I think I hate LA. I've been trying so hard to like it that i now feel kind of resentful for the effort. Santa Monica and Pasadena are divine, but otherwise LA is horrendous. Downtown is a dive, Hollywood is a dump and Universal Studios is lame - even Chessington has better rides. I am massively craving London or New York right now, or just anywhere that has decent transport and people who actually have local knowledge. Even people who work in travel centres are clueless. I have no idea how the population here has managed to build a city, they just seem to be a mass of cluelessness and disorganisation. I swear, i will never complain about public transport in England again. My first thought on exiting the airport was disgust at just how many cars are on the road and an absolute lack of people walking the streets. The only area where i saw people exercising their ability and right to use their legs was at a Pride parade through West Hollywood, and they were practically skipping!

Despite many moments of disgust (including witnessing a guy pull out a knife at someone on the bus just because they had tapped his shoulder instead of saying excuse me - the irony is delicious, i know) I have found plenty of incidents to laugh at and i guess the whole Californians-are-freaks scenario is rather entertaining. There have been highlights, including experiencing about 2 minutes of excitement viewing the Desperate Housewives set at Universal before resuming a bored expression and clockwatching. I enjoyed people watching in Venice Beach which is full of weirdos and manicured dogs that resemble topiary trees. A bus tour of movie stars' homes was way better than i ever anticipated, and 3 hours spent lost on a random bus route showed me plenty of surprise sights that i hadn't expected, including my first glimpse of the Hollywood sign and the realisation that i was 4 counties away from where i wanted to be.

Tomorrow i go to Santa Barbara overnight to try to escape the madness briefly before escaping permanently on a plane to Portland. I will be sad to leave Santa Monica though, because it totally fulfills the dream image you have of California and LA, and people are ridiculously friendly here. The sun always shines and the people always ask how you are. It is a bubble of fresh air in what might otherwise might be described as a stagnant pool. I'm being harsh, i know, but LA really does suck. End of.