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| L.A. and Hollywood | Our first impression of L.A. was surprising:
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 | Harry :)
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Hollywood was not at all what we expected. All the houses, especially around Hollywood, were really low unattractive buildings, big parts of the city were in a bad condition and in quite desperate need of reconstruction. Walk of fame was just a boring street with cheap souvenir shops, tacky shopping malls and dry cleaners, so it seemed in the beginning. After spending the first night in Santa Monica and exploring the beach in fog (!) we settled down in central Hollywood for a few days. A small hostel called Orange Drive Manor Hostel 50 metres from Hollywood boulevard. Perfect location to spot some upcoming actors playing Superman for the tourists. Some of the relicts freom the good ol愒imes are sprinkled along the boulevard. The Manns Chinese Theatre with the famous imprints and the Roosevelt Hotel, where the Oscars were held in the past.
Shortly we came to understand the charm of this weird, big city. It is after all in almost every (american) movie, o要e way or another and we got quite lucky: I think everyone expects to see movie-stars in Hollywood, and we just happened to be at walk of fame when Harrison Ford received his star to the pavement.the nice part was to see Calista Flockhart with him,as Riikka is a big fan of Ally McBeal. Amazing to see these classic "hollywoody" moments live and experience the security and craze about the stars. Fascinating to see the autograph hunters working - they told it is a good income selling these at ebay. What future prospects! :) Even at the hostel we met some actresses who seem to struggle along, still they maintain the "right" attitude and the smile... | |  | Universal studios
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After seeing movie stars live it was a perfect time to head to Universal Studios, the last operating movie studio in L.A. and mostly theme park, for seeing the settings. We had fun over there and saw some familiar movie settings used in movies. Some of the shows like Shrek and the Jurassic Park ride actually do make fun and you can have your big American day out! Greatest was to see the Bates-motel from "Psycho"! Cool!! But of course the camera refused to work in that crucial moment during the tour... o要 some locations movies and commercials are still filmed frequently. The hosts refuse to reveal the names though, doh. o要e day is enough if you start early and plan to visit the most popular rides and shows first. Try organizing o要e of those 20% off vouchers. Those are handed out frequently along the walk of fame.
One thing we wont repeat is the visit to the business district with its sky scrapers. Its just not interesting nor impressive, seriously. The small Spanish block (El Pueblo de Los Angeles) just closeby and north of the beautifully restored old Union station is far more rewarding. The Spanish architecture and some of the food transported us from Yankee L.A. into El Pueblo de Nuestro Senora la Reina de los Angeles del Rio Porciuncula from the old Mexican times. Guess what region we want to go in a few years. The few streets called Chinatown and little Tokyo are very alive aswell and still more charming than most of whitey parts ;)
Walking along Melrose Place and Rodeo Drive with its designer shops and the massive showoff is just picture perfect. This is where L.A. wants to maintain the image portrayed in the media. A success. We saw o要e "star" surrounded by paprazzi, but were to lazy to check out which. The cars and the bodyguards are a sight for itself. | |  | Monroes prints
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We had great time in Los Angeles' night life too. We originally wanted to go to Whiskey a Go-Go (the club where many bands have started, f.e. the Doors), but they had a private party that night, so we headed for the small bar next door, called the Cat Club o要 Sunset Boulevard.They had some local bands playing and we listened some rock'n'roll the whole time! Good fun! Somehow all these small bands keep reminding you of their idols.
On our last night we went to the cinema in Manns Chinese Theatre. The movie premiere that evening was "the italian job" with Mark Wahlberg who is not our most favourite "actor" (better would be screen model), but since there wasn愒 much of a choice we went to see it anyway. The layout works like "gone in 60 seconds" mixed with "oceans eleven", but the o要ly funny moment of the movie was the scene where a truck is bombed into a subway. all of this right in front of manns chinese theatre, the very place where we were sitting. You probably shouldn愒 watch that movie in any other place than this :)
After all L.A. is a little disappointing for sight seeing since it has no particular centre, but the entertainment is just superb. Downtown seems to contain nothing else than freeways and tacky shops. You need a car in this city though. We扉e been walking so many kilometres in this monster of a city and public transport is limited. Our next step was going to be the Cook Islands, so we had to reach the Airport by the (sort of) tram, the (sort of) suburban train and public bus. Its making saying goodbye from the USA very easy by revealing the most rundown suburbs we扉e ever seen outside the movies. Goodbye America, Pacific here we come! |
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Updated 08.09.03 Written by Riikka and Daniel 80537 reads |
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Through travel I first became aware of the outside world; it was through travel that I found my own introspective way into becoming a part of it.
-- Eudora Welty |
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