Day 28: Los Angeles
Another 8 hours on a Greyhound bus from San Francisco to Los Angeles, followed by another 2 hours on a couple of local buses to get across LA to Santa Monica – easy! (Ok we made one mistake with a local bus but it wasn’t a big deal). The hostel is 2 streets from the Pacific Ocean and 1 from the main street in Santa Monica, so it’s in a good place! Had dinner then an early night, another day of doing nothing on buses had got to us.
The next morning we went for a wander round Santa Monica, besides the beach, pier and some shops, there isn’t a whole lot to see! In the afternoon we headed down to the beach, did some sunbathing and a swim in the Pacific. It wasn’t warm! Grant decided he was going to go for a run along the beach, I figured it was best I just stay and sunbathe. We went for a walk along the pier, we got told it’s pretty famous and has been in a few films, but you’re not allowed to jump off it so we weren’t very impressed. Grant said it’s got nothing on Elie, I agreed.
Went to Hooters for dinner as Grant had never been (that’s the only reason). Aterwards we went to watch a comedy night in the hostel. It was terrible, there were 5 ‘comics’ and 7 people there watching. The first one wasn’t too bad, but the rest were dire, had to force quite a few pity laughs along the way and make a sharpish exit at the end! Afterwards we went out for a few drinks with an Aussie guy we had met at the comedy show, ended up in some sort of nightclub/music venue, it was quite busy as it was halloween weekend, so we stayed there for a while and had a good night.
Up bright and early the next day for a bus tour of LA and Hollywood. It was a good way to see everything when we had limited time, but it wasn’t a great tour. It went to a lot of ‘celebs’ houses which was terrible - “here’s the gate of a house that someone that you might have heard of lived in at some point in time…” Pointless. Also the tour guide had some pretty questionable facts, he thought that Madonna owned a castle in Scotland, we weren’t going to correct him at first, but then we were chatting to him and he asked us about it, so we set him straight.
Saw the Hollywood sign, wandered round the ridiculously expensive shops on Rodeo Drive, saw Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and the Walk of Fame. Downtown LA is pretty scummy, and we were told quite dangerous, Hollywood is better, but really, really touristy. It’s not how the movies make out! Beverly Hills and the Hollywood Hills, where all the celebrities lives is obviously really nice, but it’s just row after row of crazy mansions.
Got back late in the afternoon, did some shopping for Halloween costumes then had a quiet night, San Diego next!
