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So there I was arriving in Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on the 5th March after a short 45 minute flight from Las Vegas, landing at approximately midday! Having been told by every person that I had met on my travels so far that Los Angeles was a dump, nobody I had spoken to had a good word to say about the place, so I was walking through arrivals, thinking great Ive got 9 days in this so called 'dump' the longest stay in any place for me so far! Well I have to say they couldn't have been more wrong, I loved the place, in fact I dont know where the time went in LA! It also marked the end of an era, as this was my last destination in the United States, after spending a month in four of the biggest and best cities in the USA....if not the world!
It would be impossible for me to describe to anyone how big Los Angeles is, you simply have to be here to understand the true dimensions of the beast, it is undescribably huge! I spent 9 nights in LA, as I departed on Sunday 14th March! I stayed at the USA hostels Hollywood, and it was great, again like my previous hostel run by the same company, there was free pancakes for breakfast, and there was always something going on in the day and at night! I was in a 8 bed dorm, and everybody seemed to come and go staying only 1 or 2 nights, and not really getting a feel for the city, yet there was one Australian guy, called Andrew who was in my dorm for near enough the whole duration of my stay, and it allowed us to form a good friendship as we were the only people in the dorm for a long duration. The weather in LA was great after the first two days of my stay when we had cloud and scattered rain showers, from then on it was glorious sunshine reaching the mighty height of the 20s, by far the warmest destination of mine so far!
Anyway, after collecting my baggage from the claim point at LAX airport, I went in search of the blue supershuttle vans, as they were the company that the hostel reccommended we use as transport to the hostel! Sure enough they were easy to find, and I just had to tell the bloke standing at their pick up point where I was staying and he wrote my name on the list, and gave me the number of the shuttle that I would be getting, because LA is so big, it is impossible for them not to categorise the shuttles in terms of areas in the city, as in the other destinations, I could just get in any shuttle and it would take me there as the main areas are all close by, but in LA its so spread out, the shuttles need to be categorised so that all passengers going to a similar area are grouped in the same shuttle! Once on board, I just reminded the driver where I was staying and after doing another lap of the airport so the driver could look for more money...I mean passengers, we set off for Hollywood Blvd where my hostel was located, there were another 4 people in the shuttle with me and as it happened I was the third stop! Still as I sat there, I was still thinking about what people had told me about LA, but thought that I would develop my own opinion of the place and sure did! My first impression without doubt was the shear size of the place, it took us an hour and a half to get from the airport to the hostel, the journey can be done in 45 minutes if not less, however when you get stuck in LA traffic, you can be sat there and not move for ages, and seeing as we were trying to get to Hollywood on a Friday afternoon approaching rush hour, the traffic was starting to get heavy and sure enough we were sat in traffic for a good 30 to 45 minutes of the latter part of the journey, and seeing as I was desparate for the toilet, the time did not fly by, haha! The traffic light system in LA is ridiculous though, I have to admit, as the streets are all so straight and they have traffic lights every block so 50 metres or so, so when you get through one set of traffic lights you get stuck at the next, so you can never get into a flow driving through LA as it is always stop start!
Once at the hostel, I went to check in, and actually managed to get quite a lot of discount as I picked up a leaflet at the previous hostel for this hostel, and it gave me $3 discount, but also had a cut out that could be used to get the hostel to reimburse the fee for the cost of the transport to the airport, so I asked them for my refund and they said that the offer stopped a few months ago, but I said I picked up this leaflet from San Francisco and it clearly states that the transport is paid for, so they had to refund the $15 :D Then because I have a student card, I also get a dollar discount a night, so that was an extra saving of $9, so in total I saved $27, then they charge you for using your card to pay, so $5 went back to them as a surcharge, I could pay with cash but I still have to pay a surcharge to withdraw money from the ATM's so it actually dosent make a differnce what payment method I use! Following this, one of the members of staff gave me a quick tour of the hostel, showing me where all the facilities are and such like, then I went up to my room and chose my bed, I opted for a bottom bunk near the window as they are the best ones, then I set about unpacking, until there were two new arrivals in my dorm shortly after, they were travelling together and were from France! Surprise, surprise they were only staying for 2 nights, so were quick to get out of the hostel to have a look around when they arrived! They asked me if I wanted to join them, with what very little English they spoke, I accepted and we went walking around Hollywood Blvd for just over an hour, this gave me an opportunity to get a feel for the place! When we returned I brought a padlock from the reception for $3 as when I was in the last hostel I gathered that my lock was not suitable for the lockers as it was only a medium lock and meant the lockers were still able to be opened, so I brought a large padlock and this meant there was not a hope in hell of the locker opening!
