Los Angeles

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After almost 20 hours flying time plus 6 hours waiting in Sydney we finally made it to Los Angeles at about 5pm local time. We caught a shuttle bus to our hotel in West Hollywood, called Vibe Hotel, right on Hollywood Boulevard. It had a great atmosphere, and is set up specifically for backpacker types such as us, so we didn´t feel too lonesome! The boulevard is much more run down and dilapidated than I expected - broken footpaths and homeless people wandering around.

Kathryn and I wandered up the street spotting stars with names we recognised (stars on the ground set into concrete - not actual live stars!), and laughing at the crappy costumes of the celebrity impersonators in front of the Chinese Theatre. We finally finished up in an Irish pub til one am.

Our room was upstairs and looked out onto the road, it was very noisy at night - earplugs are a must-have!!
The next day I was up early and decided to sneak out and go take some photos while Kathryn slept in. When I returned, Kathryn finally realised that I hadn´t been locked in the bathroom for two hours!!

That day we did a tour of the Hollywood Hills, Sunset Strip, Beverly Hills, Bel Aire and Venice Beach. We spent an hour or so wandering along the strip at Venice Beach, staring at the freaks and muscle-heads.
Then back to our hotel via Rodeo Drive - the paparazzi were waiting outside one of the stores there, apparently Arnie was inside, but we didn´t have time to hang around to wait for him to come out!

After the tour we still had heaps of time to kill before our flight, so we wandered up and down the Boulevard again, before finally heading to the airport at about 10pm for our flight at 1.45am.

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