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After a hard fortnight in Cancun it was time to head to Los Angeles and recover for 8 days.......when I was in Cancun myself and the lads met two Brazilian girls that we hung around with for the last five days of the holiday.....and they both live in LA and offered me the chance to stay at theirs while I was here.........my first two nights were in a hostel in the Venice Beach area of LA......and the two nights were terrible....after the luxury in Mexico I found myself trying to sleep in a twelve bed dorm on the top bunk with no air conditioning.......it was horrible!!! But it was only for a couple of nights till I moved in with Vivi and Flavia.......and they only stayed a short walk from Venice Beach.....so it was all good!!


The first night I stayed with the girls we headed into Hollywood and went for dinner at a Brazilian restaurant.....they chose what I should eat so that I was eating traditional Brazilian food.......we had a fish and a chicken dish for starter and I had chicken stroganoff for my main......all three were excellent. What I did notice as we ate our dinner was that a few tables over from us were two on-duty police officers......I thought you only seen that in the movies.


I done the whole tourist thing one day when I booked on a guided tour of the city..........where I met a couple from Falkirk who were travelling round the world also........on the tour we went to Bel Air where we drove past homes of the stars.....including houses belonging to- Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck, Antonio Banderas, Janet Jackson, Beyonce and Jay-Z, Julia Roberts, Drew Barrymore, Nicolas Cage and many more.........to be honest you don't see that much as they all have fences, gates, trees and bushes protecting each property. We then ventured into Hobby Hills and passed by the Playboy Mansion then it was off to Beverly Hills where we passed the hotel where in the film 'Beverly Hills Cop' Eddie Murphy runs out the hotel and sticks the banana up the tail pipe of his fellow police officers car.....classic film moment!! We then went to Rodeo Drive where all the designer stores are.......a woman’s world or a millionaire's playground....certainly no place for a skint backpacker!!! Next stop was the celebrity walk of fame where all the stars have their name in a star on the pavement, it's also where the Chinese theatre is and this is where the stars have their hand and feet prints and signatures on the ground!!


LA Galaxy where playing on the Thursday night so myself and Flavia got tickets and headed to watch Beckham and co do the business.......well maybe the co but not Beckham.....lazy player, just sits in the centre circle and demands the ball all the time but doesn't do much....well except for the token 80yard pass which only comes off now and again. We were sitting in a corner and the behavior I witnessed from the Beckham fans was something I would expect to see at a Westlife or Take That concert......high pitched screams for ages........then it was the same when the Galaxy got a free kick 20-30yards out!!! The game ended 1-1 but the highlight for me was when a fight broke out just behind us between two opposing fans.......there are no segregation and no police inside the stadium.....so the fight went on for several minutes till security decided to turn up!! Afterwards we headed back to Venice and went to a local bar where I met some friends of the girls!!


On the Friday I went to Santa Monica for a wander along 3rd Street Promenade which is a famous shopping street in California, so much cheaper than back home. At night it was a friend of the girls birthday so we headed to his house for a party.....mostly Brazilians but there were two English lads, and a few other nationalities.......it was a good night!! On the Saturday most of the folk from the party all headed to the beach where we chilled out in the LA sunshine......at night the girls had other plans so I headed out with some Brazilian girls I met at the party, so it was off clubbing in Hollywood to a club called KingKing.......not what I expected, although it was in central Hollywood it was like a club back home, dress code very relaxed and the price of drink was cheaper than back home.......a good experience, then we went to a house party nearby which we left at 6am!!! Sunday was a total right off......just lounged about till we went to Malibu for a drive then went out for dinner in Venice.....all in it was a good weekend!!


Monday I just chilled at the beach then went to Hamosa for dinner then we went a drive through Westwood and Santa Monica areas.


Beach life again for Tuesday then at night we headed out for dinner at 'The Cheese Cake Factory'.....but thankfully they sold more than just cheese cake. It was a nice farewell meal before we went and met some friends of the girls at the 'Other Room' in Venice.....had a few beers then home to pack the bag!!


LA has been excellent......probably wouldn't have been so good if I hadn't met the girls as they showed me more than I would have seen myself staying in a hostel!!

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