This past week has been pretty mental. Not had much sleep, worked really hard, and not had time to do anything else. So I intended on winding down a lot over the weekend, and to have a couple of lazy days before doing it all again on Monday. Despite not having much sleep, I still woke up early (I think it's the routine now), and managed to catch the second half of Soccer Saturday from an online stream I found. A good way to wake up.
We chose to head back into Downtown after being told that there were tons of bars and eateries there; we still couldn't find them. Eventually, we managed to find an alright looking 50's style diner, which was quite nice… until I almost ate a hair in my burger. I didn't eat the rest. The "fries" were nice though.
After walking around the same parts for a second and third time, we headed back to the apartment, but decided to stop off by the Staple's Center on the way back to see if there was actually anything else round there; any bars or restaurants etc. Having been near there last week at Summerslam, I didn't really look around so I didn't expect to see anything else there. I'm glad we checked back, because it turns out there's a whole ton of stuff there. Several bars, including the ESPN bar where ESPN is broadcast from, a fair few restaurants, a bowling alley, skate-park, basketball courts, and on this particular day was host to some kind of festival. It turned out to be "Hear His Voice 2011" www.hhvoice. com presented by the Calvary Chapel…
Not feeling the Jesus love, we finished our beers and decided to leave, possibly at the wrong point, as this was when they got a young girl up to sing the national anthem. Everyone went silent. Quite eerie.
We headed out to Hollywood for drinking around half six. As we crossed the street near to the Metro Rail, a guy started talking to us about our tattoos and asking where we were from. We were a bit cautious at first, but then realised he just wanted to sell us some weed.* Kindly declining, we asked where the station we were looking for was, and being the true gentleman he was, walked us there. As we parted ways, he mentioned to us to be very careful around this area, especially at night. It was at this time we noticed the shiner over his right eye, I'm assuming given to him by one of the locals.
We got off at Hollywood and Vine metro this time (right near where we saw Jennifer Love Hewitt last week) and noticed several cameraman and reporters at the top of the escalators, hoping there hadn't been some kind fatal shooting or something prior to our arrival….
We checked out a few decent bars with someone else from the school, one of which was a New Orleans themed bar, where she was originally from and was great, and another was a based on a London pub called the "Blue Boar" http://www.blueboarpub.com (it wasn't quite the Red Lion though). It was quite impressive. A lot of attention to detail had gone into it, and there were some half decent beers on tap (Boddington's, London Pride, Newcy Brown, Old Speckled Hen etc.)
Being rather pleased we'd managed to find an English themed public house, and feeling huge relief that they had the highlights from the Premiership on the TV**, there was then a news report that was filmed earlier at Hollywood and Vine station… It was this…
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_18728655
Knowing that the metro rail and following walk home was probably not the safest way to travel back to the apartment, and not being entirely sober anymore, we grabbed a taxi back. We were supposed to be back for someone's leaving drinks at the apartment, but we'd missed them. Nevermind. Tomorrow, it's time for shopping, cleaning, washing, homework and writing this very blog. Sorry it went on for a bit.
*Apparently, it is very easy to get smokeable drugs here. If you have a medical card, it's legal. You can get a bigger fine from J-walking or not having a metro ticket, than from possession of marijuana… I'll probably leave it though.
**I thoroughly enjoyed Aaron Ramsey's finish against Liverpool...