A Martyr in LA by Jammy
What? Wales playing in LA?
A part of me thought “oh no”. I
had already committed to going to China and thought that would be my only big
trip of 2018 but I’ve never been to America.
A few of the boys did their usual “Yes I’m all over that” but when it
came down to it I expected the inevitable fact that I’d be going on me
todd. The boys love to tease though,
more than those girls behind the bay windows in Hamburg.
The first thing to sort out after flight and hotel was the
ESTA visa. Now this was a fairly
straight forward and cheap process compared to the rigmarole of a Chinese visa,
and probably something we are all likely to have to get used to
post-Brexit. I say likely because who
knows what’s going to happen with that but that’s as political as I’ll get
here.
So my journey to Gatwick began. First by train then a night
in a Travelodge before my 6am flight. I
flew with Norwegian Air and got a cheap flight.
Norwegian are an airline I’d recommend but they seem to have adopted the
Ryanair model of cheap flights with subsequent charges for everything. Hand luggage only for me so I get on my
flight and off I go. 10 and a half hours
later I land in LAX. Going through US customs
and hoping my visa was all sorted I reached the finger print machine. Now this
was an ordeal. No matter how hard I
tried I just couldn’t get the machine to record my finger print. My nerves and my head were not helped when a customs
officer rebuked me because my hands were sweating too much. I had enough about me to hold back a sarcastic
retort which would have been along the lines of “sorry love, but perhaps it’s
because I’ve been on a flight from the UK for the last 11 hours having woken up
at 3am to get to the airport”. I thought
I’m in Trump’s America now though so it’s probably a good idea to shut up and
get out of here.
So off to Santa Monica I go.
A rather helpful tourist information officer gave me the low down on how
to get where I needed to go. Now I was
warned beforehand that the public transport system in LA was poor and boy were
they right. Absolutely terrible in
fact. Still, I get to Santa Monica on a
train system which made Valley Lines look decent.
Now I’m not one for the heat but boy was it hot. Venice beach
was spectacular and my feet were burnt by the end of the day. I made the decision after talking to a
regular traveller to hire a car. Now
this was the first time I’d driven outside the UK so the first time I’d ever
driven on the right and also the first time I’d driven an automatic car so I
was rather nervous. But was it a good
decision, enabling me to catch a glimpse of Hollywood sign and do the Walk of
Fame which I wouldn’t fancy doing again after dark. A trip to Malibu Beach was
also made along with Rodeo Drive.
I met up
with Wolvesy and a trip to the baseball was arranged. LA Dodgers play at the impressive Dodgers
stadium. The Americans certainly know
how to put on a show and there’s a spectacular firework display at the end of
the game.
And onto the
football game itself. It’s often
described as the worse part of any trip but I’m not one for subscribing to that
theory. It was played at the world-renowned
Pasadena Rose Bowl where The Beatles have played. What a stunning venue! The finest I’ve been
in. The Americans like to do everything
big and boy have they done it here.
There were 400 Welsh fans among 80,000 Mexicans who certainly love the
weed by the way. They also love to fight amongst themselves too.
Club rivalry which is something we’ve seen creeping in with us too. Now if you
had told me that day that the Mexicans would have gone on to beat the Germans in
the World Cup after this rather dour 0-0 game then I’d have assumed you’d spent
too much time in the Mexican end smoking their weed. The game and another trip was over. South America next year please drive.
JAMMY
Comments