On my previous round-the-world trip, I travelled west over the International Date Line, and ended up completely missing a day: July 2nd 2008. This time, going east, I've had to go through April 17th 2013 twice. It all makes my diary a bit complicated.
When I was standing in the immigration queue at LAX, a uniformed woman came round with the world's smallest and cutest sniffer dog trotting along after her. He made a beeline straight for my bag, sniffed at it carefully, and then sat down next to it while giving his owner a very significant look. (If dogs had eyebrows, one of them would have been raised at least half an inch.) The handler asked me if there was any food in the bag: I mentioned the egg sandwich I'd eaten at Sydney. She was happy with that, and gave the puppy a gentle telling-off. 'Snoop! That's residual.' But he still got a biscuit, and I still got allowed into the USA.
I spent my first night staying near the ocean, just off Hermosa Beach, and for my second night I moved inland nearer to Downtown. Inbetween I hired a bike and cycled up the beachfront from Hermosa to Santa Monica and back. I got a bit sunburned - I didn't realise how much until I was standing at a urinal later and I noticed the redness of my hands, which had been exposed to the sun, and were now in close contact with another part of me, which hadn't. The combined picture looked rather like one of those little sausages wrapped in bacon. Except much bigger, of course.
Anyway...the bike ride was great fun, but switching between the two hostels was not. Using public transport, it took 4 hours to cover about 20 miles. Besides which, LA is grotty and smoggy and unfriendly and not all that interesting. So I'm going to be out of here pretty quickly, and a prize of one drink is on offer to anyone who correctly guesses my next destination.
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| Downtown at sunset |
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Marina del Rey
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| Hermosa Beach at sunset |
