We arrived at LAX. The airport is incredibly nice. There were loads of policemen and news reporters around, I assume because of the shooting the previous day. We got on our SuperShuttle minibus and were taken across LA to our hostel, dropping people off as we went. I realised how big LA is- massive! It took us a good 60-90 mins to get to our hostel.
Our hostel is USA Hollywood Hostel and is located between Hollywood and Sunset Boulevard, which is great. We arrived in the afternoon at 3pm and felt pretty exhausted. Once we dropped off our bags in our female dorm and made our bed, we had a quick nap and decided to get out and have a wander. The staff in the hostel were really helpful and directed us to the nearest pharmacy and supermarket. We stocked up on various things, top of the list being milk for the numerous cups of tea we plan to drink, to make up for the lack of brews in Fiji! By that point we realised we were starving as we'd been eating two meals a day for past couple of days and so we headed to a veggie fast food Mexican type place on Sunset Boulevard recommended by the hostel as we felt like we needed something fresh! Our salad and veggie style tacos definitely filled a hole and we did some people watching, looking at everyone going out for their Saturday night. It was really busy. The traffic is so manic here and the amount of cars on the streets are crazy. Public transport isn't really the done thing here. There are buses and a metro system, but they're sparse and don't run very often.
After a great sleep we woke up to our free hostel breakfast. They offer all kinds of toast, fruit, pancakes and porridge. We had a feed up once again. The porridge was really sweet- I won't be having that again! Pancakes was nice for a change too. This fueled our walk up to the Runyon Canyon. We went with a tour group from the hostel and walked up the Walk of Fame where there are more than 2,400 stars embedded in the pavement all along Sunset Boulevard, with celebrities' names written on them. Among them were Michael Jackson, Marilyn Monroe and unexpected ones like Tinkerbell (!! Mum and Dad, I got a photo!) Everyone was running or walking up the Runyon Canyon and it was a boiling hot day so you needed some water. Three fire engines had gone in the park as someone has passed out- a bit extreme if you ask me! The views from the top over the city were pretty cool. We saw the Hollywood sign and could see all the way to Santa Monica and Beverly Hills. We asked loads of questions, learned that LA consists of about 88 cities and we learned more about LA's history and how it was once in Mexico.
Afterwards we went and checked out the TLC Chinese Theatre where the handprints of celebrities in the cement are. We posed by MJ's and Jen was loving the Harry Potter cast's prints. We also pretended we were at the Oscars and walked through and up to the entrance of the theatre. I'm looking forward to seeing it on tv in March and saying I stood there!
In the evening we took the metro's red line to Union Street and went to the famous Olvera Street. We felt like we were in Mexico, there was a man singing in Spanish at the bandstand, and a big market. We ate some Mexican food in a quirky little restaurant, which was pretty cheap (we're finding it cheaper than we thought here) and soaked up the Mexican pocket in LA for the evening. We then headed back and stumbled across a silent opera in Union Station. In the hostel there was a comedy show which had about ten comedians perform. They were all really good and got us laughing!
Today we went on the 10:30am tour from the hostel to Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive. Our tour guide was quite eccentric and dressed pretty wacky. He had a wooly hat on in the LA sunshine and a Mr. Bean kid's rucksack. He was good fun and we took the bus to Beverly Hills. We almost immediately saw, Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe's house, as well as Michael Jackson's opposite. I can't believe it was there where he died and all the doctor scandal happened. The houses were all a street in length and about 2 or 3 acres each. Some fetched 100 million dollars, which is pretty ridiculous! They all had security cameras outside- one had that as well as the police watching it constantly. I wonder what they're hiding... We also saw the gates used in both The Bodyguard and The Big Lebrowski, the playboy mansion (someone entered through the gates in a red flash car while we were there), Meryl Streep's house, Tommy Hilfiger's, and Kanye West and Kim Kardashian's new home. It was all very surreal and the houses were absolutely massive! Afterwards we went to Rodeo Drive where there were loads of really expensive designer shops and places to eat.
On our third day we made our way to Santa Monica beach and Venice beach. As everything is so far from each other it took us 1hr30 from the hostel to catch the bus all the way there. Everyone wears coats and jumpers here eventhough it's 26 degrees and the sun is shining and we're pretty hot! We feel like typical Brits, putting shorts and a vest top on when the sun's out! We arrived there in the end and hired roller blades for an hour. We put them, and all the arm, hand and leg protection on. It all felt very unfamiliar, but we both got into it really quickly and were skating down the coast in no time. We skated to Venice Beach and back and then had a picnic on the beach and had a look around the town. After we got back to the hostel we went and got a big salad and had a big chat. We wanted to head to a bar for a drink and picked one we'd seen a few nights before. When we walked in we sat at the bar and immediately a guy sat at the bar on his own started talking to us. He ended up being Simon Pegg's brother, Mike Beckingham and we chatted all about the film industry and all got on really well! He'd just finished filming a movie called 'Subconcious'. Maybe we'll see it in cinemas! We then went to a sports bar afterwards and came home in the early hours, deciding it was a great idea to skype my parents! Sorry mum and dad, hope it was at least entertaining!
On our last morning in LA we went to the Warner Bros studios for a 2.5hr studio tour. Our guide was really enthusiastic and we saw loads of different outside and inside tv and feature film sets. Our favourite was by far the 'Friends' Central Perk set. It was really cool to see it in person and sit on the sofa! We also saw costumes from movies like Harry Potter and The Great Gatsby, and the cars used in films such as Batman. It was really good and we had great fun. Afterwards we were starving and we went to an American style diner. It was like something you see in a film, it was great, and we were stuffed after our mega portion sizes! Back to the hostel and to Union Station to catch the megabus to Las Vegas at 4.30pm. There's so much more you could do in LA as it's so so big, but given our time schedule, Vegas is calling and so that's LA done and dusted!
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