Welcome to the Los Angeles blog!!
Day One
Upon leaving the Fijian runway we suddenly remembered we
were going to AMERICA! But with us flying Fiji Airways out of Fiji we were
shown this message which depressed us a little bit!
But the thing was that tonight we were going to go back through time into the past, time travelling our way from Fiji to Los Angeles...we were passing the international date line. We asked an air hostess whether we would be told when we passed it but she said we would have to keep an eye on the screen.
We enjoyed a lovely dinner, a chicken toasted sandwich with a couple of scotch fingers!!
We enjoyed a fairly smooth journey, just a little turbulence
but all was fine. We were so excited that we were off to America, Nat had been
to New York before but this was my first ever time in the country.
We then passed the international date line so it went from the 20th June 11.30pm to 20th June 3am!! So we gained a whole day in the past! So confusing :S
Kind of is, or was...Day Two
After a few hours sleep it was time for breakfast...airlines
like to feed you, hey we aren’t complaining haha!
We then caught our first sight of America! Landing was coming soon.
And as we got closer we saw our first American ‘thing’... a baseball court!
And then we landed and we felt welcomed already...until a customs
officer told me off. Basically, when you arrive you have to queue up obviously
to go through customs to get your visa. So there were loads of queues, of
different lengths and for one reason or another I went in a queue that wasn’t
the shortest and the lady told me off! Thanks alot!
After picking up our backpacks we nipped to an ATM and then jumped on the bus which would take us to our hotel in Downtown LA. Straight away we were hit with traffic, beeping, shouting and just mayhem basically haha, coming from the peace and calmness of Fiji this was such a big adjustment we’d need to adapt to.
We got off at Union Station and caught a local metro bus which took us to Stay on Main (the hotel we were staying at). We had a bit of an obstacle to overcome first, getting change for the bus! It was 50 cents and we only had a 20 dollar note from the airport. We asked at a ticket stall for change but he could only give us $5 notes. We then went for the bus, he said he didn’t have any change, so went back AGAIN to a nicer person this time and got the change we needed.
We then were able to get on the bus and on our way :)
We got to the hotel and unpacked a little. We had landed at 1.30pm and by the time we’d got through customs and out of the airport, got to the bus station and finally to our hotel it was 5/6pm! Nat had seen on a website about a pizza shop down the road called ‘Garage Pizza’ that was mean’t to be amazing. And it was!! We got introduced to the ‘American Pizza Slice’...it was bloody massive haha! And only $4, crazy!
We then treated ourselves to a cookie, with ice cream. But when we got it, heated ohmywordamazing, there was sooooo much ice cream!! Was very yummy but couldn’t eat another THING by the end of the meal.
We were on the 14th floor at the hotel so we made it a mission that to earn this delicious but naughty food, we would use the stairs up and down!! We at least would feel like we kind of (not really) earned the meals we would have.
Day Three
At the hotel you got breakfast included which was fab news.
It was from 7.30am to 10am so we headed down about 8.30 to catch a look at what
there was. When we got there we got a surprise, you got waffles!! Not just a
little waffle but a massive one, and this was intended for one person. We HAD
to share it due to it being impossible for one person to consume such an
amount! We were definitely getting introduced to the portion sizes here.
You also got a selection of cereal and milk, orange juice (eww), cold water, and coffee if you wanted. So really a brilliant selection overall!
After breakfast we headed towards to metro, which was
situated about 6 blocks down 7th Avenue (getting good at the street
system lark!). We were off towards Long
Beach today and with us being in Downtown, it was a long train ride (about an
hour). But before we jumped on the train, we went to buy our tickets. You had
to get a TAP card, which was a paper alternative, and every journey no matter
how short or long was $1.50...so cheap. We were given the option of getting a
7-day pass for $21 so basically this equalled a return journey taken everyday.
