What I remember most about Los Angeles is our neighborhood in Downtown (theCecilHotel), a room on the 15th floor for 40 bucks a night with shared facilities, a wobbly door latch, and how we would speed-walk the 6 blocks from the subway to our place late at night. And that for 4 days in a row. There was also a Mexican girl at the reception (we hardly saw any other nationalities there) with a huge bruise covering half her face... Although downstairs the hotel was gorgeous. All gold, jazz, security...

In the morning we would wake up to the wail of police sirens; asking anyone for directions was impossible because it was all Spanish speakers around, although wait, by evening, Black people would also start showing up. By the way, I personally noticed a catastrophically small number of police officers.

On the second evening after Disneyland, using the subway (by the way, few people know that LA even has a subway, even the locals themselves), we were standing by a map in our neighborhood, and a kind Japanese man asked: 'Lost? No worries, go in that direction, just be careful...' On the third day, we latched onto an Indian guy who was showing us the way at the same frantic pace we were. 'Be careful...'

How we looked for Mulholland Drive, circling around Beverly Hills, trying to ask for directions, and how we drove along that winding road, like on a rollercoaster... How we found it. How we stood and froze at the only accessible spot and looked at the night LA with all its rich and poor, expensive cars and Mexican neighborhoods, heavenly beaches and Mexican children.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but in my opinion, there are way too many Mexicans there... How we wandered into West Hollywood, not knowing it was a gay neighborhood, and how sad we were that such wonderful and handsome men were gay :( How we drove to the airport and prayed for green lights everywhere. How we looked fearfully at the gathering groups of Black people, about 20 at a time... and how we realized that if you turned the corner, no one would ever remember you again... How we lived, woke up, and were happy that we actually made it to Los Angeles, and how we realized that we're never coming back here... at least not to Downtown.