My super duper cool sister (I’m serious, she’s really cool) got an invitation to the VRTL Summit at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles and guess who she brought? MEEEEEEEE (I didn’t get to go to the summit because apparently I wasn’t VIP enough, but I got to go to Hollywood, so I’m not complaining)! I was a bit hesitant at first as I bought my plane tickets 8 hours before we were supposed to leave for the airport, but me being me, I just went along with it.
On the first day, we went to Urth Caffé for lunch, checked out KoreaTown, the Walk of Fame, brought some snacks back to the hotel and watched (what we call) "trashy tv shows". We called it a night as we prepared for Universal Studios the next morning.
We went to Universals on the perfect day. The weather was great but most importantly, there wasn’t more than a 5 minute line up for any ride, which meant that we went on everything. As predicted, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was the most magical place ever. We bought butter beer and ate at the Three Broomsticks. However, the best part must have been Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. I used to be very certain that my favourite amusement park ride is Space Mountain from Disneyland but I have to admit, after the Forbidden Journey, I’m not so sure anymore. The transition between the real ride and the simulation parts were so seamless, it’s hard to remember that in reality, you are a sad and boring muggle (you, not me). WaterWorld was a phenomenal production. Please go if you ever drop by Universals because that show itself will get your money’s worth, I promise! Lastly, I loved the Studio Tour. Don’t get me wrong, the tour was fantastic, but my favourite part was the girl next to me. She was so bored throughout the entire ride, but the second we caught a glimpse of Wisteria Lane (the street from Desperate Housewives), she SCREAMED and took approximately 2.4 million pictures on her phone. I take it back, THIS is what made my money’s worth. We ended up eating Voodoo Doughnuts and pizza for dinner. Sorry mom.
On the third day, my sister went to the summit so I spent the day exploring myself. I went around Melrose Avenue, Beverly Hills, the Farmer’s Market and the Grove. Those were the pretty part of L.A., the other parts were… not so pretty. I also had the best Earl Grey Milk Tea at Alfred Tea Room, and now everything in Vancouver tastes subpar. I ended up sitting down at Barnes & Noble at read Dataclysm for a good 3 hours before realizing I should probably just buy it, so I did. I then met up with my sister and we went to the Santa Monica Pier and Third Street Promenade, everything was closed but we got the gist of it. As our legs gave up on us after walking around the entire day, we used the last 1% on our phones to call an Uber. However, turns out we put the pin on the wrong side of the mall and our Uber driver yelled at us- we still gave him 5 stars because we were scared. #touristproblems
That summed up my trip to L.A. It was so much fun, especially since I started my internship a couple days after coming back, so the timing was perfect!
What are your summer plans?
