Hollyweird

Humphrey Bogart's patch outside Grauman's Chinese Theater, Hollywood
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Hello.

Wow it's taken me a while to get started, now I don't know where to begin! Auckland was lovely, had lunch with Matt and Paula at the Foo Fighters' Auckland kebab joint of choice, then met Johnny for a coffee. Arrived in LA late morning on the 31st, and the smog attacked me in the back of the throat! Yuck. Got a taxi to my downtown hotel, explored a little but mostly just chilled out.

Day two Robin (friend of Carolyn from LSA) picked me up and we headed to Hollywood... strange place. Looked at some of the stars on the sidewalk, and spent a bit of time at the handprints in front of Graumann's Chinese Theatre (so great, a lot of history there) and cruising around the Kodak Theatre (home of the Oscars.)

Martin Scorsese's star on the Walk of Fame... maybe there's space for me there...
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After that we got a movie star home tour - hilarious - which also took in a good view of the Hollywood sign and a stroll up Rodeo Drive. We didn't buy anything but were highly amused by two shop assistants having a conversation by yelling across the street at each other. Nothing here is private!

We stopped by Amoeba Records - OMG, think Real Groovy on major steroids, it was amazing. Even more amazing was the fact that I bought nothing at all, but I was very tempted by a Truffaut box set. We had Mexican for dinner - very different to the "Mexican" we get at home, tasty, massive and cheap - then went to see Vantage Point at the movies, which was pretty good.

Hollywood sign from behind Kodak Theater (home of the Academy Awards)
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On the 2nd I went wandering a little in the morning, then Robin took me to the Getty Center, which is a beautiful big art gallery. Got to Union Station late afternoon to catch my first train. The station is really gorgeous.