Los Angeles

Farewell to Fiji and our last country of our GYC adventures :( Our last stop however is "the best country in the world" (or so they think...) and also the land where not only the people are HUGE but everything is. Of course, its the US of A and where better to start our west-coast journey than in 'The City of Angels' - Los Angeles...

Before we could plant our feet on American soil we had to endure a long and unconventional day as it had 44 hours in it. We left Fiji at 10pm on a Tuesday and arrived in LA at 1pm earlier in the same Tuesday! We had crossed the international date line! Pretty crazy concept how you can kinda go back in time. Mental...

Touchdown in LAX and battled towards our hostel in a mini-van with a young woman who was in LA for 'business'. She was doing a 'film shoot' in the evening, was going to the Playboy mansion the next day, had peroxide blonde hair and gigantic breasts. When she got out us lads and a Scottish couple just burst into hysterics! $10 to anyone who can correctly identify her job! Welcome to LA...

We found ourselves a hostel where we were all put in separate rooms but that wasnt a problem as it was a bed and it was located on Melrose Ave in the Hollywood region of Los Angeles. Just where us high flying travellers belong - mixing with the stars!

We first went to explore the local area which includes Melrose Ave, Sunset Ave and Hollywood Ave. The most noticable thing that we were definately in America is the size of things... I have been to America before so I am aware of the culture that they have, but having spent the past few weeks on a tiny paradise island without barely seeing a car it was pretty cool to get back into a buzz of a city where things small just dont work! The cars were massive (and all pretty amazing!), food was back to highly sufficient portions (given the often minimalistic meals of Fiji) and everything else was also rather grand. We even saw a man who had a head the size of a fridge! We laughed but in hindsight I think he might have had a problem...

We found our way on Hollywood Ave and meandered down Hollywood Boulevard looking at all of the marble slabs of the stars on the Walk of Fame. We continued past the Kodak Theatre (place where the Oscars are held), watched some street break-dancing and then ended up at the Chinese Theatre where the massive Hollywood stars (ie Spielberg and Sinatra) have their stars. There are also loads of concrete slabs with the hand and footprints of stars. This was also pretty cool to look around and compare hand sizes with. I still need to find Denzel Washington and ask him what happened to his little finger as it is strangely crooked...

On our was back in search of food we went past a swanky hotel with a massive setup outside (security guards and red carpet etc) and a significant crowd gathering on the opposite sidewalk. Asking what was going on we found it was the BET Awards (Black music channel in USA - hiphop/RnB etc) that night in LA; with stars such as Will Smith and Eddie Murphy due for arrival! Shoved back behind a steel blockade we waited for a long while keeping our eyes peeled for big Will. However, after waiting for ages we decided to leave to fill our stomachs so we didnt catch him.

We found a local pizza shop where me, Caz and Muc shared an extra-large pizza which was simply massive! Even by American standards! We were definately full by the end of it and welcomed our stomachs to the USA! Having finished we heard a great cheer from outside which was undoubtedly one of the big stars arriving at the awards show. Shame we missed them...

"Los Angeles - the city of failed dreams, sprawling suburbs and confusion. The American dream?"

The next day we decided to avoid paying the fee for the organised city tour and instead do it ourselves by renting a car, grabbing a map and hitting the streets of LA. We found a rental company that rented to under-21's and set off. Our car of choice was a little Chevrolet and I was chosen to be behind the wheel. Being the first automatic I had ever driven and on American streets I set off cautiously. Off all the US cities, LA is probably one of the worst in terms of traffic congestion so I had really thrown myself into the deep end! I used my knowlegde of the streets picked up from GTA games and did fine. Everything was cruisy...

Our first destination was one that wasnt on the organised tour but I especially wanted to make the trip. The reason being it was to Huntington Beach (Huntington being my surname for you slow folks...) The beach is regarded as the best beach on the west coast for surfing and has thefore adopted the nickname of "Surf City".

