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After our 8 hour epic greyhound ride on Thursday 27th, we jumped off the bus early at the Hollywood stop instead of downtown LA as it was closer to our hostel. We caught a cab that massively ripped us off to drop us off at the Banana hostel, Vibe Hotel on Hollywood Blvd. We checked into our dorm, changed and headed out for the evening. We didn't really know where to go so we just headed up to the main sights of Hollywood Blvd and as we walked up the stars began to appear on the sidewalk. The stars were cool to look at but you had to be careful not to constantly stare downwards as you walked in case of bumping into stuff, although there were hundreds of stars there were many people we didn't know. We didn't really know where to go for dinner so we went to the Hard Rock Café as this seemed to be the only food place around and also we thought it would be touristy and nice and tacky as we were in Hollywood. After some cocktails and dinner we went to the famous Chinese theatre to look at the celebrity hand prints. From what we could see there wasn't much here apart from the two main theatres and the starts the rest of Hollywood Blvd was a bit grim.
On Friday 28th we took a day tour of L.A organised by our hostel, so you can imagine it wasn't best organised and it took an age for driver to get himself ready and to get on with the tour. Our 1st stop of the day was up to the Hollywood Sign in the hills. He also showed us on the way places like where pretty woman was set, Madonna's house, the sister act church and where the stars buy their groceries. We were dropped off then to walk around the Chinese theatre and the Kodak Theatre (where the Oscars are held.) Next stop was Beverley hills and Bel Air where we were given a tour of the stars houses, the main ones where Michael Jacksons house where he died, Leo DiCaprio, Britney, the Osborne's, Tom Hanks, The fresh prince of Bel Air house and Anthony Hopkins. After this our driver took us to the coast line and stopped at Santa Monica where the famous route 66 starts and to see the pier and the beach, after some quick photos it was then back in the van to have lunch at Venice Beach. We grabbed some food from a stall and ate it on the grass next to the beach, I have to point out the weather was pretty warm in LA so it was a nice day to hang out along the strip, where we saw muscle beach, the famous basketball courts, the skate park and of course the beach. We were then taken to see the remaining canals in the area of Venice and to Rydell High from grease. The final stop of the day was at Rodeo drive where we were dropped off to have a look around. We saw the hotel that was in Pretty Woman and all of the fancy shops I could only dream about shopping in but we did get to admire the Bugatti car that was parked up. We did not get back to our hostel till after 7, our original plan for the evening was to go out to one of the clubs but we were both shattered from the long day and I wasn't feeling my best so we opted for a Thai restaurant and of course wine.
Saturday was our last day in California so we packed up our stuff, bought another 'I <3…' t-shirt and walked along Hollywood Boulevard. We then went down to the Sunset strip where we had lunch in a really funny western themed bar where we drank huge beers and I had ribs and a cauldron of onion rings. After stuffing my face we went to a little Margarita bar called Cabo (where Tom Cruise hung out before he got weird.)This place was quite random but was buzzing and the cocktails were awesome. We then caught the bus back to Hollywood Blvd, the busses in the LA are not used by everyone, anyone that has money have cars. The busses are clearly used by the homeless and those with little money so they are a little threatening at times and I couldn't wait to pick up a car in Orlando. In the evening we went to the Chinese theatre to see the new movie that premiered there 'The Rite' with Anthony Hopkins, which was pretty good, he definitely plays a crazy person far too well. On Sunday we left our hostel and caught the subway downtown to catch our Greyhound for another epic bus ride to Las Vegas, which was slow and uneventful.
So LA was a massive let down, I thought there was going to be a lot more glitz and glamour and there just wasn't. The divide between rich and more is very apparent here and all that you see on the TV is so exclusive that you would not be able to see it unless you had the money to pay for it as you see a lot more of the serve amount of poverty than the wealth. I am glad I went and seen it, but its definitely a place where stars work and not live. The most important this is that I'm glad that we took the tour as everything was so spread out that you would not be able to see everything by public transport, but I can tell you I will not be rushing back here.
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