Back to the hustle

After a deep sleep in a dreamy bed we headed out for a quick bite at a Cuban bakery on the way to the station. Fantastic interiors and equally great cortados!

We said our goodbyes and got on the train. Luckily we were able to follow the people as the signage on the platforms was very minimal! A slightly eventful train ride in that we picked up some stranded passengers whose train had broken down. The result was a predicted delay and more stops to make on the way back to LA. Next thing we know the train had stopped in the middle of the tracks and the power had been turned off... seems a couple of the connections between the carriages had come apart! In the end we were an hour late back into downtown LA but we did have some pretty epic updates from the conductor to keep us entertained.

Back to our accommodation to ditch the bags and eat all the leftovers from the fridge for lunch. Next up was a trip to Griffith Park to check out the observatory and go for a walk. Lt Colonel Griffith J Griffith was an immigrant from Ireland who fell in love with his adopted homeland. He was a property developer and owned a lot of land. In 1885 he decided that all great cities have a huge park and so he donated 100 acres of land to the city of Los Angeles, which at the time was only 100,000 people. He also loved astronomy and set up a fund to make an observatory in the park that would be free for the public to use. Griffith Park is now a massive park in the Hollywood Hills surrounded by the thriving metropolis that is Los Angeles.

We wandered around the hills checking out the views of the city and the Hollywood Sign while keeping an eye and ear out for rattlesnakes. There were many signs telling people to stay on the trail and warning of rattlesnakes! A couple of hours later we ended up down in the old zoo grounds where they were setting up for a Halloween haunted house and hayride event. Some pretty elaborate and freaky looking decorations!

Another Uber arrived right on cue before we got eaten alive by bugs! We drove past three big cemeteries and Warner Brother Studios to zig zag our way back to a California mainstay. In n Out Burger. A burger joint that has been around since the 1940s and is based on the premise that nothing is frozen so everything is fresh fresh fresh. We weren’t the only ones arriving for dinner tonight either. The drive through was backed up all the way around the car park back out onto the street and then around the corner through the traffic lights...and it stayed that way for the 45 min we were there! Inside was organised chaos and you had to be very strategic to get somewhere to sit. It was rammed. Luckily this wasn’t our first rodeo (London gave us some practice at the table hover...) and we managed to get a seat

easy as. In n Out Burger also has an infamous ‘secret menu’ that basically means if they have the ingredients and are able to they will accommodate any sort of special menu requests or alterations you may have. Overall a crowded but very enjoyable fast food experience!

We’d had enough of the traffic for the day so wandered back up to Hollywood Boulevard and found some Walk of Fame stars we hadn’t seen yet and the Chinese Theatre. The Chinese Theatre is where most of the LA LA Land movie premieres happen and there is a whole area out the front where famous movie stars have left their foot and handprints along with a signature and sometimes a message in the concrete. No stars here in person, but we felt pretty starstruck to be honest! It is very inspiring.

A couple of beers to wind down while catching the end of Football Sunday and then home for our last snooze in LA.