...I love it!!! (know it’s been almost a week since my last blog but it took me this long to connect my laptop to the wifi here at the hostel.)
So I left Las Vegas Sunday Morning. Of course I shed some tears when I said goodbye to Pauly. I was terrified, it was the day that I officially was going to be on my own and I was feeling anxious. Ben (who we met the first night) was driving me to the Greyhound station. He picked me up I said my teary goodbye to Pauly and we were off. It was still pretty early so we went to Denny’s for breakfast and then went to the station. At this point I was really starting to get anxiety, I couldn’t believe the moment had come that I was going to board the bus and start this journey. Ben stayed and chatted with me for an hour which was awesome because he himself has done an extensive amount of travelling and he told me about his experiences as a solo traveller so it was really nice, reassuring and calming so by the time he left I was feeling ok.
I met an interesting couple at the bus station; her, a sweet plump 22 year old in a wheelchair and her husband a tall lanky Napoleon Dynamite looking guy. I saw a woman with jogging pants that were too big on her and when she pulled them up to try and hold them up by what looked like a cheap knock off of an Ed Hardy belt you could see she was wearing no underwear who was with her friend who I knew was a woman but didn’t quite look like one. Then I met Ben ( yes another one) a 21 year old just travelling around and wanting to find a bartending job. We travelled all the way to Hollywood together. The drive, just as before was beautiful. The bus had huge panoramic windows and on either side were just mountains so high that the snow on the peaks blended in with the white clouds. As I looked out the window I couldn’t help but smile with a tear in my eye because I knew this was it. I had done it, on my own alone in this huge world and I realized how proud I am of myself for actually doing this.
With a transfer in LA I arrived in Hollywood at about 7pm. With saying goodbye to Ben and being the only one in the bus station and waiting for a cab I felt alone for the first time. I was relieved when the cab got there because I just wanted to check into the hostel and then go meet up with Ellie.
I was a little nervous when I first walked in the door as I had never been to a hostel before and didn’t know what to expect. There was overbooking of travellers to beds so within a half hour my bed had switched three times. Frustrated and relieved I finally head to Ellie’s.
It was sooo good to see her. We drank some rum, caught up and went out to the Saddle Ranch it did it up pretty good finishing the night off with chilli cheese fries and I can’t remember what else we had but it definately greasy lol.
I get back to the hostel about 3 o’clock a little nervous to sleep in a dorm room with 5 people I didn’t know. As I am getting ready to crawl into bed I realize my bed is no longer my bed and someone is sleeping in it. I lost my shit! They wanted to transfer me to another hostel and everything. Not happy, its 3am, I’m tired and frustrated I kind of wanted to just pick up and go home. Just at that moment a guy walked through the door and stressfully I asked him if he had a cigarette ( I know I quit) and in a sexy Australian accent he said no and then asked me if I was ok and I said no and told him the situation. He told the front desk to give me a blanket and that I was fine for the night and we would figure out everything in the morning. Anyways we couldn’t sleep so we went down to the party/tv room and hung out for a bit. He said this is what travelling is all about and not to worry. The next day I went to the front desk and I was told my night was free and they found me a bed. But Ryan (the Aussie) had a free bed in his room so we are now roommates. The best thing, none of us snore and we all get along so well. With everything getting cleared up and me getting almost a three week stay here – I decided to suck it up and stay in a dorm room and not go to a private because I’m actually loving this dorm thing – I was ready to do some sightseeing.
So at 11am Dallas (another Aussie from my original room) we started walking to do a little site seeing. We walked all the way to the Hollywood Walk of Fame and walked the entire thing. Plus they are setting up for the Oscars so it was pretty awesome. Six hours later we end up back at the hostel with blisters on our feet and a bottle of Jim Beam and Bacardi. It was a great day and it was free which was even better.
