Improv L.A.

Improv Olympic have a theatre in LA aswell as Chicago. When I was in Chicago I chatted to Charna (who runs iO) about the possibility of classes in LA and she told me to give her a call when I got there. Now I thought it unlikely that anything would actually come of this 2 months down the line, but surprisingly it did. I was able to take 2 classes while I was there. One with Craig Cackowski and one with Dave Hill. They were both very good. I especially liked the class with Dave Hill. He comes across as a very nice guy, plus he is an excellent performer. Miles had a 'rant' about him because Dave makes it look so simple on stage.

I saw quite a few shows at iO West. What surprised me was how small an operation it is in comparison to iO Chicago. The audiences are also much smaller. I saw the Armando twice and the audiences were tiny. The thing is both shows were probably more entertaining than the Chicago Armando and yet the audience was smaller (in Chicago it sells out). I saw a few Harolds and some random shows. The standard seemed high at iO West although it was difficult to judge with the small audiences. iO West does have a nice feel in the sense that it is a place moving forward and growing. I saw a show at the Groundlings and was disappointed. It was a sketch show with some short-form improv scenes thrown in. The characters in the scenes were very good but most of the sketches seemed to lack a purpose. The majority didn't reach a climax. The improv was similar. I also saw a night of improv at UCB. I saw their Assscat show which appears to be the same as the Armando (monologist inspires scenes). The scenes were quick and there were lots of tag outs. It was very entertaining and the theatre was packed. I stayed for the panel of experts show. It was a full show of what is usually just a one scene short form game and worked due to the commitment and quality of the performers. They really took to their characters.

The improv scene in L.A. is very good. Only Chicago rivals it in the number of shows and places you can take classes. Relatively it is much less important in LA than in Chicago because so many people in LA are there for film and TV.

L.A.

Everywhere I have been people have told me horror stories about L.A. I have been here for just over a week and I like the place (controversial). The problems with L.A. are problems that haunt all major cities: dirt, litter, sleaze, pollution, traffic, public transport, unfriendly people. L.A. is different to everywhere else I have visited because it is so big. New York is big but it is focused around Manhatten Island and even there the main tourist and entertainment centres are from mid-town down. L.A. has several centres for entertainment and tourism. I have spent most of my time here getting the buses and subway around. People complain about the public transport here but I think the problems with it stem from the vast area it is trying to cover. If you live on a main bus line then you are fine and certain areas are covered more comprehensively than others. I find it amazing that there is such a big public transport system. It is also extremely cheap ($3 for a day pass). If you don't have access to a computer though you may have a problem because the system is so big you need to enter in where you want to go before you leave so you can work out which buses you need and where you need to change. The problem with all public transport systems is when you need to rely on it to arrive somewhere at a specific time. Luckily for me I was pretty flexible although I had to get a taxi on one occasion and I was left at Manhattan beach for an hour and a half waiting for a bus.

I have gone through alot of areas using the buses, and some decidedly dodgy ones at that, but nothing that seems any worse than in London. I haven't had any problems standing a bus stops at mid-night or walking home in Santa Monica or Hollywood. There have been a few arguments on buses about the disabled seating and people giving up their seats for the elderly. I did also manage to get involved in another strange situation with someone praying for me again. I got the bus from Santa Monica to Hollywood when moving accommodation and this girl started talking to me about my luggage. She then started asking about what I was doing and where I was going. She then asked if I would be her pen pal as she had a girl in Burma and a man in prison as pen pals already and a guy from London would suit the trio nicely. I tried to politely explain why sustaining a pen pal relationship was impractical but she kept asking. She then said she would pray for me. I am not sure what it is about my appearance that makes people think they need to pray for me, I may need a hair cut.

Traffic is bad in L.A. during rush hours (and the 405 freeway seems constantly congested), but what amazes me is that you can get around in a car. In all the other big cities I know of people don't drive because the city is too snarled up to do so.

