DAY 5: San Francisco to Los Angeles

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This morning it was early up and a 3km walk to Cal Station to catch the Mega Bus. (same concept as the Naked Bus in NZ). I had paid extra to reserve a seat upstairs-upfront so I could have a good view on the 8 hour long trip. And a long 8 hours it was. I knew California is quite a dry state but somehow I was still surprised to see how dry it really is. And it is mostly flat with hills in the distance, at least the bit we travelled through. Somehow I was expecting it to be more mountainous. We passed several very large irrigation areas where there were orchards and vineyards, and right next to it the grass was brown and even burned in one area.

Today, at one of the stops along the way, I had my first meal from Taco Bell and it was actually very nice. I will definitely try them again! Other than the lovely meal I had, I also took a few power naps on the bus... seems the jet-lag really got me this time.

It was overcast when we reached LA and I started panicking that it would be dark by the time I got to Santa Monica. But, once I was on the train and we got closer to the coast, the sky became clear and it was still daylight when I got here. And getting to grips with the Metro was easy once a nice young man showed me how to get a Tap Card and load money onto it. The train was clean and very efficiently run. You could even understand the announcements! Not like the BART train from the Airport to San Francisco… there I had to try and guess what was being announced.

Today’s photos may have a few spots of bird poop or even a dead bee on them since they were mostly taken through the not so clean window of a moving bus! :)  But you should at least get an idea of what California looks like.... when you leave the cities and venture out into the sticks.

Mega Bus

Prime Seating

Leaving the San Francisco

The Bay Bridge


View of San Francisco from across the harbour

And what have we here? I think this was in Oakland.








Flat and dry!

Looks like the southern parts of Namibia!


Orchards under irrigation

Grapes

I thought these might have been cherries

Taco Bell on the right

And then we hit LA's late Saturday afternoon traffic. Don't want to know what this would look like during rush hour during the week.















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