BACKTRACKING: The end of the USA roadtrip
And how some of us got here.. ;)
Hollywood marked the final LA destination for us to conquer before my roomies and I moved onto the wondrous land of nippon where all things are cute & fanciful. We had a pretty short but fulfilling stay of 3 nights in hollywood.
Y'know how we'd all associate Hollywood with glitz and glamour from what is shown on the square box and the box offices. In reality, Hollywood's like a downtown place, the walk of fame isn't as glamourous as we think it to be. Some of the 'hollywood stars' are so dirty and faded one would rather not have his/her star there, i think. There were a lot of homeless roaming around the area too. We had a face-on encounter with a couple. It wasn't safe to wander away from the group especially at night with dingy clubs and strange people roaming around the streets. Safety in numbers, always.
Apart from all that negative vibes that Hollywood had, i tremendously enjoyed shopping at Hollywood Highland Centre, it has almost everything available. Forever 21 is gigantically huge, Nine West had all the discounts, VS, Sephora, Hot topic, Fossil etc etc etc. With plentiful of yummy ice cream shops and little eateries :D My dreyer's and the girls' cold rock. Our hotel was right behind the shopping center, convenient and TOTALLY accessible. Shop and dump the bags in the hotel and shop some more. haha.
Did the mandatory tourist-y things one'd do in Hollywood. Took photos of the BIG BIG Hollywood sign from afar, visited Grauman's Chinese Theatre with all the nifty handprints/signatures etc, did the Hollywood Stars Walk of Fame, visited the Roosevelt Hotel etc. We also took a trip via bus out to Santa Monica despite bad weather conditions. Played around the local fair, had yummy seafood for new year's eve dinner, had a close-shave with a rogue, was at the scene of an assault, counted down to new year's at hollywood before we finally packed out bags and bade farewell to the US of the A.
The awesome vending machine in our hotel..
Our first taste of SWEETENED TEA in USA.. 8D
Pretty Disney store sign across the road
Pretty christmas store display
Hollywood streets at night
Virgin Records (which has since been closed down)
Tilam and her Oscar's award hahaha.
Nirwan & the tired girls climbing the stair's to our hotel's lobby..
Pretty interior of the Roosevelt Hotel
A decaying zombie Elvis (ROFLMAO)
Bodyguards bodyguards bodyguards drinking The Ultimate
Mogus posing for the camera
The Hollywood hills behind the buildings
Paid a buck to pose with fake spidey
Got cheated to take a photo with the lecherous elmo person
Shiny transformers + Aged Elvis
With the Awesomemastic Beatles star :D
A zoomed-in photo of the Hollywood Hills sign
Like a beautiful sunset picture out of a postcard.
Love the beautiful hues of the skies :)
BEST MONGOLIAN NOODLES PLZZZZZZZ
I miss my mongolian noodlesssss
And my rocky road ice cream from Dreyer's *misses*
Because of superbly bad weather conditions at Santa Monica when we went -- Super thick thick thick fog.. The photos didn't turn out particularly good + night mode sucked.. So make do okay 8D
Bestest seafood dinner i had in USA @ Bubbagump's!
The guys were raving bout Red Lobster but i never got to try it :(
The group that went to Santa Monica's
Goofin' around the sand, AS USUAL HAHAHA.
With my roomies :)
Jump shots
Big big ferris wheel @ Pacific Park, the local fair
Sinking our feets into the soft fine sand of Santa Monica beach
Our New Year's Eve sumptuous dinner :)
We grazed the beautiful sand of the beaches to read the restaurants and shops of Santa Monica Pier. Had our last fab dinner in the USA at Bubbagump's, went to the Pacfic Park for some local fair games and ferris wheel ride, pressed for more souvenir coins, played crazy games at the fair, had churro's & ice cream, caught the last bus back to Hollywood, counted down to '09 with the classmates at the rooftop garden with booze/coke/wine/chips, continued with our monstrous packing, and caught the next flight out of LA the very next morning to Tokyo.
And this marked the end of my very extremely eventful roadtrip with my 13 other classmates.
Good times with the 0612 peeps, good times.
(this entry is 5 months late but i'm sure you had fun scrolling through, reminiscing with me too)