I stayed with a mate of mine Matt from Uni. He has just moved to L.A. to start work in a fund investment company. He was living in corporate accommodation 5 minutes from the beach in Santa Monica. It was interesting to see all the challenges he was facing setting up a new life in a different country. The simplest things in the UK become hugely difficult in the US without any previous history of living there. It was cool to hang around with him and his mates. Santa Monica is a beautiful place. The beaches are amazing.

For the past few nights I have been staying in USA Hostel Hollywood. The hostel is very clean and nice. There is a bar and the facilities in general are good. I haven't warmed to the place though. The staff seem a bit 'too cool for school' and while they are helpful (especially an Italian guy) it all seems like they couldn't care less about you. There seems a large number of staff and I wonder if because of this they don't need to interact with those staying at the hostel. I wouldn't say this is a reason not to stay here though. Hollywood itself is a bit of a dodgy area. It is no worse than anywhere else. It is dirty and sleazy and there isn't anything to really do (unless you are into improv in which case its perfect). Lots of buses (and the subway) run via Hollywood so it makes it easier to get to other places.

While I have been in L.A. I have also visited Long Beach (Belmont Shore is a really nice pretty area), Pasadena (again pretty), Getty Centre (great views and lots of art), Manhatten, Hermosa, and Redondo beaches which are beautiful, and downtown L.A. The downtown area is compact. The Mexican area is quaint. City Hall is also worth visiting, the security guards there are extremely helpful, and you get great views from the top. I also got down to the La Brea Tar Pits (the ones with the Mammoths) and to Universal Studios. Universal Studios was good, though some of the attractions were disappointing. The tram ride around the lot and through some rides (earthquake, jaws) felt really dated. The Back to the Future ride again felt really dated and didn't last long. The Terminator and Waterworld shows though were excellent. It is all tongue in cheek (you need to be in the right frame of mind) but they were entertaining. Waterworld was kind of a pantomime on water with explosions and planes crashing.

You know you are hungry when...

It was 7.30am nowhere was open and I was about to sit on a coach for 8 hours. The chef/server in the Greyhound station cafe in Sacramento didn't have any front teeth and it looked like the other teeth weren't planning to hang around for much longer. The bloke's uniform appeared to consist of different stains. Normally fast food restaurants put the dirty members of staff in places you can't see them, such as the kitchen. I plumped for pancakes and they were pretty awful.

One of the great things about North American living is how cheap it is to eat out. In many circumstances you are paying in dollars what you would pay in pounds and then you throw in the exchange rate. Not only that but you get either very good or huge portions. I struggle with free refills because I always feel the need to get my money's worth at the expense of how much I will happily drink before feeling ill. Everywhere will give you tap water without considering you to be the lowest form of mankind.

The standard of service is generally high. In Portland I chanced upon a restaurant called Gyspy that from the outside looked dodgy but was in actual fact very good. The food and service were excellent (best mashed potatoes I have ever had), for some reason the waiter also gave me free drinks. The worst place for service is on Amtrak. The food itself is pretty good (though more expensive than standard American prices) but the service is appalling. The waiters are constantly aggressive and back biting.

Sunny Sacramento

I arrived in Sacramento at 7am after spending a day and a night on the train from Portland. I had a great day there. The sun was out and the skies were cloudless. I was in Sacramento on a Saturday and the downtown area was very quiet, the number of streets I walked alone on was surprising. However, this did not detract from my stay. There is an Old Town section of Sacramento which has been preserved from the 1860s, very touristy but lovely to walk around. I also went on a steam train ride there (a little bit pointless but cheap). I also had a look around the State Capitol building (very impressive) and stood outside the Governator's office. I wandered through the streets down to Sutter's Fort, which was the original settlement back in the 1830s. They had volunteers there who 'work' over the weekend as people would have done, kind of like Kentwell Hall but American and set in the early 19th century.