I also had to do my washing on the first afternoon here, as I hadnt done any since the previous Friday, so I was on my last pair of socks, it was only $2.50 to get it all washed and dried with the free detergent so good value for money! Once this had finished it was already time for dinner, and luckily for me, the hostel had a BBQ my first night, so I paid my 6 bucks and after that it was as much as you can eat, I stuck moderately to 2 cans of 'soda', 2 cheeseburgers and a hot dog plus some crisps, lol! That certainly filled me up, I sat at the table with the two french dudes I had met and we tried to make conversation as best we could! Following this I met Andrew the Australian for the first time, who was to become a good mate, this first encounter it was just a quick hello, then I went back upto the dorm, went on the internet, and then had my first nights kip in LA, only to find that the door to the toilet was in desparate need of some oiling as it sqeaked so much when it was opened, and with my bed being the closest to the toilet, every time somebody went in the night I was woken up, so you can understand my relief when a member of staff fixed the damn thing a few days in!
So my first full day in LA, it was a saturday, and I had signed up to a tour to the HOLLYWOOD sign with the hostel for that morning, it was a 10.30 start so gave me some time to grab some sleep and some pancakes before meeting in the lobby and setting off to this famous landmark! The 2 french kids were also on this tour but by this stage the conversation had sort of run dry and I was now getting to know Andrew quite well, and was introduced to Paul, who was English who I would also become friendly with! As we chatted away, we walked to the bus stop about 10 minutes away from the hostel, the size of the group doing the tour was approximately 16 people from memory and the weather was looking nasty up in the sky but the rain was holding off! The tour guide we had was a member of staff at the hostel and was the most laid back tour guide in the world, he was full of useless facts and it was amusing the way he just couldnt care less, he did tell us however that after the celeb has been acknowledged for their work in their category and told they can have a star on the Hollywood walk of fame, the celeb has to pay $25,000 and be present when it is laid, there are also 5 categories for which you can recieve a star in and one guy on the walk of fame has a star for every category, but nobody has a clue who he is, and the boxer Ali, is the only person whos star is not on the floor but the wall as he once said that he didnt like to be walked on!
