Hollywood!!!
I haven't posted in a couple of days, but now I am back online.
On Sunday my phone arrived, so yesterday (Monday) I went to Hollywood!!!
The first daunting hurdle was using the LA public transport system on my own - this was why I waited til I had a phone. It turned out to be relatively simple though. They have several lines, overland and subway, that intersect at a few key hubs. Union Station is the biggest hub, and it's absolutely beautiful - columns and big windows, with a large entranceway and lobby. Very historical. I had to take the Gold Line, which is an overland train, from near my brother's house to Union Station and then hop onto the Red Line, a subway, from there to Hollywood. Trains go on all lines about every 5 mins, so I just had to turn up and wait. It's $5 for a day pass that lets you travel as much as you want on all Metro services (which include buses - not quite a smartcard, but getting there!) There's no conductor or barriers - it's more of a trust system. You get your ticket at the station, and then presumably every know and then someone comes around to check everyone's tickets. Not having a ticket incurs an instant fine of $400 plus 48 hours community service. Pretty daunting! I didn't see anyone though. At any rate, it was absolutely no trouble, and I felt like a local!
I got of at Hollywood/Vine, ie the station on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine St. The subway station was quite pretty - the ceiling was lined with empty film reels, and the columns were made to look like palm trees. This is where the Walk of Fame started, but it's since spread out in many directions. It turned out that I should have got off at the next stop though, because all the attractions were waaay up the street. Luckily, I picked the right direction to walk in. It was an interesting walk though - the various star's names on the footpath, looking at the shops. It wasn't as ritzy as I was expecting - it looked kinda run down actually. Every 4th store was a porn costume store - I kid you not! With sexy costumes and wigs etc. All the mannequins had enormous boobs too, which was kinda weird. Every 5th store was a hippie/hemp store and there was always a smell of pot hanging around them.
Anyway, I finally got to where the action was after about 15min of walking. First I took an open-car tour of Hollywood and Beverly Hills. For about $25 (he gave me the kids price, which was nice) they take you around the major (and not so major) Hollywood landmarks, with commentary. In addition to studios, the Hollywood sign, famous theatres etc we also drove past shops where celebrities shopped, cafes where celebrities ate, comedy clubs where celebrities got their first laugh, stores they were caught shoplifting at and so forth. We didn't actually see any celebrities in any of these places, although there was a stretch limousine with darkened windows that pulled up beside us once. It was a very sunny day, so it was nice to drive around. Then we went up to Beverly Hills to look at the houses of all these famous people, and holy crap - they have more money than GOD!!!! Britney Spears has this huuuuge, pink mansion on the top of a hill. The Playboy mansion we couldn't even see - it was obscured by so many trees. These places were enormous!! EVen the ones belonging to people you didn't think had all that much money. It made me feel a lot better about the pressures that fame puts on said celebrities - I mean sure, they turn to drugs and alcohol. Sure, we obsessively follow their every move, they get stalked by papparazzi and have their private lives splashed all over the news - but, dammit! They get to live in humungous mansions, with incredible amounts of money and we don't! They owe us!!
Afterwards we got dropped back down on Hollywood Bl and I went to have a look at the other attractions. The Kodak Theatre, home of the Oscars, was interesting - it turns out it's actually some kind of shopping centre. I guess all the shops close during the ceremony. Or maybe they don't and do some good business. There was a fudge shop, which was pretty impressive (I got a caramel brownie and a chocolate fudge frappe - yes, I'm being so healthy aren't I!). And a chocolate shop which offered chocolate-dipped frozen cheesecake slices on a stick, as well as the largest collection of different toffee apples I'd ever seen. Think of every confectionary you can, and they'd covered it with chocolate and stick it on an apple (bear in mind, that in America peanut butter is confectionary). It was crazy.
Next door was the Chinese Theatre, which was also pretty impressive. In front of it is where famous people put their hand- and footprints into wet cement. Apparently the tradition started because shortly after it was built some actress, can't remember her name, was walking in and accidentally stepped in wet cement. I paid $2 and got a short tour of the inside. The screen is apparently 90ft (is that about 30m?), but there was a movie on so we didn't get much of a look. The interior is all decked out with silk paintings, wooden lamps, statues and carvings - it's absolutely beautiful. I took some pics, which I will hopefully get up once lj stops being stupid.
After that I went next door to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum - it was so awesome!!! Unfortunately my camera ran out of battery about halfway through :( They even had a statue of Barack Obama, which was awesome. My god, those waxworks are so lifelike! I kept waiting for them to blink or move. They had basically every Hollywood celebrity there you could think of, from every decade. The women were so incredibly skinny, it was unbelievable. I guess it's true that the camera adds 10 pounds, because I never realised just how tiny they were! They also had one of Shrek, which was surprisingly huge. I mean, I know he's an ogre but you just don't realise how BIG he is until you stand next to him. He could easily have held my entire head in his fist.
And Hugh Jackman and Jhonny Depp are just as hot in wax as in real life :D Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of Hugh Jackman - my camera had run out by then.
By this stage it was starting to get dark, so I headed to the train station, the closer one this time, and repeated the trip in reverse. I decided to walk from the station home, it was a nice evening.
And that way my day in Hollywood!
I didn't do much the day before (Sunday) - mainly just more shopping. Oh, and we ate at an awesome fast food place: Daphne's Greek Cafe!!! It was also really good food, especially for a fast food chain.
Oh, and here's a tip: root beer tastes like toothpaste. It's disgusting, never drink it.
