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We have a 7 and a half hour bus journey down to LA but due to our second driver who decided to have long breaks at every stop we didn't arrive in LA till 9 hours later. The drive down though was quite good, we took the scenic route for most of the way down and the views were amazing. To one side we had big green and gold Californian mountains and to the other we had the torquise sea with little island scattered around.
We have noticed that most of the Greyhound stations are in dodgy areas of town but the LA one took the piss. When we came out of the station we got told to f*** off for saying no thanks to a taxi then we noticed that the Greyhound station and all the ATM's in the area had security guards, the area was just totally rough.
When we got to our hostel we found out that it was again a hostel and a hotel mixed. We checked in and got up to our room and found out that we had a private room! Our booking said that we were in a 4 bed dorm so we didn't tell the desk that they may have mixed us up!
As we only had 2 full days here and apparently the public transport is pretty awful here we headed to Hollywood to book a 48 hour jump on, jump off tour bus. We came up from the subway on Hollywood boulevard and the first thing we saw was the Hollywood walk of fame. There are loads of stars on each side of the pavement but we hardly recognised any of them until we got to the main touristy bit of it. The main part of it is packed, they have the Kodak theatre there where they host the Oscars and all that jazz and next door they have the Chinese theatre that has hosted the most film premiers in the world. They also get the main cast to make a hand and foot print in the concrete outside the main door which is quite cool. They have loads outside, some from when the place just opened like John Wayne's and the old skool Star Wars cast (even R2D2!)
After lunch we booked our tours and jumped on our first one. this one took us on a tour of Hollywood, Beverley Hills, Rodeo Drive and Melrose Avenue. They pointed out all the old things that happened back in the day like the Viper room nightclub that has no windows because it was a Mafia bar and they replaced them with concrete to stop hits and then later on when Johnny Depp bought it River Phoenix died. They also showed us where all the Celebs live in Beverley Hills (we saw a load of paparazzi outside someone's house going nuts taking photo's), where they shop in Rodeo Drive (average price of a suit is $15,000!). We went past the Paramount studios, Nickoldeon and the old studio's where Charlie Chapman worked. They also drove past the Hollywood sign (from quite a distance!) and explained the history of it. We spent the rest of the afternoon having a look around Hollywood boulevard and then headed home.
Next day we headed back to Hollywood boulevard to get one of the other tours. We got on the shortest one that took us up to Universal Studios. This one was more like a shuttle up to the park so they never pointed anything out or told us about anything but we got to see Universal Studios and the views of LA from Hollywood Hills. When we got up to Universal it looked really good so we were really tempted to go in but it would have been a bit of a waste to spend $75 on half a day in the park.
For our last tour we had to get back on the first one and get off halfway so we could get on one that took us down Santa Monica. We got off on Rodeo Drive and as we had a few minutes spare we took a walk round a couple of the shops that the celebs used but didn't see anyone. We got on our next tour which showed us round another celebrity housing estate and then showed us Santa Monica beach. The beach is massive, it has a huge pier with fairground rides on and we found out that the beach is where they filmed Baywatch! We staying in Venice Beach for the next few days so we going to head back up here and check it out more. After we got a tour of the area the tour guide dropped us back at Rodeo drive to get the other bus back to Hollywood. While we were waiting a group of paparazzi ran past us snapping pictures of a blonde woman on her phone, we have no idea who she was but at least we saw our first celebrity!
Our ride back to Hollywood took ages due to the traffic and we found out when we got back to our hotel that this was because the President was here and they shut off an entire road so he and his blockade could get through without any problems (selfish!)
We have fully enjoyed our time in LA,we have got to explore Hollywood, Beverley Hills, Downtown and Melrose Avenue. We have been told some horror stories of the place but it really isn't that bad. I still wouldn't venture out too late and downtown is way more rough than Hollywood and that area but it is just like any other city.
We are staying in LA but tomorrow we head to Venice Beach and Santa Monica for 3 nights. We got in touch with our Aussie friend Grace who we met in Washington DC and found out that she is in Venice Beach so we are going to meet up with her.
Oh and we later found out that it was Mischa Barton that we saw in LA!!
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