Arrivin in LA

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Feelin still very tired i departed the bus in downtown LA, it was real early in the mornin and was 2 tired 2 be able 2 navigate the buses in this way 2 big city. I came to the taxi rank and asked a driver how much it would be 2 Venice Beach 'about 30 bucks' he says. 52 bucks later i was pissed. However in the taxi we pulled onto highway 10, i thought 2 myself that it was pretty amazin that i had been on this very same road right at the opposite end of the country. A might road that travels from the Atlantic right across to the Pacific. However pleasant thoughts like that were soon replaced of thoughts of 'that fuckin meter has gone above 30... fuck sake!!' Damn taxi driver i bet he gets loads of suckers like me. Whether just a tourist wantin to see the sights or some wannabe starlet, whose dreams r spat on by Robin Bastard the Taxi Driver.
Ah well i got 2 my hostel, checked in and jumped straight in2 bed and wouldn't wake till 1 in the afternoon.
I woke to find i had a missed call off Ben, i rang him back found out what room he was in and showered and went up 2 greet him and debbie. When he opened the door tears welled up in his eyes and he gave me a big man hug and said 'don't ever leave me again'... well it was somethin like that!
After hugs and kisses we headed out to Venice beach and we trekked along the boardwalk, which is full of people sellin paintings, jewelry and other such stuff... most it crap. We walked right to the end to the famous muscle beach, where people were swingin on hoops and showin off there six pacs.
We then headed to the pier, covered in fair ground rides and food stalls. I headed to the end and looked out over that vast rollin pacific and had what Kerouac calls 'end of world sadness' knowin that i was nearin the end of my journey and soon was gonna have to head east again to that big bird in NYC which was gonna take me back to England, but hey I've still old San Francisco to go, the spiritual home of my literary hero. Where i can visit his old haunts.
After reachin the end of the pier we headed back to the hostel, where we got ready to go on an organised by the hostel 'pub crawl' we visited all of three pubs. After a few beers we headed back to the hostel 2 sleep some more.
The next we arose and went and had breakfast at a nice place over the road before we traversed the buses to hollywood, where we did the walk of fame. U know the street with all the stars with famous peoples names on... over 2000 of em so after a while u begin to feel like a bit of an idiot. Constantly lookin down, shufflin about so u can read the upside down names, man a lot of people look retarded on that street. I was later impressed to find that Muhammad Ali's star had been hung on a wall in the Kodak Theatre as he didn't want people walkin all over him!
We then found a place to watch a film in a real big cinema called the arc light. We watched Iron Man which was a real fun film and as it was a comic book film i was never gonna dislike it!
After this we hit Amoeba Records a real big independent record store which was real cool and man i would have bought so much stuff, money and room in bag i didn't but it was cool to walk round.
After this we headed back to the hostel.
The next day, that been today we headed to downtown LA where we got are tickets for thursdays journey up 2 San Fran. More hassles from the people at AMTRAK!! This time we got told that as we had a pass we should order r tickets over the phone, well this was news to us and in fact we had been told the exact opposite on the East Coast but as there was no line the women said as a courtesy she would serve us, even though in New Orleans there was a massive line and the guy behind the counter was more helpful than Mr Helpful, of Helpful Land on the day of national Helpfulness day. Man this company does my head in!!
We then trekked round downtown LA and realized that there wasn't an awful lot to do there, Debbie went off to meet her sister in Beverly Hills and me and Ben headed back to Santa Monica, where we stumbled across 3rd street promenade, which had a load of cool stores and bars and we grabbed a burger and 'Johnny Rockets' which is styled like a fifties diner with the red leather and chrome and the small juke boxes on the table for your information i selected the song 'Lollipop' with full bellies we walked back to the hostel and well here i am, typing away, havin to catch upon myself again. tomorrow were gonna hire bicycles and ride along the beach front. As always i'll let u know how it goes.

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