Friday 27 June 2003
Before leaving Denmark we had planned to use this day for ourselves as Ane’s brother was on work all day. We still suffered a bit of jetlag but were eager on exploring downtown Los Angeles to get a first and impression of this huge city. The breakfast at the motel was rather primitive; actually just dry cookies and a coffee machine, but no tables or chairs. We got some inside and decided to walk the way to the nearest train station.
On a nearby gas station, we withdraw some cash and only short time late, we passed a bus station and continued to the train station by bus. Everywhere we asked for direction, people were helpful and the bus driver even told us when to get off to get to the train station.
The design of the train station matched the high temperature open with bright fresh colors. We got ourselves a ticket and looked forward to try out the public service in this cars town. The Metrolinks train (Metrolinktrains.com)was a huge double-decker train and brand new, but the speed was awful. At times, it drove to slow, we actually considered if an accident has happened, but it turned out to be quite normal speed.
We were also surprised about the conductor as he announced coming stations with an excitement as if he was opening the Academy Award on TV. That sounded stupid to us, but might be the only fun part about the conductor’s job.
About 45 minutes by train, we arrived at the Union Station and changed to the subway to downtown Los Angeles The subway network was surprisingly small considered the size of the city, with only two lines with a third under construction. We learned from Ane’s brother that the citizens use their cars “wherever they go, even to the bathroom”, but we must admit that the public service currently was not an alternative to using the car, which the 5 million cars for 8 million citizens also indicated.
We walked our way in Los Angeles downtown and did not expect it to be so clean and well kept. We got the feeling that all the buildings were built the same time and not because of decades of evolution. When we walked the side passages, which we of course did by accident, the flipside appears with ruff neighborhood and worn down buildings.
Later we decided to visit Long Beach and try to reach Randall and Daniel with whom we had arranged to meet this day. We met the two people in Puno last year when traveling in Peru and managed to keep contact since then. It was obvious that we should meet again when visiting their hometown only a year later.
Going by the trench was not fast, and when we arrived to the Long Beach station, we were not even close to the beach. Instead, we found ourselves in the middle of a large conference and hotel area and reached a small cozy marina after some detours. In the distance, we saw Cunard Lines famous “Queen Mary”, which now was equipped as a floating hotel. It is possible to visit the liner on daily-guided tours to see the bridge, the engine room and the beautiful design of a 1934 liner.
It was disappointed to realize that we were not able to visit this attraction, as I actually built a model of the sister ship “Queen Elizabeth” as a kid and knew every detail of it. I guess this makes this a “must see” on our next trip to Los Angeles
We got some lunch and after a while we succeed in reaching Randall by phone and agreed on where and when to meet. He suggested picking us up in Long Beach but an hour later he realized that the traffic was too heavy and it would be easier if we retuned to downtown Los Angeles instead. We were not too excited about returning with the same slow trench, but we did look forward meeting Randall and Daniel again.
Randall drove us to a close-by neighborhood and stopped by an apartment house where we found Daniel and Joshua busy packaging everything into boxes, as they had to move out of the flat next morning. Later this week they were moving to Washington as Daniel was going to study there for two years. Just as we usually do, they managed all the work themselves inclusive the transportation from Los Angeles to Washington.
Considered the packaging work, we quickly decided to eat at a nice Chinese restaurant nearby and shortly after, we talked about work, travels and new challenges while enjoying a nice dinner along with good wine and nice people. Randall told about his work in Hollywood as an editor on several big movie productions that needed change in color here and there. Actually, he participated on the motion pictures “Shrek” and “Gladiator”, which in return made an uninteresting experience to go to the cinema. Lately he had joined classes in photography, which might turn out to be a new career path for him.
Back in Daniel and Joshua’s flat where we said goodbye to Dan and Joshua and returned to our motel, where Randall had brought some of his great photos from his trip in Peru last year. It was nice to review some of the highlights from that holiday again. We agreed with Randall that this had been a great reunion and that we obviously should meet again in either Denmark or Los Angeles.