I stayed in HI Sacramento which was a great hostel. The staff were very friendly and helpful. The hostel is in an old mansion and because of that the rooms are huge. There were big lockers in my room. It is right in the heart of town aswell.

I am now in LA staying with a friend of mine, Matt from Oxford, who is starting a new job here. He is currently living in Santa Monica in a great apartment complex with a swimming pool and tennis courts. I got the Greyhound down here from Sacramento. On the journey you really get an impression of the Hispanic influence on California. A number of the small towns you stop in enroute look Mexican. A large proportion of the people on the coach were speaking Spanish and some couldn't speak English.

Hmmm Portland...

I stayed in Portland 2 nights and it wasn't a moving experience. Portland is a nice place. The cty centre is compact and walkable. The public transport is excellent and certain parts are free. There are lots of restaurants. There is no sales tax. The people are very nice. Prices are cheap. However, I struggled to find things to do in Portland (even in a day). It strikes me as a nice place to live but if you are visiting there isn't anything really worth seeing. The countryside surrounding Portland is apparently very pretty but I couldn't see Mount Hood because of the almost constant overcast clouds and rain. In every way it was mediocre compared to the other cities I have visited on my travels (maybe thats why it would be a good place to live).

The hostel I was stayed in was the worst one I have stayed in so far. It was HI Portland NW. The staff were very friendly. However, the room I stayed in didn't have a door (just a curtain) and there weren't big lockers in the room to put your bag. Also it isn't a good start when you look at the bunk below you and see lots of empty crushed beer cans. The occupier of the bed then walked in and smelt of crushed beer cans and sweaty tobacco. He had his stuff strewn across the room and so did the other members of the room. He seemed like a nice enough guy just an alcoholic whose lungs were shot through smoking and with a personal hygiene problem.

Seattle Sorted

I left Vancouver yesterday and got the bus down to Seattle. Unfortunately all the accommodation was sold out or too expensive so I went straight on to Portland. I did have an hour and a half window to leg it round Seattle. I managed to get to Pike Place Market, up to the Space Needle, and have a Starbucks coffee. Seattle seemed quite a bit like San Francisco, if less touristy and pretty.

On a side note if you plan to stay in the Green Tortoise Hostel in Seattle make sure it is open. If you ring them they have an answerphone message saying that they have lost their lease, however this is not mentioned on the website where you can book online.

Victoria - Vancouver Island

6th September - Sunsetting over the breakwater

I have spent the past 4 days in Victoria. Victoria is the capital of British Columbia and its on Vancouver Island, just over an hour and a half by ferry from the mainland. The ferry journey across is picturesque as the ship weaves in between the islands. Victoria itself is a small pretty town. By North American standards it is very historical. It is an easy place to wander around. I went to the Royal BC Museum and watched an Imax film about Nascar. The Parliament building is very impressive and its free to walk around, the staff and security guards have to be the friendliest people I have ever encountered (the woman on the information desk recognised the Essex accent, she has relatives in Chelmsford). The Empress hotel is quite something and has a very old-fashioned feel to it when you look around it. What really caught my attention were the views from the South of Victoria across the Juan De Fuca Strait to the San Juan Islands and mainland America, absolutely breathtaking.

I did a day of busing it around, going out to Oak Bay and then up the coast to Sooke. Public transport in Canada appears to be extremely similar to that in the UK. The number of weirdos seems to be about the same. Mostly it is people craving attention speaking loudly about odd things. Then there is the high proportion of disaffected teenage youth who look mean and menacing but are as nice as pie to the driver and the other passengers.

I went on a Whale watching trip on my last day. Victoria is known for being a good place to go from as 90 Killer Whales live in the Straits, you are more likely to see them than not see them. Unfortunately we didn't see them. The cruise out there was good and it was great to see the Seals and Sea Lions.

