An unexpected Swiss visitor

Maybe three weeks ago, Andreas surprised me when he replied back to my email and told me he was in LA and had been for a couple of days.  I immediately jumped at the opportunity to meet up with him. We decided to head to the Getty, a massive art museum with one of the best views of LA.  When I picked him up at the bus stop, I shook his hand and told him how glad I was to see him again.  Andreas told me about his travels in Las Vegas, reminding me once again, how badly I wanted to do what he was doing.  Instead of being the typical tourist in Las Vegas by going to casinos and bars, Andreas drove around the desert with a folk singer that he met at his hostel.


The Getty is a beautiful place

At the Getty, Andreas proved quite the art student.  He pointed things out in many paintings that I would have never seen by myself.  His comments on the art pieces always seemed to resonate with me and when there was a disagreement he would listen and try to see things my perspective.  I have never before had such engaging experience at an art museum.


"We've all seen that look on a woman's face before" - Andreas

Starved we left the museum in search of more affordable food.  We parked at my apartment and then proceeded to walk about two miles to a Persian sandwich shop, I had found on yelp.  The shop was hidden away on a small cross street which made it all the more frustrating to find.  At least 20 minutes was spent looking up at the street numbers and wondering why the shop was not where it was supposed to be.  However, when we finally found the place, it was all worth it.  The beef tongue sandwiches were delicious and the place itself was charming.  Stepping through the metal gates into shop's courtyard was like stepping into another world.  This place was an oasis of tranquility, from the busy and loud streets of LA.

Over lunch, I heard about how his journey might soon come to an end.  He had participated in a copy writing test before he left and was awaiting the results.  If he was to be called in for the second round of tests from this very prestigious school, he was going to pack up and fly straight to Hamburg, ending his months of travel. It was sort of disheartening to hear, that we all must eventually go back to the real world and make that money again.  Surprisingly, he was very impressed with my blog post about him, going so far as to say that I have a gift once he heard that I had not received any professional training.  Not going to lie, that really boosted my ego.

After the late lunch, Andreas suggested heading out to Santa Monica since I had never been there before.  Santa Monica is fairly touristy place, and we both agreed it did not offer anything too exciting.  Some of the street performers were interesting and there was a monkey but besides that there was not much else.  We went to the beach, sat around a little bit and then walked along it to the pier.  The Santa Monica pier is a smaller and less fun version of the Santa Cruz beach boardwalk, so I was a bit disappointed.


The only Asian street performer I saw


I don't blame the monkey for looking sad

As darkness set in, I decided to walk with Andreas to his hostel in Venice.  This was partly motivated by the fact that I really wanted some Mexican food and also because this was Andreas's last day in the states.  The next day he was going to fly off to Santiago and who knows when I was going to see him again.  I did not end up finding any cheap Mexican food and we ended up eating at a Subway that was right across the street from Andreas's hostel.  Before arriving at Subway, Andreas told me how much he loved their sandwiches, which I found hilarious because Subway sandwiches in my opinion are one of the worst sandwiches you can buy.  I still do not understand how someone from Europe who grew up with those amazing cured meats could be satisfied with the plastic lunch meats at Subway.  In a way, our last meal together was absurd as our first meeting.

After dinner, we shook hands, exchanged goodbyes and parted paths.  Andreas left as quickly as he came, leaving me wondering where and when I will see him again.

- muffinman

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