Grand Theft Auto

Zoltar (well one of him...)
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19th May

When we arrived in LA, we didn't get cavity searched (even though we collectively have dreads, green hair and piercings...a customs officer dream!).  Jodie was pretty sad about the lack of cavity search, so we went off to find the prime time shuttle service for an excruciatingly painful hour's drive to the Orbit Hostel on Melrose Avenue.  We'd booked 3 nights in a private room, so had an en suite and double bed.  This seemed good, however it was right on the main road and the traffic was RIDICULOUS!  But it's ok, we slept through it!

He's short and fat...what a dreamboat!

Grauman's Theater (with random cowboy in foreground)
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20th May

Today we thought we'd mosey on down Melrose to see what we could see.  We were thinking about doing a tour on the 21st for $60 each that would show us around the place.  Woke up at 3am, fell asleep again and woke up at 6 am.  Gotta love the jet lag!  Fannied around in the hostel 'til the free breakfast started at 8am.  Had some RIDICULOUSLY sugary cereal, and decided we needed more food so left the hostel at half 8 to find food.  Now, we thought loads of stuff would be opening and we could get munchies.  But we were wrong.  Things don't open here 'til about 11am...WEIRD!  So we walked down Melrose, window shopped and took a left on to Highland Avenue.  Saw lots of interesting business related to the movie industry (fascinating...*yawn*) and all of a sudden we could see the Hollywood sign!  AMAZING!  Looked weird seeing it in real life I tell ye!  Kept on walking and ended up on the Walk o' Fame!  Loads of good shops here...tempting us when we can't afford to buy anything!  You can get to Grauman's and the Kodak theatre from here.  In other words, don't pay for the tour if you don't mind a walk!  We walked for about 8 hours...ouch!

A swally @ The Snake Pit, Melrose
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21st May

Today we went to Santa Monica and Venice Beach!  Got the 720 bus on Fairfax/Wilshire to Santa Monica, got dropped off at the pier and had a wander!  It was incredibly windy there, and to be honest there wasn't much to see.  Apart from sand and water!  And some houses.  And lots of people on bikes/scooters/rollerblades.  And weird concrete block toilets.  Jodie quite liked it...especially when we saw the Zoltar dude from BIG!  Was very cool!

"Out of the Closet" thrift store- look closely at writing to the right...Heh heh!
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Walked along the beach for about half an hour and ended up on Venice Beach...there's a lot more going on here in terms of sights, shops, and also in terms of weirdos!  Saw the infamous muscle beach...apparently it was fat day there as there was no-one working out!  So mullet count is at a zero so far!  It's weird...there are lots of 'bums' here, and they go around with giant trolleys/wheelchairs FULL of stuff!  Quilt covers, suitcases, trainers, sleeping bags!  They just wheel the lot around.  I think they have 'patches' where they can leave it as we noticed some abandoned on the side streets...I nearly had a rummage but Jodie pulled me away.  That was a joke!  But it would've been ok I suppose as we've had our Tetanus/Hep a and B jags harhar!

Weird wind pipe thrones down @ Venice Beach
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Ok, so Jodie had a pizza and I bought some yellow hair dye at Venice Beach...there's a Manic Panic shop!  Jodie also went down and dipped his toes in the water...'it was cold'...turns out the ocean's cold everywhere :o)

So once we'd had our fill o' the beach, we walked up to Venice Boulevard and caught the 33 bus back to Fairfax and walked up to Melrose!  We had planned on going to Sunset Strip for drinkies tonight but we fell asleep at 1700 and woke up at 0600 the next day!  OOPS!  We woke up at one point to get munchies, but EVERYWHERE WAS SHUT!  What's going on?!  So had to settle for a subway!  On the way back to the hostel we could see fire engines and a large amount of water disturbingly close to the location of our worldy possessions for the year...upon closer inspection we saw that it was actually a crash...someone crashed in to a fire hydrant knocking the thing clean off, and water was GUSHING into the air...must've been a good 15 foot...the poor firemen had their raincoats on and they were standing under the water trying to turn it off...wish we'd got a photo of the pool party but we didn't so you'll just have to believe us!

Bela Lugosi's star! :)
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Oh and this is the day we saw Benji Madden (for Rachel).  He's short and fat...what a dreamboat!

22nd May

So after our mammoth sleeping session we decided to walk back up to Hollywood to find out about getting ze bus to San Diego...turns out we can get the 217 bus from Melrose/Fairfax up to Hollywood Blvd/Cahuenga and there's a Greyhound station there!  Means we don't have to attempt to get downtown!

Was a fairly lazy day today...went to the internet cafe(Cyber Dog on Melrose Avenue...fast connection and $4 per hour...much better than the Orbit facilities), looked up some porn ONLY JOKING attempted to find out how to get buses in Mexico...we're still not sure what we're doing!  And we made it out to Sunset Strip...went to the Rainbow Bar and Grill...didn't see Lemmy but did have a rum and coke yum yum!  Had a swally good time as Jo would say!  The Orbit had a free shuttle running there so was cheap, $5 cover charge each for the pub and a taxi back so wasn't too shabby!

So many cool cars in LA- including this Mustang *drool* One day...
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Oooh, the 99cent stores are amazing here!  Giant noodle soups, tortillas and ROOT BEER (our new favourite things).  Oh, and chocolate soy milk...YUMMO!