After that I drove to my hotel to check in. LA is a huge sprawling citywith no real centre as such, just lots of districts connected by a network of extremely busy freeways. I found the hotel slightly irritating: it is one of those hotels that looks luxurious - all carpets and bellhops - but actually feels very ordinary when you are actually in your room, and wants to charge you extra for stuff that a good hotel ought to include as standard (like coffee making facilities and wi-fi). The car-parking was $30 per night, and there really was no choice but to pay it.
On Monday I went into the office which was right opposite the hotel (chosen for that very reason). It was good to meet LA tax colleagues for lunch. After that I was supposed to catch the train to San Diego at 4pm, but discovered that President Obama was due in town, which would mean lots of street closures making it difficult for me to get to the train station on the other side of town. However one of my colleagues was driving down to San Diego, and it suited him to take me, because there is a separate lane on many Californian freeways reserved for cars with 2 or more passengers which can shave an hour off the journey. So I was chauffeured to my hotel in San Diego in pretty quick time (2.5 hours).
I preferred San Diego to Los Angeles. It seems more livable somehow. The hotel was in the downtown area, less fancy than the LA hotel but more welcoming. I met up with a colleague I had previously met in Palo Alto for dinner. Next day I got a taxi to the San Diego office - another lengthy journey across town, and met more colleagues. We had sushimi for lunch which was a new experience for me (having previously tried and enjoyed Japanese food I had never dared try raw fish before but I was glad I did). Then I got into another taxi (well technically the same taxi as the driver from the morning had become my friend and agreed to come back for me), rushed back to the railway station in good time, and managed to change my ticket to an earlier train that was just leaving for LA.
The train journey was a strange experience. The train broke down in San Diego station and was delayed, eventually leaving minus half the carriages. Some of the standard class carriages were arbitrarily redesignated as business class, and half the passengers asked to move. The carriage I was in was split down the middle, so that all seats beyond mine were cleared and reserved for business class customers who were booked onto the train. I sat next to a red flag marked "No Entry" which stuck out into the aisle and threaten to poke out the eyes of unsuspecting passengers who tried to pass into the forbidden zone. When we first set out there was plenty of space, but the train got increasingly full, and the passengers were irritated to find half an empty carriage which they weren't allowed to enter. Eventually there was something of a revolution and the passengers surged into the empty seats. When the conductor came back he was really quite rude to them all, but didn't force them to move. However one of the passengers was an elderly German gentleman who wouldn't shut up about the poor service. In Germany if the trains are late you get a refund and an apology apparently. He was particularly effronted by the red flag. I was glad I'd caught the earlier train, heaven knows what time the one I was originally booked on arrived.
Once back in LA, I returned to the first hotel, and rested in anticipation of a long flight the next day. I was most gratified to discover I could get my case to less than 50 lbs, which was a weight off my mind if you'll pardon the pun. The following morning I collected my car from the hotel car-park and chatted in Italian to the hotel receptionist, who waived part of my parking fee. Allowing plenty of time I drove to Los Angeles airport with about three hours to spare. I left the car with Budget car rental (aka those robbing bastards) and checked in.
LA airport is the most boring I have ever been in, worse than Paris Orly. I did see a movie star, well sort of: the guy who plays Sam the shape-shifting bartender in True Blood walked past me. But I wasn't impressed. The flight was absolutely jammed, and the seats not terribly comfortable, but at least I ended up 1700 miles closer to my family than I was before.
So what have I realised about Southern California?
(1) I don't like LA much. I am not impressed by celebrity or glitz, I had no desire to do a tour of the homes of the rich and pointless, or see their names written on concrete slabs. I didn't have much time, and it was probably a mistake to try to visit both cities in such a short space of time, but LA seems like a playground for the privileged few and a penance for everyone else with its traffic and pressure. I can't be certain though that my view isn't coloured by my general ennui and longing for home: maybe if I had gone at the beginning I would have embraced it with the same enthusiasm I had for Austin? Somehow I doubt it.
(2) I might actually like San Diego if I went back and gave it a chance, but I am not planning on making another trip any time soon. Sorry San Diegans, but I am sure you'll cope.
(3) According to the German passenger, the Japanese railways will provide you with a late note to give your employer if the train is late. The mind boggles at the thought of a society where employes are expected to provide notes like schoolchildren, and the authority of a train conductor will satisfy an employer.
(4) American students travel vast distances by train for Thanksgiving. Some of the kids on my train were travelling to Seattle by train, a journey of 36 hours. Presumably plane fares must be significantly higher than train for anybody to put themselves through that.
(5) Being nice to people works. Whether it is the taxi-driver who wants to chat and then picks you up later, or the receptionist who wants to speak his own language, a bit of human interaction goes a long way. Service industries seem very formalised in the US, and people working in them get a pretty raw deal, but it is easy to get them onside by treating them as individual human beings.
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