~the wanderlusting life~: Hollywood on horseback

Sooo, today everything actually went pretty smoothly. Woke up at 5:30 again, this time actually went to the right bus stop and caught the bus. I was the only one who was on it so I made it to the train station in time for the 6:38 train, which was awesome because it meant I was half an hour ahead of schedule. Caught the train to LA union station like yesterday, rode the subway to Hollywood boulevarde and got my first look at the Hollywood walk of fame, which made everything seem really surreal for some reason. I mean, those stars are so famous and iconic and everything, and there I was. I wouldn't ever have expected a year ago to be there, by myself, taking a look at those stars. So then I caught the bus near the hills of Hollywood, kind of beneath the Hollywood sign. Walked FOREVER up this really steep hill until I reached the horse riding place. It was incredibly cool. I was the only one there, so I had the guide all to myself. She took me on a 1 hour trail ride up the hills and I could see all the way down Southern California (LA, Catalina Island, Santa Monica, Malibu, etc.). Also saw the Hollywood sign, but it was pretty far away because it's illegal to get close to it. Apparently if someone does, the high-tech motion detector beeps and a helicopter flies in and a guy on a loudspeaker accuses whomever for trespassing, just like in the movies! The tipping was not cool, though. For a $30 ride, I tipped $20 which was insane. That's more than a 60% tip! And the lady was a bit annoying about it, before I left for the ride she was like, 'oh and make sure you tip your guide, especially since you're the only one she's taking'. And she reminded me again at the end, she was like, 'I hope your guide was worth $20'. So I kind of got pressured.I was going to tip like $10, which I thought was already pretty generous of me because honestly, who'd have thought there's such thing as tips that are over 20%? And especially since they blatantly asked for extra money, and also made me wait 1/2 an hour for other people, but when it was clear no other riders were coming they let me start. I mean, if I want to tip, I will! That's why it's called a tip. Otherwise you just charge people more money, jeez! I had to fake I was 18 on the form I filled in, otherwise they wouldn't let me go by myself. Luckily no one suspected.My butt's sore from the riding and my feet are so, so tired because I ran so much to make it home in time.

Okay, the good things about today. I didn't exactly get lost too much. Asked about 2 people for directions and that was it. So that was good. Unlike yesterday when I missed my stop several times and stuff. Getting back to the busy places in Hollywood was pretty easy from the ranch, went downhill so it wasn't bad, caught bus and subway again. Went to Ripley's museum and Hollywood museum, both of which were OK but I was on a tight schedule so I didn't have much time to look around.Ripley's basically has wacky stuff like mummified feet, and Hollywood museum has stuff like the Star Wars costumes they wore in the movie and the ruby slippers from Wizard of Oz. Caught the 3:35pm train back home (the subway arrived at the train station at exactly 3:32 so I had to run like crazy to the right platform).The reason why I went home so early was because I had to make it back in time to catch the last bus. Not to mention I was tired as hell. Caught last bus home successfully(I was the only one on the bus again).

I quite like doing stuff alone, actually. It's not too annoying and it's fun. It makes me feel adventurous.I mean, if I've navigated LA, Melbourne and Shanghai by myself this year, surely I can handle Sydney for the rest of my life. I won't be alone for several days now, though. Waking up at 5am because I'm going skiing tomorrow (or tubing) at Mountain High with my family, then Disneyland for 3 days, Seaworld San Diego and then Universal Studios I think. I'm not entirely sure. The remaining days I'll probably spend going to Santa Monica, Malibu, LA again and maybe Moorpark and surrounding cities that are closer (the $18.50 return ticket to LA hurts my wallet, especially seeing as I need to get to LA first for practically everywhere I'm visiting).