We arrived at about 1pm after a relatively long drive on the massive 7 lane interstate freeway which was fun to manouver but was made all the more easier thanks to my fantastic co-driver - James Caroll. The whole Huntington Beach city area was really nice and rather swanky - as would be expected from a place with such a name. The beach was rammed full of volley ball players, surfers and a handful of hot chicks - again, obviously attracted to the place due to its name.

From there we headed back towards downtown LA, deciding to detour our route slightly through south-central. This is the area of LA that is infamous with its gang warfare and for some strange reason we drove through it down the main boulevard - 5 skinny white guys cruising in a rental car through one of the toughest 'hoods in USA - Compton and Watts!

All was sweet and we avoided any potential bullets although when we were finding Watts Towers (crumbling towers of scrap metal - nothing impressive!) we had to do a u-turn in a rather dodgy cul-de-sac full of suspicious looking black dudes who were either waiting for some innocent bypasser who they could rob or the next crack fiend to hustle to. All was well and we made it out alive...

Having just seen the 'rags' side of town we opted for a change of scenery and saw the other side of the coin. This being the area of the stars; Beverly Hills and Bel Air. Perhaps all of the houses in Compton are of equivilant price to just one of the many mansions that grace the green sloping hills of this afluent neighbourhood. The houses and the cars that cruise the streets are simply amazing. There unquestionably is lots of money floating around here. Not a surprise given that literally all of the residents are of international celebrity stardom.

At one point we were convinced we saw Morgan Freeman drive past in a massive Bentley and so I set out to follow the car and did so for a number of miles. Eventually the car pulled up outside some massive crib and the guy hopped out. It did look slightly like him but unfortunately it wasnt him... He must have been someone famous though, we are convinced!!

A successful day of crusing the LA streets was complete and we treated ourselves with a greasy burger. Ummm.... In total I had driven just over 140 miles in one day! That just shows how extensive the urban sprawl of Los Angele really is!

"Los Angeles is 72 suburbs in search of a city."

Our last full day in LA was to be made up of the trip to the infamous Universal Studios. We dropped our hire car off and caught the minibus to the park. First activity was the studio tour where we took the tram around the park; looking at some of the sets and the way the films are shot here in Hollywood. Pretty cool to see behind the scenes of the action and we even passed the active studio where Will Ferrell was currently filming his new movie!

The park had a handful of decent ride; none were really massive rollercoasters that we kinda craved. We did them all though and they were all really good; especially the Simpsons one which was a 3D simulator similar to the Spiderman one in Florida. We had a great day out and returned to the hostel exhausted; catching some sleep before a night out.

We had arranged with some people from the hostel to go to a comedy club on Melrose Blv where a friend from the hostel worked and had given us some free tickets. This place was called The Improv and is regarded as the best comedy club on the west-coast. We took our seats for our first ever experience of live stand-up comedy and were literally blown away! Some of the guys were absolutely hilarious and had the entire crowd in stitches! Most of the jokes were based on the ethnic diversity of LA - with the Mexicans being the butt of most of the jokes!

Word on the street was that Dave Chappell (a famous black comic) may turn up. As it turned out he didnt, but an equally famous name on the comedy line who I had seen a fair bit of on TV before turned up. His name is Ralphie May and is probably one of the funniest people I have ever seen! We all had a wicked night.

Our time in LA was really fantastic. We had just enough time to do all of the typical touristy things plus more. I wouldnt say that I love LA. I like it but it is just so sprawling that it seems disjointed. In comparison to other US cities (ie New York) there doesnt seem to be as much of a community feel or love for the city which is kind of a shame. A guy we met said "Many of the people in LA are failures" and that is true - people come here to search for the American dream and end up just being street performers or drug pushers! Its a strange place but one that Im glad to say that I have seen.

To continue our American adventures we have decided to hire another car (this time bigger) and go on a roadtrip south to San Diego for a few days. Here we plan to stay with some of James' family and then head back north in the direction of San Francisco. Let the journey continue...

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