Chicken Headed Bimbo's and LARPs!

After touring LA yesterday we thought today we'd actually visit some of the attractions LA has to offer so first stop La Brea Tar Pits. We all know how disappointed I was the last time I was here, not being able to visit the Tar Pits - well this time we made it! We got off the bus outside to be greeted by a lady with two disabled people shouting down her phone that she had told the chicken headed bimbo that she would need help today and to be fair to her there was no way she could push both wheelchairs alone. It was definitely the best insult I'd heard for a while!

We headed into La Brea Park and the the pits - it smelt like workmen were resurfacing a road! Not only can you see the pits outside, the pit they were currently working on they also have the Page museum too. In here they have all the bones of animals discovered in the pits - giant land sloths, sabre toothed tigers, woolly mammoths, they were massive - it was awesome, the makers of Ice Age are genius to think of making something like this into a film. I'm glad we finally made it there - it was totally worth it.

We left the tar pits and walked through the park to LACMA. The first piece of art we saw before even getting to the door was this suspended rock above a walkway - it was huge, you wouldn't want that dropping on you - you'd end up looking like a cartoon character with arms and legs sticking out of a rock that splattered you into the ground. We got to the door to find out it was free Tuesday! Awesome, saving bucks on holiday - 30 of them - is great, pennies, sorry cents, to be spent on other things. LACMA is massive, I think it was 7 buildings so there was no way we could see it all but we did our best. We saw Japanese, European, American, Pacific art work and Metropolis II, though as it was a free day it wasn't running. It was a very cultural morning!

We left for the bus only to see the same woman as earlier still waiting. I guess the chicken headed bimbo still hasn't sorted her problem!

Morning = Culture            Afternoon = Celebrities

We headed back to Hollywood for a bite to eat and then a celebrities home tour! We took a walk up and down Hollywood Boulevard (not in the same vein as Julia Roberts!) to select the best tour we could for the best price and ended up taking a starline quality tour but for half the price - oh yeah and it turns out the guy's wife is from Doncaster! This was great, in a roofless slightly smaller minibus whizzing around the winding roads, first stop Mulholland Drive - a great view over Hollywood Bowl, downtown and the Hollywood sign. Then up into the hills, round Bel Air, Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive again. I love gossip so this is the best tour for me! We saw Beckenham Palace and Tom Cruise's land next door, I say land as he owns most of the hill and has a spacecraft like gate. We also saw Jackie Chan's place, Eddie Murphy, Marilyn Monroe, Steven Spielberg, Ice and Coco, Dr Phil, The Osbournes old house, Michale Jackson's house where he died and the Playboy Mansion as well as a block of condos where Cher and Matthew Perry owns whole floors. We saw where Wynona Ryder stole all that stuff and where Lindsay Lohan crashed her car drunk. It was v cool - also v touristy but who cares! Our guide told us about LARPs as we went round. Loads of awesome houses not owned by anyone famous - owned by LARPs = Lucky Arse Rich Person - I want to be a LARP! It makes you see how the other half live...and makes you wish you live like them!

Pink Taco was our choice for tea tonight - back to the Westfield - it's been a tiring day! The brisket tacos were however amazeballs.

What's Your Dream? (Again)

A car is vital in LA if you want to get anywhere soon, if not it takes forever! Our plan for today was to get the hop on hop off bus - which handily stops outside the hotel, we can suss out the locations and decide where we want to visit as we're never going to be able to do it all - as the guy on the plane said, you won't see everything in 4 months let alone 4 days!

We eventually got the bus, it was half and hour late and headed on the yellow line to Santa Monica. There's not much between us and Santa Monica so the guide bus played the Beach Boys down our earphones! We didn't get off at Santa Monica today, we decided to come back another day and continue on the yellow line to Beverly Hills.

We alighted here and took a stroll round Rodeo Drive, on route we saw Stan Lee! Now I obviously didn't recognise him but Daniel insisted it was him driving round a corner in a Porche. We were then on a celebrity hunt. Needless to say we didn't see anyone else - well anyone we knew. We did see an awesome car outside of Bijan - which we later found out was the most expensive men's clothes store in he world - only accessible via appointment! The car was cool, I couldn't tell you what it was but Daniel could - a Bugatti Veyron. We didn't buy anything on Rodeo - well except lunch and that was even on the corner of another street, don't think we could afford Rodeo prices!

After lunch we boarded the red route to Hollywood. It is a completely different world in Hollywood and unlike what you expect the area to be like. It is not glamorous at all, filled with souvenir shops, rammed with tourists and littered with all kinds of people dressed as different famous film characters. We got accosted by Scream and posed for a photo. We wandered around a little, took in some stars then got the red route round the rest of the tour seeing landmarks like the hotel where Julia Roberts stayed in Pretty Woman - not the Wilshire with Richard Gere - we had already seen that but her and Kits place - apparently it is still a bit of a dive like in the film! I know I have used this title before - but it is the quote that comes to mind every time I think of here. What would it have been like without Pretty Woman in the 80s!?! We also saw the Whisky A Go Go - which the Bourbon Rooms from Rock of Ages is based on and then headed back to the hotel. When I say headed back we didn't actually arrive til a couple of hours later. Not having a car means getting anywhere takes forever!

We stopped in the hotel for tea tonight as we were knackered from all the travelling!! Why are portions so large!!?!!

Hooray for Hollywood...What's your dream?

So last day of our tour and we spent it seeing LA - good job too as it's a bitch to get around on your own as we found out on the first day! The weather was a little chilly to start but soon brightened up though it was extremely foggy. We stopped at Santa Barbara first, which you could hardly see due to the fog! But I'm sure it was lovely!! We went for a walk on the pier but couldn't exactly see the view! Though i did step in dog poo - booooo, why can't people pick up after their dog!















We then made out way through Santa Maria and Malibu before entering Santa Monica for lunch. We did go past some lovely houses - massive mansions when you can only really see the entry gates, but we get the impression they would have been nice - including Cher's house though my pictures doesn't do it justice as it looks like I've taken it of her shed! Ron was driving too fast for my camera!! We also went past the actual Baywatch beach where it was filmed but our first stop at Venice beach better suited Baywatch than this one.

Since we'd been to Santa Monica on our first day trying to get somewhere we didn't go on the pier with the others but hit the shops. We found an awesome shop, Forever 21, which we have since found out is coming to Europe in 2010 - fab. We got so caught up in the shopping area, which i might like to add was no smoking ever though it was a street, that we thought we were going to be late so grabbed a McD's on the run!

We then saw how the other half live - and boy how do they live in Beverley Hills. The posh shops, fancy houses, we also went passed the Beverley Wiltshire where Richard Gere stayed in Pretty Woman, what's your dream? Mine would be to have enough money to live here! We made our way to Hollywood where we saw the Viper Room - Johnny Depp's club that River Phoenix died outside of. Yet another morbid sight on our travels!















We started to take a trot down the Walk of Fame until we came to a stop as they had shut the street due to a premiere! Typical! We didn't see anyone famous - except Superman, but the red carpet was out ready! Hollywood is not what you'd expect. Beverley Hills definitely is as it is very glam but Hollywood is not glam at all. If anything its a bit of a let down considering how much Hollywood and the movie industry is worth.















We got back to the hotel and everyone was a little glum - except the two going back to Vegas, wish that was us! You always feel rubbish when you know you have to go home - wherever you have been. We went for our last meal back to Islands, where ironically the waitress remembered us! Must have made an impression - just like our trip had made on us! Oh well back to reality and ready to plan the next holiday!!!