Catch up: Part 1..

Universal!

We didn’t get a very good nights sleep the first night. People were very noisey (which I expected to some extent) and some of our room mates came in noisily at 2am and then there is a post office right next to our window which is SO noisy at 6am. We got up early for Universal and took advantage of the free pancakes! Anyway Universal Studios was really good. It was only one stop away on the underground so very easy to get to. It’s a lot smaller than I thought and only has 3 actual rides but still, we used the full day. I loved the ‘animal actors’ show, where animals used in movies perform various things on stage. The animals we saw were misbehaving though! One of the birds wouldn’t quite do what it was supposed to, and one dog in particular was having an ‘off’ day and was very distracted! The new Simpsons ride they have was amazing, it’s a 3D simulator which has a little story and takes you on rides around ’Krusty Land’, it was very realistic and felt like you were on a roller coaster and there was a bit where you go in Maggie’s mouth and they spray water and baby powder for effect. I have been on simulators before but this was something else. Another favourite was House of Horrors, a walk through ride where there are real actors posed as characters from horror films, it was absolutely terrifying! I screamed so much my throat got sore. We did it again later in the day, and it was even worse because we knew what was coming. At one point, in a sheer terror panic, Phil ran off and I ran straight into the wall! It was so funny, good to know what we‘d both do in a situation! It’s really good though and realistic, you feel like you are in the films. The Universal Studios tour was also really cool, they were actually filming CSI: New York and Parenthood while we went round but I don’t watch either of those so I wouldn’t know if I saw any of the cast! The King Kong 3D bit was impressive. And it took us down Wysteria Lane, which I thought was actually a real road until then! It’s truly amazing how a film or TV programme is put together really. We got back to the hostel and ended up chatting to one of our room mates until pretty late.


On Wednesday we had a relaxed morning, and wandered down to Trader Joe’s for some supplies. Later in the afternoon we did a walking tour up to Runyon Canyon which is a park in the Hollywood Hills that celebrities frequent. Didn’t see any though! It was a tough hike up to the top of a steep hill, but had amazing views over LA and lots of nice big houses hidden amongst the trees. There were lots of people jogging and walking their dogs about, don’t know how they do that in the heat. We met some nice people while out walking and when the tour finished we walked back with them to the hostel. We had signed up for the bar crawl for the evening so we ate, then met up with the people from the walk and had some drinks in the hostel bar, while some people played beer pong. The bar crawl was a good night out, there was a really cool jazz bar we went to. We left the last place about 1ish then when we got back to the hostel we got stuck chatting until 2!

We got up early again Thursday, and we had booked on to do the film locations walking tour so left for that at 10am. It was interesting, pretty cool seeing places that were used to for filming but there were only a few films we were interested in and it was all so local we could’ve just done it ourselves. Phil got stuck with a guy who was supposedly giving away his CD’s but then as soon as he took one he started hassling him and asking for money so gave it back, there were a few guys doing it and got a bit funny when people weren’t willing to part with their money. But anyway when the tour finished, we went to the Kodak Theatre and Chinese Theatre, saw the hand and feet prints, then just wandered around the shopping bit and soaked it all up. When we got back to the hostel we just relaxed for the afternoon, before getting ready to see Jimmy Eat World at The Wiltern Theatre! We had to queue for an hour before being let in the theatre, which was a haven for homeless people trying to get money off you when you can’t walk away from them, had a pretty scary guy quite exuberantly ask for money, he was quite funny but it made me a little edgy. We had a great night seeing Jimmy Eat World anyway, it was such a good gig. We didn’t get back until fairly late and then crashed.. Early morning again the next day.

Friday was Universal Studios day two! We were up early and met up with a friend we made from Wednesday and she was leaving so gave us her food she couldn’t use up which was very nice of her. We’d been back to our room briefly just before we left and suddenly couldn’t find the room key, looked everywhere and was totally speechless as to where it could’ve gone. Concluded we’d left it in the door as we came in, so just went to the desk and asked if someone had handed it in thinking maybe we’d gone somewhere and left it there. They said no and said we’d lose one of the deposits, but then basically handed over the key straight away. Someone did hand it in but they said no just to get more money out of us which was a bit disappointing. Still, it was great to go back to Universal and not feel the need to rush and get everything crammed in. The only thing we missed was the Terminator 2 3D show, so we did that first. That was pretty impressive, as they all were really. Then we just wandered around at our leisure, saw the animal actors show again, different animals this time and they were much more obedient! Found out there was a dog in the last show that was meant to cock his leg to look like he had a wee on a volunteer from the audience, it was all part of the show, we actually thought he'd been bad and weed! Right at the end they brought out an orang-utan who was so cute. He was really funny imitating the trainer and doing his little part. We got lots of pictures with the characters that wander round the park so was pretty pleased with that! House of Horrors never got any less scary! I loved that thing. I had a huge lunch which Phil had to help me out with, never seen so much food on a plate! After I wasn’t feeling so stuffed, we did all the other rides again, and then stuff starting closing to prepare for the Halloween nights so we left and went to the city walk to explore that a bit better, that was pretty cool. When we got back we packed ready to check out the next day, and then Phil had some dinner with the food we acquired and I made a nice pasta salad for the next day. I had to wait until 11.40pm to check in online, but it was worth it as I got some great seats!

Didn’t sleep very well again but checked out on time, and we got both our deposits back in the end anyway, so I reckon they knew that we knew what had happened and felt guilty charging us for a lost key when that wasn’t the case. We left for the day to go to Santa Monica, realised we left all our food for the day behind so had to run back in quickly and grab that, and were on our way! Couldn’t believe how fast a month had gone by, and we had completed the first part of our trip. Santa Monica was amazing, really loved it. It was a gorgeous day. The pier was buzzing, we stopped for a moment for a drink and witnessed someone who was preaching religious stuff, and a lady trying to set up her stall on his place on the pier having an argument over pier territory. He was saying she’d go to hell and stuff, couldn’t hear what she was saying, as he was on a microphone, but it was entertaining. After exploring the pier we carried on up, reached Muscle Beach! Saw some people flexing their muscles, and there were swings on the beach so we played on those for a while, which was very nice! Walked up further and reached Venice Beach which was a happening place. Lots going on, stalls, DJ’s, skaters, buskers. It was a really great place to visit and soak up some atmosphere. Once we’d had enough we walked all the way back to the car which seemed like it took forever! But a day very well spent. So we left for the airport at 5ish, dropped the car off smoothly, and hit the airport. Had to completely re-pack Phil’s suitcase before we checked in. Someone dropped their Tom-Tom so I ran after them and handed that back, how thankful they were (reminds me of someone!). So dropped our bags off and went through security no problems. Had a big bite to eat and then waited really! Right before we were due to board our flight, we saw Fergie from The Black Eyes Peas stroll past us, she’d just flown in from New York! She had an important looking man with her with a clipboard and a big guy carrying her suitcase. We got pretty excited about that, we’d been wanting to see at least one famous person while in LA! Everyone else had their noses buried in books/iPads and didn’t even notice her. So we boarded our flight and off we went for New Zealand! Pretty ready to get to a new place by this point. We really loved it in the States but at the same time it was stressful, a lot of things are pretty annoying, it was scary in places, and they have a unbelievable homeless problem on a scale you couldn’t imagine without seeing for yourself. I got a bit sick of being made to feel guilty for their misfortune that was caused by their own governments. They really need to sort that out and help them, rather them palming them off to each other‘s states to deal with. America hides their not so nice underside very, very well, but there is a lot of that side that you have to see.

Anyway, Goodbye USA!

Lovely Santa Monica