Day 98-100: Universal Studios, LA!!

Yet another Last-Post; this time for the USA and it’s gonna be a long-un! We were only a couple of days away from heading south to one of the most exhilarating challenges of our life, so we figured we would spend our last couple of days in California somewhere fancy. Universal Studios had an awesome deal where you only have to pay an extra $4 for a two day pass instead of a one day, though you could do Universal Studios in one day if you got up early and was strict with what you wanted to see and when.

DAY 1 – Journey down to LA

This was a long day, but spectacular in scenery! The first bit of beauty was just past Hearst Castle. Most of the zoo-like animals that were brought over to the mansion eventually had to be donated to local zoo’s. One group of animals that acclimatised well, however, was the zebra. As much as I willed it, they wouldn’t come near. After what I’ve seen from other tourists over the past few days, it’s just as well that they kept their distance. 

 

After that we passed by a small, but very quaint town called San Luis. My memory is falling me a little here, but most of these cow statues were around this town, and the whole place was very colourful!

It was around here that there was a very famous wall. It was famous for a really disgusting reason. I think it’s interesting to see how differently we reacted to it.

And it made total sense that a gum-ball machine would be in the shop right next to it.

Our last stop of the journey before hitting up LA was Santa Monica. More cows, watching people surf, eating salt-water taffy. Bliss.

DAY 2+3 – Universal Studios

After arriving at our AirBnB, we quickly learnt that our host was going through some emotional time and we needed to give him some space. He had just cheated on his girlfriend or something and clearly wanted to just sit there and get high instead of showing us how anything in his house worked. His three cats were more of a host to us than him. It was a good thing in the end though, as we needed an early night in order to make the most of the next couple of days.

As far as recommendations go, I would recommend whatever you can possibly do here. The studio tour was incredible!  Some of the special effects that they put on in the rides blew my mind! You also HAVE to go to Harry Potter world while you’re there and check out the ride, but just to warn you, it’ll be uncomfortable if you’re scared of spiders! My last personal favourite was the Simpsons ride. I never knew I could scream so much without actually moving anywhere but, like I said, the special effects were awesome!

And so our time came to an end in the USA. I can only assume that going to Peru after here would be like night and day. The USA has been pretty stunning, warm and… comfortable. It’s been difficult trying to drum up a lot of passion when talking about California, even though I really can see what the fuss is about. I think it boils down to the lack of challenge – our traditions, language, and being haven’t been challenged here. It may also be down to the fact that we haven’t met as many people that we’ve had a genuine connection with here and that’s my fuel. That’s not anyone’s fault, but it may have been what has driven my mood here.

We’ve had a lot of fun, but I think I can speak for both of us when I say we’re ready to shake things up a bit and find out how life south of the hemisphere is.