Smoke and mirrors

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  Los Angeles, California, United States
Friday, March 20, 2009

Finding my hostel in L.A. turned out to be pretty easy - one metro ride and a deceivingly-long 8-block walk down Hollywood Blvd and I was there. In honour of St.Patrick's Day, the hostel was offering free hot dogs and beer (some of you will notice how this is my first mention of the ale...a better record than my latest European trip!). Naturally, I took them up on their offer and sat in the sun in the hostel's front patio, where I met the two wonderful Austrians I was to spend the rest of my time in L.A. with; Robert and Eva.
After soaking up the sunshine and chatting for a few hours, we strolled down Hollywood Blvd's Walk of Fame (which is much longer than I had anticipated and not quite as glamorous), past the Kodak Theatre (which isn't as majestic as it seems on Oscar night), and to the Chinese Theatre (which is the most interesting one, with celebrity's hand and foot prints cemented into the pavement). Needless to say, I quickly realized that, like its films, Los Angeles is indeed smoke and mirrors

Hollywood Walk of Fame

. Hollywood, in fact, isn't much more than gift shops and tourist traps, intersparsed with tattoo parlours and Church of Scientology buildings, and lined with crazy homeless people. Although I must admit that seeing the landmark "Hollywood" sign was pretty cool.
Having received free tickets from someone at the hostel, Robert, Eva and I decided to go out to "The Bungalow Club," deceivingly not a club but a restaurant/bar. We each had a martini and decided to leave early. On our way back to the hostel, we stopped by "Pink's," L.A.'s most famous hot dog stand, where I ate my first (and quite delicious) chili cheese dog. Mmmm...fine American cuisine!
Wednesday morning, after yet another pancake breakfast (I never thought I could ever get sick of them), Robert, Eva and I walked to the Chinese Theatre and tried to get free tickets to a TV show recording, but no one showed to hand them out so they must have already been full. We headed to the farmer's market instead, where I resisted buying everything in sight. I did, however, have a tasty Armenian burek for lunch, which resembles a pizza on a freshly-baked pita bread. While Eva attended a dance class, Robert and I took a bus up to Warner Bros studios for a tour. What a great idea - I absolutely loved it. We hopped into a long "golf cart" with about 10 other people and our guide, and were taken all around the studio (which is more like a town...it even has its own gas station!). They were filming the series finale of "ER", so we were in the last groups to see the sets of that show. We also visited a few sound stages, including the one for "The Big Bang Theory," and even saw Charlie Sheen coming out of his table read for "Two and a Half Men" - although we prefer to say that Charlie saw us! We then toured the props department, where they've kept the set of "Friends' Central Perk." Those of you who know how much I like that show will understand how excited I was to sit on the Friends' couch

Hollywood sign...can you see it?

! We ended the tour in the costume museum, which has a whole floor dedicated to Harry Potter (and where the Sorting Hat told me I was a Griffindor! haha!).
After a quick stop at the hostel, the three of us headed back out, this time to Beverly Hills. We actually didn't know where we were when we got off the bus, so we aimlessly wandered through the palm-lined streets staring at all the mansions, and eventually found our way to Rodeo Drive. We couldn't resist walking into "Pretty Woman's" Beverly-Wilshire hotel, where even the bathrooms are fancy! We ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and after a long (and strange) bus ride back, we ended the night hanging out at the hostel's garden patio.
Robert, Eva and I had signed up for the hostel's free shuttle to Venice Beach, which left at 10 am this morning. Sadly, it was cold, windy, grey and extremely hazy at the beach. But we still walked along the boardwalk through the countless hippie stands and souvenir shops, all the way to Santa Monica. Seeing as the weather hadn't cleared up yet, we decided to go back to the hostel (after hanging out at a park and using the swings, of course). Towards the end of our relatively quiet afternoon Robert, who had been pondering whether he sould get a tattoo, decided he wanted to go through with it. So we walked over to the recommended High Voltage tattoo shop (also known as Kat Von D's "L.A. Ink" for TV's TLC fans), where he got a music clef permanently drawn on his calf.
We're now back at the hostel, and will be staying in for the rest of the evening. I initially thought 2.5 days in L.A. wouldn't be nearly enough time, but I've actually seen all the main things I wanted to see. And despite the interesting neighbourhoods, the city's size, homeless street-wanderers and below-par cleanliness mean that I'm not too sad to be moving on.

 

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My first chili cheese dog	Robert and I on the Friends couch!!	Beverly Hills	Robert, Eva and I

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