Finally, I forced myself to log back into LiveJournal and click on "new post".

This time, I'll tell you about the City of Angels, which really does look like paradise. But alas, it's far from angels who live there.

Los Angeles, or just LA.

Honestly, I don't know where to start. I want to tell you about the foggy weather, the crazy squirrels climbing palm trees, what the houses are like here, the people, etc.

I think I should start from the very beginning, how we arrived here.

So, here we are at the airport. Where to go, what to do? Spending money on hotels and transport again... ugh... We tried to connect to the internet, but nothing worked, even though there were secure free networks.

I wandered around the beautiful LAX airport for about an hour, taking photos of it.

One photo is in the previous post.

And so we finally decided to head for the exit.

And right next to the exit, we discovered such a wonderful thing as help for tourists who know nothing, just like us. There was a nice lady there, whom Vova talked to again. She helped us find a hotel, took out her little book with phone numbers and addresses, and started calling around. We, of course, chose the cheapest one)) She told us that in about 20 minutes a bus would arrive that would take us directly to our hotel, and for free. Oh, it's so nice))

And yet, their customer service is so much better and nicer! Back home, you'd definitely run into a grumpy face that would send you to the next office, and there would be the same face sitting there. But here, no, I don't think it was even part of her duties to call all the hotels! Ah, thank you to her...

While we were waiting for our bus, which was supposed to have "Hacienda" (the name of our hotel) written on it, I remembered the third part of the Harry Potter book, The Prisoner of Azkaban, that moment when he accidentally summoned the "Knight Bus" which took him to the place he needed. I used to think that could only happen in fictional books, but it turns out not only there. This is America, everything is possible here))

But then our little bus arrived, designed for about 10 people, and took us to El Segundo. We didn't know what it was or where it was, we didn't care, we hadn't slept for almost 3 days, and the last time we ate properly was in Moscow, and that was about 4 days ago....

El Segundo

LA includes many districts that used to be separate cities. And one of these districts is El Segundo. It is a wonderfully quiet, calm, very clean place, and the air is filled with the scent of flowers.

When we got out of our "Knight Bus", we immediately ended up in the large, beautiful lobby of the hotel and saw a jar of candies.

It was a little less than half full... we lived on them the whole time we were at the hotel))

We rented a room for 15 bucks per person and went up to it.

Oh my god!!! For 15 bucks we had 2 double beds, a TV, a coffee maker, a balcony with a cool view, and a bathroom!

I expected one toilet for the whole floor for 15 bucks...

aaa... happy moments with a clean body... (I hope Vova doesn't see this..)

and this is as always..)

We started falling asleep according to the local schedule.

In the morning we went on a reconnaissance mission.

At first, we went out in jeans and sweaters, expecting NY weather. But in the scorching sun, we realized that this is LA.

Ah, how many flowers there are here! And they are here all year round, because in winter they have at least 15 degrees!

And these are their Christmas trees. I took a very long time to get used to them, but now it's okay... I want to chop them down and plant birch trees..

This is the road crossing system. You press a button and run across the road! At first, we ran, because the white (instead of our green) little man disappeared very quickly and a red flashing hand appeared, so we thought it would flash like our yellow one. But no, it flashed for a minute))

And in general, there is no point in running across the road, because all cars stop anyway, letting you pass where there are no traffic lights or where you are not allowed to walk at all! :)

We saw a lot of interesting things, for example this..)

Their sewage system is like this, everything is clear immediately.. :)

We also discovered that our hotel has a pool and a jacuzzi, so we immediately jumped in!

Well, like, I'm swimming.. :)

But unfortunately, we couldn't stay here for long, it wasn't cheap after all. We had to look for an apartment.

We found one for 700 bucks, we couldn't be happier. And so we put our stuff back on our shoulders and dragged ourselves to Downtown.

We had to take the subway. After the New York one, I didn't really want to ride the American subway, but the LA subway had its own surprises. We discovered that it was free, well, only for us) At the entrance, we didn't find where to buy tickets and the turnstiles were set to free passage. And the same at the exit. But then we found out that it's a lottery of honesty and luck, because if we had been asked for tickets, which we didn't have, we would have had to pay a 500-dollar fine! Although there is an option to play the dumb tourist))

So we arrived in Downtown, it took an hour and a half. We found that apartment, and... we were told that you can only rent it for at least 6 months, and for that, you also need a bank account with 4200 dollars! Great! No one told us about this, not the CMO (the organization we came through) or the lady on the phone we were negotiating with. And what's even cooler is that this is required everywhere!

We spent the whole day on the street with our stuff.

We tried to look for other apartments in the same area, but it was all the same. We wandered into a society of former drug addicts and alcoholics, and a kind uncle there gave us 4 large bottles of tea and cereal!))

Enjoying the donation from the society of former junkies))

But we didn't really want to live in that area, because there were ONLY MEXICANS! Everywhere there were shops with fake clothes, smeared with shit, syringes and poop lying on the roads..... And the people were completely frozen.

When it started to get dark and cold, we decided to get out of there and return to our cute little hotel.

The way back was just as free) We returned, rented the same room, and were happy. Each of us promised never to go to Downtown again. City center.....

The next day we went to look for housing and work in our area.

We wandered into some exhibition of rare and cool cars.

Vova kept forcing me to take pictures of them..

We walked to the ocean.. It's a hell of a long walk, of course. With every step, you realize that there's nothing to do here without a car.

Ah..... I never thought the ocean could evoke any emotions in me! It's huuuuge!

Even if the weather was bad, it was windy and very cold, but I couldn't resist going up to it! It's so restless, so alive... If I continue to describe all my feelings that it evokes in me, it will take another half post!... :)

As I already wrote, they have flowers everywhere there!

The most diverse lilies and roses! Damn it, it wouldn't last long with us!

And we also saw baseball. Even if it was some middle school, and it was just a practice, but I liked it!

He hit the ball out of the field.

The ball, by the way, flew in our direction, and Vova rushed after it. I thought he wanted to return it, but this rascal put it in his pocket!

And now this ball is lying on our windowsill with the rest of the trophies))

Work was dull for them. Although Vova got lucky and was hired for a part-time job for a couple of hours at a restaurant.

And housing was the same as we were told in Downtown.

No matter how much we didn't want to leave there, we still had to.

Through some shitty contact, we found Russians who were renting out apartments in Hollywood. The prices are certainly not excellent, but you can live. Still, it's clear that they can easily screw us over, but we had no other choice.

But more on that later, maybe someday I'll be able to squeeze out a story again..)

Date June 15, 21:09