Road Trip: Josh in LA

We are a team of explorers and culture seekers. Our regular feature on our travels is back! This time, Josh Hall spent the first week of 2023 heading to USA but was everything it was cracked up to be? 

Well LA was an interesting one. Going on the off-season was going to bring its fair share of the unusual (yes, it rained. Something that rarely happens in the OC), but on my week-long stay I saw numerous things I never thought I’d see. Especially considering my version of LA is based off what I’ve seen on TV.

On our first trip into the city, I was shocked to see the amount of homelessness. Clearly, America has a poverty problem that it needs to resolve. Tent cities were situated throughout downtown, and some interesting characters made their way onto buses and subway trains. 

The scale of the city also came as a shock. We thought we could walk from place-to-place. You can’t. And it is so spread out that it’s really hard to fill your day with all the interesting stuff – so much is travel!

However, the real shocker was the main event – and the reason I went – Six Flags: Magic Mountain. I’m a bit of a roller coaster lover, and Magic Mountain is a park I’ve been familiar with since I was a kid playing RCT2 on my parent’s PC. Hosting the most roller coasters in the world, I could not wait. 

However, our experience was pretty dire. In-between hour long queues and 20 dollar microwaved burgers, half the rides were shut, with some consistently breaking down. The most unlucky of moments came in the queue for Full Throttle. After over an hour of waiting, we finally got to the barrier. We were next on. And then… the ride broke down and was going to be closed for the rest of the day. The absolute baddest of luck. That said, we did get front seats on Tatu, and that was my favourite ride I’ve ever been on. Like, watch a POV on YouTube – It’s insane.

Regardless of all the weirdness of visiting LA, it was interesting to see another side of the world. Despite speaking the same language, everything was so different. The hotel breakfast didn’t include toast or fruit (but a very elaborate waffle maker), the motorways had about 60 lanes, they took your card away when you paid the bill, and the city (for the most part) was a ghost town. 

I wish I could say there was some sort of moral, or learning from this adventure. I think ultimately, I learnt that not everything is what you see on TV. I saw the ugly side of LA, and how years of class-divide has brought poverty to the nation, in-between moments of beauty and recognisability. 

The museums were really cool though.