There are a few days before I fly back home. On Monday morning I work together with Matt at one of his favorite coffee places, Hidden House Coffee, and when he goes to the office I drive to Los Angeles one more time. I hadn’t thought I would go back there on this trip, but since I have the whole afternoon to myself I figure that I might as well.
I drive to downtown LA. I haven’t gone there before, because I thought it was not really safe there, but a lady at the Griffith Park visitor center the other day told me it’s fine and recommended me to go to the city hall where you can go to a viewing deck at the 27th floor. Visiting the city hall is free, you only have to pay for parking in this neighborhood. At the entrance of city hall you have to go through security and the man there confirms that it’s safe here during the day, but tells me that you don’t want to be in this neighborhood at night. Good to know. I take a very old elevator to the 22nd floor and switch there to another elevator which brings me to the 27th floor. There is door that leads to a balcony that goes all around the building and gives great views in all directions. I especially enjoy the west side, which gives me a view of the Hollywood mountains in the distance. Many times before I’ve been looking at downtown from there, this time I see it from the other side around.
The guy at the security recommended me to also go to the Walt Disney Concert Hall which is just a few blocks away. It’s a cool architectural building that you can also visit for free. I walk around there for a while and then come up with the idea to go to a 50s restaurant for lunch. On the map I find Cafe 50s, near the end of Santa Monica boulevard. Usually when I’m in Hollywood, I drive on Sunset Boulevard, a parallel road to this one. That’s probably why I haven’t seen this place before. It’s a fun restaurant, completely in style of the 50s and they have more than forty different kinds of milkshakes. Since I has skipped breakfast this morning, I enjoy some eggs, bacon and pancakes with their Cafe 50’s Sunshine milkshake: vanilla ice cream, a splash of milk and fresh squeezed orange juice. One of the best milkshakes I ever had.
