Shrekking Through Hollywood in 4 Dimensions

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So, after yet another relaxed wake up, Jeremy kindly dropped Katherine and I at Fullerton Amtrak railway station we arrived in Union Station and hopped on the tube along the Red Line to Hollywood Vine.




Along the way the spray paint artwork became ever more noticeable. It ended with a crescendo near downtown LA where visible brickwork was a rare sight. The tube station at vine was covered in film reels all over the roof and the excitement grew with every step we took up and out to the street. We stepped out onto Hollywood Boulevard and were greeted with palm trees and neon lights everywhere. It's only a 10 minute walk to our diggs which Katherine had found online. It was called the Banana Bungalow and it's a kind of motel layout and had a central courtyard with more palm trees and the rooms were all around, there was a basketball hoop at the far end of the entrance.


























We settled into our room asap as we just wanted to go for a goosey gander along the famous boulevard and look at all the stars in the pavement. Everytime we crossed an intersection we got a glipse of the Hollywood sign on the hills to our right.


We were just reading all the names on the stars past the tattoo parlours and shops selling only the finest tat and suddenly we noticed that we had walked the entire length of the stars and had passed the Kodak theatre and the Grauman's Chinese Theater and we were almost back into residential areas so we crossed the street and headed back, this time on the Kodak theatre side.


There were guys selling their CDs, guys signing people up to being audiences in TV shows and even more stars in the pavement than the other side. We signed up to being in the audience of Rita Rocks which is a new situational comedy for Friday night. We got back to our room just in time to relax for a bit and then the hostel cooked up all the residents dinner and put on a karaoke night. We met people from all over the world, most of whom were also on a round the world trip. We had a blast playing pool and having a bevvy and it was not long before I decided that it was a great idea to sing. I chose "You Really Got Me Going" by the Kinks. Good times.

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Universal Studios

The next morning we woke early as we were going to Universal Studios and we wanted to do as much as we could in one day and what a day it was! We both had ants in our pants waiting to buy our tickets and to just get in, it was a twenty minute wait (the longest wait for anything that day but, naturally, we didn't know that at the time).


We blasted through the turnstile and headed straight for the latest addition which was the Simpsons Ride. It was just a fabulous mix of a flight sim and insane graphics and the ending came with a noticeable round of applause from us all. On the downside though, we were reminded of maybe how much we had to drink the night before. So we decided to take the tranquil and famous Studio Tour and saw so many film sets and wonderfully entertaining short flashes of acting and stunts. A personal favourite was the scene from Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film 'Psycho' were the dead young female embezzler was loaded into the trunk of a car at the Bates Motel. While on this tour our guide mentioned that if we wanted to go and see the Daily Show with Jay Leno on Friday night, special guest Hugh Laurie from Blackadder and most recently House MD, then we should go to blahdy blah and we can get free tickets. It was a no-brainer for us both; Rita Rocks whoever you are, we are like totally not going to see you now and if we're lucky, perhaps, ever!






Another good'un of a ride was the Revenge of the Mummy, it started with intense acceleration along the level and then bang! We were rag-dolls and I think there was quite a bit of swearing. Luckily we had an entire carriage for twelve people to just ourselves, it was that empty. We were shown special effects and stunts all day and everyone who worked there was always waving and saying either "hi" or "have a nice day". What can I say - it's Hollywood! We had such an enjoyable day and finished it with a Mexican.

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Photos

I fought the law
and the law won

Thank you Apu, we would love to come again!
The Simpsons Ride