LA

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Hey! I've got one day left in LA, and I've really enjoyed stop no.1! Spent two nights in Hollywood, did all the tourist things there like walk down the Walk of Fame, visited Madame Tussauds and the Grauman's Theatre (where they have all the Hollywood film premieres) and went on a siteseeing tour which included the Hollywood Bowl and the house and the end of Pretty Woman with the balcony scene. Really enjoyed it. I also visited an outdoor shopping place called the Grove and the Farmer's Market, where an TV showbiz news show was being recorded (there are film crews everywhere). The presenter was the Latino guy from Saved by the Bell! Can't remember the character's name but it's Mario Lopez in real life. And he was interviewing two new stars from the new Pirates of the Caribbean film! So I was ushered in to stand in the background while they were recording, then I got their autographs and a photo with Sam from PotC. He was really nice - from Norwich so we had a bit of a chat!

I also went to the LA County Museum of Art, which was a good hour or two. They had loads of Andy Warhol on display and lots of other contemporary art exhibits. I tried to go to the Griffith Observatory but it's closed on Mondays so that didn't happen. Universal Studios was really fun - I ended up doing the locations tour in Spanish because I went with an Argentinian girl, and thought I could cope, but I ended up only understanding about 50% of what was going on! We went down the set of Wisteria Lane from Desperate Housewives though, so that was cool.

Then I moved to Santa Monica, right next to the beach! There's not so much to do around here, but I went down to Venice Beach to see Muscle Beach (an outdoor gym) and all the street performers there. I also visited the Getty Center, which had some great views over LA and was free! Which is always a bonus. There was a pub crawl last night which included an improv comedy club and a magic show then to a club. I've met lots of really nice people... There's a couple of French Canadian girls who I've been spending time with, and I've found someone going to New Zealand at the same time as me, who's up for getting a campervan!! So with any luck I'll get to do that after all :-D

I'm really looking forward to Fiji now! I leave LA tomorrow night and land on May 17th because I go over the date line, so May 16th doesn't exist in my life!! Very strange. Anyhoo I've got 6 mins of internet time left so I'll try to put some photos on here...

Hasta pronto
xxx

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