However not only did this cover the tube, but the metro buses as well. So when
we were going to go to Venice Beach, with the bus being the only option of
getting there, as long as we got a metro bus (which are everywhere!) we would
get it as part of our weekly pass. So we bought one and to be honest, it was
the best decision we could have made. We saved alot of money doing it this way.
SO back to the story, I do sidetrack sorry ha!. We were on the tube for about
an hour until we arrived at Long Beach.
We were planning to see the Queen Mary which was a walk across a long bridge so we headed in that
direction. But on the way we were hit with a 'touristy' moment...a yellow school bus!! Such a normal thing for Americans but an attraction for us tourists!
As we walked towards the bridge we saw something we'd see a lot, an American flag flying high and proud. I think it's so great how patriotic America is :)
We then came across a ferris wheel which we weirdly found photoworthy, this made us very excited to go on the Santa Monica Pier Ferris Wheel later on in the week. There was also a rollercoaster!! That's until we realised it was just the design of the bridge and not a rollercoaster at all, we laughed a lot about this!
We then saw the magnificent spectacle that is the Queen Mary, docked proudly in the Long Beach Harbour.
We then got closer and the closer we got, the most in awe we were...and the bloody bigger it looked! It was gigantic! 1019 ft (310m) in length, 81237 tonnes, over 2000 portholes and over 10 MILLION rivets.
It's rather large!
So after going to the ticket centre, we decided upon buying a joint pass which included the self-guided audio guide tour (basically entry) and also the amazing Princess Diana exhibition (Diana: Legacy of a Princess). It wasn't cheap but hopefully it'd be worth it (it was!). As we collected our audio kits, we had to provide ID as a deposit for the kits and so from here we headed on! As soon as I'd gotten onto the ship, I came across a problem! My audio kit was set in Spanish, I mean I know a few words in Spanish but not all them words! So I swiftly headed back, getting my kit reset and put into a language I could understand, English!!
This lady had a long winded job, vacuuming the whole corridors carpet... bless her, she'd be there a while!
This is as we entered the first area of the exhibition, it showed a scaled model of the Queen Mary, showing all the details including the room layouts, the porthole locations and really portrayed a clear and fantastic aspect of the ship we were currently standing on.
We also ended up down the engine room which was really interested, look at us with our funky headgear on, not quite iPhone earphones! In the crevasses you could see the miniature ladders and corridors the engine workers would have to compete with at the time of functioning which made us realise that it wasn't easy for these men to get the ship to move!
One thing that we thought stuck out abit was this, an escalator! This MAY have been an addition later on in the ships life...just possibly!
This picture really doesn't do it justice however we were given an opportunity to view the whole propeller with your own eyes. The floor had been removed and this was the ACTUAL propeller we were looking at. It was huge.
There were also examples of the different classes of rooms available during crossings, 1st, 2nd and 3rd. We were shown the different rooms and their layouts which was really interesting to see, especially the comparisons between the different standards of travel...and expense!
Below is the control room where the captain would give the instructions for the ships speed and direction. The man talking on the audio guide explained how only select people were allowed to enter this location due to the use of it of course, like a cockpit on an aeroplane! He actually said he was one of the workers who provided support and assistance to the captain so he was given this rare access unlike the majority of the ship and it's crew.
There was a beautiful view of Long Beach from the decks above so we took our chance and took a few piccies.
On the deck there were many highlights, especially some people setting up an actual aisle and wedding service area in the middle area of the deck. Also there were original signs used during the 1001 transatlantic crossings which were action stations, emergency stations and the most seriously of all abandon ship signal :S
We then went back towards the audio tour kiosk to get my driving licence back and head on out. We had an amazing time exploring the Queen Mary and hopefully these pictures portray the pure beauty of the ship and all it's amazing facilities and most of all, it's history.
Just to say we weren't allowed to take pictures of the Diana exhibition.
BUT on the way back towards the train station, we came across something I personally loved, a dog show!! Not just any dog show but the Great Western Terrier Assocation, serious stuff! It was absolutely full of cute dogs, puppies and just heaven for me being a dog-lover!