On Sunday my phone arrived, so yesterday (Monday) I went to Hollywood!!!
The first daunting hurdle was using the LA public transport system on my own - this was why I waited til I had a phone. It turned out to be relatively simple though. They have several lines, overland and subway, that intersect at a few key hubs. Union Station is the biggest hub, and it's absolutely beautiful - columns and big windows, with a large entranceway and lobby. Very historical. I had to take the Gold Line, which is an overland train, from near my brother's house to Union Station and then hop onto the Red Line, a subway, from there to Hollywood. Trains go on all lines about every 5 mins, so I just had to turn up and wait. It's $5 for a day pass that lets you travel as much as you want on all Metro services (which include buses - not quite a smartcard, but getting there!) There's no conductor or barriers - it's more of a trust system. You get your ticket at the station, and then presumably every know and then someone comes around to check everyone's tickets. Not having a ticket incurs an instant fine of $400 plus 48 hours community service. Pretty daunting! I didn't see anyone though. At any rate, it was absolutely no trouble, and I felt like a local!
I got of at Hollywood/Vine, ie the station on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine St. The subway station was quite pretty - the ceiling was lined with empty film reels, and the columns were made to look like palm trees. This is where the Walk of Fame started, but it's since spread out in many directions. It turned out that I should have got off at the next stop though, because all the attractions were waaay up the street. Luckily, I picked the right direction to walk in. It was an interesting walk though - the various star's names on the footpath, looking at the shops. It wasn't as ritzy as I was expecting - it looked kinda run down actually. Every 4th store was a porn costume store - I kid you not! With sexy costumes and wigs etc. All the mannequins had enormous boobs too, which was kinda weird. Every 5th store was a hippie/hemp store and there was always a smell of pot hanging around them.
Anyway, I finally got to where the action was after about 15min of walking. First I took an open-car tour of Hollywood and Beverly Hills. For about $25 (he gave me the kids price, which was nice) they take you around the major (and not so major) Hollywood landmarks, with commentary. In addition to studios, the Hollywood sign, famous theatres etc we also drove past shops where celebrities shopped, cafes where celebrities ate, comedy clubs where celebrities got their first laugh, stores they were caught shoplifting at and so forth. We didn't actually see any celebrities in any of these places, although there was a stretch limousine with darkened windows that pulled up beside us once. It was a very sunny day, so it was nice to drive around. Then we went up to Beverly Hills to look at the houses of all these famous people, and holy crap - they have more money than GOD!!!! Britney Spears has this huuuuge, pink mansion on the top of a hill. The Playboy mansion we couldn't even see - it was obscured by so many trees. These places were enormous!! EVen the ones belonging to people you didn't think had all that much money. It made me feel a lot better about the pressures that fame puts on said celebrities - I mean sure, they turn to drugs and alcohol. Sure, we obsessively follow their every move, they get stalked by papparazzi and have their private lives splashed all over the news - but, dammit! They get to live in humungous mansions, with incredible amounts of money and we don't! They owe us!!
Afterwards we got dropped back down on Hollywood Bl and I went to have a look at the other attractions. The Kodak Theatre, home of the Oscars, was interesting - it turns out it's actually some kind of shopping centre. I guess all the shops close during the ceremony. Or maybe they don't and do some good business. There was a fudge shop, which was pretty impressive (I got a caramel brownie and a chocolate fudge frappe - yes, I'm being so healthy aren't I!). And a chocolate shop which offered chocolate-dipped frozen cheesecake slices on a stick, as well as the largest collection of different toffee apples I'd ever seen. Think of every confectionary you can, and they'd covered it with chocolate and stick it on an apple (bear in mind, that in America peanut butter is confectionary). It was crazy.
Next door was the Chinese Theatre, which was also pretty impressive. In front of it is where famous people put their hand- and footprints into wet cement. Apparently the tradition started because shortly after it was built some actress, can't remember her name, was walking in and accidentally stepped in wet cement. I paid $2 and got a short tour of the inside. The screen is apparently 90ft (is that about 30m?), but there was a movie on so we didn't get much of a look. The interior is all decked out with silk paintings, wooden lamps, statues and carvings - it's absolutely beautiful. I took some pics, which I will hopefully get up once lj stops being stupid.
After that I went next door to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum - it was so awesome!!! Unfortunately my camera ran out of battery about halfway through :( They even had a statue of Barack Obama, which was awesome. My god, those waxworks are so lifelike! I kept waiting for them to blink or move. They had basically every Hollywood celebrity there you could think of, from every decade. The women were so incredibly skinny, it was unbelievable. I guess it's true that the camera adds 10 pounds, because I never realised just how tiny they were! They also had one of Shrek, which was surprisingly huge. I mean, I know he's an ogre but you just don't realise how BIG he is until you stand next to him. He could easily have held my entire head in his fist.
And Hugh Jackman and Jhonny Depp are just as hot in wax as in real life :D Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of Hugh Jackman - my camera had run out by then.
By this stage it was starting to get dark, so I headed to the train station, the closer one this time, and repeated the trip in reverse. I decided to walk from the station home, it was a nice evening.
And that way my day in Hollywood!
I didn't do much the day before (Sunday) - mainly just more shopping. Oh, and we ate at an awesome fast food place: Daphne's Greek Cafe!!! It was also really good food, especially for a fast food chain.
Oh, and here's a tip: root beer tastes like toothpaste. It's disgusting, never drink it.