LA Confidential...

Oh alright I'll tell you.

I'm sitting in my hostel in Vegas at the moment on a German girl's laptop. The states are so set up for people with laptops, that everywhere there is free wireless, including this hostel. Conversely, there are virtually no internet cafes and so it is really difficult to check your email. I have been lucky with couchsurfers lending me their laptops so far, not to mention lovely German girls taking pity on me.

But I digress. Back to talking to LA. Before getting to LA, everyone I had spoken to that had been there, told me I'd hate it. I was nervous. I had visions of a nasty violent town where everyone walked around waving their guns in the air, and police randomly pulled people over, cuffing them whilst singing 'bad boys, bad boys, what you gonna do? What you gonna do when they come for you'. OK so maybe I have been watching too many episodes of COPS.

Anyway, for the most part I was pleasantly surprised. People here are amongst the friendliest I have ever encountered, and I only witnessed one woman being dragged off a bus and handcuffed (pretty interesting sight by the way).

So anyway, after my cultural first day spent wandering through museums, I thought it was time to go see the tourist Los Angeles. So I dutifully wandered across to Hollywood. (by the way, although I took public transport everywhere to get places, NOTHING is close together in LA. It is the most spread out city I have ever been in, and getting anywhere generally takes two buses and at least an hour).

Wandering into Hollywood was kind of exciting. Seeing the stars on the ground, the Chinese and the Grauman theatre, and all the grown men and woman dressed as cartoon characters or famous stars was kind of interesting in itself. I had decided to take a walking tour of Hollywood (as no-one walks in this city this was the ONLY walking tour that existed in LA) which was excellent. Our guide was great, and told us interesting history and info about the locations and cinemas, whilst casually dropping into conversation the famous people she had happened to see on her tours. We were impressed. We kept our eyes peeled, but not a celebrity did we see (although I did see a fake Jonnny Depp having a beer). I took a photo of the Hollywood sign and sat down to people watch for a bit longer. Before leaving, I booked a VIP backstage tour of Warner Brothers for the following day, and was told that I should return to Hollywood to take my tour the next day. I didn't really want to come back as I felt I had seen enough fake celebrities and tack for me, but as I was couchsurfing and not staying in a hostel, I didn't have any option.

I swapped couchsurfers, and my next one was so much better than the first. Vera, my first couchsurfer had been lovely and we got on really well, but we didn't really do anything and she spent most of her time on her laptop. Linda, my second couchsurfer, was amazing. Full of energy from the beginning, she announced 5 minutes after I had arrived that we were heading out to a bar to play 'Drag Queen Bingo'. Being a couchsurfer, you tend to go with the flow, so this was fine with me. The bar was called Hamburger Mary's and my dinner of Hamburger and chips was amazing! They brought the bill to us in a stiletto shoe, and the bar had a similar eclectic crazy feel of The Wunderbar in Lyttelton.

Onto the next day, and it was begrudgingly back to Hollywood to get my tour. Not wanting to see stuff I had already seen, I was ready to just get out my book and find a quiet spot for half an hour to wait.

That was until we pulled up to the main bit of the Hollywood Boulevard, and I saw a huge crowd gathered. Wondering what was happening, I wandered up to the crowd and asked. It turned out that a star was being presented to Shrek (yep fictional characters get stars) and some special guests were coming to speak. I had a good spot (and a fantastic zoom on my camera) and so settled in to wait for the celebs, hoping that they would come before I had to report for my tour.

And I wasn't disappointed. I got to see ANTONIO BANDERAS AND MIKE MYERS!!!!!! In real life!!!!!!! It was awesome, and the highlight of my trip so far. Of course the Warner Brothers Studio tour was never going to live up to that, as no stars were seen, however I did get to sit on the real couch in Central Perk (on the set of Friends) and it was a pretty awesome tour.

Getting back to Hollywood, I decided to go to see the film playing at El Capitan. It is an absolutely amazing old authentic cinema and just to sit in it and watch this movie was a pretty amazing experience.

I finished my great day with a trip to Santa Monica Pier, befriending an Ozzie on the bus, who I hung out with for the next couple of hours. The pier itself reminded me a little of Brighton Pier in England but far far tackier. I did get to see sunset there though, which was pretty cool, and the pier was used in the movie 'Forrest Gump' so there was a real theme to it, with a shop called 'Bubba Gump Shrimp Company'.

I had one day left in LA, so I decided to head to Venice Beach, home of the crazy and colourful characters and the complete posers running up and down shirtless on the boardwalk. It was a fantastic spot for people watching, and watching performers, and I got some great photos. Venice Beach is also colloquially known as Muscle Beach and there is an outdoor gym of that same name so that everyone can see the aforementioned posers flex their muscles. It was a great day to end my trip in LA. I went back to my couchsurfer's house and cooked her some dinner. Really enjoyed the couchsurfing in LA. Took me to some amazing spots that I would never have seen otherwise.

Today it was on the Greyhound bus, a company that everyone (well the Americans I had spoken to) had tried to convince me not to travel on, but again, I was pleasantly surprised as it was comfortable friendly, and most importantly free of the crazies.

Tomorrow I explore Las Vegas in a bit more depth after a good sleep. The hostel I am staying in (Sin City hostel) is excellent and I had a fantastically in depth conversation with one of the staff members tonight who is an absolutely fascinating guy from Manchester, with a love for New Zealand, travel and smoothies. Needless to say, we hit it off. Right, sleep beckons me. Here's a couple of photos from LA to keep you entertained. And if you're still reading this, give yourself a pat on the back. That's a damn good effort, as this entry has turned into a novel.

A muscle boy (read: poser) showing off in Venice Beach
Hanging out on the couch in Central Perk, waiting for my FRIENDS to arrive
My good friend Mike...
...and Antonio
Hanging out with Marilyn in Hollywood