This one, personally I though should have won everything just for the style points!
After dragging myself away from the dog show we headed back to the train station to start the 1 hour train journey back to Downtown. But before we jumped on, we saw a zeppelin!
After the journey we were pretty hungry so on the way back from the station to our hotel we grabbed the regular suspect, a Subway!! :) Was absolutely starved.
After this we headed back to the room to settle down, do our diary and organise what we were going to do and where we were going to adventure tomorrow!
Day Four
After using the metro yesterday we were establishing our knowledge and confidence of the train system. We had our TAP card ready and waiting to be used! We made sure we were going to get our moneys worth!
Today would be the first day of real touristy-ness, is that even a word?! We were going to Hollywooddddddddddd!! We got up nice and early had a lovely breakfast and headed to the usual metro station just 3 blocks west of our hotel, and waited for the next train. Reliable as they are one came a couple of minutes after arriving at the platform. We were ready to see the sights of celebrity land LA.
As we arrived, we heard the chitter and chatter before seeing it, and then we got to the top of the escalator. We were on the Walk of Fame, Hollywood. We were instantly hit with the amount of tourists and street artists wandering around. It's the only place, other than Las Vegas, where it's fairly normal to see Spiderman having a chat with Wolverine, whose taking a picture with Ironman, and he's shouting over to Batman...Just the usual then...
These were the first 2 signs were saw upon arrival...
Straight away we were approached by a pink haired astronaut, no we don't know of that character either and us being polite and English we posed for a picture. It was only after we thought, 'oh this is where tips are involved'. We swiftly said, 'we only have a card', this is when her smile dropped and she ran off to grab and pose with another unassuming tourist.
We then headed into Dolby Theatre in which there was a stunning archway which, when stood on it, you could clearly see the Hollywood sign in the distance. We definitely wanted to take a closer look, but we had a look around first :)
Nat had spotted online about a tourist spot in which the Oscars after party is held, this being the Ray Dolby Ballroom. We saw a clear defined sign directing up to the top floor, so we headed up in the lift (where a lot of famous people would have been in!) and were there.
Until we were approached by a policewoman who sharply told us that we weren't permitted to be on this level and that it was closed to the public. Obviously for security reasons I guess, we only noticed a security factor when we reached the bottom of the stairs up.
A sign was there as was red rope stopping the public, or 'regular people!!', from entering.
So from here we wandered onto the bridge which had a great view of the sign, quite far but a view never the less.
Whilst we got onto the viewpoint though we spotted a familiar face, Obama what are you doing working in a shop!?
After a long look at the sign and the shops inside Dolby Theatre we headed to have a proper look of the Walk of Fame. They obviously knew that we were arriving so were preparing for us...haha!
We spotted a crowd of people around a certain star, it was the one and only Michael Jackson. There was a queue and everything!
Nat spotted a star just for her, conveniently she stood on the surname but it definitely said Ellis!!
Great sign!
Because Rachael is obviously not featured on any stars we could find, I stood next to an empty, but in a certain light and angle it definitely said 'Rachael Ellis'...definitely. Same for Nat!
Here are also a selection of stars and also slabs with handprints/footprints on, alive, passed away or ANIMATION!
Guess who BP is, yes.......Brad!
Hello Alan and Alan Jr!
One thing we really wanted to do was go see a tattoo shop. Specifically Kat Von D's High Voltage Tattoo Shop. It's featured on LA Ink so a few of you may recognise it if you've seen the tv show but it was quite surreal actually being in there. It was pretty obvious we weren't there for a tattoo so the receptionist just let us do our thing and enjoy being tourists! Plus the receptionist was the lady off the show!