On with the trip to the Hollywood sign, and it didnt get off to the best of starts as we discovered that our bus had broken down just down the road, and that was the only bus we could take, so after waiting around for ages and finding out that there was no chance the bus was going to be fixed for a long time, the tour guide phoned the hostel to get them to give us a lift in their minibus, and to be honest this turned out to be a blessing in disguise as the minibus took us right to the sign whereas had we got the bus it would have only taken us halfway and we would have had to walk the rest and it was all up a steep hill, so we were lucky, this was a word, lucky, that summed up my time in LA as you will discover! Once we reached the top we took some photos of the sign and the guide told us why it was put there...to change the image of Hollywood because at the time it was going through a rough patch and needed to be rejuvinated, and also that the letters had been muddled up a few times to spell different things, an example is HOLLYWEED where the letters were overlapped to give the double E! We then walked round the hillside a bit further to get a better view over the city, as we were high up and it was awesome! From here we went back to the shuttle, and we were taken straight back to the hostel! It was lunchtime when we got back so we had lunch, and then set out for the afternoons activity which involved going to the Griffith Observatory, again I went with Andrew and Paul, and it was easy to get there as it was a short hop on the metro followed by a quick bus ride to the top of the Observatory, and because it was a weekend it was free, it was actually a lot different here to what I had expected because I had thought that it would just be an observation deck over LA but it was actually really busy as there was lots to do inside, there were displays on the walls with a variety of interesting facts about the planet etc, and there was also a show but we missed it plus you had to pay for that! After checking out the displays inside the building we went outside to get a superb view over the whole of LA and this gave me an impression of how big LA is, it was nippy up that high though, after spending a short while at the Observation we went back to the hostel by the same means of transport by which we arrived, it was getting towards late afternoon early evening by the time we arrived back, and so after a short recouperation period, me, Paul and Andrew decided to meet in the Lobby at about 7.30 to go to dinner, after walking down Hollywood Blvd, we decided to eat at this pizza restaurant....so guess what I had....this isnt a trick question dont worry, I did have pizza, and it was lovely, I ordered the smallest pizza they did, as this is America, despite the attempts of the waiter to try to make me get a bigger one, and in the end im glad I got the size pizza I did as it was plenty and the other guys got the next size pizza up and they couldnt manage it all, I also got water purely because water is free in all restaurants so this is what I got in every restaurant we went in near enough! Th pizza that I had was a 7 inch, and it had quite a hefty crust, I think it had a mixture of toppings, I dont remember what they all were however, all I no is that it had pepproni, tomato and cheese and was good! After this we made the short walk to the supermarket, where we stocked up on alcohol, where Andrew and Paul brought some Whisky and Coke! Once back at the hostel we played cards, the usual games like Blackjack and cheat which was a laugh, and we drank the Whisky which was vile even with the Coke, so I had to reduce the percentage of Whisky to Coke that I drank, but it didnt hide the nastyness of the Whisky, however it was cheap! After drinking a few of them, I was ready for bed and the drink got me to sleep easy!
The following day was Sunday, but it was no ordinary Sunday in LA, because it was Oscars Sunday! The city was buzzing and the streets were chaotic, but I knew that if I wanted a good view I would have to get to the Kodak Theatre (where the Oscars were held) early, the guests started arriving at 3pm and the show started at 5pm! So after waking up around 9.30am I had my free pancakes for breakfast and then went into the local shop to buy some bits for lunch as I didnt know how accessible food would be at the Oscars, then I headed straight for the Kodak Theatre around 11am!
All the roads that were near to the theatre had been closed off, so there was no traffic about for once! As I walked towards the Kodak Theatre, I noticed that there was a queue at the entrance to where the spectators had to enter, and there was also big metal fences along the paths or 'sidewalks' if your American! So after walking down to the front of the queue to the entrance just to check things out, I realised by queuing up was the only means in, and I thought seeing as I more than likely only going to be in LA once let alone when the Oscars are on, I may as well get in the queue, so thats what I did, but it was a bloody long queue, and I was waiting for an hour, so it wasnt until midday by the time I was at the front and going through security to get in! Yes they had security, which was the cause for the hold up as there was one officer checking one person at a time explaining the reason for the queue moving at snails pace, it was quite vigourous security as well as they had a detector they scanned around you checking for any metal items, they then checked you by hand, and had to look in our bags for any dangerous items, once inside I realised that there were people that were even more sad than me, and many of them at that because I was there 3 hours before it started, and it was mobbed when I got through, there were so many people there that must have got there so early, and knowing Americans some may even have camped out the night! It was now that I realised that I wasnt going to get a great view, because, the best viewpoint was completly rammed full, and people were starting to grab a view further