It's been two weeks since my last entry, and right now sat in Las Vegas airport waiting for my delayed flight to San Francisco I'm not sure I'm going to remember all the details that I need to mention, or maybe I'm just a little jaded about how much I need to write to bring this blog up to date. Let's start with Hollywood as it was my first destination. I flew in Los Angeles did not spend much time there and then got a bus and then 3 trains to take me onto Hollywood Boulevard where I was staying. The second train I caught a guy from the Philippines started chatting to me, his name was Orly. He was really helpful with information and worked in a Hotel in Orange County. He said he could get me a studio room there very cheap for $40 a night (when they should be $130). He gave me his number and email address and just told me to contact him if I needed anything, he was a really nice guy that I am still in touch with now. He has emailed me a few times just asking where I am and what I am up to. Anyway so I was staying on the famous strip everyone has heard of but you never think of it as being so big, that road is 26 miles long. So you can say I need to get to Hollywood Blvd, but it does not mean you are anywhere near your destination. However I knew where I needed to be and despite some poor information about which station to get off at I made it to my accommodation after a 2km walk. I had been travelling for about 10 hours from New Zealand which was not the warmest place when I left. I noticed the difference when walking to my hotel, it was scorching. After the hostels I had been staying in, four nights in a hotel with a double bed, free Wi-Fi and a pool was more than appealing. Having arrived in America before I set off (due to the time difference and crossing the date line) my body was quite confused and brain felt like some of the plugs had been put in the wrong sockets. I had not felt the jag lag much to date until this flight so I knew it would take a few days to recover from it. I didn't do much that day, just had a walk around, chilled out, and tried to go to bed at the normal time to get my body into the routine of this unfamiliar time zone. The following day I went for another walk to get my bearings and see what was around. There are a lot of homeless people in Hollywood which I did not really expect. I got something to eat had a beer then found a tour to the Hollywood sign, which I felt I had to do. It took us through Beverly Hills where we stopped and had a shop, well looked at other people shopping because expensive does not even come close to describing it. We then past a lot of famous people's houses which made me feel a bit like a stalker or a crazy fan neither of which I am. Tom Hanks, Keanu Reeves, Tom Cruise, Columbo, Toby Maguire to name a few. We even went past the Fresh Prince of Bel Air house which I thought was pretty cool. The Hollywood sign, is just a sign and something to say, yes I have been there, not much else to report. However from where we were you could get an amazing view of Hollywood and Los Angeles in the distance with all the high rise buildings which for me was the best part of the day. I stayed in that night still feeling the jet lag and not wanting to spend for the sake of it. I had decided to have one decent night out in Hollywood in my four days there which we will come to shortly. The following day I did absolutely nothing but lie by the pool and iPod it for the day. The pool was pretty cold but I still managed 50 lengths (the pool was not too long), so I suppose you could say I did something! The following day I was off to Warner Bros studios, I decided on that rather than Universal Studios because I was not to bothered about going on rides and the like on my own. There are no rides at Warner Bros, it's more geared to take you round the studio's, sets and show you how things are done which was more what I wanted to see anyway. I had a bit of an ordeal with my trip that day simply because when I got to Warner bros with my ticket they wanted ID, which I didn't have. Because of this they would not let me in!? I escalated this to the manager because nobody told me I needed it, and also why would I, it's not like I'm trying to get into the pentagon? Anyway despite my rational conversation with the manager there was nothing he could do. I had to get back to my hotel get ID and do the afternoon tour (Warner Bros was not close to where I was staying). I am being polite by saying this was a pain in the arse however once I made it on the tour with my ID it was a good day. We saw lots of sets that looked familiar, props out of famous films like the Batmobile, Trinities motorbike from the Matrix and lots of other cool stuff. For any movie lover this would be a tour worth doing.

