Next stop, Claremont to visit the one and only Miss Ashley Haiston. My friend who I met in London while she was doing her study abroad term, we bonded, laughed and played. I went out to California to visit her and her friends two years ago, it was a blast and it was the same again. It was pretty cool as she wasn't in frequent touch with the other guys I made friends with last time but she called everyone up so we could all hang out. And it was great. The boys moved to LA, Echo park to be precise where it was known for being a tad ghetto, but it was actually quite cool. There place, though small was filled with fun artsy things which totally suited their personality. There was also the addition of Sam, who all the girls loved as he had a cute face. He's actually in a cool Bosa Nova band called Sister Rogers, google them. Our second day was more chilled, waking up to breakfast and playing Mario before we hit up Shaye, my friend Ashely's best friend, what a fun girl. We went shopping on Melrose, maybe bumped into Ryan Adams (still to be verified) and then went to a resturant and ate sooo much food, I think it was Rib shack. That evening we went to her friend Bob's place who lived in downtown. His neighbourhood was pretty sketchy, homeless people outside in tents drinking but they ended up being super friendly. Bob's place was insane cool. An abandoned sweat shop the set up was great and had character, their actual apartment pretty indescribable and full of cool things but the best thing...The Rooftop. You can see the view in one of the pics in the link below, it viewed the Financial district of LA and was beautiful. We hung out, had some drinks went dancing in the bar round the block, and when the DJ went spazz we went back to the roof to continue the party. What a night. To recover from a night like that we went to the beach. I got my tan did and it was so nice jumping in the water. Dear God, please can you make a sandy beach in London please?
Enjoy the LA snaps below, just click the link.
More snaps can be found here!
On arrival it was cold but so nice to see a city of the kind we were used to. High rise buildings, sidewalks lined with Coffee bars and buses zipping through, it felt a lot like New York. We attempted to walk to our hostel but seeing as it was over a mile away, and carrying our suitcases we grabbed a cab. And then realised that the little bit we did walk was totally in the wrong direction. We arrived at USA hostels on Post Street which I would totally recommend to anyone wanting to visit. As it was 9am and we couldn’t check in until 2pm we dropped our bags and did what anyone would do in a new city, sight see? No, we went shopping. Not being too far from the main shopping street we bought some things in Forever 21, H&M and some other random American stores. With tiredness kicking in we ate some food and got to our hostel and slept.
Over the few days we were there we got a lot done, visiting China town, their hippy district, thrift stores, Fishermans wharf, the mission, Golden gate Bridge and Park, for one city there is so much diversity. One of my best memories was taking the tram back from the Wharf back into the city and as we were descending down the hill one other tram was ascending it, but at one point it was going backwards, scared tourist squealed, cars behind had to swerve, it was a little frightening but in the end it was all ok. Phew. We had a great time also with cousins who we have never met before, and meetings my Grandma’s sister and my auntie. One thing for sure, I love the family aspect that Filipinos in America have. It is so different from England and I wish we could have that aspect a little more.
Once again I will leave with more fotas! Following the link: