boklm's weblog

weekend in los angeles

Last weekend I had decided to go to the Southern California Linux Expo in Los Angeles. It's quite far, and I decided to take the bus (maybe flying or driving would have been better after all, I'll see next time). And you don't sleep very well in the bus :)



So I arrived on friday afternoon in Los Angeles, at about 4pm, and it was raining. I had a reservation for the student inn international hostel (which is quite cheap) on Hollywood Blvd, and my problem was to go there. I walked a little from the greyhound station on the 7th street, and that's where I found that some places in Los Angeles doesn't look safe. And finding a map, with the metro and bus lines is not that easy ... After walking for some time (and a little scared alone in this part of the city), I decided to take a bus that was stopping there. I didn't know the price, so I gave 5$, but she (the bus driver) told me they don't have change in the bus, but she let me stay for free as I seemed to be new in this city. After some time the bus stopped for some reason (I think the bus had some technical problems and needed to be changed). I was now in Downtown LA (where there was a lot more people, in a place which seemed more safe). I was looking the streets names on my map, when some people helped me find the nearest metro station (after walking about 5 minutes), showed them the address where I wanted to go, and they told me I had to go to Hollywood/Vine. I was then able to buy a ticket (it's $3 to be able to take any metro or bus for one day), then took the metro, and walked 30 minutes on hollywood blvd before finding the hostel (and I found that the Hollywood/Highland station was closer).



The next day I walked a little in hollywood, before taking the metro and bus to go the the LA Convention Center.







Some of the presentations was quite interesting.



After that the night was falling, and I decided to take a bus to go anywhere (in china town where there was a lot of people, then some place where there was some fun-fair, and a bridge over the highway).







I came back to Hollywood Blvd, and walked from one end to the other end. There was a lot of animation here, a lot of people ... After that it was about 11:30pm, so it was time to go sleep.



Then next day ... everything look different when it's no more night



Some roads was closed, I didn't know exactly why, so I had to take a different way (which was not a bad idea).





In the afternoon I saw why they had closed some roads.



A lot of limo cars, probably from rich people. I don't know what they were doing, but I don't really care about people who pretend to be stars because they have a lot of money or they're on tv (actually I think I hate show business), so I didn't stay and decided to take the metro to Long Beach (and see the sea before leaving).









Then it was night ...











Then it was time to come back ...



In downtown LA to find a bus to go to greyhound. There are a lot of people whithout money sleeping in the streets.







The road where I wanted to take the bus was closed as they was making a movie.



So I walked a little more ... That's where I met someone else going to greyhound, speaking french (and living in the US for about 3 years).



(I like the phones here)
Then I took the greyhound bus, and arrived about 17 hours later in Grants Pass (after some stops in various cities in central California).

That was a good weekend ! I hope I'll be able to come back to Los Angeles in the futur (with a car) ...
Next cities to visit are Portland and Seattle (I don't know when).