and further down the line, where there was a red carpet, which made me think that maybe the celebs would be driving to there, well the chaffeur at least, so I went and stood just where the red carpet began, and was waiting there until around 2pm, about an hour before everyone started to arrive, when I found out that this red carpet was where all the ordinary, not famous guests were arriving to drop their cars off at the valet, and sure enough all the valet workers came to form a queue along the red carpet to pick up the cars, and they were doing this tirelessly for 2 hours which shows you how many people there were attending the Oscars, especially as there were a good 30 people doing the valet! When the celebs started arriving at 3pm, I could see the limos and I could see people getting out but I was quite far away from the action and there was a big metal fence in the way, so I was unable to distinguish who the person was getting out of the car, it was this moment when I decided that I needed to get closer, so I moved down to the front even though it was crowded in search of a better position, and I did do just as it started to rain, after being boiling hot all day, so that some people were leaving there positions to get away from the rain, when I got to the front where everybody was congregated, I couldnt see all that much as im not the tallest in the world, haha, so had to look over everybodys shoulders on tiptoes, but eventually after about 30 minutes of edging in front of people, I managed to squirm to the front, right up against the metal fence, this gave me an opportunity to take better photos as from further back the fence ruined the photos as it made the images blurry, it also gave me the best view I had, had so far, as I could see the limos and the celebs getting out fairly well although it was still a little hard trying to distinguish who it was getting out, you always knew if it was someone really famous however as there would be big screams from the crowd and everybody would push forward trying to get a good view! The only people that I managed to see up close were Lenny Kravitz and..........George Clooney which was amazing and made the waiting totally worth while, as I was there until 5.30pm so it was a long day and if I had not seen anyone I would have been so annoyed, yes I would liked to have seen more people but seeing George Clooney was great, the reason I saw him and not anyone else was because he was the only person out of all those hundreds and thousands of people that went in to the theatre that actually came right up to the metal fences and said hello and interacted with the fans, it was like he respected the fact that the fans had been there for hours and also that we in effect pay their wages as we pay to watch the movies or buy the DVDs, all the other movie stars just got out there car, a small wave, which some couldnt even manage, then they walked straight into the theatre, whereas George was in a class of his own and showed his appreciation towards us, which was brilliant and made him even more popular if that was possible! I do have to admit however that it was slightly annoying being so far away from where the stars got out of the cars and having a ugly metal fence in the way as it meant the view was bad, it would had been ok if every star had been like George and came upto the fence or even just walked past it close by, but no none were like that! I am pleased that I can say I was at the Oscars in 2010 though, even with a limited atmosphere amongst the crowd, the most entertaining part of my day apart from seeing George was right at the start when I was queuing up to get in and there was this homeless guy sat on the opposite side of the road with all his clothes torn, he was laying up against a rocking horse and watching everyone pass by, the cops were standing nearby and some other people started walking in the road, so the cops told them to get on the path, they didnt listen and carried on walking in the road, and the homeless guy started getting well irrate with these people he shouted out 'Oi didnt you here the police, get on the sidewalk' and when the cops werent around after that he shouted at any body who decided to walk in the road, he was like the sidewalk police and was hilarious, he did get some strange looks however!
After my long and drawn out day at the Oscars, I headed back to the hostel at 5.30pm, so took the usual route along Hollywood Blvd only to find they had closed it all off, even the footpaths, so I had to go the long route, around the backroads, before finally finding my way back to the hostel, about 20 minutes later than I had anticipated! When I got back I bumped into Andrew and Paul and they said they were heading out for dinner at 7.30pm so I said I would meet them even though I hadnt decided whether I was going to eat out or not, so when 7.30 came around we met in the lobby and I decided I would buy some ingredients from the shop to cook, only to find that the shop was shut, which gave me a simple decision, I was going to eat out with the lads!
We decided to go to Popeye's for dinner which is basically like KFC, its mainly a fried chicken fast food outlet, so I go there for.....a chicken burger with fries and a Dr Pepper, but so did Paul! It was a lovely meal and for only $6, the price was handsome too!
Upon return to the hostel, the Oscars were going on still so Paul let us watch the Oscars in his room, as he was in a private room and not in a dorm! Alright for some ;P This meant he got the added luxury of having a TV in his room, and seeing as the main bar in the hostel where the Oscars were being shown was packed, it worked out well that me and Andrew could get front row seats in Paul's room to watch the Oscars, we had been watching them before we went out for dinner in Paul's room as well but got back from Popeye's in time for the finale, and after winning so many awards I think I am going to have to watch the Hurt Locker! Following this it was a quiet night on the internet before heading off to bed!