As this was off the Hollywood Blvd we headed back up north in search for a Star's Houses Tour, we were approached, given a good price and before we knew it we were on a bus on an adventure. The 1-2 hour tour would cover Beverley Hills, a brilliant view from Mulholland Drive, the Hollywood Bowl, a few stars house (lots!) and also some movie locations. But as soon as we got into the van, we were hit with this sign! We are English and in England we don't tip. But we are getting used to tipping and obviously it's the culture for certain reasons here so we are keen to respect that. However, due to just arriving we were shocked that they 'suggested' up to $10 when they gave you a good price for the tour itself. Anyway, we are adapting...fellow non-tipping countries will understand.
We first headed up Mulholland Drive to get a great view of the sign and also of LA itself!
Then on the way over to the Beverley Hills area we passed the Hollywood Bowl which was really interesting actually.
Nat spotted a cheaper version of doing the stars homes but decided to stick on the bus :)
This was the first of many spots, this is the church where scenes for 'Sister Act' were filmed. Great film :)
This made us think back to New Zealand!
We then briefly passed the Chateau Marmont, which is a majoy hotspot for celebrities and wealthy people basically. Can imagine it's not cheap! Amazing building though!
We spotted a restaurant which was a train carriage. In York there is a restaurant similar, called the 'Sidings' so this took us back home for a sec.
Courtney Cox's House, formally shared with her ex-husband, David Arquette. I just asked Nat what his name was, in which I got a reply of '.....Ray?!'...no Natalie not Ray.
This house below has been owned by lots of famous people, including Katy Perry. It's on top of the hill and has a spectacular view of the whole of LA, it's probably a 'status' thing. But was a pretty impressive house, and I definitely wouldn't turn it down if it was given to me :)
Here's David! Basically everytime I see a motorbike I joke that it's David Beckham...one time it will have been!
Simon Cowell's House!! Didn't have time for a cup of tea but thanks Simon all the same.
THIS is Madonna's house and as we were passing somebody was actually heading inside the property. Again Madonna, we don't have time to chat!
This is the 'Osbourne House' and is now owned by Christina Aguilera. You'll recognise it from the show with it's curved arch at the front door but it was so surreal seeing it in person.
Whilst about we spotted this in the sky which was so cleverly done, we saw the plane at work and obviously it's a campaign.
Beverley Hills Time!! *Nat's ears perk up*
Now this, most will recognise straight away, it's the house where Michael Jackson died. It's a bit depressing that lots and lots of tourists actually want to come here as it is pretty morbid. It was of course very busy around this area but can't quite believe I've been after only seeing it on the news.
On the way over to Rodeo Drive we spotted a crime scene, watch out Gil Grissoms on his way! (Only CSI: Crime Scene Investigation fans will understand this).
Last stop was Rodeo Drive, sorry for all the short, snappy sentences but it's hard to explain the range of things we saw without doing it this way :)
The $3 million Bugatti Veyron which is always parked at Bijan. Bear in mind it's an 'appointment only' store and has blinds so you can't see in from all angles.
We then hit the end of our tour of Hollywood, we had a great time and had seen a mass of things! We headed towards Rodeo Drive to have a closer and more lengthy visit and after we'd head back to the hotel.
We always look so happy on buses!!
When we got back we headed to Ralph's (local supermarket) to grab some lunch for tomorrow and also dinner! But I got distracted by the yummy treats, and thankfully managed to resist the urge to get one!
We'd had such a productive day, it was brill! Seeing Walk of Fame, Hollywood Sign, Beverley Hills, Rodeo Drive and all the mass of celebrity houses.
Day Five
The plan for today was to actually do the Hollywood Sign Hike however this didn't materialise. We had been told during the tour that this was now private land and that it was illegal. We weren't sure whether they were just saying that or whether it was true. We got a second opinion from the Hollywood Visitor Centre man and he said that there was an alternative (due to it being true!) which was the Runyon Canyon Park. We asked for more information and it was where all the celebrities did their workouts and walks with the dogs, due to all the houses being nearby to the park and easily accessible. We thought we'd tried our lucky and see who we could see. We made our way over and due to being told there wasn't any shelter from the beaming sunshine, we had our bottles of water in hand and prepared! On the way there was something going on so touristy as we are, we took a picture! It's odd because it looks like an ambulance (shape) but obviously is a fire engine!