I stayed at the Ocean Island Backpackers Inn. The quotes on the leaflet make it sound fantastic. The location is excellent, it has a bar inside and the staff were very friendly and helpful. The building itself was a little bit old and a little bit unclean. It wasn't so much dirty as having character. I was in a 6 bed room. I didn't manage to get one night's good sleep. Unfortunately the fattest guy in the room was sleeping on the squeakiest bunk bed, plus he snored, also people were getting up early to go to work. On the second morning I woke up to find the bloke in the bunk above me coming out of the bathroom with his face smashed in. His nose wouldn't stop bleeding and his left eye was badly swollen. It later turned out that this guy had decided to go and buy drugs from the local dealers and after purchasing he thought it would be a good idea to get trappy with the merchants, they didn't appreciate this and rearranged his face for him. Apart from that it was a nice place to stay.

Whistler

The first day that I arrived I went out for dinner with my Great Uncle Bill and Ann (before we went out I had a sleep in the afternoon because I hadn't got much sleep the night before travelling on the train, my Great Uncle Bill woke me up only for me to reply "Where am I?"). The setting for this dinner was great. It was at a golf club, surrounding the golf club were the mountains and the sun was setting leaving an inky blue sky, stunning. Bill's daughter Gail and her husband Dave joined us for the meal. It turned out that they were going with their children (Carly and Jody about my age and Jody's husband Garrett) to Whistler the coming weekend and asked me to join them.

3rd September - Whistler Mountain Peak

The day after my trip to downtown Vancouver I joined them on the way to Whistler. The trip to Whistler is picturesque. The road is called the Sea to Sky Highway. The apartment we were staying in was very nice and luckily enough had space for me to sleep on the sofa bed so I didn't have to stay at a hostel. Whistler itself is a modern Swiss style village. I thought it was very nice. The next day we played tennis, something I haven't done for possibly a decade. We then went to Alto Lake and Whistler Creek. In the afternoon we went swimming in Blue Lake, it was extremely cold, I nearly bottled it but the calls from my relatives on the pontoon drove me in. The water was perfectly clear and the views were as ever amazing. I prefered relaxing in the hot tub in the evening, much more comfortable. In the evening Jody and Garrett arrived from Vancouver. The next day we played tennis again and when to Alto Lake, the others swam I decided to enjoy the sun. We wandered about town in the afternoon and went to Blue Lake. In the evening we went out for dinner with some friends of Gail and Dave's.

The next morning I went up Whistler Peak. It cost $30 and was well worth it. The views are spectacular. Some of my pictures I have uploaded capture elements of it. I got the gondola up to the ski lodge and then the chair lift to the peak. The chair lift was great because it was silent sweeping up the mountain side. At the top it was still pretty hot (the weather was hot and sunny the whole time I was there). If you go to Whistler you have to go to the peak.

Whistler was amazing. It was great to spend a weekend with some of my Canadian relatives who really made me feel at home. Whistler itself was enchanting. If you come to Vancouver make sure you at least do a day trip to Whistler. The great thing about Vancouver is its setting. If you simply stay in downtown Vancouver you really don't get an appreciation of what the area is and what makes it special.

Vancouver

27th August - False Creek

I stayed 3 nights at the HI Vancouver Central on Granville Street. It was a really nice Hostel. It had obviously been a hotel. The bathrooms were really clean and the all you can eat breakfast was welcome. The staff were OK but nowhere near as friendly as Fort Mason HI. It was a good location to explore the city from. Granville Street is the red light district of Vancouver. It is a little dodgy. However, I am glad I didn't decide to stay in one of the hostels in Gastown. Vancouver has a big problem with begging and homeless people. There appeared to be the same number as San Fran if not more. It also seemed to be spread all over the city, particualrly badly in Gastown.

