Probably the longest I've waited between entries since I've been away but for good reason; I hadn't done... anything really, until today. The past few days I just spend wandering around Santa Monica, where I'm staying, and yesterday I checked out Venice Beach. It was really disapointing. It was probably made worse by the overcast weather we had all day but the place was so "touristized" it's rediculous. All the buildings are really scruffy too. I did see some pretty good street shows though which was cool.
Today I was signed up for a day of sightseeing with an LA Tour company. After filling myself up with bagels and cereal, I headed out to the bus and met my guide for the day. She was a Cuban woman with a very hard to understand South American accent - not ideal. The tour didnt have many stops, since LA is huge and there's quite a lot to cram into 6 hours, so for a lot of the sights we just slowed the bus down in the middle of the road.
Our first route took us through Pacific Palaces, atleast I think thats what Mrs Cuba said it was called. Basically just a lot of expensive houses, some owned by celebrities. Afterwards we did some more celebrity house spotting in Bel-Air. I've now seen houses belonging to Adam Sandler, Britney Spears, Arnold Swartzenegger, Jack Nicollsen (it was rediculously huge) and Shaquille O'Neil, to name a few. I decided not to bother taking many pictures since alot of them were kind of covered up by gates and trees.
From Bel-Air we drove through Westwood. I've kind of forgotten what the attraction was here, possibly the university, UCLA, which was pretty impressive wherever it was. Cruising on past Westwood we arrived at our first stop; Beverly Hills. It was actually really cool walking around and looking at the super super expensive shops and resturaunts. It's exactly how you imagine the place to be, with all it's white buildings and palm trees. There's also a hotel where they filmed some of Pretty Woman apparently.
After a wander round it was back onto the bus and time to head to what was probably the higlight of the trip; Hollywood. First we passed through West Hollywood where we saw, nothing very much special and then we pulled up in Hollywood where were given an hour to look around. I made my way along to Mann's Chinese theathre, where most big movies premiere and where they have the paving stones with actors hand and feetprints in. After a few snaps I moved on to the Kodak Theatre, where they hold the oscars, and then I took a wander round the wax musuem. I didn't have as much time as I would have liked otherwise I would've also went to Ripley's Believe It Or Not and the Guiness World Records museum. If I find myself bored in the next few days I might take a local bus back up. There was also a viewing point for the Hollywood sign so I made sure I took plenty of photos of that. The whole time I was in Hollywood I was walking along The Walk of Fame. All of the paving stones have stars on with actors, directors and musicians names. The whole Walk of Fame is like 12 blocks or something stupid so I only seen part of it. I was hoping I'd find Keifer Sutherland, but I didnt :(
I had a quick bit of lunch, bought some tatty Hollywood souvineers and then headed back to the bus. We now made our way to Downtown LA, the centeral part of the whole city. I was hoping the bus would go here as I wanted to check it out but Downtown isn't the safest place, espcially at night. Driving through didn't really give much of a feel for it, the bus kind of limited my view, but it was pretty cool. We then headed to Chinatown, which is also in Downtown. I was very much reminded of Hong Kong. The area is much more Chinese than I had expected, all of the road signs and stuff have Chinese on them as well as English.
After Chinatown, we drove past the Disney Concert Theatre, or something like that, which was a bit of a crazy buidling, the LA Cathederal, and then made one more stop at a place I forgot the name of. It's basically the Mexican version of Chinatown though. I watched a streetshow here for a bit and then headed back onto the bus.
Our last stop was Universal Walkway, by Universal Studios; basically loads of shops. I had a wander about for a bit but didn't fancy spending much more money. It brought back memories of being at Universal Stuidos in Florida with my dad when I was wee. I jumped back on the bus and we headed along the freeway yo, back to Santa Monica.
Definitely my best day in LA so far, but still nothing compared to New Zealand, not that I expected it to be, I should really stop comparing the two. Tonight I'll just be taking it easy, maybe watching a bit of TV or a film, or doing a crossword if I feel up to the challenge.
With only 3 days left before my flight home my travels are almost over which stirs mixed emotions in me. I really really really am looking forward to seeing everyone when I get back. I hear that my Nana Moira's going to have some pasta made for when I get home which fills me with so much joy. But on the otherhand I'm gutted that my travels are over. But more about that when I make my final entry!