We arrived!
It was a 45 minute round trip so we headed on our way on the look out.
We reached the top with no trouble and could see for miles and miles across the horizon.
And then...we saw an extremely muscly body and a face that we recognised! It was Ricky Whittle from the UK television show, Hollyoaks. So he's gone from Hollyoaks to Hollywood! He was soooo sweet, he was walking his dogs and just was chatting, not rushing and just being really genuine and down to earth. He was saying that he is in 'Mistresses' and also '100' at the minute and he was doing really well. We grabbed a picture with him and he wandered off with his 5 dogs! Such a sweet man!
He also said, 'Sorry I'm really sweaty'........Oh don't you worry, we really didn't mind at all!! hehe :)
There were so many fit people around, sprinting up hills, made us sick just watching ha!
We then took a seat on this lovely bench, facing out to the amazing view and dug into our lunch!
Now, one thing that'd been on the list of 'want to do however probably not possible' was to be in an TV audience! And it was weird because as we were walking in front of the Chinese Theatre we started chatting to this man who had some tickets in his hand. We thought that he was selling something, but in fact he ended up giving us two tickets to 'The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson'. It's a CBS chat show, and pretty popular! It has a robot called Geoffrey and our guests were Kathy Bates (Titanic, Waterboy, heaps of other films : http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000870/) and also the TIME journalist Joel Stein. Whilst waiting we were given an umbrella due to the sunshine and also ran to a shop to buy an apple and a banana! It was an amazing experience and was going to be shown on tv tonight!!
After here we decided it had to get back, we got back to Downtown and jumped up the stairs (bit of exercise!) and grabbed some dinner! From the favourite and most delicious pizza place, Garage Pizza!
Day Six
This day starts early, at 12.30am, which is when the CBS show we saw yesterday was on. It's a quirky chat show and here are a few pictures of Craig, an audience member who was called up and also Kathy Bates who you'll recognise.
So after watching this for an hour, we nodded off and got a good nights sleep.
Several hours later...
We woke up earlyish due to us wanting another productive day and so after our usual waffle and cereal at breakfast we started our short walk about 8 blocks up Main Street, to 1st Street. This was where the 'business' area is, due to it having Los Angeles Times, LAPD (Los Angeles Police Department) and several other big name company headquarters. We swiftly got to LAPD, wanting to get a picture with a police officer however none were free as every officer we saw was busy (as they always are of course!). It was such a touristy thing to do, however we ARE tourists, just backpacking long term ones :)
From here we crossed a street (when green!), some people were getting a $250 fine for j-walking, seriously you do it outside LAPD!!! Crazy people.
We were now at the Los Angeles Times and this was another tourist opportunity. Obviously we don't know when we'll be in these places again so we, as everybody would, take the chance to get a physical record of the visit :)
There was a few people coming in and out, and one later said, 'Are you visiting? There's a great museum up the block which you'll enjoy'. We were going to do this but we didn't have time sadly.
From here our next plan was to get to the Walt Disney Concert Hall, which sounds nothing much but the architecture, design and character it has makes it a must visit location. We did the short walk to there and straight away you know you've arrived.
Spectacular isn't it!
After finding out we couldn't gain entry, which we expected, we took a walk around the back to the Gardens which were located on the middle floor. We took a seat in the shade and enjoyed a few minutes just to take it all in, and for Nat to have some pringles!
After a walk about having a look at the amazing flowers, exhibition pieces and things to do we headed off towards the Staples Centre!
For us it was walking distance but for others it was bus distance, we are either really tight or we just like to walk places...I think we're tight!
On our way we passed a couple of really interesting funky things, like this piece of artwork made out of scrap metal.