On my first day I went to Granville Island which is very pretty. Little ferries run across False Creek along there. On the island there is an improv theatre for theatrsports. Unfortunately I wasn't downtown when they had shows on. The next day I walked out to English Bay Beach then around Stanley Park to the Aquarium (saw a dolphin performance) then across town via Canada place to Gastwon and Chinatown, then back to the hostel. In the evening I went on a pub crawl organised by the hostel. There were a few Australians on the crawl, it appears most travellers are either British or Australian (at least in this part of the world). The next day I got the sea bus across to North Vancouver and then got the buses around for the day. Public transport in the Vancouver area is excellent and very cheap. The day pass cost me $8 and I went out to Deep Cove and up to Lynn Valley. I crossed the suspension bridge and wandered around the valley. I then went to a comedy night again organised by the hostel. The next day I went back to Granville Island and then headed bback to my Great Uncle's.

Downtown Vancouver is a great palce to spend some time. The weather was perfect throughout my stay. It is a really easy place to get around and the setting is amazing.

Canada

I am in Canada! I arrived a couple of weeks ago on the Amtrak Coast Starlight from San Francisco. Amtrak is a really nice way to travel just so long as you don't need to arrive on time. We arrived in Seattle 7 hours late. Apparently when the Coast Starlight runs South it can arrive in LA 13 hours late. I met another nice family while having dinner on the train. The first thing the mother said to me finished with "eh" (sure fire sign of Canadian). "eh" is extremely common and I find it endearing. I really like different accents. It makes it much easier for an ignorant English person to distinguish between Americans and Canadians.

3rd September - Whistler Mountain

I am staying with my Great Uncle Bill and his wife Ann. They live about the same distance from downtown Vancouver as I do from central London (about an hour). The difference is that the scenery round here is spectacular. You realise you are living in a wild part of the world when your Great Uncle tells you to watch out for coyotes whilst walking the dogs. I spent a couple of days with them and then went to downtown Vancouver.

San Francisco

OK so I am quite a bit behind with the blog, I am just too busy having a great time (and I am lazy).

San Francisco is cold in the Summer. Mark Twain recognised this a while back, "the coldest Winter I ever spent was a Summer in San Francisco" (or something along those lines). Apparently San Fran is much warmer in the Spring and Autumn. When I say cold you need a jacket and trousers and if the sun is out you probably don't need the jacket during the day. It is also pretty windy. One of the amazing sights to see in San Fran is to watch the cloud come flying in across the bay from the Pacific ocean. I took to wearing shorts whilst in Chicago a habit I was disappointed to drop in San Fran (though you'll be glad to know I have been wearing them with avengeance in Vancouver).

I managed to get around and see most of the big sights while I was there. I did quite a bit of sightseeing with Jeremey from the improv course. We walked the Golden Gate Bridge (very impressive) then across the Marin Headland to Sausalito. Sausalito was one of my favourite places to visit. It is extremely pretty and while a tourist trap it doesn't feel tacky. Fisherman's Wharf on the other hand feels very tacky, in many respects it reminded me of Southend (not as many mini-skirts though). The hilly streets are amazingly steep. The city feels haphazard in design yet picturesque at the same time. I rode a Cable Car while I was there which was great fun. One day I walked from China beach round the headland to Land's End then down to Ocean beach through Golden Gate Park, along Haight Street, up into Twin Peaks, and down to Market Street (a long way). I managed to see the England vs Greece friendly in an Irish Bar. Alcatraz was well worth a visit, the audio tour was great, former inmates and wardens spoke about their experiences of the prison.

The HI Fisherman's Wharf hostel is very good. It is in the Fort Mason grounds, and it kind of feels like a summer camp. The rooms were all clean. The bathrooms were clean (the communal shower wasn't really an issue). The cafe (Cafe Franco) was excellent and cheap, it is open to the general public and I would recommend a visit. The staff were very friendly, much nicer than any other hostel I have ever stayed in.

I enjoyed my time in San Fran. However, I did always feel like an outsider looking in. It really helps if you have a local contact to get you on the other side of the looking glass.