It's been a bittersweet visit.
It's been great to see my friends and family. My hosts Dave and Dominika were especially great and Dave and I had many a drinking night.
My basic routine was to awaken quit early, seek out breakfast, then get to it. I spent most of my time sorting through my possessions, throwing stuff away, donating stuff, selling some stuff and packing up the belongings I decided to take with me to Zagreb. It was a lot of work. My hands look and feel like the hands of a laborer; tough, sore and blistered a bit. This from endless opening of boxes, lots of lifting and all manner of nonsense. I also spent a huge amount of time driving around LA, which meant I also spent a large amount of time stuck in traffic. Yesterday was the worst.
I spent three and a half hours stuck in traffic. My printout from the sea freight company said to deliver my stuff between 8AM and 6PM, to Compton. My storage unit was in Van Nuys. I had the van all packed and ready to go, but I had to wait for the Salvation Army, who picked up lots of donated furniture and whatnot. By the time they finished up, it was 3PM. I left for Compton around 3:15, heading north on the 101.
Naturally, it being LA and all, the 101 was fucked. Bumper to bumper sometime after passing Sunset. Like really horrible. We weren't moving at all. I got off the freeway and drove surface streets to the 110, South. Again, heavy traffic. All told, it took 2 hours to get to Compton. I arrived around 5:15PM. And, the freight place was closed. This despite my printout telling me to come between 8 and 6. Motherfuckers! So, the aggravation of being stuck in traffic was all for nothing. The drive back to Dave and Dominika's apartment in West Hollywood took an hour and a half.
So, let me just take this opportunity to say again that I fucking hate LA. With a passion. The land itself can be nice in areas. But the people here are largely fucked. It draws the worst people here from all over the world. Sure, I have friends here. And they're obviously the exception. But I couldn't live here again. No way in hell. The list of what's wrong with LA is massively long and the list of what's good about it is very short. At least by my estimation.
I enjoyed some nice food here at least. But I've come to realize that being in LA makes me angry. The city itself makes me angry. And it's like this fairly persistent anger the whole time I'm here. I hate it.
So, I am glad to be going home to Zagreb. Sure, I can't get some of the things I can here in LA. But I'd take it over LA any day. I miss my friends in Zagreb. I miss being relaxed. I miss my cats. Most of all I miss my girlfriend. She rocks. Home soon enough.
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3 comments:
I wish I did not agree with you--it makes me feel kind of guilty for some reason. But I agree wholeheartedly.
Yeah, same here. I feel sort of like I should see the good of the place. But I lived there for 3 and a half years. I DID give it a chance. It's got it's nicer areas; nice canyons and some nice terrain. But again, it's offset by the people living there. I can't even count the amount of worthless conversations I overheard. I sat around far too many egotistical, rich, self centered, surgically "enhanced" motherfuckers. I wanted to take a machete and cut through the jungle of them.
But instead I went home to Zagreb. Much better!
Shitty shit city. My buddy who I stayed with in LA summed it up best: "LA is a parody of itself." Even the bums there are image-conscious. Now, I'll go back to reading your Croatian Christmas blog and feel jealous while I remember how awesome Athens is during the holidays. Christmas is the only time in Athens when the killer pigeons stop trying to give you AIDS.
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