LA, baby

Tuesday 1 - Saturday 5 March

Our flight left at 12:05pm on Tuesday so we had a pretty chilled morning, finished our last minute packing and went to the airport with plenty of time to spare, especially as we didn't have any carry on luggage. Yes, we are travelling for the next 8 months with only 7kg of luggage each and Kitty, for one, is glad that it isn't anymore because walking kilometers and kilometers with any more weight on our backs would be absolute torture.

The great thing about flying to the States is that even though it is a 12hr flight, you arrive before you left. We left at 12:05pm on Tuesday and arrived at 7:00am - five hours before we left! The not so great thing was that we didn't sleep very well on the flight (in-seat screens with on-demand movies are not very conducive to going to sleep), we planned on staying up all day so we didn't get jet lagged.

We made it through immigration into the States, which wasn't as scary as Kitty had feared even though it did take forever, and caught the bus to Union Station and the Red Line train to Hollywood. We had a coffee at Starbucks ($1.50 for a tall black coffee - bargain) and checked into our hostel which was pretty low key but cool at the same time - it kinda had an Old Hollywood feel about it and very close to the station.

We had to keep moving though because our bed was looking way too tempting so we hopped back on the Red Line and went to Universal City - where Universal Studios are.  We had lunch and headed into the theme park. The first ride we went on was a virtual rollercoaster based on the Simpsons. We didn't have too high hopes but it was actually pretty amazing. From there we went on the rest of the rides, saw some shows and did a studio tour. We chose a good time to go as it was the middle of the week in the cold part of the year. We didn't have to wait more than 10-15 minutes to get into anything so we got to do some things more than once, although there were some (like the scaries haunted house ever) that we (Kitty) didn't want to. At about 4:30 we went back down into Hollywood, got some food and were passed out in bed by 7:00pm.

Lawrie in front of the Universal Studios sign

Simpsons Ride

View to San Fernando Valley from Universal Studios

One of the film sets

Jaws

Wisteria Lane

House from The Grinch that Stole Christmas

Sponge Bob Squarepants

Universal Studios Citywalk

The next day we woke up around 8:00am (we needed the sleep after being awake for more than 30 hours) and set out for a day of sightseeing in Los Angeles. We caught the train and the bus to our first stop, Santa Monica. Catching the bus was our first experience of LA traffic - which is mad. Apparently indicating to turn is entirely optional here and the roads have potholes so big you could lose a small car in one. Plus, the roads are always busy so a 19km trip took 75 minutes. Lawrie got to chatting with some locals - and you realise that although we speak (almost) the same language, the US has a very different culture to Australia. It's a little bit shocking to hear someone say that there are only three choices when you finish high school - college, military or prison.

We had a look around Santa Monica - we walked up and down the pier, along the beach and back to the Third Street Promenade area where we found some awesome farmers markets. We bought some dried fruit and artisan bread which were tasty and then strolled through the Third Street Promenade. We had lunch at Wolfgang Puck and then spent half an hour or so in the biggest bookshop we've been in. Kitty could have stayed there for hours but the 7kg baggage weight limit made it seem a bit pointless.

Santa Monica Beach

Santa Monica Pier

Santa Monica Pier

Third Street Promenade

At this point we decided that we needed to organise our hire car, which we did through Super Chear Car Rentals and then got back on the bus to Beverley Hills. Our first stop was Rodeo Drive, which was pretty glitzy but the highlight was that Lawrie got to see a Bugatti Veyron in the flesh (carbon-fibre?). The paint job was a bit questionable but the car was still awesome. We spent another hour or so wandering around the shopping district and then got on another bus and went to the La Brea Tar Pits. We arrived at 4.40 so we only got a quick look at the museum but some of the skeletons found in the tar pits were impressive - especially the mammoth. Tired from our big day, we had a quiet night at the hostel.

Bugatti Veyron

La Brea Tar Pits

La Brea Tar Pits

Mammoth Skeleton

On Thursday, we caught the Red, Blue and Green Line trains back almost to the airport to pick up our hire car. The Blue Line passes through South LA, which is a very poor area of the city. It was a bit shocking to see the difference to the areas we had visited the previous day. We picked up our car (a Toyota Corolla) and Lawrie had his first driving on the right (wrong!) side of the road experience. We got on the freeway and went to the Venice Beach Boardwalk to check out some freaks and have lunch. Lunch was the first time we had to tip. It's a bit weird but we're slowly getting used to it and the fact that tax isn't included in any of the prices. It's a little misleading becasue you see a price and think "oh, that's reasonable" but then you have to add another 25% for tax and tip and sometimes it doesn't turn out so reasonable.

Hollywood at Night

Venice Beach

Venice Beach

Lawrie wanted a little more driving practise so we drove up into the hills around Bel Air and then down into the San Fernando Valley and back into Hollywood via the Hollywood Hills. When we got back we went for a walk up to Runyon Canyon Park where we got amazing views of LA. We did washing in the evening and got ready for the next day at...

View from Runyon Canyon Park

View from Runyon Canyon Park

View from Runyon Canyon Park

View from Runyon Canyon Park

DISNEYLAND!

Disneyland was awesome. We got there when it opened at 8am and didn't leave until 11pm. The crowds were not too bad and we didn't have to wait more than 20 minutes to get on anything. The finding Nemo ride was really cool, located in a semi submersible and used lighting, sound, projection and bubbles to great effect. The Pirates of the Carribean ride and the Buzz Lightyear shooting game were also great fun.  We had dinner at an all you can eat ribs place and saw the fireworks around 8.45, which really were spectacular. We had an absolutely huge day and were sad to leave but our feet were killing us...The quality of the attractions and attention to detail of the park was very impressive, but didn't always get the adreneline pumping. We'll have to hit a proper roller coaster park up next time we're in the States.

Small World Ride

Small World Ride

Thunder Mountain

Dinner