La la land

The stars came out for my one day in LA. I thought it was very considerate of the Los Angeles Tourist Board to arrange for Jake Gyllenhaal to be on my flight, especially when he also had to wait for ages at baggage claim. He looked exactly the way he does on film but with the addition of plane stubble and conspicuous rock star shades.

On the first morning I asked at the hostel for a good neighbourhood to walk around in and they sent me to The Grove. The cute name masks a corporate monstrosity, basically a retail park done up to look like a small town complete with a miniature railway, muzak emanating from the shrubbery and nothing to do except spend money. The Jonas Brothers were due to play a free concert there the day after I left.

I was struggling to think of obvious sights in the city so headed to Hollywood Boulevard and the Walk of Fame. It was pretty disappointing: the stars go on forever, most of them were obscure or baffling (Rugrats?) and they were quite dirty.

Luckily, I had plans to meet a friend. Well, I say friend but a few weeks ago she was this really cool woman I met at a party in Edinburgh who happens to be from LA and was kind enough to offer to meet me and show me around. Now she's my best friend in the city (apart from movie star Jake Gyllenhaal, of course). She took me to Mashti Malone's for Iranian ice cream then drove us to Griffith's Observatory, where the end of Rebel Without A Cause is set, to look at some stars of a very different kind.

Let the games commence

So, here's what's happening. Last week I had my last day at work and moved out of my flat. On Wednesday I'm off to the west coast of America for a holiday then to Arizona to do a national parks volunteering thing. Here's my plan:

Wednesday 12 May:
Sleeper train to London.

Thursday 13 May:
Fly to Los Angeles.


Friday 14 May:
Hang around in LA during the day (I don't have long here but will be back in July) then get an overnight bus to San Francisco.

Saturday 15 May:
Spend the day in San Fran, looking at all the places where I used to go when I spent the summer there (and hopefully getting Jamba Juice, which is the eighth wonder of the world).

Sunday 16 May:
More San Fran time then hop on an epic, overnight 18-hour train journey up the Californian coast to Portland, Oregon.

Monday 17 - Thursday 20 May:
Seeing Frightened Rabbit on the Monday and generally hoping that Portland is the relaxed, alt.mecca that everyone says it is. There will probably be a lot of coffee drinking, book reading and hopefully local music going on.

Friday 21 - Monday 24 May:
Greyhound again, this time to Seattle for more reminiscing about when I stayed here and to meet up with old friends. I'm staying in this amazing-looking art hostel - all the rooms are designed in different ways (City Hostel Seattle).


Tuesday 25 - Friday 28 May:
Back on a plane to fly to Las Vegas for a few nights. This is the city I have least inclination towards, but I still want to see it. Hopefully the spectacle will be enough to entertain me for a few days, seeing as I don't gamble, drink on my own or require the services of hookers.


Saturday 29 May - Saturday 24 July:
Time to get the bus to Flagstaff, Arizona for orientation and the start of my eight-week project doing conservationy stuff, camping and generally sweating my ass off. I get lots of days off in the eight weeks so am planning a few trips to Phoenix and anywhere else I can find a reason to go to, but they'll be last minute type things.


Sunday 25 - Tuesday 27 July:
Back to LA for a little more of the tourist thing and hopefully a day here.


Wednesday 28 July:
Home. And about 600 hours of sleep. And showing everyone the gazillions of photos I will have taken. Then the Edinburgh Festival!