Advertisement
Published: October 20th 2013
On Friday we began our morning at Madame Tussaud's, every A list celebrity known to man - highlight for both of us was donning a red hoodie and mounting a BMX helping E.T. find his way home. We have given Maccas a try over here for breakfast too, very different to home - the bacon an egg 'McGriddle' actually replaces the English muffin with 2 small oatmeal pancakes, it sounds disgusting (I know) but it was absolutely beautiful.Have seen a few interesting people on our bus trips, one in particular Adam and I are still debating over whether it was a male or female, not to mention how many people stop you in the street asking for money. The only advice I can give any first time USA visitors (coming from the cabbies and others we have spoken to) is DON'T give out money to vagrants and DON'T buy any CD's on Hollywood Blvd from the hordes
of men giving them to you as you walk buy, they want a tip (after handing it to you initially for free) then you get it home and it doesn't have anything on it. They use every trick in the book here to get your money, every bit of information is in exchange for a tip, or worse they claim to be volunteers from the LAPD raising money for sick children......they pull at your heartstrings at every given opportunity, very deceptive at times which is sad especially for the tourists.We headed out on a VIP tour at Warner Brothers Studios, what an AWESOME place we had. So many things we got to do, see, and be a part of....like a couple of kids in a candy store we were. From a fully functioning sound stage (The Ellen Show), to Big Bang Theory, 2 Broke Girls, Two and a Half Men, then OUR favourite The Mentalist was being set-up for a taping later that afternoon (Adam scoring a couple of sneaky pics of the props being used with their
details tacked to it). Our visit to the Friends "Central Perk" coffee shop was fun, along with the props store we have some amazing pics of some of the most iconic things. Clint Eastwood wasn't far from us directing a new movie, and Ellen played a practical joke taping us and our reactions in her sound stage with the footage to be shown next week on one of her shows. Crapping myself a little as I was looking straight into the camera noticing the red lights but thinking nothing of it.....no doubt her commentary will be something about "silly Aussies".After the tour we were invited to a taping of a NEW late night comedy show called "The Pete Holmes Show"...that was an experience as well.Today we took our first train all the way to Long Beach, via Downtown LA....AND for those Grand Theft Auto gurus through Compton. Sweet Jesus that was a little scary, but a
place I'm glad to have travelled through as I appreciate Australia more. The homes are quite small, bars/grilles over every possible opening - makes the likes of our Inala an Woodridge look like Brisbane's Ascot or Melbourne's Toorak. Nevertheless we made it to visit the Queen Mary cruise liner and their Aquarium of the Pacific.The Queen Mary is massive, very stately and full of history serving as a troop transporting vessel (the Grey Ghost) in WW2, luxuriously appointed after that time to also be a cruise liner to many famous people such as Maggie Thatcher, Winston Churchill, Bob Hope, Tony Curtis.....the list goes on. We decided to do both of the haunted tours on the ship, hairs stood up on the back of my neck, as YES it has had many many confirmed accounts of paranormal activity.Tomorrow will officially be our last full tour day in Hollywood, saving the best til last - the VIP Experience
at Universal Studios...can't wait.Until our next update, ciao from Yankyville.X K an A
Advertisement
Tot: 0.052s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 6; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0275s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Julie
non-member comment
Yanking at memories
Hi Adam and Karly, All sounds amazing and great to hear you are getting the most out of your time in LA. It's certainly a place for film and iconic history .... and the Americans milk the tourism experience so well. Brings back many memories for us of our time there in 1981. Didn't get to the Queen Mary. 'though. That looks fabulous - and the haunted tour wd be something I'd love. Great tips about the street vagrant hustlers, and my memory is that street performers wd try to charge us after we took their photo, claiming they wanted image rights. We were happy to tip them for their art, but resented being "ordered'' to pay them. Keep up the fun! Julie xx