Travelling Post 55 - California

From New Zealand I flew via Fiji to America's City of Angels, Los Angeles. Why it is named City of Angels I'll never know. The people are friendly enough, more friendly than you'd think from a city of it's size, however a lot of the city has surely been abandoned by Angels or any left aren't doing their work. Full of homeless from all over America come for the sun, the majority of LA is neither clean nor has a safe feel about it. I stayed in Santa Monica, one of the so called nicer areas of the city and on an early morning stroll along the sea front I saw near enough every bench taken over as a bed for the night. This was in direct contrast to the areas where the rich and the famous live, where they don't even have paths so no one can walk around invading their privacy They also had private security who drove around to keep out the paparazzi, which is fair enough but you can't help think they keep all the undesirables as well. That said this situation is world wide, in every city in the world their are rich areas and poor areas but never before have I noticed the difference so sharply.

I took a tour around Hollywood, saw all the rich people's houses and was suitably impressed. I'd wanted a tour that didn't go to the houses of the rich and famous, it is rather tacky isn't it?!? Despite my initial misgivings i was glad I went, I got to see the US class the divide, you know the one they pretend not to have, and these houses were very impressive. Hollywood itself was a bit dingy, full of buildings built in the 60s and 70s, but wandering along the walk of fame, spotting all the celebrity's stars I knew and wondering why there were so many I'd never heard of, was fun.

From LA I went South to San Diego and then North to San Francisco, and in California it seems Saints do better work than Angels.

Both cities were full of homeless but the streets were cleaner and the sites were nicer. Balboa Park in San Diego was particular highlight. Left over from the World's fair of nineteen 0 something, it is a beautiful city park in the city limits, full of wide spaces for sports and games, as well as gardens for ambling along and admiring. In contrast to the more famous Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Balboa Park is far superior in every way.

The Golden Gate Park was the only disappointment of San Francisco. The icons of the city, Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge, on the other hand are suitably worthy of the mantle 'iconic.' Alcatraz was a really interesting place to visit, and rumour has it (though this wasn't on the tour), that the inmates were the only prisoners in the US to get warm showers so they couldn't get used to cold water and swim away to freedom. Life on that island must have been hard, particularly on New Years Eve when they could hear the city celebrating whilst they were stuck doing time on the rock. It certainly isn't a hotel I'd like to visit.

From California I headed on north to Portland.