How I travelled solo đ
Day 1 of my travels to Los Angeles
Iâve arrived to Los Angeles (after 11hours long flight), people at the airport are super friendly and helpful. I took a shuttle to my AirBnB located close to the airport, sadly not the standard I expected for ÂŁ50! But people in the accomodation were still nice, total mixture of cultures and nationalities (It was a big AirBnB, able to fit about 9/10 people).
I felt so tired, they wanted to feed me, they must have thought I’m some kind of a weirdo when I just said “Sorry guys, I’m tired, I’m going to bed” at 7pm đ (American time)
Day 2 of my travels (Santa Monica)
In the morning, funny enough, I woke up around 6am (never happens in the UK), felt surprisingly refreshed so I went for a morning run. After that I decided to explore the surroundings before heading to Santa Monica. I got to talk to local people and even popped into a $1 shop. Well, not exactly a dollar. The bill was ÂŁ1.10 and my reaction was “So it’s not really a dollar shop, is it?”, and the lady reminded me about the tax on top of the bill đ We started chatting and this way, as I often do, I made a friend in a random shop đ
Following my walk, I took a bus which took me straight from my AirBnB to Santa Monica. It’s a lovely hostel (one of the âHI Hostelsâ international chain) I recommend it very much for a quiet stay with friendly people and an eco-friendly oriented approach to life!
Santa Monica Walks on the first day â the weather was quite disappointing to start with! Still impressive views though! (see below)
And I walked to Venice Beach the same day. By the time I got there (30 min walk), the weather changed into this. (see below)
Advice for the ladies (and everyone really) – Do not walk back home along the Venice Beach in the evening on your own đ (but I did… :))
Day 3 of my travel
Power breakfast at the HI Los Angeles Hostel, it may not look impressive but the hostel is such a great place!
What I loved was they served super ripe bananas, and I love ripe bananas đ You don’t usually get them in supermarkets, I believe they often go to waste, and I’m so against food waste.
PS. If you know you might need food later, remember to take a spare peanut butter and a piece of bread đ (or even a banana :)) (but I didn’t :))
Day 3 was the day when one of my dreams came true â I went to Malibu đ
Ever since I watched a super cheesy teenage movie, I wanted to go to Malibu. And here I was finally đ
And these two, I believe, were doing some form of yoga… Or meditating. Clearly, I’m not the only one into this kind of stuff đ
Well, actually the above pictures were the beach called Zuma Beach not far from Malibu. (I felt so mesmerised by the views that I didn’t pay attention to how far the bus took me :)) To get to Malibu Pier, I had to take the bus about 20min backwards.
As I said, the hostel was a cool place (see below). I love how it emphasised togetherness and being in the moment.
By the way, if you ever need a free accomodation while travelling, you can apply for voluntering in the hostel. You’ll work a few hours a day and be able to stay there for free. I made a friend later in the trip who did that, and he was able to do the sightseeing outside of his working hours.
Day 4 of my travel
Today I’m travelling to Pasadena in preparation for tomorrowâs meditation retreat. (this is what I came here for at the end of the day :))
Google maps showed transport lasting about 2hours 30min with 3 means of transportation. It turned out I was able to walk one of them as it was only 3 bus stops away (saved me $1.75 yay). The metro though; I had to buy a âtap cardâ which is amazing actually, the machine produces it for you (it’s a plastic ticket) and you top it up with cash at the station. So I did. Only, it turned out, I was meant to tap it before entering the train which I didnât know about. I thought you do it on the train! Like e.g. in Poland. Well, I was told by one of the passengers I nedeed to get off the train and tap the card as apparently the penalties in US are high!
So I got off on another station and waited 15min for another train. In the meantime, a guy high on weed sat next to me and we started talking. Which was fine but⊠Iâm kinda afraid of people on drugs as I donât know how drugs influence them! At some point, I asked him âSo have you lived in California all your life?â to which he responded âYes, mostly in jail, but yesâŠâ haha #thrillsoftravellingsolo
I wasnât really afraid that much though, he was friendly and so excited to be picking up his apple iPad from repair so he could keep drawing tattoo designs đ Nevertheless, I was slightly like⊠âCome on how long for the train?â kinda feeling. He was nice though, he wished me a lovely trip! (Hope he got his iPad back! :))
My Pasadena accommodation was so nice, I had a room to myself, which initially felt a bit lonely seeing I came from the hostel where I was surrounded by people. I quickly got to enjoy it once settled in though.
Also, highly recommend this motel! Quiet area with shops closeby and direct bus to Pasadena Old Town and to… Hollywood đ
I went for a walk (initially) and I quickly realised it would have to be a bus tour! (In US you do need a car to get to places). On the way though, I popped in to Target, they are a supermarket chain. I literally love their fruit&veg sections, which I had seen before in a different supermarket called âVonsâ.
