Well.
London is a breath of fresh air (in a vacational sense). I've only be here one day and already I am digging the place. The flight from LA was fine and we slpet for 18hours straight as soon as we got back.
However I cannot believe the price of things. I am buying bottles of water nand paying £1.50 mfor them and it is only until you do some converting that you figure that it is a $4.50 bottle of water. Train rides are expensive as well with an all day pass costing you about $30 to even $50.
The place where we are staying is in a really nice little town called Tunbridge Wells and we are staying with a friend of Sarahs. Great people and we are about to hit some ye olde english pubs in a bit. For a year pass on the trains (which they have - you dont use cars in London) it cost him $7500. I am so glad that I can just walk to work in NZ.
We are to go into the centre of London tomorrow and check out the houses of parliament etc. I am also going to check out the channel 4 headquarters and london eye etc as they are quite the fancy design.
I hear Jacob Oram is the master blaster now. Watched the game against England which was some extreme hitting so I am pissed that I missed his century against Oz.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Monday, January 29, 2007
Far Out
So now British airways are not striking. Meaning that I now have to miss out on the Getty Centre and Universal Studios all beacuse of their stupid reliability.
Cant be bothered. What a stuff up.
Kind of sick of LA anyways. Hasn't lived up to expectations.
Cant be bothered. What a stuff up.
Kind of sick of LA anyways. Hasn't lived up to expectations.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
HA. It is bound to happen.
When would British Airways want to strike. Just when we are flying with them. What a crock. Our flight to London was cancelled and it took a good hour and a half on the phone to finally get our flights changed from Thursday the 1st of February to this coming Monday the 29th of February. It honestly took a good 5 mins for them to understand our booking refernece number because they thought we couldnt pronounce the letter 'z' properly.
Apart from that everything is fine and dandy. Gehry studios was amazing. The place is huge and I snuck a few photos to look back on. (They didnt actually allow it but I think I got some good ones of the entire place). I will talk alot about it in the lecture so I think I will save most of that info till then.
Got stranded in South Central for an hour which was an eyebrow raiser.
Visited Santa Monica and Malibu beach and the likes. Saw a mini putt which I got amped up for but then realised it was probably the most average one I have ever seen. Worse than Snappers at the mount or that shitty one at Rainbows End.
Because of the change in flights I probably wont get a chance to visit any mini putss considering the nearest one is about a 3 hour bus ride away. Already done a few of them and they are not fun. Especially when you are sitting near homeless people who have just found enough money for a fare and have just pissed themselves.
Visited Burger King ( my first true fast food joint here so far) and I have concluded that America fast food is not actually that much tastier than New Zealand ones as I was led to believe. The cheese is a bit tastier and the king size (which I got) was monster. I am talking a drink larger than 1 ltr which was bigger than the burger and fries put together. And it was cheap. Probably about $7 NZ for the largest combo.
I also am missing out on the Getty Centre which is a bit of a shame but I figure I would rather be in London with a (pretty much) gauranteed trip home than stranded in LA.
When would British Airways want to strike. Just when we are flying with them. What a crock. Our flight to London was cancelled and it took a good hour and a half on the phone to finally get our flights changed from Thursday the 1st of February to this coming Monday the 29th of February. It honestly took a good 5 mins for them to understand our booking refernece number because they thought we couldnt pronounce the letter 'z' properly.
Apart from that everything is fine and dandy. Gehry studios was amazing. The place is huge and I snuck a few photos to look back on. (They didnt actually allow it but I think I got some good ones of the entire place). I will talk alot about it in the lecture so I think I will save most of that info till then.
Got stranded in South Central for an hour which was an eyebrow raiser.
Visited Santa Monica and Malibu beach and the likes. Saw a mini putt which I got amped up for but then realised it was probably the most average one I have ever seen. Worse than Snappers at the mount or that shitty one at Rainbows End.
Because of the change in flights I probably wont get a chance to visit any mini putss considering the nearest one is about a 3 hour bus ride away. Already done a few of them and they are not fun. Especially when you are sitting near homeless people who have just found enough money for a fare and have just pissed themselves.
Visited Burger King ( my first true fast food joint here so far) and I have concluded that America fast food is not actually that much tastier than New Zealand ones as I was led to believe. The cheese is a bit tastier and the king size (which I got) was monster. I am talking a drink larger than 1 ltr which was bigger than the burger and fries put together. And it was cheap. Probably about $7 NZ for the largest combo.
I also am missing out on the Getty Centre which is a bit of a shame but I figure I would rather be in London with a (pretty much) gauranteed trip home than stranded in LA.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Intial Stages
Well.
I think I am pretty much over LA.
Not to say that it is that bad but I just feel like the rest of the world is given a different impression of what this city is really like. It is all big 4 wheel drives, low height slum dwellings and expensive food stores. I am, as of yet, to find a supermarket or some place to get a lot of food in one go. The hostel is nice enough.
Its funny. I actually felt much more safer walking the streets of India than I do L.A. Go figure.
Anyways. A couple of days back we headed to hollywood ave and checked out all the stars on the footpath. WOW, what a big deal. That was the best time I have had in my life...... (I dunno if sarcasm translates easy on a computer screen). We then got conned into taking a tour of the stars houses and such which was looking at a whole lot of covered up gates really. It was alright I suppose. Got to travel it in a limo and checked out all the hot spots which meant we didnt have to do it later. Rodeo Drive was over the top oppulant but had some nice design ideas for upper class stores. It was nearly a waste of time until the driver asked if any of us knew of Antoni Gaudi and if we wanted to see one of the houses he designed. I was flawless in pulling out my camera and pushing past the aussies travelling with us to grab some photos of that.
Ahhh good times.
Just got back from checking out the Walt Disney Concert Hall, which did live up to expectations. Craftmanship got a bit iffey around the corners but overall it is a pretty amazing building. Went for a walk through it all and grabbed some nice shots. Alos saw a random building which was the LA Transport Authority building which looked pretty tops. Going to go to Gehry studios tomorrow and hit them up with some questions.
Not much else to report. Spending more money than expected... Which I suppose is to be expected
I think I am pretty much over LA.
Not to say that it is that bad but I just feel like the rest of the world is given a different impression of what this city is really like. It is all big 4 wheel drives, low height slum dwellings and expensive food stores. I am, as of yet, to find a supermarket or some place to get a lot of food in one go. The hostel is nice enough.
Its funny. I actually felt much more safer walking the streets of India than I do L.A. Go figure.
Anyways. A couple of days back we headed to hollywood ave and checked out all the stars on the footpath. WOW, what a big deal. That was the best time I have had in my life...... (I dunno if sarcasm translates easy on a computer screen). We then got conned into taking a tour of the stars houses and such which was looking at a whole lot of covered up gates really. It was alright I suppose. Got to travel it in a limo and checked out all the hot spots which meant we didnt have to do it later. Rodeo Drive was over the top oppulant but had some nice design ideas for upper class stores. It was nearly a waste of time until the driver asked if any of us knew of Antoni Gaudi and if we wanted to see one of the houses he designed. I was flawless in pulling out my camera and pushing past the aussies travelling with us to grab some photos of that.
Ahhh good times.
Just got back from checking out the Walt Disney Concert Hall, which did live up to expectations. Craftmanship got a bit iffey around the corners but overall it is a pretty amazing building. Went for a walk through it all and grabbed some nice shots. Alos saw a random building which was the LA Transport Authority building which looked pretty tops. Going to go to Gehry studios tomorrow and hit them up with some questions.
Not much else to report. Spending more money than expected... Which I suppose is to be expected
Thursday, January 4, 2007
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