We also nipped in to one of the 693725970572 Starbucks that are in Los Angeles, and grabbed a frappicino to cool us down. Chocolate chip for me and strawberries and cream for Nat. Just what we needed!
Not long passed before we came across the Staples Centre and L.A Live! There were numerous statues of recognisible personalities and also across at L.A Live there were the preparations going on for the BET Awards 2014. This was happening in a couple of days, however we'd be leaving soon and also the event would require tickets anyway to get anywhere near so we weren't missing out.
We headed into the shops and were occupied with one product in particular, the massive hand!!
We are definitely entertained by the smallest or BIGGEST things.
Time was getting on and we had to get back to our hotel, but also made a stop to our local supermarket Ralph's for dinner and lunch tomorrow.
This time I didn't look at the cake stand and went straight for the things we actually needed.
Day Seven
Today was Six Flags Magic Mountain day!! We were seeing what America had to offer in terms of rollercoasters, and we weren't expecting them to be so crazy!
We both love rollercoasters so were really excited when we booked this day. Due to the park being miles and miles away we had to get a bus to take us, taking about 40 minutes. We looked at the cheaper option of the metro but it would take 2-3 hours, we couldn't believe it too, 2 trains and 2 buses. The bus arrived at 8.30am and so we jumped on ready to get going. We arrived shortly after at Chinese Theatre, about 15 minutes after picking a few others up. You could either get picked up from your hotel or meet here so we picked hotel. We exchanged our reservation form for tickets to the park and got allocated a certain minibus which would take us there. We were bus 71 and we soon were on our way :)
As we got closer we saw the sign, Six Flags, we had arrived!
We had prepared a wrap, cookie and fruit for lunch so we didn't to buy it, BUT on arrival we were hit with the ridiculous rule of 'No Outside Food Allowed!'. What?!? How annoying and such a scam!
They checked our bags, obviously found the lunch and said I wasn't allowed it. But Nat was checked by a different person and her lunch was in the exact same (huge) container but she got in no trouble. He didn't check, thankfully for Nat, but my man did :(
First thing was I was no way going to throw it away, I thought about putting it in Nat's bag as she got through but didn't want hers to get seen so I decided to eat it. At 10am!
I shared my wrap with Nat and ate my cookie and fruit. Hopefully I wouldn't regret this :S
We headed up when the park opened a few minutes later and went straight to a rollercoaster, we had no idea where we were going but went on the first one we came across. This was the Viper!
We queued up, it's great at this time due to their not being all the queues. It was a great ride however not very extreme, so we headed off to a big one (named a Maximum ride). It was a good introduction though hehe!
We decided to head to X2, which turned out the be the most extreme ride in the park and also had the biggest queue, even at this time it was 2 hours waiting time. We decided to head to another ride but looking back at the picture of it, I was quite lucky I didn't go on it unless I would have definitely not felt too well !!
Our next choice was Tatsu, a maximum ride also so we were excited. At the same time I've stupidly forgotten about the lunch I just ate 30 minutes ago!
Alton Towers in England have a ride called Air (Airrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Sian and Kirsty! hehe!!) and this is when you are in a 'Superman' position. It's such a great fresh aspect to rollercoasters so we couldn't wait to try it out. We queued up, got to the front and off we went.
It had 7 loops in it, all fine but it was the final loop that really was obscene!! It's really hard to explain so probably best having a look on Youtube but basically you went forward and down and around. We literally felt the G force on our bodies and our heads and eyes actually hurt due to the pressure, quite scary as you experience it!
So as soon as we stopped and were brought back to seating position the feeling arose. I felt really ... not too well.
Nat was fine as she didn't have the cookie but I think that was why. We grabbed our handbags and went down to see our pictures. I knew 100% I didn't feel too good so I took a sit down. I wasn't, you know, but didn't feel too rosy.
After a sit down and water, I was ready to hit the rides again. Nat had gone on Colossus whilst I recovered and she queued about 45 minutes which I appreciated :S
This is what I looked at whilst I had a rest...big colourful teddy bears!
