Post PCT - Los Angeles

August 31, 2022

The last stop on my American adventure, it was also the first stop when I arrived to US four and a half months ago. I remember LA did not made a great first impression on me, it was in fact a major culture shock. It felt very different this time around though.

First of all I contacted Rigel (trail name Rifle) few days ago asking if I could spend two nights at his place before the departure and he said yes. I met him three months ago during a trail magic he was hosting around RV resort close to LA, we got talking and he gave me his email address saying that if I would need a place to crash before going back to Europe I should let him know. And so I did, not having much faith that he will reply to my email but voila, he did and he was very positive about it.

I arrived at his place yesterday in the afternoon later than expected as the morning Flix bus from Santa Barbara got cancelled and I had to book another one. Rifle's house was situated in North Hollywood ten minutes away from the Hollywood Boulevard and the walk of fame right in the centre of the whole shebang.

When I arrived at his house I got greeted by him, his girlfriend Elena and his friend Pepe we had a dinner, few beers and talked a about our lives, plans for the future, hiking (of course) and Mexico and Poland and what the both countries had in common. Both Rigel and Pepe were electrical engineers and that's how they first met in Minnesota, Elena was a pediatrician specialising to become a teenagers doctor. I asked what places I could visit tomorrow (I already did the 'standards' like Griffith Observatory and Getty Museum during the first visit). Elena recommended going to the Tar Museum located in La Brea only few miles away.

Next day after visiting the hand and footprints outside of the Chinese Theatre and taking few pictures I went to La Brea. I walked into the Tar Pits museum and asked if they were taking apple pay (contactless payments) but they didn't so I started to make my way out (it's the only way I could pay, long story) but the guy buying tickets in the next window offered me one, well tyvm sir! Museum was quite interesting it had a massive collection of bones lifted from the tar (but actually asphalt) pits in the surrounding area, they had full skeletons of sabertooth tigers, mammoths, dire wolves and many different birds of prey. Essentially every animal that lived in the area during the ice age, got trapped inside the sticky goo pit and died inside of it.

After spending two hours in this massive ossuary I went around the area looking at bubbling asphalt pits, some of them still excavated by the scientists. A couple of interesting sculptures where located in the area, most notably 'Urban Light' by Chris Burden and 'Levitated Mass' by Michael Heizer, first being a bunch of lamp posts lined up right next to each other which attracted the instagrammers like fly's and second, a massive rock under which there was a tunnel you could cross, but no one was crossing because it seemed pointless which was the entire point. After seeing all of this I decided not to visit nearby Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and/or Los Angeles County Museum of Arts which I might regret later but it was getting late.

Instead I made my way back to the Hollywood Boulevard and started looking for some decent souvenirs I could take back home, without any success. Hollywood had some of the crappiest, generic souvenirs I have seen to date, like seriously there was a good business opportunity here. Finally I picked up few fridge magnets and called it a day, hoping that there will be a better selection at the airport.

My last stop for the day was Trader Joe's supermarket a very hipster like and reasonably priced place with a lot of their own branded produce where I picked up a bottle of wine and a cinnamon cake for Elena and Rigel. Then I made my way back to their place, we had a very pleasant evening talking about our hiking adventures (of course), rigged American election system, bureaucracy at the European Union, ancestry tests and their exciting results Americans got from them and the boring results Europeans did. Finally it was time for bed.

I plan to leave early in the morning tomorrow and be at the LAX airport good few hours before the departure. It's the end of my American adventure! It has been a thought provoking and eye opening trip, it made me look at Americans and their country in a very different light. The comfort zones, taste buds and culture savviness has been expanded. It was a pleasure America, you still have it just keep the ball rolling and thanks for having me!