Trains, Television and Theme parks...

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Hey guys, the title pretty much sums up what Joe and I have been up to in the last three days. After almost a week of lazing around in Santa Cruz we decided it was about time we move on and check out some more of California, and like most people seeking fame and fortune we've ended up in LA.

We checked out of our Santa Cruz hostel early on Monday morning and made our way back to San Jose on a busy commuter bus. At San Jose we joined the 'Coastal Starlight' train which runs down the entire United States Western shoreline from Seattle to Los Angeles. Even though we joined the train at San Jose only 370 miles from LA the train took 11 hours to reach it's final destination. Starlight??!! we could probably have walked it faster!!

However the trains are different here in America, back in the UK everybody seems to be in a rush to get somewhere. There was no sense of urgency about this train or its passengers, just as well because we werent going anywhere fast. The seats were similar to that of flying first class as they had plenty of legroom and extended almost compleatly horizontal to form a bed. At lunchtime we checked out the dining car and were served with a full meal. Over dinner we met a couple of friendly America ladies (old enough to be our grandmothers, i might add...) we grilled us for two hours about our travelling, plans for the future etc etc... All the while our train made its way slowly through the Californian countryside. Past towns i've never heard of and through the middle of absolutly nowhere.

Eventually we made it to LA, only 15 minutes late but it felt like it had been much much longer, and made our way to our new hostel in Hollywood. I can say without a doubt that LA is the biggest city I have ever been to it's bigger and more crowded that i ever thought possible.

Yesterday we took a walk up Hollywood blvd to the world famous chinese theatre, spotting the footprints in cement and famous people with their ow stars on the sidewalk. We also saw about 5 seperate stars for John Wayne, as im pretty sure every shop-owner wants John Wayne out front.

In the afternoon we got free tickets to be in the audience for 'The Late Late Show with Craig Fergusson'. I'd never heard of it but the guest star was Steve Carell (of 'Anchorman' and 'Dan in real life' fame) so we were quite excited at the prospect of seeing him and how US tv is filmed. Before going in the entire audience (about 130 people) were heavily vetted, what we can't say, what we can't do, when to laugh, clap, cheer and sometimes all three at once! It was exhausting!! As show-enhancers (their name for 'us' the audience) we had to laugh clap and cheer like our lives depended on it, when the host made a rather lame joke we were encouraged to laugh like it was the funniest thing we'd ever heard and by the end of filming almost two hours later my hands could not clap any more and felt like two bloodied stumps!!.

Today we hopped on the metro and visited Universal studios Hollywood, taking the world famous backstage tour seeing all the sets and backlots of the hollywood studio, Jaws, war of the worlds, desperate housewifes and murder she wrote, to name some of the big ones!

We are planning to have one more day in LA tomorrow, visiting Venice beach and Santa monica before heading out to Vegas on friday ahead of my birthday on Saturday. Maybe celebrate my 22nd birthday in Caesars palace by spending all my money on blackjack, women and booze and then wasting the rest...

Neil

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Comments

[lil' sister Em]

WOW!
oh wow! murder she wrote!!! hope you took lots of Photos. love u. xxxx