The next day was Monday, obviously, and it marked the start of my 3 day road trip with the boys! It had all come about because Paul had told us that he wanted to rent a car and wondered if we wanted to join him which obviously was a great opportunity for me and Andrew because LA is so big and to really appreciate what it is all about you have to have a car to see it all, so we both jumped at the chance, and asked Paul, how much it would all cost and said that we would split the cost three ways, however by the end of the 3 days, Paul insisted that we didnt pay anything, we did offer to contribute towards the cost but Paul was adamant that we didnt pay anything, which was good for me as im on a strict budget, but I felt bad that he paid for all of it as it must have cost at least £200, as he paid for the petrol, the parking and the for the car itself! So this was another example of me being fortunate in LA, as we were busy for 2 days straight and I hardly spent a cent! It was also Pauls birthday this Monday as well, so after being told by Paul the driver the night before to be ready to leave by 8am, it was an early start as I was up at 7am, had a few pancakes for breakfast and was in the car ready to go, it wasnt until about 30 minutes into the journey however that we remembered it was Paul's birthday, which was quite bad really!
So with Andrew being the navigator in the front seat with enough maps to last him a lifetime, and Paul driving and me sat in the back we were all set to go, and it gave me and Andrew our first opportunity of Paul's driving! Which at times was a little short of good, shall we say, but at least he had the balls to even drive in the US as I know I wouldnt have done! His driving did made us laugh on many occasions though as you will find out! Just picture the scene for a second, Paul, from England having never driven an automatic car before, was driving an automatic, on the opposite side of the road and driving from the left hand side of the car, now you can appreciate why I was a tad apprehensive! haha, but it was all good fun! So we drive out of the car park and Andrew has to remind Paul to get on the right side of the road, great start, then as we head down Hollywood Blvd, and the lights go red, surprise, Paul puts his foot on the imaginery clutch, which turns out to be the brake as the car dosent have a clutch, so we stop really suddenly, he kept doing this a lot as he kept forgetting that there was no clutch! Then we continued onto our first stop of the day which was Laguna beach, and the weather was dismal, grey skies and overcast with a few patches of rain, and I was in my shorts and flip flops! Before we got to Laguna beach which was an hour and a halves drive from the hostel however, we had time to get lost, and drive around aimlessly for 10 minutes before we eventually found the right road again, but before we got on the right road we nearly had a crash, with this crazy American women, I admit it was our fault as Paul was driving in two lanes as we saw the turning we needed to take so Paul tried to get across a couple of lanes to make the turning, but didnt realise there was a car coming until the last moment when he pulled away, and the other car slammed on the brakes and came mighty close to hitting us, then we were stopped side by side and the looney American women was going balistic, and wound down her window to have a massive go at us, when Paul decided to make a getaway and drove off which was so funny, then we had to go around the block again to make the turnoff this time without nearly having an accident!
From here Andrew navigated us to Laguna Beach without fail, and we had no further close calls, but we arrived at about 10 am and the place was so quiet, firstly we drove up into the mountains to give us the most amazing view over Laguna, even though it was cloudy, from here we headed down to explore the main town, but it was like a ghost town, nothing was open, it appeared we were there too early as most shops and cafes didnt start opening until lunchtime, so after about half an hour of wandering around the town, we decided to head to the beach, and the sun was just starting to break through the clouds at this point, and from then on the sun remained out for the whole day and it was a lovely day! We took a few photos of the beach, and then headed back to the car as it was far too windy which made it cold!
