Land Ho!!
This is my first sight of the USA. Quite beautiful.
I wrote in my diary that it's a brown and folded land. As we flew onward the hills spread out, until we started seeing urban landscapes that grew and expanded. Los Angeles is a pale, flat city but the palm trees stood out, lining streets in regular rows.
I have to say, LA did not entice me, not at this point nor later on in our journey. I know it's hard to say this without really getting to know a place - one day I'll spend more time there perhaps and make a more measured deduction.
I did see the Hollywood sign but it was gone too quickly to photograph.
It was a reasonably straightforward admission process. I was ridiculously nervous - not sure why - and being tired (and starving!) didn't help. But we were waved through most points quite quickly and after collecting our luggage we trundled round to the American Airlines terminal. The first impression of LA was "have we left Sydney?" The street scape outside the terminal looked incredibly similar to Sydney, even down to the light. We got through the next entry point and then headed to the loo and I would have to say that this was the worst public convenience of the entire trip - filthy and unpleasant! I dropped my cardigan on the floor and I could not bring myself to wear it again - it languished in the front pocket of my suitcase for the rest of the trip.
We had a wander round the terminal looking at the shops - Hudson News, a Mexican restaurant and other eating places that seemed excessively full of food. America, we were here. It was incredibly similar, yet different, like a parallel universe.
Food. I was getting a bit desperate, but strangely, I restrained myself as I felt I didn't want to spoil my appetite as I was hoping for a nice meal in SF when we arrived. So, we settled for a turkey sandwich - poor first choice. The turkey was odd, quite different to ours and the roll had a few measly slices of camembert as well as rather thick slices of raw apple. Hmmm. We sat in the area near our gate, waiting for the next flight while we watched a plane to SF being called and begin boarding. Thank the travel gods (first time!) I got out our boarding pass and checked our flight - it was ours! My watch, or our befuddled travel brains - or both - nearly missed us our connecting flight!! We dashed on board, some of the first to get on after first class and we were right down the back. This was the worst seating of the entire trip - we weren't together. I was right up the back and Vlado a little further forward. Thankfully it was a relatively quick flight.
I asked for a tea but they didn't have it - hmmmm! So I had a coffee and something called half and half - half milk and cream - not that bad as it turned out - better than a lot of the coffee we had on the rest of the trip.
Flying up the coast I saw the road that we would eventually drive on - Highway 1. I saw what looked like oil rigs, dotted evenly along the coast. I saw snow on the Sierras, mountains we would drive over in a week or so. And descending into San Francisco, I saw that this city was different to LA, greener and more varied. Lots of water surrounded the urban areas and it felt more northerly if that is at all possible. I liked it.
Exiting this airport was even easier and simpler. We quickly found our shuttle bus and being last on, we were right at the front. The drive in was enjoyable - it was a sunny day, mild, and I kept looking for Impalas on the road, the car we were going to rent. Only saw cars just like at home - Hondas and Toyotas and Hyundais and Subarus! Before I knew it we were driving through the Mission, past streets I remembered seeing when I was researching the trip. Then it was us, our stop. Welcome to San Francisco!
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