LA

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My flight literally flew by- I was sat next to a guy from Tobago so we were chatting about that for most of the journey. He also persuaded me to have whisky (straight)- 5 bottles of it in total! He has headed up to San Francisco now to see friends. I think this was a good thing as he had a 'weed pass'- basically looks like a drivers license but instead of permitting you to drive a car, it permits you to smoke as much weed as you want!

So yesterday I woke up very early at half 5 (probably had something to do with going to bed at 8pm- stupid jet lag!). Anyway I got up when it got light and went downstairs to make a pancake- my initial plan was to make several but they weren't that great (in fact the first one was an absolute disaster- but that always happens with pancakes right?!) So I went outside for a wander and found a burger king- this is where I had my second breakfast :-)

After that I signed myself onto the first movie stars tour- before it started I went to the Chinese Theater- this is where all the handprints are so I got some pics. The tour was really good- it was fully booked so I got to sit next to the driver so I had prime view and perfect opportunity to ask lots of questions. The houses in Beverley Hills were magnificent- we saw Simon Cowell's, Ringo Starr's and the Osborne's to name a few. I'll put pics up on flickr ASAP as otherwise I'll forget whose house is whose.

After that I went to Madame Toussauds (only because it was part of the package I had already paid for- so I just blitzed around it). Then I went to do the Kodak Theater tour- where the Oscars are held each year. This is where I met Megan- a 65 year old Londoner who moved to Sydney when she was 20. We went for lunch after the tour- she's given me her contact details as she wants to show me around Sydney when I get there. She's retired now so she seems really keen to occupy her time. We were both signed on to do a walking tour too- so did that together after lunch. Megan was really funny as she kept interrupting the poor tour guide with questions. I accidentally caught him out at one point as he said the metro station appeared in the film Speed and showed us a picture- at which point I spotted that it looked completely different- when I asked if it had been renovated since, he got all flustered... woops. Anyway during that tour we got asked if we wanted to watch a TV comedy being filmed this evening- 3 of us were really keen- me, Megan and a girl called Nestle (as in the chocolate). We went straight there after the walking tour and it turned out that Nestle is staying in my hostel (in fact she's in the room opposite). Anyway the comedy show was called 'Retired at 35'- it was quite funny but my cheeks are hurting from forced laughter (after watching the same scene 5 times it gets less funny). We got there at half 4 and only left at half 8 (we pretended to go to the bathroom then did a runner)- it's probably still going on now! Was a fun experience though- and I won a T-shirt for good laughing skills!

So anyway we all walked back together- Megan's hostel is round the corner but she was going back to Sydney today. She recommended that Nestle and I do the open-top tour bus for the next 2 days. It's $50 but apparently worth every cent as it comprises of 3 separate tours and one takes you to the beach!

So that's what we did today! Was awesome-the bus took us right to Santa Monica Beach and then we hired bikes to go to Venice Beach. Such nice scenery and I definitely caught the sun today! The bus tour back took ages as we hit the rush hour traffic so I'm absolutely shattered now! Going to do the final bus route tomo...

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