The plan now was to go on the first Stand Up rollercoaster we'd experienced called The Riddlers Revenge.
It was actually really fun and really cool to experience to new 'type' of rollercoaster. Only in Six Flags!!
Next it was a bit of a slower paced ride, the classic Tidal Wave! I wasn't sure whether I reached the height requirement so I made sure.
Yes I passed!
We were actually pretty dry as we came off, we hardly got wet at all!! Quite a disappointment due to the heat of the day. Whilst you were waiting there were actual water fans spraying fine water onto you, really refreshing!! This was another way of getting cool, stand on the bridge and you'd get soaked!
Then is was bumpers time...or sandblasters, strange name. Whilst waiting the guy operating the ride was repeating over and over and over and over 'if you are leaning or sitting on the silver rail, please step offffffffffffff nowwwwwwwwwww'. Yes he really elongate his words that much! Such a fun man...
It's sad because bumper cars aren't as fun as they used to be, the clue is in the name 'bump'. Due to people probably suing, there is now a 'no bump' policy and the tragic 'one-way system'. It was fun but not half as fun as it used to be. Oh health and safety!
Now then, back to the serious stuff. There is a ride called the 'Superman' and it crazy. You'll see below that it literally shoots you up, you experience weightlessness (zero gravity) for a split second and back down again.
As we queued we saw a couple of picture opp's :)
We had to be back at the bus for pick-up at 5.15pm and it was now 4.45pm, we didn't know how long it would take to get back due to the size of the park but we hung on as long as possible. We waited about an hour and a half in the queue and only got maybe half the way to the front :( And sadly we HAD to go do the dreaded walk of shame. If only the bus was 6pm, we maybe needed about another half an hour!
So after decided we needed to head off, we had a quarter of an hour to get to the bus, and we weren't even sure where it was! We found it eventually and the bus was late (yes the BUS was late, quite ironic after the company had said if we were late they would go and you'd have to pay up to $100 dollars in a taxi to get back!). We headed back to the sign and got a picture or two.
After 20 minutes the bus finally arrived. It was fine though as it was lovely and hot so we just relaxed in waiting.
We set off and on the way back we had to transfer buses as they had sent the wrong bus, we didn't understand either. But it was okay due to there being no rush for us and we go to see Universal Studios.
We got going and on the way back to the hotel we saw Capitol Records which was really fun to see.
When we got back we saw this really cute dog, it was a puppy blue great dane! A lot of growing to go :)
We then decided to plan for tomorrow, what would be our penultimate day in LA! After having a chat we set the plan as doing a VIP tour (a standard tour but sounds good!) of Warner Bros. We had wanted to do a studio but couldn't decide which one to do but after comparing we settled upon this.
Day Eight
Today was Warner Bros day and to get there we had to catch the metro over to Hollywood and then a bus from Dolby Theatre over to the studios. You know what this mean's though, more pictures of stars on the ground! ha!
This is for you Mum, just ignore the surname!
We were trying to get a picture with a police officer lately however we had to settle for a police car!
We finally caught the bus over and on the way we came across channel 4 news van, normal but very fun for tourists.
Then we were there!! Warner Bros Studio Tour!!
We jumped on a cart and we were off!
We were taken to the 'fake streets' where many blockbuster scenes have been filmed including Godfather and Spiderman.
This is where budding directors and actors/actresses go to for meetings in regards to preparing for films. Sadly we didn't see anybody we knew here. There's time!
For those who watch 'True Blood', this is where Merlotte's exterior shot were filmed. They have finished filming so it will probably be torn down and something else replacing it however it was quite fun to see it and the car park which features a lot on the show!
Gunshot holes when actual bullets were used, before squibs were brought into light. I think she said it was featured in numerous films.
We were then taken to the Warner Bros museum where two films were the main focus, each having a floor. The first was Batman and the second was Harry Potter. We spent most of our time seeing Batman seeing all the props, outfits and the actual Batman suit.
