Well the night is behind us, and I see sun light coming in through the cabin windows... the northern hemisphere sun (I didn't have a window seat... I mean whats the point on such a long flight)
Planes is lined up to land and is decending.. I can see out the right hand window LA. And I don't believe i'm actually looking at the US my first glance of the US with my own eyes.. and there fair enough are cars driving on the opposite side of the road on the freeways.. I don't believe it, this is the US, its now upon me.. the time has arrived. The taxiing to the gate seems to take forever.. it probably does.. This is LAX after all. get off the plane. I put my foot on the jet way bridge and its all on. Up the ramp and into the immigration area.. I see the big "United states" Sign on the wall and the imigration officials.. and I forgot to fill in some of my documentation the back.. damn gotta fill it in then go back to the end of the line.. yay this adds more nervousness and delay.. but finally get through.. I noticed there were a few hispanic looking people there and I find through the course of my journey that in this part of the US there is a large hispanic component(something I wasn't really expecting) well time to pick up my luggage which I see circulating and head through customs.. which is easy enough.. just hand them the card and through a door way then bam you are right and the arrivals gate at LAX, I thought LAX being as big as its made it out be you'd have trouble finding your way around but to be right at the arrivals gate.. then directly outside was the transport made it really really easy.
Prior to this(in australia) I did two things.. I made a booking with one of the shuttle companies.. and got a discovery pass with grey hound.. so I got onboard the shuttle and worked out my paperwork with greyhound before going off to the hotel for the night.
I must say the 7th street greyhound terminal is LA is very suprising.. you'd think in a city as large as LA and a well known company such as greyhound is that it would be a bit more better set up.. but its pretty much unpainted cement floors.. metal railing leading up to the counters.. on entry to the terminal there are plenty of pan handlers.. which on the way out(I know I probably shouldn't have) I did take advantage of one of them... so its off to the hotel for the night. Up in chinatown at a place called the "Royal Pagoda" nice spot. Although it really is china town.. Almost everyone I saw going down the streets looked chineese and even the guy at the reception of the hotel had average english skills. Oh well all sorted.. I have my key and into the hotel( it was cheap $30 for the night I thnk) so whos complaining. They said they had 24 hour check out.. well hmm I'm not so sure.
I had to leave early in the morning.. I was up and away at 4am on The streets of LA in china town calling a cab.. I shouldn't have done it from my mobile(cell) phone cause the first person I called took so long (cost roaming fees) and wouldn't accept the fact that I was calling from an international number.. called another company and they came about 10 minutes later.. that whole process plus the fact that I had woken up late-ish, ment by the time I got to the greyhound terminal I was too late for the "Santa Rosa" Bus (which was where I was going to see my now ex Meg)
So I went for the next nearest city.. I knew San Francisco was near by so got a ticket there.
Now I was waiting at the correct gate at the right time, and I never heard the bus called nor the door to my gate opened (frustratingly) so I queried the desk cause I had waited well past the departure time and was told that it had left (wtf). Good thing with a discovery pass is you can take as many trips as you want it doesn't cost you any more so another ticket was no big deal for me.. just the waiting till 9am for the next one to leave was. (although it was said to arrive earlier than the earlier bus).
Strange thing was I hadn't had anything to eat since getting of the plane.. but there I was in the terminal and there was a food shop near but my nervousness was still upon me... I couldn't bring myself to get up go to the shop and get something to eat.. so there I was hungry.. sitting in the LA greyhound terminal waiting for the bus.
--- Less that 24 hours in another country and I wasn't doing too well ---
Well finally got on the bus and on the move, bound for San Francisco
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