Universal Studios Mega Disco !!!!

At the end of the day all the EF students gathered in front of a theatre where the disco and dinner was held. The security check was kinda strict again ´cos we weren´t allowed  to take any bags inside and so on and that´s really good but also annoying at the same time. Good ´cos, you know, there are all kinds of people out there, who might be up to no good, and you never know what´s going to happen. But if you are just an ordinary person who forgets something in your bag and you want to get it ´cos you need it.... Damn that´s gonna be hard.

When we got inside first things we saw were the tables full of food. We ate dinner and after the dinner we had desserts. I´m a slow eater so basically everyone else were already dancing on the floor while I was stuffing food in my face. Oh God I´m crying if I even start to think about all those delicious cupcakes I couldn´t eat ´cos I was so full. 

The disco itself was awesome even though the DJ was playing a bit random songs from times to times... Like songs that were familiar only to Spaniards etc. ...  Still it was great fun!!
AND OMG!!!!!!!!! I´LL NEVER FORGET THE BEST THING THAT HAPPENED IN THERE!!! Antti (my leader) a.k.a THE PARTY ANIMAL showed us his  A M A Z  I N G  dance moves AND Pierre joined him on the dance floor and that was just  F A B U L O U S, I tell ya !!!!!!!!!!! 

#NeverForget
#EFMoment

Universal Studs ... *STUDIOS | dos

TALKING ´BOUT SPECIAL EFFECTS! A few times the train drove into a kind of a cave where had they had built sort of interactive sets of different situations like a catastrophe in a metro station. Imagine a metro station which is empty ´cos there has been an accident. Suddenly on a left side platform a petrol truck (God knows how it got inside) catches fire and on the other side water flushing to the other platform from corridors. That is scary as hell even though you know perfectly well that it´s not real.

Universal Stud

Several times during the ride we were told to be quiet ´cos there was a filming going on somewhere and obviously they don´t want a group of tourists screaming random things in the background of a movie... But I kind of think that the silence thing might also have been fake so that the ride would be even more exciting, 

Unfortunately Hogwards wasnt open.

After the ride everyone left and walked to wherever they wanted to go. I stayed with (if I remember right) Sini, Siiri, Bertille, Elisa and Lou and some other French girls. They had all  kinds of rides there like The Simpsons ride and Jurassic Park ride. If I´m honest I gotta say that I liked Disneyland more cause in Universal the rides were mostly interactive 3D/4D experiences and not like real roller-coasters.

                           

Universal Studs ... *STUDIOS | uno

Okay I guess I´ve told you guys about almost every organised trip we´ve had and this one is gonna be the last of ´em all. Universal Studios a.k.a Universal Studs (as I accidentally wrote at first but didn´t want to correct it ´cos it gave me a good laugh!)

Once again we dragged our asses to the beloved yellow buses and off we went. After ages spent in a traffic-jam we finally saw the gates of the promised land! The long wait was rewarded almost immediately as we headed to Universal Studios studio tour! It was truly exciting and amazing to get a peek inside the scenery and set of different movies.

For instance I got to see the Town Hall from the movie "Back to the Future" and some streets from London and a rural town from Latin America. They also showed how some special effects work there. For example while passing that little town it just started to rain suddenly and thunder and volumes of water were billowing towards us splashing everywhere.

LACitytour | five

"And in a pipe she flies to the Motherland
Or sells love to another man
It's too cold outside
For angels to fly
Angels to fly" 
-Ed Sheeran

Angels Fly was our next destination (not really I´ve just completely messed the order). If I remember right it was almost right opposite the Grand Market. Angels Fly is the world´s shortest railway in the world. It´s kinda weird cause it goes uphill. It wasn´t in use that moment so  we had to walk the stairs. There we met our  always happy leader Antti who possibly had already visited nearest Starbucks.

LACitytour | four

After our interesting trip to COLA we headed towards a market place which was marked on our map. Okay I´m not completely sure if we actually did everything in this very order but anyways that´s not the point.

It was actually pretty hard to find the market place but then we realized to follow the guide signs  and found the place. Now imagine the stereotypical Asian marketplace where you will most likely be robbed. It looked just like that!

The Grand Central market was located indoors and it was basically a huge room with a lot of people selling food and other things under big colorful neon-lighted signs. People were crowded on small aisles pushing each other out of their way while trying to make sure that their recently-bought blackberries (nope not the phones) won´t get squeezed.

Talking about blackberries! Me, Oona and Iida bought some of them from some old man/woman (can´t remember). At first we were thinking  that how hygienic the berries would be and would we be sick the entire trip after eating those berries... But you know, these are one of those YOLO moments so we ate the berries which tasted delicious and didn´t get sick at all.. At least I didn´t.

