Straight Into Compton...

Well, we didn't actually go to Compton but the bus we were on from Downtown LA took us through Crenshaw which made Rob's heart skip a beat. This would turn out to be the longest road in the world which took us through nearly every district in LA and dropped us neatly about 2 mins walk from our friend Ryan's place. Which in turn was 2 mins from Venice Beach.


Venice Beach turned out to be an incredibly fun and weird place - imagine Camden Market on Sea and you're halfway there. Ryan suggested that hiring bikes would be the best way to see the sights and coastline of Venice and Santa Monica so we grabbed a couple and trundled down to Santa Monica Pier.If Venice Beach is Camden, then Santa Monica is Soho on Sea - it's hard to imagine two such different beach areas so close together.

A few other things that we made sure we found were Muscle Beach and Gold's Gym - two names very familiar to all you boys. In fact there were things to see and do everywhere from bars, strange shops, food booths and of course the beach itself.
Incidentally when we were there, Venice and most of the LA coastline was experiencing extremely rough and high seas - the highest some residents had ever seen and the hot lifeguards were out in force - which meant of course Rob went in the sea.

One thing that were really surprised about was the public transport. LA has LOTS and LOTS. In Venice/Santa Monica itself there is a bus system that gets you everywhere, and all the districts in LA are connected by a bus system - there is even a subway system in the immediate LA area - which we took to get us to Universal Studios. A day pass cost us $5 (3 pounds!) and yes it takes a while to get places but no longer than an hour (if you live in London - that's not that long !).

Universal Studios was incredibly fun but much smaller than we expected - it really does bring out the big kid in you and we scared ourself silly in the first 5 mins in the haunted house and of course the Jurassic Park water ride.


LA is a fantastic if soulless place. There are much better locations near the coast that have character and a warmth about them so make one of these your base if you visit. Of course we were incredibly lucky to have a friend living in a wonderful area who let us stay with him - thanks again Ryan - it was brilliant !


PN