Harry Potter was good too with us spotting this pretty freaky outfit.
Friends fans... you remember the episode when Ross is trying to impress Emily by playing Rugby? Well this is where it was filmed!
When it time travels back to when Ross is hoping to take Rachel to the school prom, this is where that was filmed!
Other film locations :)
We also saw the Batmobiles and also the different vehicles used in all the films. This was really fun to see and stupidly surreal too!
Then it was a highlight personally for me (even though it's all amazing!), the Friends set.
These are the props from the show, the ACTUAL couch!
Sadly that was the end of the tour and we absolutely loved it! It was so great seeing all the things we did and couldn't believe that we'd been it went so fast!
We decided to hit Rodeo Drive again to celebrity spot. We saw the infamous Bugatti car again , quite cheap pah!, and had a good walk to the top and back.
Sadly we saw no celebrities at all however I did see a driver waiting to pick somebody pretty well off. Nat wasn't convinced but I was sure it was somebody pretty famous. But he was so early, or they were so late, that we headed off to the bus stop.
It was such a fun day and with it being our last day tomorrow we were sad but excited to see more of this amazing country!
Day Nine
Today we were having our last breakfast and we were sad. We would miss the free waffles even though they were massive! We locked up and went down the 14 flights of stairs, to make us feel slightly better about the waffle and got our breakfast.
Yummy!
Check out was 11am so we nipped back up and we'd already packed so grabbed our bags, made sure we had everything and off we went to store our luggage downstairs due to not getting the bus until tonight!
That was no trouble and then we headed off on another fun filled adventure. We were off to Venice Beach so we went to the bus stop that we needed to be at and headed off in the that direction. We were excited and as we arrived it was exactly as I expected. Due to it being on so many films, programs and pictures we knew what it looked like but it was so surreal (again!) that we were actually there!
By the time we got there it was lunchtime so we nipped into a pizza slice takeaway and grabbed a slice to give us the energy to cycle bikes down Venice Boardwalk over to Santa Monica Pier.
After enjoying this we went to a bike hire shop where we paid $12 for 3 hours and we couldn't wait! We love our bike rides!
We made our way down to the Pier where we went on the iconic Ferris Wheel!!
Next to the pier is a workout area and I had a little go on the rope!! I obviously made it to the top........
Then we made our way to Muscle Beach! :)
Time pasts so fast and before we knew it, it was time to return the bikes. We didn't take long to get back and then it came to handing the bikes back over. We arrived back with 2 minutes to spare we definitely got our time what we had paid for. It was such great fun but now we were back to our usual free mode of transport, our feet!!
We used our feet to get over to the beach which we where we saw the infamous lifeguard buildings, they were closing at 5pm so we just caught this one before it put it's shutter down and the hot lifeguard headed off back home! hehe :)
We then took a walk to the sea and the picture of us both was a split second before Nat's shoes got wet! I'd taken my shoes off, as you do on a beach, but Nat hadn't she got a tad soaked!
On our way back to the bus, we saw an ice cream shop and couldn't resist! The customer service wasn't the best but the ice cream was delicious! By the way I held Nat's ice cream in this picture, even though I would have been happy to have two!
Funny yet true...
We caught the bus and took the hours journey back to Downtown and when we did arrive all we had to do now was wait. We were catching our bus at 1.25am in the morning so we grabbed our final meal from Garage Pizza (calzone), played ping pong and also played a new app Nat had gotten on her phone, Charades!!
It was great fun and kept us entertained!
Me ringing to book a taxi!
Mine and Nat's calzone...delicious!
This brought our stay in Los Angeles to an end and after catching a taxi at 12.30am we arrived shortly after at the Greyhound bus station and headed off towards.....San Francisco!
The journey was all night so we could at least sleep, here's hoping it would be comfortable.
Stay tuned for San Fran and hope you enjoyed reading our amazing stay in LA :)
Rach xx
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