As we walked and talked I had this crazy feeling of exhilaration. Its an exhilaration that I cant explain or make you understand unless you have traveled. The feeling of being out in the world, by yourself with no one to worry about or meet up with and go where you want to go and do what you want to do and meet people who are doing it to for their own reasons. You have an instant family like connection with people, some more than others. Justin, Ryan and Dallas are the ones that I am close with. They are amazing and in the short 48 hours I have known them I can’t believe that this time last week they weren’t in my life. Justin who is from Vegas is here to start something new; Ryan an investment banker from Melbourne who has the travel bug and Dallas an actor from Sydney who is taking acting classes here. All so different and possibly people I wouldn’t be friends with under any other circumstances but here we are, here I am having an experience with complete strangers but I wouldn’t have it any other way. As much as I miss you all at home I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else in the world-if that makes sense.
Anyways last night we went to a party then a club and then I dragged the boys home by midnight as they were falling over drunk and of course I am the one that ends up with bruises, due to the fact that drunkenly one of them knocked my into a fire hydrant and my knees are now swollen and covered in bruises lol but it was all in good fun.
I think I am the only Canadian staying at this hostel which is kind of cool and I apparently have a nice accent – lol what accent. I met one Canadian last night who is from Hamilton and now lives here and he knew Colingwood so I was super stoked about that. I am surrounded by English, German, French and a ton of Aussies it almost makes me forget where I actually am. I am starting to pick up accents and new slangs.
We went to a viewing of the Oscar’s next store to our hostel at the Silent Movie theatre. It was pretty awesome sitting in a theatre of 100 people watching the Oscar’s on a big screen, it almost felt like we were there. But, with being able to bring in your own drinks we drank too much and left because we couldn’t sit anymore so we just went back to the hostel and partied with everyone else.
The area we are living/staying in is awesome – Fairfax Village and it’s amazing here. Everything is here. Melrose Avenue is the next street over, The Grove is about a 5 minute walk, Starbucks, Coffee Bean, the Hollywood Hills is my view as soon as I leave the hostel. I could live here! It’s so beautiful. And the fashion, WOW! The high school kids have better fashion then me lol, it’s pretty cool.
So this week we are job hunting so we have some extra cash and next week so wish me luck! Talk soon.
Our whole goal was to go get to Venice beach so after we had our beach side burgers we kept walking toward Venice. WOW! What an amazing difference between Santa Monica and Venice you don't need anyone to tell you where one ends and the other starts. It's like Ghost Town (Frontier Town) on the beach. It's incredible. Big painted hippie vans are the first thing you see when you hit Venice with the faintest smell of Pechoullie. Mom you would love Venice beach, you would be calling Aunt Pat to come out and move there with you haha. It's got artists, and music, hippies, dancers, a side show - they had a two headed turtle- drum circles, food, henna tattoos, you can rent a bike to ride on the path, jewellery makers, tattoo and piercing shops, smoke shops, restaurants, music, clothing stores hat stores, almost everyone had a dog, homeless people with signs saying stuff like "Why lie, need weed" and "Punch me in the face for $1". There are also these shops that you can go in and buy weed legally as long as you have a medical card for it. I have never heard of that before, its fucking crazy. I saw the biggest drum circle I had ever seen and it never stopped it just kept going, I also saw a loan drummer just sitting on the beach just playing his drums. It was amazing. And this goes on everyday. It was beyond anything I could think of of what a beach is like. It was amazing everywhere you looked it was something different, there was so much going on that if you looked one way you missed what was going on the other way. There were always crowds of people looking at something. We walked up to one crowd and asked what was going on and a lady said "that extremely built guy is going to jump over 11 people". Well that extremely built man started running and he jumped over 11 kids. Crazy. Have you ever heard of Muscle beach? You know in the movies you see the big muscle heads working out on the beach. Well it exsists and it is actually called muscle beach. YUP who knew. I thought people called it that because of the muscle heads but its the actual name. Beside that is this stage thing with bleachers facing it and there were techtonik dancers showing there moves. Goodbye Wasaga Beach strip lol, you will never be the same.
