To the U.S.A.

Bas Geertsema

Today I had to leave behind the big green parks, the multicultural splendid cities, white beaches, Victoria Bitter beer, kangaroos, other strange creatures. And no more ‘cheers mate’ and ‘no worries’. But after six weeks in Australia, it was time to move on. Although there are many parts of the country that I haven’t seen (most notably the west, north, south and middle areas haha), I think I have seen enough of Australia to really get a feeling of the country and the way of life. Although the beaches were nice to spend a couple of days, it were the cities that I liked the most. Specifically Melbourne and Sydney. Which one is ‘better’? I honestly cannot decide. Although Melbourne has a bit less snobby vibe, Sydney has some amazing scenery through the city and surroundings that is unsurpassed. I enjoyed both cities equally well.

Ofcourse the best way to spend your last night in any country or continent .. is just partying! The ideas was in short this: I would drink a couple of beers, get a dance, go to bed late so I would be really tired. And then sleep on the 13-hour flight that was ahead of me. I succeeded in the former. In fact it was so late, I decided not to sleep at all. But the plane turned out to have this amazing, state-of-the-art, video-on-demand, high-quality featured super-cool entertainment console. Obviously I didn’t want to wast my time sleeping when I can watch al the latest movies (like The Queen, The Departed, latest simpsons episodes, etc) all night long. Needless to say, by the time I arrived at my hostel in Los Angeles my eyes were twitching in an attempt to go to sleep.

But it was 7 a.m. in the morning. Whereas I departured 10.50 a.m. from Sydney. So I actually went back in time and arrived before I departed. Now that is a neat trick. After getting some well deserved rest I decided to go out and walk around.

I quickly figured out that LA is huge. Imagine a population that surpasses the population of a small country (for example say The Netherlands), divided over hundreds suburbs in bungalow styles, wide lanes in between in a nice evenly designed grid. That is how most of LA looks like. Massive, but not very interesting. Fortunately my hostel is situated in the middle of Hollywood. Within 5 minutes you are walking either on Hollywood boulevard, or Sunset boulevard. The former is dedicated to the art of moviemaking, whereas the latter is the place to be when the nightlife takes off. Ofcourse, a big part of this is one big touristic sight. But walking the walk of fame, bearing the names of 2000 hollywood stars, and the hollywood sign in the background tells you: yes, this is Hollywood. And I am in the U.S.A.

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