Well, after a long absence, I’m back in the Americas
although this time as a tourist rather than a resident. It’s a long trip though, around 7.5
weeks. As per previously, the blog will
be mostly my own personal diary so that I don’t forget about various happenings
and places I’ve been, along with documenting impressions and the like. Additional viewers (most probably only my
parents) may find it interesting and beyond that, maybe it might prove useful
for anyone else planning a visit through the region.
Today’s post deals with the first leg of the trip – the big issue
of getting from Perth to Los Angeles.
My, but it’s a long way! But
everyone knows that already…
The flight from Perth to Melbourne was the midnight horror,
the red-eye, or whatever other expletive-laden description you might have for
it. We left at 11.40PM and were due to
arrive into Melbourne at around 6.30AM local time. The flight is a necessary evil to commence
trips from Perth as soon as possible after work on a Friday and on this
occasion, was to be followed up by the long flight from Melbourne to LA.
As it turned out, while the flight to Melbourne got away on
time, as we were nearing Melbourne things went awry. Thick fog meant that we couldn’t land and the
pilot advised that we had to turn around and head to Adelaide. The 6 people with connecting flights to
Adelaide were stoked, however the remaining couple of hundred were NOT particularly
happy. We had to sit on the tarmac for
around an hour while they dillied and dallied with refuelling, performed the
relevant calculations and got a take-off and landing slot for the Adelaide-Melbourne
flight. Not that it particularly
mattered to us, as we had a 4.5 hour wait between flights anyway, so now it was
just a bit shorter.
Some comments on the flight from Perth to Melbourne – at the
risk of repeating things that are all well known, my but we were squeezed
in! My being reasonably tall meant that I
wasn’t going to get any sleep, so I contented myself with watching some movies streamed
onto the iPad we (each passenger) were given.
I like that much better than “old technology” seat-back screens, so kudos
for Qantas for that!
So, after arriving into Melbourne, we wandered over to the
international part and headed through customs, with the idea of getting some
breakfast in that area. While some
options did exist, and we did have a very nice breakfast at the Air Bar &
Lounge (my “open omelette” was excellent), the best-looking options were
probably outside.
The flight to LA was on an A380, which was far more spacious
than the A330(?) from Perth, UNTIL the little cretin in the seat in front
reclined all the way. Suddenly the
seat-back screen was about 8 inches from my nose. At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old
man, I can’t figure people out. This kid
was around 10 years old and it’s difficult to understand how he needed to
recline his seat all the way back SO THAT HE COULD WATCH TV! If it was for him to go to sleep, well
perhaps I can understand that, but for watching TV?! I don’t really blame the kid, as 10 year olds
are notoriously ignorant about anyone but themselves, but the parents seated alongside
of him could surely figure it out?
Apparently not. Anyway, my
squeals of discomfort with the chair squashing my knees went ignored. I did eventually figure out some positions
that were a bit more comfortable, but still not great. It did force me to recline my seat
(partially), much to my delight, to annoy the stupid teenage girls seated
behind me, who were on a school trip and decided to talk LOUDLY amongst each
other, as well as their colleagues seated in other rows in the general vicinity,
during the middle section of the flight when everyone else was trying to get
some sleep.
The net result was that I got about 2 hours sleep (in 3
batches) across the flight to LA. I did
get to catch up on a bunch of movies that I’d either not seen or only partially
seen over the last 5-6 years, so there was a small win in amongst the pain.
Arrival into LA was relatively painless other than our bags
being amongst the last to be unloaded onto the conveyor. One of our bags was EXACTLY the last,
something that happens to us all too frequently… Not sure what to make of that.
After passing the long queues for immigration and customs,
we made it out into the fresh air, with fresh being a relative term. I must say that the transfer buses to the car
hire locations outside the airport is an excellent idea and worked very
efficiently. Once we were at the car
hire place (Thrifty), things became a little less efficient. The amount of time it took to collect a
pre-booked car was surprising – it feels much faster in Australia. The other people trying to rent cars (with
and without bookings) seemed extraordinarily slow. No idea why.
One neat ‘innovation’ was that once I had chosen the type of car (full-size
in this case), we were free to choose whichever car in the fleet of that
type. I still don’t know what it is that
I chose, but it is plenty fancy and red.
Happy camper.
Driving on the ‘wrong side’ was a bit more entertaining than
I expected. Having previously lived for
2.5 years in Chile and driven on the RHS, I thought it would come back to me
easier than it has so far. I’m still
having to concentrate a lot to keep the car properly positioned in the lane,
not to mention the LA drivers on the freeways driving like maniacs. Fun times!
We eventually made it to our hotel and am pleasantly
surprised. We’re in a Best Western
(Pasadena Royale) and for the price, comparing it to what I’d pay for similar
in Perth (or most of Australia for that matter), it is pretty good. We’re across the road from a little Mexican
diner type place. Having seen it on
Google Streetview, I’d sworn there was no way we’d be going there, but walking
past it and being a bit hungry at 3PM, the menu looked interesting enough so we
thought we’d have a go. Great decision
to try it. Fabulous vegie burrito and
well and truly big enough to fill the hole in my tummy – enormous! Highly recommended. Andrea had the super burrito and it was just
as good, if not better, due to the salsa it had drizzled on top. We’ll be eating there again before we
go. It’s far from fancy – you sit
outside in an area that is admittedly shaded, but is right next to the major road,
but we liked it. Really quick service
too.
We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the main
street (E Colorado Blvd) near the hotel, marvelling at the size of the 4x4’s/SUV’s
in the car yards, spotting an old dusty/rusty E-type Jaguar in a mechanics
garage just begging for someone to restore it, and checking out the various
nail shops (of the fingernail variety) that plague the area – apparently it is absolutely
necessary and incredibly urgent…
First impressions of LA – I’m surprised at how many people
are speaking Spanish around the places we’ve seen so far. I know Spanish is widely spoken here, but it
seems like every sign has both English and Spanish on it, or just Spanish! Crazy.
OK, time to see how the jetlag goes tonight.
No comments:
Post a Comment