That night was the night I was going to go out to experience the Hollywood night life. I made my way down to Sunset Blvd on the bus and got a place called the Rainbow bar. My friend Tom had mentioned this place, and not knowing the area I thought it would be a good place to start. Three days had passed since my flight to LA and I was still jet lagged. I thought I would try and wake myself up by having 3 Vodka red bulls in quick succession, this was then followed by my tea, Pizza. The waitress said it was only a dollar extra for the large one so I thought I would go with it although she failed to mention it would be the size of the moon. I didn't get through much before I was full. People where friendly in the bar, it was a rock bar and a pretty cool place. A few people came passed who saw me struggling with my meal, I jokingly (but totally seriously) offered them a piece. One guy who was sat near me, scruffy looking, long black hair also declined my offer but found it rather amusing so I got chatting to him shortly after at the bar having a beer. The feeling of jet lag had been replaced with the effects of the drinks which was better than the jet lag and I got chatting to a few locals at the bar. The scruffy guy was shortly accompanied by the hottest girl I have ever seen in my life. I did wonder what he must have going for him, and when he left 10 minutes later in a kind of hot rod looking million dollar car I knew it was money. I asked the barmaid who he was and she said he was the lead guitarist from the rock band Motorhead -I had offered him pizza. Jaegermiester was on tap and one of the local guys would not stop buying me them. They aren't like the shots you get in England, they are huge and you almost need to gulp it down which isn't favourable what so ever, still I wasn't going to let the side down. He then said we should go somewhere else so we took off in his brand new hummer to a place called the Saddle Ranch. This was a huge bar and restaurant which had a mechanical bull in the middle. If you could ride this until the end you could eat for free. We weren't eating anyway so it did not matter we just continued having drinks and laughing at anyone that tried. After that he wanted to go to a strip club but I wasn't to bothered about doing that, I wanted to hit a few more bars. He gave me his email (he owned his own I.T firm so I might be in touch with him) and went on his way. Everything in Hollywood is fairly spread out, there is not really one big strip with everything on it so you really need a car, but then if your drinking then you have to drink drive, which apparently is very common. I found my way into a taxi with a few random people going to a club, although when I got there they wouldn't let me in because I had didn't have ID. Flattering as it was this was the point where I became aware that no matter where you go or what you're doing in the USA, you have to have your ID. I got a taxi and decided to go back for it, I asked the driver about the clubs and he recommended one to me. It was mainly house music but I didn't really care and once I got in and realised the DJ knew what he was doing it was all good. The place was huge, well laid out and packed, so I headed to the dance floor to throw some English shapes, Obviously impressed with my moves I soon met some people and we all had a good laugh. About half an hour later a guy came on the stage trying to get everyone going and proceeded to throw money into the crowd probably about 200 dollar bills everywhere, it was total madness! I remember leaving the club when it shut at 1:30am, everywhere is shut by that time for some reason. Probably for the best as I had drank enough beer, Jaeger, jack daniels and vodka that night to open my own bar. Needless to say I didn't do too much the following day. Actually that is wrong. I went to Warner Bros studios, ha-ha, I have just realised I have got the days mixed up, but I'm not deleting all this text now. That's why not having my ID was such a pain in the arse, because I felt like death in the morning!!ha-ha. Well I think that's my first real blog blunder, but oh well it was bound to happen sooner or later. Usually when I make mistakes I just go back and change what I need to, but I decided to play it differently this time and just come clean.

Apart from a lot of homeless people in Hollywood, it's pretty much how you would imagine it. Palm trees all down the road, cloudless skies and rich people driving fancy cars. There are some rough areas where you should not really venture, but as long as you stay on the main streets you are okay. I know not everywhere in America is like Hollywood but I did imagine all Americans to be quite in your face and over the top with everything and my first impressions were not like that at all, they just seemed really nice and helpful. Hollywood has a large Hispanic community and they usually keep themselves to themselves, but everyone else I met, either asking directions or just talking to someone in a bar I was pleasantly surprised. My time in Hollywood was coming to a close and I had booked a coastal train down to San Diego. Only $35, this 3 hour journey would take me through Orange County (where my friend Orly lives) then along the beach into San Diego…