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Published: August 3rd 2008
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The sterile glitz of Vegas was replaced by the gritty reality of Los Angeles. The old and rattly taxi had a divider to protect the driver from his passengers. We stayed downtown at the Hotel Figaroa where we had a pleasant room on the first floor in colourful Moroccon style. Had a bath which was great and the lovely lady at the desk gave us maps of the area and the metro system. With an hour or two of daylight left we whizzed off to Hollywood. We had already seen the sign on the hillside in the distance and it was not so far away on the metro system. We immediately found a tourist info office near Hollywood & Highland who sold us tickets to Disneyland and provided the location of Spoke and Marilyn Monroe on the footpath. We wanted to get a photo of the Leonard Nimoy star with our Spoke soft toy that we bought in Vegas. We had a Hooters dinner which was lovely but a waitress proved herself blonde by saying she didn't know what 'gambling' was. At the Chinese Theatre Chucky tried to stab me. Scary little bugger.
Very handy to our hotel was Denny's
where we ate most breakfasts. It was pleasant and reasonably priced with friendly staff and policemen eating in the corner. Our first full day was spent at Disneyland. Instead of joining a tour we took the hotels advice and got a bus just a street over. The ride was free because the man's machine didn't work. It was over 1 and a half hours to Disneyland where we joined the hoards going into the theme parks. We didn't realise there were two theme parks there and just about went into the wrong one. Finally, in Disneyland, our first impression was that the castle was too small. Our first stop was the wiki room where a bunch of mechanical birds and totum poles came to life in true Disney style. Our next stop was Indiana Jones which was a proper scary ride with dark tunnels and sudden dips. There was lots of screaming. The next ride, Pirates of the Caribbean, was much more tame and the pirates were really cool. In the haunted house there was some very clever projected ghosts. The mountain train ride was a quite scary roller coaster with lots of dips and low ceilings. After a corn
dog lunch we stood in the longest queue ever. It was 1 hour to get to the front of the Finding Nemo queue for a submarine ride. After that we were quite exhausted and ready to bugger off. Between the long queues and the fact that the 'Its a small world' ride was closed we were a little disappointed with Disneyland.
Next day we just wandered downtown. We were staying in the business district which was quiet being a Saturday, but when we found the main street it was like being back in Mexico. A bit filthy, same kind of shops as in Mexico, Spanish signs and lots of Mexicans. Funny but freaky. We found a food market where I used the loo. It was funny because in Mexico the signs say 'Please put the paper in the bin', but here, for the Mexicans, the sign said 'Please put the paper in the loo'! We walked to Chinatown but found it a little boring and lacking atmosphere. We then took the metro to Hollywood where we took photos of the sign on the hill and visited the Oscars that would be awarded the following week.
Our last full
day in LA, and indeed the last full day of our year-long travelling, was spent at Universal Studios. After the horrid queuing experience of Disneyland, we decided to splash out on front-of-line passes. We paid US$93 each for the passes (after discounting a voucher we were given on the Boulevard) which was not too bad compared with the normal US$60 entrance. Armed with a guide for the showtimes we jumped right in and went to the 'House of Horrors' where people in scary costumes jumped out at us from dark corners. I got right scared by Chucky again. We went to the Terminator show where actors played out scenes in conjunction with the original actors on a huge screen. Our front-of-line passes not only got us to the front of the line for the show but afterwards we were given a behind-the-scenes talk by some of the actors. Gratefully we got on the studio tour without waiting in the long queue. Unfortunately it was Sunday so nobody much was around. We got to see lots of familiar sets including the Bates Motel and Jaws. The Waterworld show was great even if the movie didn't do so well. They even launched
Disneyland
The mountain train ride a light plane over the wall. At the bottom of a series of long escalators were a number of attractions. The Jurassic Park water ride had a fantastic collection of mechanical dinosaurs and the drop at the end was quite nerve-racking. The Mummy ride was really scary but really short (might not have been too impressed if we had to wait in the queue with all the other people). The Backdraft show was a little ho-hum but you could really feel the heat from the simulated warehouse fire. There was a really interested special features show which illustrated how the green screen works. Back up the top lot again we were just in time for the animal show where they had a real Lassie. We had just enough energy after that to see the Shrek 3D snippet which was cute. We got around just about everything but it took all day. If we had to wait in the queues we would only have seen half as much.
Every morning so far we had seen a huge queue outside a diner one block away from our hotel. On our last morning the queue was not so bit so we joined
Disneyland
Finding Nemo it. It was a traditional place and we sat at the bar and were served huge portions of greasy food including fantastic fried potatoes. The man behind the counter told us the diner had been open for 85 years without closing once. We decided to take a taxi to the Farmers market. The first guy tried to tell us the meter was broken but it would be US$30. Not being stupid we got out and took the next cab at the rank. His meter worked fined and the trip cost us US$20. We wished we hadn't eaten so much, there was so much more lovely looking food at the market. After going to a movie at the Beverly Centre we took a taxi back to the hotel. This guy was another rip-off artist who took us onto the freeway instead of taking the more direct street level route. We noticed too late and he had us caught in a horrific traffic jam while we nervously watched time tick by. We had a taxi booked for the airport and we arrived just in time. This last taxi of the day was a posh black number with a driver from El Salvador
Disneyland
The parade who was really pleased we had nothing but good things to say about his country.
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Marjorie
non-member comment
What a fling!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It surely looks like a fling indeed. Those places are really beautiful. It looks encouraging. Universal Studios looks great - just great. It shows that they had a very happy time. Disneyland looks so beautiful too. All these pictures taken are so artistically photographed too. I enjoy this blog of "Their Last Fling" very much Marjorie