Garlic, Vampires and other wild creatures in LA
Trip Start
Nov 11, 2008
1
8
22
Trip End
Jan 06, 2009
Hollywood,
California,
United States
Monday, November 24, 2008
Monday 24th November
I'm currently lounging in bed with Paul's laptop chilling out after the craziness that was Hollywood this weekend. Sooooo tiring yet sooooo fun!
My weekend began Friday night when a group of us drove to Beverley Hills to go to dinner at the Stinking Rose; a restaurant that specializes in garlic. You can smell it as soon as you go in, and probably smell of it when you leave, but the food was very tasty. I had garlic chicken pasta and some of the others had the restaurants famous garlic ice cream for dessert, I wasn't brave enough to have a whole one but had a bite and it was actually pretty yummy in a strange way! The restaurant also had a 'Dracula Room' which was decorated as if it was something out of Transylvania, with old paintings on the walls and cobwebs on the ceilings, kinda spooky! After dinner we went to a martini bar on Fairfax called Lola's that had an amazing martini menu. I had a pinapple and lime concotion and had a taste of everyone else's, yum.
I was already pretty tired when I got up Saturday morning for my weekend in Hollywood to see BSB in concert. Me and Paul went for breakfast localy before he dropped me off at the station so I could get my train to the city. When I got to Hollywood, I met up with the girls I was staying with - Bree, Gina and Sarah - and after unpacking we went for a night out.
Ever since I arrived here, the movie Twilight has been all over the TV and magazines; it's a huge vampire film based on a set of books, not sure if it's out in the UK yet but it's big news here right now and Paul kept joking about how bad he thinks it will be. The girls wanted to see the movie as it had only come out the day before. I'm not normally into supernatural/horror movies but wanted to see what all the hype was about. We went to Universal City - a mall of restaurants and shops in Hollywood next to Universal Studios - and I actually thought to movie was pretty good and enjoyed it. So go see it when it comes out in the UK, even if like me you're not normally into fantasy/supernatural stuff!
After the movie, we went to a mexican restaurant/bar and had some food and a few cocktails before going back to our hotel around midnight. Just as we were about to go to bed, one of the girls got a call from someone who had been camping outside the concert venue, to say that drama was going on and people were fighting over their positions in the line, so the venue staff were issuing numbered wristbands to determine the order people were to be let in the next day. We jumped in the car and zoomed down Sunset Blvd to the Hollywood Palladium and got a wristband each, all really happy we wouldn't have to get there early the next day and wait around in line for hours. A great end to a great night!
The next morning, we went to a diner for breakfast and met some other girls we knew off the internet who were also going to the concert that night. Already there was a huge line of people lined up outside, as the staff had only given out a couple of hundred wristbands and everyone else had to just line up. We got a few dirty looks as we walked past with out red wristbands! We chilled out in the hotel for a few hours before heading back to the Hollywood Palladium for the BSB concert. I had tickets for the soundcheck before the show as well which was a lot of fun, as we got to watch the band rehearse and then get a photo with the band. Afterwards, we went back outside and had to line up in the order of our numbered wristbands. Thanks to the midnight dash the night before, we were only 30 places down a line of 4,000 so were guarenteed a good spot - not bad!
Once the doors were opened, the craziness began. I've not been to a large-scale general admission (i.e. standing, no seats) concert before but had heard horror strories of people being punched, kicked and trampled on in the crowd. This was no exception! I was squashed in right at the front of the stage, surrounded by sweaty, excited girls, including some who liked to push their way in from the back. California is known for it's wild animals like coyotes and bears, but I witnessed the wildest of them all last night in the Palladium! Someone further back was punching people and security was called, and a girl up front near me fainted. Even seen a mosh pit at a rock concert before? Well this was *worse* I have never been so squashed in my life, I couldn't move... but the show was amazing so it was worthwhile in the end, especially as Kevin, the member who left the band a few years ago, came onstage and joined the band for the last song... the room just exploded and got crazier when he came on stage!
I slept sooo well after the show as I was exhausted, and this morning I had breakfast in Hollywood and did some shopping before heading back to Orange County. It's Thanksgiving on Thursday, so we have a huge turkey in the kitchen defrosting and a yummy looking pumpkin pie in the fridge. I don't even known exactly what Thanksgiving is about (I'll have to go on Wikipedia), but the food looks good so I'm all for it... god bless the USA!
