Waking up at half 8, a reasonable time considering I barely knew what time of day it was, I went straight downstairs for breakfast which an inclusive perk of staying at my hostel. With just toast and jams it was nothing special although it set me up nicely for the day ahead. With nothing much planned for the day I spent the morning on Skype just catching up with people, also taking this time on Facebook planning things ready for my return which was fast approaching! The plan for the day in the end was to explore Venice Beach which was the area I am staying in, as well as walking along to Santa Monica which is the next beach across.
It wasn't until around 11 until left the hostel, something very unlike me to leave so late when I was in a completely different area, let alone a completely different country. Where I was staying was the flagship area of Venice Beach, having a sign and an open area in the seafront with a few shops and market stools. I decided to head along the beach to Santa Monica to start with, browsing round the shops which were very hipster to say the least. You could tell that I was staying in a tourist based area with all the gift shops, although one of the major problems in the area was homelessness and this was evident with the high amounts of people who made their small living through things like street entertainments and other quirky little things. It was good to watch although they expected money every time which was not so good for me!
Continuing along the main promenade, more commonly known as the Venice boardwalk, I passed more the hipster like shops which made up a large portion of the seafront. They are probably not hippie related, they were just coloured in rainbow colours a little bit like the buildings in Nimbin! Before long the shops ended and I came to a path which just followed the massive beach. I have seen many sandy beaches whilst travelling, but never anything this big with the sea being what felt like miles out! Prior to reaching the main Santa Monica area I reached an area called Muscle Beach which is apparently a famous bodybuilding area. With people doing what looked like trampoline skills on a tightrope and swinging on these rings amongst other things, I just stood there in amazement! It was pretty impressive to watch.
It wasn't far from here before I reached the pier which reminded me a lot of Brighton with the fairground rides on it, and also the old style buildings on the promenade. It was a shame the rides were expensive just like Brighton Pier! One of the first features I saw on the really wide pier was the official end of route 66, something I may end up doing one day. You never know. The pier itself was full of lots of food stalls and gift shops, although there was some event going on to do yoga where loads of people had brought their mats and were being trained by some woman on stage. I spent a fair while on the pier in the end, taking in the fairground rides and the views along the coast towards the Santa Monica mountains one way and back to Venice Beach the other.
Once leaving the pier I got myself a couple of geocache finds in the surrounding area to ensure I left USA with at least a couple of finds. There was one however which took me back to muscle beach which suggested you had to shout "the geocache flies at midnight" and the cache would come, but nothing happened. From here I headed inland along the main road to get to Abbot Kinney Road, home of many shops in the area. I missed out on the main stream shops in Santa Monica to come here as this area had more local based shops which were very interesting to do some window shopping in. It was a little expensive though!
The next stop of the day was the Venice Canals which I guess it the reason why this area of LA got its name with its similarities to Venice. It was a very quiet and picturesque area with lots of little bridges going over the canals arranged in about a 4x4 grid system with houses dotted on every edge. There was still pavements though and instead on gondolas there were kayaks using this interesting system of canals. By the time I had navigated my way round the complex system I eventually emerged back at Venice Beach, this time by the pier which I walked along. Unlike Santa Monica Pier, this pier lacked fairground rides and amusements and was simply a place you could walk along, popular with fishers. There were cracking views on here again, even managing to see a continuous run of planes take off at the nearby airport.
By the time I finished looking on the pier I got back to the beach, where I just took my sandals off and walked along the warm sands back to the main Venice Beach area. En route I came across this body building competition which was pretty interesting to watch seeing how strong everyone was! From here I continued back along the Venice boardwalk which took me along the colourful shops the opposite direction of the area I had come this morning, arriving back where I started at around 4ish. From here I decided to get myself some pizza, which was sold by the slice as they commonly eat 22" pizzas in America! I just got a slice to tie me over.
By the time I got back to the hostel it was about 5ish and for some reason the jetlag hit in when I laid on my bed which resulted in me going for a nap, waking up again at about 8! Instead of staying in bed I went back out, this time going to the local supermarket which was about a half hour walk to get some dinner, getting a few little bits and bobs to tie me over. When returning to the hostel the nap I ended up having seemed to make more awake which meant my evening was spent on my phone. With another two days to spend in LA, I made sure I planned my upcoming days as LA has a bus system. I know I am doing Hollywood but other than that I am unsure what to do.
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