Day 10 - Adventures on Public Transport

Saturday, we started the day off with a good breakfast at IHOP. This place really is all it’s cracked up to be. Eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, waffles… all for so cheap! I just wouldn’t recommend putting the vanilla creamer in your coffee.

We then decided to head into LA for the hop-on hop-off tour bus routes. Armed with directions to get to the train station, we met a guy at the bus stop who told us to take the bus directly instead. This seemed like a great idea – at the time. 

On the bus, it quickly filled up fast, with… colourful characters. After an age, it was full to bursting, with people standing everywhere and no personal space to speak of. And a quick look at the map showed that we’d barely made any progress at all. 

The decision was soon made to abandon this course of action. We jumped off the bus at a gas station somewhere and ordered an Uber cab, which arrived in five minutes flat. The rest of the journey to LA went much more pleasantly. 

Arriving at the Chinese Theatre, we looked around us for a bit and jumped on the Red Line bus which took us into Beverley Hills. A wander down Rodeo Drive, where I doubt we’d afford a stick of chewing gum, and we found ourselves at the Cheesecake Factory for a spot of lunch, some huge slices of cheesecake, and a deliciously fortifying wine.

Some more time on the tour bus, narrated by an annoying British voice who pronounced Boulevard Boo-le-vard, past interesting sights and shopping areas, and we landed back at the Chinese Theatre. From there, we jumped on the subway trains to make our way to the Staples Centre. 

The warm-up acts were just getting underway when we arrived. Christina Perri, Becky G, MKTO, and then the main act – Miss Demi Lovato. 

I hadn’t really expected to enjoy myself, but she performed with such passion it was impossible not to. Plus she did Thriller as a Hallowe’en treat. 

Concert over, we headed back to the trains and made our way to Union Station, where we expected to find a train back to Anaheim. However, the last train for the evening had already left – and though we’d heard rumours of an extra train being put on because of the concert, the information window was closed up until after it was reported to have left. 

So we ordered another Uber cab, and travelled back to Anaheim in style instead. Our driver, though suffering from a disturbing lack of personal hygiene, was an interesting guy who’d previously travelled the world as the bass player in a death metal band.  It turned out he loved Demi too.