They remind me of Poland slightly where you just have fresh fruit and veg so easily accessible. I love in US the fact that you can get e.g. a huge portion of raspberries for a price similar to other fruit and veg.
Although food in the US doesnât seem to be the cheapest, healthy eating is not much more expensive to regular eating. Therefore eating healthy seems to be accessible to anyone who is able to afford any other foods.
Afterwards⊠Well⊠I didnât get to Caltech as I planned and aimed into the Old Town Pasadena. And to my amazement⊠The Cheesecake Factory for dinner đ
And this is what I call a âSALADâ đ (Sorry UK but youâre scoring quite poorly on my salad rating)
To my disappointment, it turned out Penny did not work in this Cheesecake Factory and the Big Bang Theory WAS NOT filmed there either đŠ
Some people say I might not eat enough food… Really? I had this in space of 2 hours from dinner đ
Literally, best cheesecake Iâve ever had (including Polish equivalents :)) I know you can’t tell how big this cheesecake was but… I caught the guys in the hostel talking about this cheesecake, apparently a few of them gathered and weren’t able to finish 2 pieces of cake. Really? It would have been a piece of cake for me! đ
Day 5
Day 5 of my travel was Day 1 of the Meditation Retreat. It was an amazing experience, so cooling and made me reflect a lot and stay in the present moment. It took a lot of my enery though (in a good way) so I had no energy left for writing the blog. (Forgive me readers :))
Day 6
Meditation Retreat Day 2 – Reflections
During the retreat, I have realised that we are all suffering in some way. The book we were provided with called “Welcoming the Unwelcome” helped with those realisations and reflections. It’s important to be able to connect to our suffering. Only then we are able to connect to the suffering of others. And only then we are able to emphasise and understand.
What resonated with me is also that we are all innately good people. Even the ones we think of as bad people, are good people, it’s important to understand the reasons behind people’s behaviour so we can act more compassionately towards them.
Lessons learnt from the meditation
People are good in nature. In order to help other people, we need to help ourselves first. Our suffering originates from the confusion of our mind.
Day 7
I woke up and smelled weed. I smelled a lot of weed while staying in US.
Funny how I felt super comfortable in this current apartment for the first 2 nights, however, last night something felt off to me. And this morning I got told by the reception staff that they had someone with mental health issues staying in the motel who thought things were happening around him/her. Eh, my intuition đ
I didnât go to the last day of the Meditation Retreat and I feel like Iâm missing out on the amazing oatmeal of the morning haha Iâve got to satisfy myself with a sandwich made by myself from the products I purchased. That oatmeal was just so good though, the cook deserves the aplauz đ
I took the bus in Hollywood direction after having a Starbucks coffee in the nearest Target shop. Starbucks coffee seems so strong now, having had so many weak coffees in the places Iâve stayed in! I don’t even like Starbucks, I don’t know why I bought it lol And that’s 3 euros wasted as I had to bin the coffee meh.
Anyway – Hollywood Baby đ
Here, I made an Australian friend and socialised with the guys at the hostel. The Hollywood sign was visible from the hostel window by the way đ I wish I could stay longer in LA so I would have gone for a tour up to the sign, and there was one more place I didn’t manage to concour… The Griffith’s Observatory!
Day 8
I had a good New Year celebration last night in the hostel. There were free margaritas and karaoke. I didnât sing but others did and it was fun to watch! đ
In a group of a few people we stayed up till midnight (American midnight) in the sitting area outside of the hostel but then we were all tired so decided to go to bed! (jetlagged bodies) đ
Funny how my jetlag is only now clearing out but Iâm flying back home tomorrow! đŠ
Overall, the USA Hostels is fine but I enjoyed the hostel in Santa Monica much more. I found it more spacious and brighter, friendlier inside, and the inside décor is always important to me.
Day 9
Time to go home!
So sad to be leaving LA, I got to love the city despite the short stay.
Goodbye Hollywood…
What do I love about LA?
1. Bus charges per ride and not per distance
2. Big cars (although the ones with dark windows scare me)
3. Public toilets available in many parts of the city
4. Breakfast in the hostels was on time and even a bit early which is always a plus đ
5. Rubbish bins EVERYWHERE! That’s so good because, come on, you don’t want to throw your rubbish on the streets, right?
Lessons learnt from this trip:
1. Always take a pair of warm socks and/or slippers! (If you’re a person who likes to keep warm)
2. Always take a couple of clothing items for each weather conditions (the weather didn’t turn out to be as warm as I expected, and I did not prepare well for that! :))
Next travel destination —> Miami&Florida or Austin&Texas
Miami
OR
Which one Guys?! đ
California Travel (Los Angeles) 