Hollywood, Venice Beach & Santa Monica Pier

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TRAVEL LESSON #2: Time is not the travellers friend. It seems my life is now dictated by the hands of a clock, constantly waiting, rushing, being woken by the scream of an alarm... I hate that damn alarm. Ever since we got here it seems I have been so tired but have not yet had the opportunity to catch up on sleep. Tonight is the first early night (10pm LA time) and I can't wait to crawl into bed.

So Far...

Day 1, After a painful 4 hours of grumbling and whinging Emily and I had a few hours of shut eye before getting up to go for a wander around the streets of Hollywood. We were in need of sustainance so headed to Micky D's for a supsersize Mc Rib meal and Mc Nasty burger for a whopping $7 in total (loving that everything is dirt cheap here). We found the walk of fame and followed it down Hollywood Blvd to the Kodak and Graumans theatre. Stumbling across a large crowd and bright spotlights, we moved closer to find that Denzel Washington had turned up for a movie premier. After much pushing and shoving and screaming 'DENZEL!' I managed to get a snap from afar. Happy with our first star sighting we finished the night with a trip to Madame Tuessaudes and a Peanut Butter Cream pie at Hooters.

Day 2 begun with (an Alarm eeergh) a quick breakfast and then a few buses down to Venice Beach Boardwalk. This place is beautiful with open blue skies and endless sands spotted with skyscraper palm trees (also spotted with homeless). There are so many shops along the boulevard, including "Dr's" who can assess whether you qualify for medical marijuana, not sure how this practice is legal but it definately dominates the Californian coastal culture. Instead of being prescribed Emily and I chose to hire bikes and cruise the path to Santa Monica Pier and back - Also beautiful and very colourful. It was such an amazing day and probably my favourite place in LA so far.

When we returned to the hostel we met up with Steph (Em's friend from Uni) and we headed out for delicous Chinese and then out to a club called Guys and Dolls with some of the others from our Hostel. Great night!!! The club was very pretentious and only let attractive people in - That part was easy 😉 the drinks were expensive by American standards and were free poured instead of measured. We had an excellent time dancing but it became annoying when they let waaaaay to many people in. All in all a great night we paid for the next morning.

Day 3 was greeted with a blaring headache and alarm (I HATE YOU ALARM). After much guilt tripping from my travelling buddy I rolled out of bed and into the shower to try and make myself look human again. Today was the day for our LA City Tour. We were taken to see celebrity homes, Rodeo Drive, Hollywood Sign, Bel Air and Beverly hills, Sunset Strip and Hollywood Boulevard for the walk of fame and the theatres. It would have been much more enjoyable had I not felt 'car sick' the whole way but I managed to pull through and miraculously recovered in time to shop on the Boulevard. After a slow and forced lunch at Baja Fresh Mexican (a food chain which is delicious) we went home for a much needed nap, or rather dying into slumber.
Tonight we popped down to Melrose Ave which is practically at our door to have a slow and sleepy dinner. We ate at a lovely cafe called Vienna Cafe which served us the only healthy meals since we have arrived. Dessert was a wander through the shops on the way back to the hostel, although at this stage it has become quite cold so we didn't dawdle.

Tomorrow is Disneyland!!! The most anticipated day trip of LA. So now that I have managed to remember he events of the past few days I'm outta here for a good night sleep before that darn alarm sings me into our next adventure.

Until then Buenos Noches Amigos!!!

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Comments

[DaddyO]

Em...
Does Emily have a travel blog too? I'd like to subscribe to it as well so I can get a balanced account of events ;-)