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Published: April 21st 2006
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Jenny gets close to Art
One of the more amazing thing about the Getty Centre is that they allow you to photograph the art, as long as you do not use a flash or get too close. Well we've been bad little bloggers and have got a little behind so this entry may be somewhat condensed. Please address complaints to the US Department of Useless Travellers, who can't find cheap internet anywhere.
So we made our way from Yosemite, tired and full of mountains, back to Merced by train and then onto a bus. We should mention this entailed waking before 6 to catch the bus to the train station. Life is cruel. And I should say trains are infinitely preferable to coaches in the US if anyone is insane enough to consider travelling across the US by coach....don't do it!! Although Amtrak is often a bit of a mixed bag, as they operate buses as well - check your tickets folks!
We discovered, to our chagrin, that there is a very good reason for the fables of nightmarish LA traffic you hear.... Auckland times 20! And how do they manage to fill up their 14 lane freeways? Oh, and you get to go in special traffic lanes if you're carpooling....the defintion of which is having 2 or more people in your vehicle. Hmm. So anyway $35 dollars and a belligerent taxi driver later, we made
Lounging with Emma at Orbit
Hanging in the pool room with out room mate Emma at our LA hostel it to our hostel, Orbit, aka Banana Bungalows, a 70's decor building with no visible staff anywhere (we eventually tracked some down in a poky little office). We wearily lugged our gear to our room, promptly to be introduced to our new roommates....a Scottish stand up comedian, an Italian director of one short film, an aspiring Croatian actor and an English dancer at a local club. Only in LA!
So a little tired and aching from our hiking in the snow the previous day, we decided to make it a quiet night and sank gratefully into our squeaky and somewhat lumpy bunkbeds. The next day we awoke bright and early at midday, somewhat disppointed by the coldness and greyness of the LA landscape (where was the sun? Where?) and went exploring. One Farmer's Market later, our tummies were full and we had groceries for dinner, so we ventured a little further afield. After failing completely to catch the second of the three buses needed to get to the Getty Centre (we were at a stop, the bus didn't stop... how does this work? Oh, it seems we were meant to be at the unlabled and un-signed stop two blocks
Juliet and Captain Jack Sparrow
Meeting the two Johnny Depps on Hollywood Boulevard was an odd highlight of our time in LA! further up. Right....) we did an about turn and headed to Hollywood Boulevard and the fabled Walk of Fame.
This was where Juliet went nuts and Jenny wondered what she had gotten herself into. We stepped out of the bus and onto Marilyn Monroe's star! And it just kept getting better! Star after star, we walked them all. And Juliet took photos of herself with approximately 100 stars, and video of more. We crossed Hollywood and Vine, we saw the El Capitan theatre, the Kodak Theatre where the Oscars are now held, and Sid Graumann's marvelous Chinese Theatre, we put our hands and feet into the imprints of the immortals.... and we met Johnny Depp! Twice over in fact. Yup, Juliet has been hoisted into the air by Captain Jack Sparrow himself, and Jenny was given a golden ticket by Mr Willy Wonka! I loved the place and the showiness and the crowds, even after it had gotten dark, and we kept going, leaving only when our bone marrow stared to freeze (it was LA, what's going on!)
The next morning we met our old friends from San Francisco, Allan and Claire, in the hallway, and joined them
Jenny and Ju at Hollywood and Vine
Ok so it's just a street sign but c'mon! It's Hollywood Boulevard! It's practically compulsory to take photos every 2 feet! for an adventure to the Getty Centre. Perched in the hills, it takes some getting to by bus, but many friendly fellow passengers had plenty of opinions about the best route and I'm sure we benifetted from their advice! On arrival at the gates, visitors board a white tram up to the centre - a rather ingenious way of controlling the traffic and parking, I thought. The centre itself is seven or eight main buildings clustered around a large courtyard and a circular garden. The views out across LA are spectacular, and the art inside amazing. Walking though rooms of beautiful photography, renaissance paintings, impressionists and modern art is not something I would have imagineed in LA, but the Centre is really something else.
That night we met up with Jenny's friend Matt and his lovely wife Crystal, who took us out for dinner at their favourite restaurant, which was superb and made us regret the burgers we had scoffed down an hour before (free food at Orbit on Sundays!) After dinner Cyrstal drove us up into the hills for a view across LA - it does not photograph well but rest assured it was amazing. Matt introduced us
to their cat and dog and his big screen TV, and we watched movies til late.
The next day we didn't do much... just went up to Hollywood Boulevard and rented a car! Yup, our own little four wheeled home. Automatic, and left hand drive! After we had discussed the reason we could not move it into drive (aha, footbrake must be depressed before it will leave park - hey come on, we 'drive stick' so cars that think for themselves are a little new to us!) Juliet took it for its first spin, and we drove around Hollywood a little, up into the hills, and then back to the hostel for dinner and our first internet update since San Fran (this was when the Yosemite entry was made, folks.)
The next day the weather was so awful we were happy to watch movies and pass time at the hostel, going out only for more internet access and groceries, until Matt invited us over again and we ate que pa pas (sp? - fried chilli potato balls) and watched a movie with Matt and his sister Kirsten. We had already decided to leave LA the next day, and
Jenny and Billie
I spend some time with Billie Holiday...she's a cool lady, you'd like her! were going to be heading south to San Diego... but when Matt renewed his offer of Disneyland, together with the compelling argument that he already had Thursday off work... well, these were things to take into consideration!
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