Day Two: Universal Studios

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So this afternoon Sam and I were walking to our hostel from the train station on Hwood Blvd. We pass a man dressed in lime green pants and a hot pink blazer sitting on a bench. There is a girl crossing the streets walking in his direction.
Man: "Giiiiirrrrrllllllll do you remember me? We spent like 16 hours in jail together a couple months back!! I thought that was you"

Sam and I look at each other, keep walking down the street and quite naturally continue to piss ourselves laughing for the next block. Only in America?

Just a quick recap on our amazing dinner last night. We wandered down the Hollywood Bvld around 8.30 looking for a bit of a feed (oh and did I mention there was a movie premier going on? We were both too tired to actually stick around and get a hoot though, shame). Anyway, we decided to duck into a resturant called uWink. uWink is an interactive restaurant. In short, you order your drinks and food through a touch screen computer on your table and the order is sent straight to the kitchen, while you wait (and during the meal as we did) you can play all kinds of games on the computer, it's all touch screen and we thoroughly enjoyed kicking the asses of other players in the restaurant. It was such a great concept and the food, the food was AMAZING. We both had a salad each, they nearly touched the roof they were so huge, just like all meals in America I have found!

Jetlag has been striking us both equally. The Banana Bungalow is going off tonight, a band in the courtyard, nearly everyone staying here is outside drinking and dancing. And what did Ham and I do tonight? A load of washing, went next door for Thai and now Sam's asleep and I'm blogging. We are beyond knackered and couldn't feel less like socialising after a very busy day at Universal Studios.
This morning we got up around 6.30, made our way to the Tiki Garden here at B.Bungalow and had some complimentay breakkie, I must remember tomorrow to take a photo of the milk and butter they put out, it's HUGE!! After a lovely couple of pieces of toast and a cuppa we sat patiently outside the B.Bungalow office waiting for our shuttle to Disneyland, due to arrive at 8am..
8.10..
8.25..
8.32.....
One of the staff were kind enough to spot us and offered to call the shuttle company to see what the g-o was. They forgot to pick us up.. Boo.
This wasn't such a big drama, considering as well they offered to give us $20 each off our ticket for tomorrows shuttle to Disneyland, for a backpacker - this is very good news.
Unfortunately as Anaheim where Disneyland is located is some 1.5 hours away we could not afford to take a later shuttle today, no love lost, we decided to take the 9.30 shuttle to Universal Instead (we were going to go tomorrow anyway!).
And we had an amazing time! It was so much fun. With a Simpsons Simulator ride, Terminator Show, Water World show (we got drenched), Jurasic Park Rollercoaster (also got drenched) and sooo many other excellent things to see and do we managed to fill our day from our arrival at 9am to (missing our shuttle at 6) to our departure back to the hostel at 7.30pm.
We were so lucky that not one but twice the attendants were asking for two people to fill two of the rides that we were going on that we managed to get pulled from the middle of a long line to jump straight on, apparently no one travels in pairs. Suckers.
We started off with the House of Horrors where I absolutely poo'd my dacks, live actors jumping out from here there and everywhere with axes and guns and such.
At the end of the day we finished with the Studio Tour which was ok, wouldn't be rushing back to do it again, the simulator that the little sight seeing trolley takes you around in broke down while we were in it so we didn't get to see all of the 3D King Kong exhibit. Sam nor I were too bothered by this as it was about 7pm and we saw enough to get the idea of what else could happen. But the kind people at Universal solved the problem by the time we got back to the studio after driving around all of the sets and they offered everyone 'front of the line passes' and another trip down to the simulator to complete the 3D experience, Ham and I were happy enough just to head back to the hostel but as we got off the little bus one of Universal's reps asked if we were going to go back and watch the King Kong 3D, we informed him that we had to leave and so he gave us each a $10 voucher to use anywhere in the park. Woohoo.
Heaps better than going to see a 3D jungle.
With that in mind in now sit here typing in my new Universal Studios T-Shirt and my teeny little friend Spongebob sits along side me in the plush form, thankyou Universal and I even made 60 cents out of it. Naturally Sam did not want any paraphenalia hence the tacky t-shirt I now don.
Once we got back to the Hostel after catching a train headed in the complete wrong direction, then boarding the same train to go back the way we came and then some we arrived to find the place well and truly pumping. We found a couple of girls standing outside the semi-closed gate wondering what the hell was going on with a ton of luggage in hand we advised them that yes, they were in the correct place.. I hope they haven't just done a long haul flight because sleep is in the distant future for anyone here tonight.
Well, that's about all we have to report for the day. Had an amazing day at Universal and would definitely recommend it to anyone who loves themselves a theme park. Good times.
Disneyland definitely tomorrow and then on to San Fran on Friday. Woohoo.
To all a good night xx

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Comments

[xcapee]

Hi ! I did the same thing too during my stay in Hollywood at the start of August and spent time at uWink. What a novel concept, ordering food and drinks on your own little personal screen. As for Universal Studios - I quite enjoyed the studio tour and the King Kong ride and I agree that you do get completely drenched on the Jurassic Park ride.