Take me down to the Paradise City

Beach vibes and music in Los Angeles

The sun is setting as Isabelle and I walk up the hill from the bus to the Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. The concert with supporting act The Cult has already started at 6:30 pm but as the journey from the hostel in Santa Monica took more than an hour, we won’t make it on time. Fortunately the queues out front the stadium aren’t that long and after another 45 minutes of queuing to buy a t-shirt as well as food and drinks, we finally rush to our seats. Just in time, because after only a few more minutes, the Guns N’ Roses emblem hovering over the stage comes to life, the guns fire a couple of times and shortly after they are on stage: Guns N’ Roses, the band I had been dying to see ever since I was fifteen.

I cannot keep still on my chair and the middle-aged Asian guy dancing on the other side of the aisle keeps high-fiving me enthusiastically. All my worries about this reunion tour are forgotten the moment the band is on stage. Guns N’ Roses used to be notorious for showing up late or not at all for concerts and lead singer Axl Rose is known for his bad temper and choleric fits causing him to abruptly storm off-stage and cut concerts short in the past. But not today. The band performs non-stop, one hit after the other, for nearly three hours and in a way I am glad that I’m only seeing them now as opposed to in their heyday. Axl Rose, despite being twenty years older than on the numerous posters I had in my childhood room, still sounds the same, and it’s a great vibe in Dodger Stadium. The crowd is roaring when the lead singer summons the beloved former Guns N’ Roses drummer Steven Adler on stage to perform two songs from their Appetite for Destruction album. With their hit single Paradise City and an impressive fireworks display, an incredible night comes to an end and Isabelle and I are heading, exhausted but happy, back to the bus.

Before leaving for Los Angeles, I was told on numerous occasions that you need a car to get around the place. The “city of angels” is with just under 4 million inhabitants the second largest city in the United States after New York City and stretches across an area of 1,302 km2. We will only be here for a few days and we’re also on a budget so we’ve decided to try and get around by public transport, which doesn’t seem to be a common thing in LA. On our way back from the Dodger Stadium, a friendly man seems surprised that as tourists, we take a bus all across LA from Dodger Stadium back to Santa Monica. This in turn surprises me because usually, with traffic in LA being quite a challenge, it takes just as long to get around by car as it does by bus.

We notice straight away that Americans seem to be quite a chatty bunch. On our way from the airport to the hostel, we sit next to a young man with a bruise over his eye who tells us immediately that he just got out of prison, or jail as he says, for a hit-and-run incident which apparently wasn’t his fault. The next day on our way to Venice Beach, the same guy gets on the bus and takes a seat right next to us, which makes us laugh. In a city like Los Angeles – what are the odds?

Venice Beach is a colourful neighbourhood Westside of Los Angeles and has been named a “cultural hub known for its eccentrics”. The Ocean Front Walk is a four kilometre pedestrian-only promenade featuring performers, mystics, artists and vendors. We spend some time watching skateboarders of all ages perform on the nearby skate rink before heading on to a restaurant for our lunch break. Because the Venice Whaler, a large beachfront restaurant, is quite full, I take a short walk up the street towards the Cows End, a comfortable little hangout which provides great salads and sandwiches to pick up some lunch before we proceed to the canals that give the neighbourhood its name.

Our lovely HI Santa Monica hostel with a sunny atrium is situated just a few minutes walking distance from the famous Santa Monica beach and pier. The beach with the little huts for the lifeguards reminds me of Baywatch which was filmed in nearby Venice Beach along with other locations. In summer, free concerts take place on the pier every Thursday night. We arrive a little late and it is a bit chilly so we just go for a stroll around the pier with its food vendors, souvenir shops and rides silhouetted against the dark night sky.

On the two remaining days, we decide to check out Beverly Hills as well as Hollywood neighbourhoods. Getting off the bus at Beverly Hills, we just stroll around the area, past West Hollywood’s heaving bars despite the fact that it is early Sunday afternoon and across Hollywood Boulevard, where countless impersonators ask for their photo to be taken against a charge. And after a short cruise through the Hollywood Hills, it is time for us to explore sin city – Las Vegas.