Day 21 - Los Angeles - Sun setting on my holiday

I'm definitely done with hostels. I'd gone to bed, pretty late actually, like 11pm, and none of the other three people in my room were back. I was drifting off, and then the lad underneath me, who is 20 and acts even younger, gets back, clearly drunk and brings with him a takeaway! Not only that, but something that is really smelly. I was tempted to remind him of general social etiquette, like there are plenty of places in this hostel to eat your post-night out food, and non of those places are your bedroom, but refrained from doing so. But seriously?
This is the same person, who when I introduced myself and said where I was from, his first words were "oh s***, Brexit, yeh we were studying this at my school" (he's Danish). So European students are discussing Brexit at school now? Great! Maybe they'll solve it before we do.

I was actually stressing a bit, because the Uber app for some reason wasn't working, so I decided to try Lyft instead, which seems to be really popular round here (it's an Uber competitor), but having pre-scheduled my rides to gymnastics, I still hadn't received any confirmation that a driver had been matched, and had no idea when they match you with a driver. The longer this went on, the more I was regretting my decision and feeling like I was going to be wasting my day.
However, ten minutes before the allotted time, I got a notification that a driver was on his way and this all ran smoothly and I was at the gymnastics club in plenty of time, so needn't have worried.
It's weird having to get taxis everywhere, but this is how things are in LA, because public transport is non existent. It's pretty bizarre given that they are so environmentally conscious here. They are definitely going to have to up their game in terms of public transport for the Olympics in 2028.

Gymnastics was pretty hard going to start off with, as I felt quite unfit, although kept reminding myself I haven't exactly eaten healthily, but when the conditioning session had finished, I was pleased with the work I did on beam and vault. But it reminded me just how much I miss the sport, and although I'm sad my trip is coming to an end, I'm jumping at the bit to continue with my training and of course the gymnastics world championships start on Friday! (I'm also looking forward to being back in my own bed)

I spent the afternoon sunbathing on what appeared to be a virtually empty beach, before enjoying the last of the summer's ice cream (although I'll probably eat some tomorrow morning before my flight, and if I remember correctly I might have some in my freezer at home). Having checked in for my flight (always a priority especially for long-haul to make sure you get a good seat!) Rather appropriately, my seat number is 30.
I then settled to watch the sunset. I decided to splash out on a cocktail at the restaurant I was having dinner at (I had some rather peculiar but delicious fajitas made with a vegetarian steak substitute. Not sure where the tortilla's were, but I didn't miss them). I chose a Sidewalk (the name of the restaurant) Sunset Margarita.  I took this photograph of the trees from the restaurant, and as I'd already ordered it was a bit difficult to get up and move and get a better angle, so am slightly annoyed about the lamppost else it would have been a stunning shot to round off what will be an incredibly diverse range of photos and memories - from ice on glaciers to desert wilderness, from red rock to blue and emerald lakes, from imposing mountains to quirky non-trees, from forests to palms and sandy beaches, God’s creation is truly breathtaking and we must all act now to ensure this beautiful creation doesn’t disappear.

This has been a holiday full of diverse and wonderful landscapes just as I had hoped and anticipated. Now the editing begins!