Once at the car we headed for our next destination of the day which was Newport beach, and we did a similar thing here as we did in Laguna, we checked out the town, as well as the beach and the port! As it was appoaching midday, the shops were starting to open, so there were a few more people on the streets in Newport! We got a few photos, but didnt stop on the beach as again it was too windy and cold, plus there were only a few brave people on it! From here we made tracks to Huntington beach which was just a bit further along the coast and again we did the same sort of things as we did in the previous 2 beaches, after this we went to Taco Bells for lunch, well Paul and Andrew brought something from here and I stuck to my bagels, lol! After we were refueled we carried on travelling down the coast and stopped off at Seal Beach, where we saw no seals, and then decided that we had seen enough beaches for the day so headed back to Hollywood, the beaches were all lovely but after seeing four they did get a bit samey! On our way back we drove through Chinatown, just to see what it was like and then headed for Beverly Hills, as Paul had already been on a Celeb homes tour so thought he would be able to point a few out to me and Andrew, sadly this was not the case, as we would be driving along and he would say, I remember that someone famous lives there, but he would never be able to remember the name of anyone, so we were still clueless, as it was blatantly obvious someone famous lived there as they were huge houses in Beverly Hills! After giving it his best shot, Paul gave in, and decided to follow this Celeb sightseeing tour bus, so we could try and listen in, this werent very successful as the bus kept letting us in front of it, and I think they gathered we were following when they went up a dead end and we followed! Another comical moment of the trip around Beverly Hills was when we stopped at the side of the road to try and work out where we were, and Paul put the car in Neutral and put the hand brake on, then when we went to go again he put the car into reverse instead of a gear so when he put his foor on the accelerator we went flying backwards instead of forwards, fortunately there was no car behind us, but had there been it would have been written off, and in Bevely Hills, we can only assume it would have been an expensive car, so Paul was very lucky! Another thing he did a lot was attempt to go when he still had the hand brake on, or we would be driving along and there would be this beeping sound, and he would be like 'whats that noise' and we would be like 'the handbrake' as he liked to not take the handbrake off fully, this was also amusing to me and Andrew! But as I say I cant complain he did this all for free for us, and drove for hours every day which takes a lot of concentration especially in LA, Andrew was also a key component as he managed to navigate us nearly perfectly for the whole 3 days, so they made my life in the back easy as all I had to do was relax and sleep on the odd occasion, which was hard work :P
We eventually got back to the hostel at 6pm, so it was a long day, and we were sitting in traffic for a good 30 to 40 minutes in Hollywood on the way back from Beverly Hills! As it was Paul's birthday we decided to go out that night for dinner, and we went to Hooters restaurant, along with this other Scottish dude from my dorm! We got there at about 7.45pm and Andrew had been before and when we went in I could see why he wanted to come back as the waitresses were wearing hot pants and a small top, and not a lot else :P Hence the name Hooters! Once we were seated and looked through the menus, the waitress came over to ask us what we wanted to drink, so the lads had beer pitchers, and then she said to me in patronising fashion, 'so what soda do you want' I thought cheers, then I decided to have this Strawberry smoothie, which was made freshly with real strawberries and was amazing! I had the monday night special for dinner which was a cheeseburger with fries, and it was huge and so worth the 6 bucks, especially as the others brought something else which cost more and got less food than I did, which satisfied me with my food choice!
As Andrew had been before, he knew that if it was somebodys birthday, the waitresses got them to do something embarassing, so he wasnt slow in telling the waitress that it was Paul's birthday, and then reminded her again later! Then after we had eaten she called Paul up along with this other girl whos birthday it was also! Then she made them compete against each other to see who could do the best chicken dance, by flapping their arms about and holding a cup in their mouths as a beak! It was a moment that needed to be caught on film, and helped that Paul had, had a few to drink at this stage and made for classic viewing! For this the waitress brought him over this amazing chocolate cake, which we all tucked into, then paid the bill which for me was just $10 then headed to this Irish pub near the hostel to see if I could get in with them even though I wasnt going to be drinking, as im not allowed! But the bouncers wouldnt let me in, so I had to head back to the hostel with the Scottish dude as he was flying in the morning, and that was the end of a very hectic yet quality day!
See Los Angeles continuted for the rest of the blog!
S
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