Only in Hollywood...

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Day 2

Having booked our Hollywood City Pass online on viator we were ready to explore the town. This pass included Madame Taussauds Wax Musuem, Kodak Theatre (The Oscars Venue), Red Line walking tour and Starline tour of Holllywood stars homes for around $AUS60. Super good value and we managed to do all in the one day.

We caught the Metro from our hotel and in just two stops we were in HOLLYWOOD!!! The ticket was $5 for a daily ticket (anywhere in the city btw).. and was so easy to buy from the vending machine at the station.

It was raining today and we were not prepared for the rain or the temperature. It was around 6 degrees and we were in jeans and jumper and of course my umbrella decided it was ready to retire... for like.. ever so while looking for the Madame Taussauds Musuem we found the $10 boutique... woot. Umbrella, souveniers and a new watch in tow we hit up the wax musuem. As you can see from all our photos combined we spent a lot of time here goofing around. It was a lot of fun. Take a look at some of the figures. They are pretty impressive. I cant post all of them because there are tonnes but ive loaded quite a few.

Next stop was to the Kodak Theatre as it was still a lil rainy and cold. The day we were there Cirque du Soleil- IRIS was packing up and they were beginning to put together the Oscars stage ( which is on this weekend FYI:P Feb 26). This tour was around an hour long and very interesting. We were told how Oscar became named after an actress stated her statue looked like her uncle Oscar. We were able to sit in the stars bar and look at a real Oscar. We saw the theatre and sat in the seats for a little while. The Kodak Theatre is basically in a shopping mall on the Hollywood Boulevard so all shops and the outside of the building have to be covered up when the oscars are on nobody get free advertising. (Have a look at the photos next week and you will see red curtains covering billboards on the sides of the building) The red staircase is in the middle of the centre and you can walk up the stairs the stars have to walk up to enter the theatre. (See Photo) Lastly there are large pylons in this building and on each pylon the year and the best movie is placed.(See Photo)

Stars Homes was a combo city tour and stars homes. We went up to Hollywood Hills to a lookout spot to get a great photo of the Hollywood sign- (see photo) Yes it does say Hollywood not Springfield... our tour driver was suprised too lol. The sign is not the original. The original sign was 'HOLLYWOODLAND' and it was put there to advertise real estate but after many years the sign became victim to erosion, vandalism and decay and was taken down. It was rebuilt and various celebrities contributed to funding. Hugh Hefner came to the rescue holding a fundraiser and each letter was auctioned off. Hef and Alice Cooper are some of the owners. We saw many celebrities homes but to be honest we didnt know a lot of the celebs which is why I have photos and I cant remember whos home it is I'm looking at. I do however remember Madonnas, Osbournes, Ryan Murphy and Larry Kings.. (See photos)

Walking tour was informative but we heard a lot of the same stuff so I think you either one or tour of these tours and not all because it can be a lil repetitive.

I should add that the day we were here we couldnt get near Graumans Chinese Theatre (celebrities hand and feet in front) as Man on a ledge premier was on. We stood on the other side of the road and watch some of the celebs arrive but we got bored,cold and hungry so we moved on.

On a side note had a great laugh walking down the street as we saw a guy holding a sign saying 'Go Fuck Yourself'.. and a random yelling at the metro she had AIDS. How the hell do you keep a straight when you see that.. There are some funnys in HollyWeird too.

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