We had a very long, stressful day travelling yesterday. When we first left, we got stuck in traffic on the M40 which was very worrying, but we managed to get there on time thankfully. It was awful saying goodbye, I was a mess going through passport control and security! Found it hardest saying goodbye to the dogs though.
The flight was great anyway, it seemed to go on forever, but when we finally arrived, we couldn't believe 11.5 hours had just passed. The airport experience at LAX was horrendous, 2 hours of chaotic queueing to get through customs, it was absolute madness. The luggage carousels couldn't handle all the new luggage that was continually coming through and so there were just piles and piles of suitcases all over the floor, falling off the carousels and just people everywhere looking for their stuff. Not what we wanted to do after a long haul flight. Then to sort the hire car out, which I said we would collect at 3.30pm, it had gone 5pm by this point. Had a very confusing conversation with the desk guy, was being charged a lot of money but couldn't understand why, my card bounced, the conversation went round in circles and in the end I couldn't be bothered so I just agreed and left. Now I've got to sort stuff out with the bank and ring the hire company back to finish paying. But I'm just not going to worry about that at the moment as we haven't had a chance to enjoy it here yet, or even have it sink in that we're really here!
Once I'd got used to the car, driving was a stressful, scary, but fun experience. We only got lost once, and I only drove on the wrong side of the road once (!) we'd been awake nearly 24 hours by this point, but we figured it out in the end and got here safely by about 7.30pm.
We are currently in Long Beach, which I wouldn't recommend personally. I just booked us a cheap motel for the night to rest, so we could get going properly the next day (today) and I'm glad that is all it is. We're in a very rough area (most of Long Beach is quite dodgy) you just have to keep your head down, or just don't leave the room. There were gun shots last night, we think our car alarm or the car next to ours went off and there was very loud, powerful thumping on either the wall or our door (I couldn't tell) all in the early hours, so not a particularly restful sleep but I'm wide awake and ready to go now, we can crash again later. The room itself is OK though, free WiFi so can't complain on that part!
Laguna Beach is next, in a slightly more secure hotel, and with no bad areas in Laguna Beach, I can't wait to actually wander around, take it all in, relax on a beach, feel the sun on my skin and really enjoy that we're finally here.
No comments:
Post a Comment