005 - fri 05/05/2006 - los angeles/new york

so los angeles. i think by the time we left los angeles we had probably found a couple of parts of town that seemed quite liveable, that we probably could spend more time exploring - westwood around ucla (which we basically drove through on a bus) and santa monica were nice spots. we now knew not to judge a place by the first day you spend there, particularly if you spend that first day in a shitty part of town that is generally regarded by the locals as being the arse end of town (and if you are crazy jetlagged doesn't help either). and the people in la were generally friendly, even the freaks, like the weird woman on the bus who kept a doll who reminded her to stay off the booze - "she has the same name as me, except her middle name is jesus, and sometimes i drop her when i'm drunk, so i guess i'm lucky she's not a real baby, hey!.."

we caught a shuttle bus very early that morning to get to lax airport, to catch a plane to jfk airport in new york. on the plane i watched "good night and good luck". the descent into new york was great, with little cloud cover we could see manhattan, the hudson river. we identified a large green rectangle as central park.

within 10 minutes of claiming our luggage we were on the subway. we navigated our way on and off a few trains and then headed above ground. we climbed the stairs up into midtown new york - high rises, taxi cabs, hot dog stands, grates leaking hot wispy clouds of steam. new york. after we found our hotel - the grungy and excellently located carlton arms - it had gotten dark so we went in search of dinner. a bit overwhelmed and slightly dazed from the flight, we found a diner and had burgers. we slept.

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