Supposedly the roads were going to get busy at this time of the day already but nothing the like.
Most of the drive was easy and the road was empty, just a couple of miles before the airport it became more busy and a bit of a jam occurred.
I still had to find a petrol station before returning the Mustang and this should not prove to be an easy task.
As a normal person I would put a petrol station on the road where all the rental car places and a couple of car and motorcycle show rooms are.
But there was none... so after driving around some dodgy streets just around dawn I looked up on my maps with me app to find a petrol station. The closest was about 5 km away and I had to get back on some motorway onramps and under and over passes. I really just wanted to drop off the car and not deal with this stuff but I had to. So I found my way to that petrol stop and when I rolled up next to the petrol pump a very offical looking man asked me in a very friendly tone if I had my Military ID with me.
This petrol station was only for military personnel... it was a little cheaper than other petrol stations I had seen in Hawaii so I was not allowed to use it. But the guy helped me to find another station and there I filled up and also decided to get a cup of coffee... being in America the smallest cup was 16 oz and cost just 1.25$ or something.
My 300 horse V6 baby wasn't quite as thirsty as I had thought... driving only 40 or 50 miles per hour most of the time it had drank just a bit more than 11 gallons of fuel over the 320 miles I drove in Hawaii which converts to just above 8.5 l/100km.
The only problem with a 300 hp car was really that I now want one for home as well now.
Dropping it off was a very heartless procedure... just parked it and a woman had a quick look through it and wanted to see the tank receipt (to confirm I had not filled it up with water or something?!) and off they were. Bye bye my little Mustang.
The car rental company had a shuttle to the passenger terminal and the very friendly Hawaiian driver, Marvin, let me know that there was a film crew doing a scene at for the new seasons of Hawaii 5-0 at one of the arrivals areas of the Hawaiian Airlines terminal.
As it was not time to check in for my flight yet I walked over to the place the driver had pointed out to me and had a look.
It was a huge set with 80 or more people just milling around (excluding the actors and extras).
Security made sure I didn't take any pictures, so I just watched the people standing frozen before the action word came from the director and everyone started walking around with wheely bags dressed in hawaii shirts as if coming from a flight or going to one. Every extra had its dedicated course and repeated that over and over again until the scene was perfect. Quite interesting to watch this... certainly better than waiting in a boring departure hall until the counter opens.
I have not yet watched an episode of the new Hawaii 5-0 but this one (episode 21 of season 5) I will certainly have to watch when I get home.
After check in I walked around the duty free area of the airport... the entire airport is completely open to the air... there are some windows but they do not line up and can't be closed... so there is no air conditioning, just fresh air. Even if they wanted they couldn't close the airport properly - even the airside. Very strange for an airport.
One thing I didn't yet get around to do was shopping for a Aloha shirt... the Airport should be a good place to do this, but when checking out the prices I was pretty shocked. At one shop they all were 130 USD and above. This must have been some specific, well known brand, because in a different shop I soon found one for 32$. This was also designed and made in Hawaii and looked at least as cool as the expensive ones.
I just couldn't decide whether I wanted a bright or a rather dark shirt... I went for a darkish blue one in the end.
So far (more than a month later) I am very happy with my decision.
The fight with strange prices continued when I tried to find a bottle of water I could take aboard the plane.
I walked up and down 80% of the shops and checked different food stalls for water ... a half litre bottle was 5 $ at all the food places... and there was no news agent. So I made the decision to buy one for 5 $ and soon after found a little shop that sold a bottle the same size for 2.79$.
I wanted to get some water because my flight was with a US budget airline called allegiant and I assumed they were going to rip me off but the bottle on board was even cheaper... 2 $... but hey... I lost 3 $. Oh and I did have to pay an extra 5 $ at the check-in because I didn't print my ticket.
All this didn't matter because the atmosphere in Hawaii is just so much more relaxed than in other places in the US and most of Europe.
Two examples: 1. the airport has a little Japanese garden you can walk through, outside and protected by the terminal building which is really lovely and calming. 2. even the airport personal on the field who drive around in the little cars to get something or bring something to the airplanes have a big smile on their faces and wave at passengers just looking out the window (or where there should be a window - since the airport is all open).
All in all: Hawaii is a great place to relax, just a pity that it is pretty much as far away from Europe as possible or I would come here more often :-).
It's all about "hang loose" over here.
I went to the gate, boarded right away and took my seat (no, they are not quite as bad as ryanair).
The flight was a bit bumpy but had a little highlight at the end after we landed as a girl got into trouble as she did not return to her seat during the landing but stayed in the bathroom. This caused some attention with the flight attendants who was going to call the FAA as it was a violation.
Since it was a domestic flight arriving at a domestic terminal, there was no immigration I just walked out of the plane, picked up my bag and took a bus to Santa Monica. Well, first to a lonely, dodgy parking lot (it was dark already and I was in LA... a bit scary alright) where I had to wait for the public bus to Santa Monica. The bus was only 1 $ and all went well although the big city and the messed up people did scare me a bit.
Anyway, I did get to my hostel and checked in, asked for a place for some mexican food and went out to this little van that sold tacos.
They were not particularly good but cheap and hit the spot.
The hostel and the little Taco van were just in the centre of Santa Monica, so even though it was quite late already I checked out the famous pier.
Not that much to see there but nice enough for an evening stroll.
Back at the hostel I had bit of chat with my new room mates Gabriel from Brazil and Kahn from Japan and then rewarded me for long day of travelling with a display of Indian Jones and the Last Crusade on my laptop in my bed. Good Hostels do have a reading lamp and a plug next to the bed... and so did this.
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