From one crazy place to another.After a long journey from Buenos Aires including a stop off at Mexico City we finally landed in the smoggy and sprawling city that is Los Angeles.
We were heading straight for Hollywood, the lions den of US culture, and the exact opposite of everything we've come to know and love over the past eight months. An exhorbitant taxi ride saw us pull up at our amazingly located hostel right on Hollywood Boulevard in the middle of all the action.
After settling in, we decide to walk down the boulevard to take in the Hollywood atmosphere. We were not disappointed. The street was full of crazy people, either trying to sell you stuff, doing those silly human statue impressions or dressed up as Yoda or Shrek. And this was during the day! When the sun went down it got a lot more bizarre when the real crazies came out of the woodwork shambling up the boulevard and talking to themselves which a lot of people seem to do here. We escaped into the Mann theatre which was showing 28 Weeks Later, a film about a bunch of virus infected human zombies.
The following day we decided to head over to Universal Studios. However, apart from the tour of the film lots which was interesting it was basically a theme park with some good rides/experiences. All in all though it wasn't really worth the entry fee.
We awoke early the next morning and took the long journey across town to Venice Beach which wasn't half as tacky as I'd expected it to be. We had sushi by the beach and then I got a tattoo.
Back on Hollywood Boulevard we were about to check out some bars when we ran into a guy we'd met the night before called Eddie. Eddie is homeless and wheelchair bound and seems to spend his entire day cruising up and down the boulevard. We ended up hanging out with (sometimes pushing) him and he took us on a mini tour of the local area whilst giving us his fascinating and very sad life story.
On our last day I thought it would be a great idea to go celebrity spotting so off we went to Beverly Hills in the hope we might bump into Brangelina or George. However, there were none to be found. In fact, Beverly Hills was strangely quiet and the shops more like designer facades. We took lunch in an Italian corner cafe where I was sure we would see some but still no luck. We still had one card up our sleeves though, the Beverly Hills Hotel, the place to celeb spot and just a short walk away through mansion lined backstreets. On arrival we found our way to the cocktail lounge, ordered two overpriced Mojitos and waited...
If there were any celebs here they were certainly keeping a low profile and after about an hour of feeling totally out of place we finally gave up and returned back to the hotel. We just had time to spend a couple of hours around the pool at the Roosevelt Hotel before it was time to head off to the airport and onwards to the Land of Oz!
Farewell America!
Pics here.
Stuff
The best budget place to stay in LA by a long way is the Orange Drive Manor Hostel just next door to the Kodak Theatre on Hollwood Bld at just GBP36 a night for a double.
Beauty Bar - a cool hangout and god cocktails
Must do - see a film at the Chinese Mann Theatre - it's where they first showed Star Wars you know.
Must do - take a stroll down Venice beach
Must do - relax around the pool at the Roosevelt Hotel
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