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Published: November 19th 2007
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We left Vegas and drove to California which is officially our last stop of our trek America Tour which is a good way means last night in tents but also means that we will soon have to say goodbye we decided to make the most of it and when we got to California, it was late afternoon so we decided to have a pop culture beach day and went to Laguna and Newport beach where we mucked around, played games and watched the Sunset while stuffing ourselves with pizza, made all the better when we won California against the rest of the world volleyball games even though though i have to admit there was twice as many of us. It was simple but we all enjoyed it and most of us stayed one chatting the rest of the night.
When morning broke, it was all go go go though as for the last time the trailer had be stacked and we had to be quick as we were off to Disneyland. Disneyland is nowhere near as good as Disneyworld, it is so small and all the rides are meant for young kids and not really for families, and in the
whole day we didnt see one disney character. Saying that we still enjoyed ourselves but for our last day it was a bit of a dissapointment. So we headed to our LA hotel to check in, all of our group are staying at least one night in the hotel and many are staying for a few days after so even though the plan is to head to a hostel in hollywood tomorrow, we are still going to hang round and do stuff together, we are finding it hard to let our group mentality go. So after we checked in, we got ready for our last supper that we would all be at. Kyle picked the place and it was dodgy, but i am a believer that every so often you should eat in a really bad place in order to train your stomach to be extra hard and not falter to things like food poisioning. The food was actually ok it was just cleanliness that they seem to have a problem with. Our hotel was by the airport so not near any of the good pubs/clubs so we headed back to my room to have a party of our own,
it was perfect, everyone was in great form and it was a great night for our last night all together.
The next morning after struggling to get up to meet everyone in the lobby to say goodbyes to Emily, Lauren and Hitomi. The rest of us decided to do our own tour of LA as the ones offered were really expensive. So we hopped on the bus and headed to Hollywood, this is when it hit us, how big and spread out Hollywood is, it took us three hours on the bus and there wasnt any traffic, the other guys started to think we should of done the tour after all but ever the optomist I thought we were doing the best thing, surely everyone should be stuck next to a crazy californian on the bus when touring the city and believe me they were crazy people on the buses, it was like it was some kind of requirement before you got on but it made the time pass quickly and we finally arrived at Hollywood Boulevard. Hollywood Boulevard is not what one might expect, it is in no way glamourous, it is somewhat seedy and dirty surrounded by
homeless and down and outs but we had to see the Walk of Fame so we walked down to see who we could recongize, unfortunatly it wasnt many, about 90% i had never heard of. Apparently anyone can nominate someone who they feel deserves a star but if the person in question agrees to have one they have to pay for it themself, i dont know if this is the truth, remember i was meeting crazy people. We then went to the Kodak thetre, home of the oscars and where the handprints of the stars are located, this was better we actually knew these people and we got to see the infamous hollywood sign. So all of our must see boxes ticked for hollywood we were to our next destination, Beverly Hills more specifically Rodeo Drive. At this point we are becoming quite a pro on these buses, we have no idea whether we are going the fastest way but we do end up at our desination so we are all pleased with ourselves. We had a quick look first at the houses on this pretty tree lined street some are quite ordinary and then some our unreal but they
are all expensive no doubt it is just strange to see how different the range is. Next we hit the shops, well kind of, we walked outside and window shopped, we didnt believe that our backpacker selves would be welcome, i now know how pretty woman felt.
So after feeling out of place on Rodeo drive, we headed for the beaches, First up was Santa Monica and we decided to forget the buses for a while and walked up to Venice beach and watch the sunset. Santa Monica is a beautiful beach with a very much family feel to it with kids running around, people playing roller hockey or just chilling watching the sea. this changes as you approch Venice beach which has a more hippy vibe meaning drugs aplenty, in the first 5 minutes i was offered any drug i could of thought of 3 times, barring this it is a good beach, full of colour music and laughter. The only sour point was by the time we came across Muscle Beach, it was closing up so we didnt get to see any body builders pumping Iron but that was the only low point of our day so
we headed back to our places, I had moved into the hostel in Hollywood by this point and the others headed back to the hotel, tired but happy at only spending $5 on our day pass and seeing everything we wanted to.
The next day was all about Universal Studios, i was meeting Elise, Gareth and Charlotte there and luckily because i was now in Hollywood it was a really short Journey for me which was great especially after yesterday. We picked a really good day, we didnt have to queue for anything and the shows and rides were all excellent, we got to see the studio where CSI was filmed, Wisteria Lane where we saw Teri Hatcher and Will smith was actually at the studios filming that day but i didnt spy him even though i tried. It was a great day to end my time in LA, we had fun but LA is not my kind of city, its hard to get about and basically a dirty seedy city, it also worked out well as the rest of the group are all heading back home tomorrow as well so we said our final Goodbyes and went our
separate ways, Tomorrow a new adventure and solo again
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