Day 16 - Woohya! Its Hollywood

We got started this morning at around 9am (or slightly later for a certain J), and enjoyed breakfast at Z's. For those keeping up with our culinary exploits, this was just a simple case of a bowl of cereal, but an enjoyable one. This morning we had basically decided to travel from Santa Monica into LA - more specifically the Hollywood / Beverly Hills area, so we packed our sightseeing bags and left.

The LA public transport system wasn't too bad at all, and our journey ran fairly smoothly (speaking metaphorically...the actual roads were quite bumpy in parts) once we'd managed to hunt around for the right stop. After two buses, and a discussion with both drivers about having to have the right change to pay for the ride (when we didn't, one kindly let us on for free), we found ourselves at Beverly Boulevard.

Here we found an ideal Cafe that had been recommended to us, and we there met up with a friend who works in LA, and that we know through his involvement in the charity 'FOMO'. After an enjoyable and relaxing hour, we moved on, and headed towards Hollywood Boulevard itself (via Sunset Blvd, of course). This is one of the main tourist spots in LA, which is not surprising, given the variety of interesting and iconic sights that are there. Firstly, stretching along the sidewalk (UK translation = pavement) is the famous 'Walk of Fame', the classic stars with names of various people from show business who have impacted Hollywood.

Another hotspot is Grauman's Chinese theatre, a famous location for world film premieres, and one of the most historic cinemas on the planet. A key feature is the pavings at the front entrance, which have been embellished with foot and hand prints from a multitude of global megastars, and so this was a further photo oppurtunity not to be missed.

Neighbouring the Chinese is the Kodak theatre, noteworthy because it holds the Oscar award ceremony each year. This also has an interesting central courtyard, with raised bridges giving great views of the Hollywood sign; surely the most iconic sight in the entire city. As well as posing in front of this, we also snapped up a shot next to probably the next most iconic sight in LA - a poster of the one and only....Jonas Brothers (who, as you can see from below, have now become 5 rather than 3).

After a brief spot of souvenir shopping (where we coincidentally met the whole of the High School Musical cast in one LA shop), we walked to find some tea, and (shock-horror!) settled on a 'convenience' store to provide the goods. We'll refrain from a 'blow-by-blow' account, but suffice to say that we enjoyed a couple of chicken-related hot meals.

The journey home was reasonably straightforward as well. We had bought some 50 cents chewing gum to provide us with change for the buses, and we were all the more familiar with our return route. The second bus, a Metro 720, did actually break down on the way back, and a couple of confusing minutes of the driver talking to the bus and encouraging it to work ("come on girl...I don't want to be stuck out here either....") didn't quite do the trick. Luckily, we weren't far from our destination, and another 720 showed up quickly, so the whole affair was simply mildly amusing. Further raising the amusement stakes at the end of the day was an encounter with a young chinese man and his girlfriend. The poor man clearly wasn't accustomed to surprises, and so for him, coming around a corner at the same time as us (whilst looking in the opposite direction) seemed to be a near-death experience - his instinctive shocked exclamation of "Woohya!" sending all four of us into fits of laughter. The look of sheer terror on his face when he turned round to find two Brits centimetres away will long be remembered, but this quickly faded into a smile, and we departed on good terms.



Once we'd finally managed to stop laughing, we took our rest, and got some sleep after a great first day around LA.


We can't wait for the rest of the week,



J to the J