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Published: September 22nd 2006
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Supremely jet lagged and in shock at being in a country with such a huge population again, I checked into a hostel on hollywood boulevard!Ended up staying up to try and power through the jet lag chatting to a nice girl in my room who gave me a bit of advice what to do with my time here.
Day one (31st July):
So today I explored Hollywood and did all the typical tourist things, the Walk of Fame (all of those stars in the pavement down Hollywood Boulevard - apparently, the stars have to pay for these stars $5000 and then they have to be famous for a certain length of time, several years I think, before they can have their star put on the walk of fame), took photos of the Hollywood sign, visited the Chinese theatre - this is where stars put imprints of their hands and feet into concrete and write words of wisdom such as sylvester stallone's "keep punching America!" and Humphrey Bogarts "Sid, may you never die, until i kill you". As well as this, I jumped on a Star homes tour which took me up into the Hollywood Hills where I saw the Stillers
place, Ben Afflecks old house, Jason Priestly's current house and Harrison Fords house, which he built with his own hands before he was famous. Also headed down into Beverley Hills, saw the house used as Wayne mansion in all the batman films and a glimpse of the gate to Tom Cruise's place, as well as sylvester stallones house and one of madonna's many houses. Plus we were taken down Rhodeo Drive (famous shopping street), Sunset Boulevard (famous street for nightlife)and past the Beverly Hills police station (used in loads of films). Needless to say, by the end of the day I was exhausted!
Day 2(1st August):
So today, I spent all of my time visiting downtown LA. Its a huge place so no, I didn't see all of it, however I saw the main features and went on the subway train around LA and got shouted at by some people with mental health problems! A word about beggars in LA -they are often either very well dressed or barely wearing any clothes! And quite often appear to have mental health problems. Pretty much all the backpackers I met in LA commented on how many people they saw with obvious
mental health problems - I got yelled at because of the shape of my head. Visited the Cathedral of our lady of angels which if you read the caption about the pictures on the door has some interesting stories attched about the ideas that went into the design. All about inclusion and acceptance. Generally I found downtown LA to be full of lots of cool architecture and interesting little parks, examples include the walt disney concert hall, City hall and of course the church of our lady of angels. I didn't visit the fashion district or the jewellery district (just as well as I had no money), however as I was leaving downtown I caught some random filming for a tv commercial- fair enough, this is LA, however, they were filming something which should really have been inside-it appears to be an advert for a pharmacy- why reproduce a store and then film it outside? check out the photo.
Day 3(4th august):
This was my last afternoon and evening in LA, after returning from Vegas so I decided to visit and stay at Santa Monica beach. It really is lovely, much nicer than the city and I spent the
The Stillers house is in there somewhere
Believe it or not, that is apparently the house of Ben Stiller and his wife afternoon walking along the beach from santa monica to venice and back. Venice is very bohemian, lots of cafes with live music and funky shops to wander in and out of. Not to mention various people along the seafront selling paintings, photo's, nik nak's ............. even a guy offering himself for hugs for 50cents! I didn't take him up on this offer, incase you were wondering! Santa Monica pier was where I spent my evening, theres a fair ground there, as well as various food outlets and again street sellers and stalls, mostly selling photos and paintings. A bit of live music going on too. Also there is a hotel called the Hotel California somewhere near Santa Monica, I saw it on the bus from the airport, very amusing but didn't manage to get a photo!
although as will become a recurring theme for my america trip, I might have enjoyed it more, if I had more time and money! I still had fun, but I really didn't like LA except for Santa Monica and Venice, but it was worth going for the experience!
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