LAcitytour | three

After Disney Concert Hall we headed towards the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. Pretty long name huh? That´s why I´m just gonna shorten it into ´COLA´ and pray for forgiveness for making up such an unholy nickname... MOVING ON NOW!

Most of us will think about a large, old, monumental building with high towers and beautiful ornaments when talking about a cathedral, and well that was something I was trying to find. Thank God (badam tsss) we had the map because even though we were literally standing next to the COLA´s back wall we didn´t recognize it. Seriously we were so close that we were actually able to touch the COLA. We  almost started to cross some bridge so we could find what we were looking for but then after having a few doubts we took the first turning to left and walked downwards the street.

And that was when we saw the cathedral! It just looked completely different that I had imagined. it was really modern... no towers were seen but it still impressed me. We had a small conversation if we should go in or not but eventually we found ourselves inside sitting on one bench and listening to cantor who was playing the organs... It made me feel a kinda good person for a while. Me Oona and Iida also dipped our fingers into the Holy Water and made the cross signs. The water burned none of us so I gotta say that there ain´t  no sinners in my squad!

After the visit in COLA we had a picnic in the church´s park which was located next to the COLA´s parking hall... guess Our Lady was a kinda car-geek. There were all kind´s animal statues in the park... a statue of a lion, snake, fish, zebra or smthng and so on. We sat on a bench and started to unpack our lunch... Then one particular statue, a fine piece of art, got our full attention. It was right in front of us and I guess it was supposed to be a beehive with bees walking on it. To us it looked like a huge pile of crap with flies all around of it. Holy shit indeed!! Otherwise the picnic was nice... eating our sandwiches and wondering who left the pile of shite in front of us. I guess you can say that this  is one of those ´Once In a Lifetime´ -experiences.

-Take Me to Church - Hozier

LAcitytour | two

random homes in LA

After getting out of the parking hall and finding our way to Iida we decided to follow the map and find these sights marked on it.

We were´t really sure about where we should head and cause we didn´t want to follow the others we turned to wrong direction a couple of times. Iida´s faith for mine and Oona´s map reading skills began to falter and at one point she announced that she´ll leave us and go follow the others. Luckily the traffic lights were red so Oona had time to think where we had to go and Iida happily followed us.

The first thing on our list was the Walt Disney Concert Hall. It was a hot day and we had to walk uphill so once we saw the building we really wanted to go inside where it was a lot fresher. Of course we would have went inside anyway! I mean it must have been really finely designed from the inside by the astounding architecture of the exterior. Well what we saw inside was a kinda cramped hall with an empty front desk. Maybe the biggest disappointment of the LA city tour cause I waited to see a bit more...

Okay I remembered that the uphill climb was bigger

And this is what we saw :)

Finally there!!! 

PS. If u travel with EF once you´ll
always recognize the pink color
wherever you go!
Spotted this in Barcelona

LAcitytour | one

El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciúncula, The Big Orange, La-La Land, Shaky Town, The City of Angles

All these names for only one city. The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels - LA!

Anyways let´s get on with this... Today was the day for LA City Tour. At first we were driven near Stables Center. Some American women´s soccer team had won some big championship and people were celebrating there. I didn´t really get why we went there cause we didn´t go inside the center. We just chilled outside and watched people lame-partying. All free cokes were already given away which was disappointing. 

The next stop was a hotel. When we got off the buss the leaders gave us maps printed from GoogleMaps (imagine the quality)  and we were told to walk from the place A to place B. There were certain sights on the way that were were supposed to visit and check out like Walt Disney Concert Hall and catholic cathedral: Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. We could have walked with the leaders but you know it´s more fun to walk with ur friends. Oona and Iida were my sightseeing buddies. In the beginning of that walk we were like a huge group of tourists.... which we technically were (?????). Anyway me and Oona didn´t want to walk in a huge herd of EF students so we tried our best to lag... to fall behind. There was this old man in a wheelchair who desperately tried to get in the buss and we stopped to help him.Well actually it was Oona who helped to push the wheelchair into the buss. Unbelievable that everybody, including the leaders, just walked past him and didn´t help. But we still weren´t enough left behind.

That´s why when we saw a quite long escalator going up to somewhere I decided that I want to try it. Oona came with me but Iida stayed on the pavement and looked us like "Are you fucking serious now?!". When we came to the other end of that escalator we realized that we would have to walk down (I know horrible right?) So that´s why we went to a random elevator and tried to get down with it... Instead of getting back to Iida we found ourselves from a parking hall. And up we went again deciding to walk back ´cause Parking Halls are scary and we didn´t want to get lost.