HOLLYWOOD! (baby)
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Los Angeles,
California,
United States
Thursday, June 1, 2006
Hollywood summed up the U S of A perfectly.
We stayed on Hollywood Boulevard in a hostel directly oposite the Kodak theatre where the oscars take place. This road is also known as the walk of fame which consists of paving slabs along the sidewalk with a gold and red star with a celebreties name imprinted on it. Cheesy as hell.
Up the walkway and along the bridge you could see the HOLLYWOOD sign which was an obvious photo op.
We stayed in a really cool hostel, the first night sharing a dorm with a German and a Japanese guy and the second with an Irish lad who had to be up at 6am to catch a flight but stayed up drinking with Carl until 4. The pair of them almost got booted out of the hostel for making too much noise and drinkning too much beer...
On the second day we went to Universal Studios. What a show! Theres a variety of rides and attractions, obviously in a really cheesy way. There's a Back to the future simultor ride and 3D cinema versions of Terminator 2 and Shrek, both really impressive. I was quite surpised to see 8 and 9 year old kids watching the Terminator show, in a nation where you have to be 21 to drink you can still subject your children to a genuinely frightening episode with Arnie shooting people in the face etc. But this is America, Fuck yeah!
Day 3 in LA and we took a trip to Venice beach, home of Jim Morrison and inspiration for many of The Doors albums. It's a beautiful beach stretching as far as the eye can see in both directions, white sand and crystal clear water framed by deep blue skys and the occasional fluffy white cloud.
We came across a hut where you could hire bikes so we paid the 10 bucks and had a couple of hours peddling up and down on our beach cruisers. Good fun indeed, but Carl injured himself by scraping his ankle between the peddle and the kerb, ouch!
A famous part of the area is Muscle Beach, does what it says on the tin, huge guys pumping iron in the midday sun watched by who so ever may be passing at the time. Also in the vasinity there are basketball and squash courts with athletic looking guys and gals playing there favorite sports, again in the heat of the day which is not my idea of fun but it was good to watch all the same.
After returning the bikes we were advised that we'd been to Santa Monica which is another tick on the mapa and is all good.
The highlight of the day for me was when we went up the pier where the were some blokes fishing. I spotted a Pelican flying low above the waves and then suddenly, out of the surf came a school of no less than two dozen dolphins! I was not expecting that and was suitably amazed. A really cool way to finish off the American adventure.
Comments
Don't want to spoil your day but...
'steven was fired for truenting' by Richard Goudy