Monday, January 21, 2013

USA Part 3: Santa Monica

I've been up since 2am this morning, because my body is too stupid to realise that I'm not in the US anymore.

It's now 6:40 in the morning and I've spent the past 4 hours looking at and comparing different makeup products. I've grown an obsession over the past week or so and the cravings aren't satisfied. It doesn't help that almost all of the products that I want don't actually ship to Australia, so I've conducted a little research of other sites to try to combat that problem. It also doesn't help that I'm in Korea right now, and have been surrounded by a plethora of makeup and skincare shops. I just want everything. I can't help it, I swear!

I'm too tired to think, and my neurons have just about exhausted their action potentials thinking up a list of things to buy. Just when I thought I'd broken the bank with clothes in the US, here comes another department to rob me even more! I say that in the most positive light possible. Seriously.

I mean, what? Back to business. Now, where were we? Oh yes.

Santa Monica. A beautiful city.

Disclaimer: Once again with my amazing geography, I thought SM was in LA. I mean, it's right next to it. An honest mistake that many people make, so I guess it's one of my more.. acceptable misunderstandings. With a cherry on top? Absolutely.

Whilst downtown Los Angeles is a relative ghost town, Santa Monica boasts absolute opulence, lively and endless crowds, beautiful apartments, all complete with a pier of its own on the beachfront. C'est une belle ville!

To be perfectly honest though, the majority of my memory from this place escapes me. It's clear enough so that I can accompany my current opinions with photos in order to prompt myself. I'll let the pictures talk. Memories change. Pixels don't.





Another aside, I just figured out how to properly format my photos. Blogspot has possibly the most annoying photo inserting feature ever. Firstly, it adds an unnecessary border that looks messy. Secondly, even if you hide the border (which I have done), it doesn't take away the fact that there is a border. I haven't been bothered until now trying to fix it, and it took me over an hour to do. Thanks, Blogger! Lastly, I have to load the pictures in their original resolution before I can resize them to match the width of my content. Not happy, Jan. Not happy at all. Oh well. It's fixed (at least on my laptop).

Let's go back on our path, shall we?

I was absolutely thrilled to learn a few more things about Santa Monica. Firstly, that there was a Nordstrom located literally 3 minutes' walk from the Pier. Secondly, that Nordstrom was located in a whole shopping complex called Santa Monica Place. And thirdly, and by no means least, that there was another shopping complex with Urban Outfitters - 3rd St Promenade, accessible through a leisurely walk past Louis Vuitton in the "da place".




A common question involves my purchases. Have no fear, they will be revealed once I post about the rest of my trip! So basically, in the next 5 or so years.

Just kidding. It'll be up in the next 2 weeks or so. I have a fair few more things yet to cover.

This is promising. I'm thankful for being able to format my photos, but that really just means one of two options: edit every photo on this blog, or revert most of my posts to draft and then edit the remaining ones.

Another common question involves going to the places I've visited! I guess this is the only real place so far (besides Myeong-Dong, but taxi-ing in Korea is so convenient and relatively much cheaper, so you can go anywhere there without my directions) that requires a little assistance.

How do I get to Santa Monica? Well, you could catch a taxi, but the fares are pretty steep, especially since you'd be riding in one for anywhere between 20 minutes to an hour, depending on traffic. The easiest way to go there is by catching the Big Blue Bus Rapid 10.

I'm not exactly sure where else it goes, but a good landmark is Union Station. If you find out other stops, that's great! But I caught it across the street from Union Station. The fare is about $2.00 each way. It takes approximately 40 minutes (it did for me).

I recommend waiting it out and getting off at the very last stop, which is a block or two away from Santa Monica Pier. Remember that spot, because the bus will take a loop and that's where you catch it to go back to Union Station. It's right across the street from Nordstrom. Make another good note of the times it runs. It's fairly infrequent and I believe, off the top of my head, that the last bus runs at approximately 7pm, so maybe leave your place early to get there. It truly is a place to visit when you're there.

Until next time! Lots of love. <3

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