We blasted the music and put the top down in true road trip style. Unfortunately, the sun shine left as we departed from San Diego and a seaside smog followed us. Unable to see much of the coast we raced through only stopping every so often. We drove past Laguna Beach and Orange County, I recognised both from the TV shows.
As we were approaching LA the sun came out again to greet us. In Californian fashion I re-applied my lip gloss and we both put on our shades trying to mimic the glamour of Hollywood. LA is sprawling and we were glad that we were driving. I think the best piece of advice to anyone visiting LA is, hire a car. We met a couple in Bolivia who started in America first and they hated LA because they had to do it without a car. Hiring a car works out cheaper as we avoided doing the tour, opting to take the car to the tourist spots ourselves.
First stop was Hollywood Boulevard, the famous walk of fame. We managed to find a parking spot on the strip so luckily we didn't need to stress about parking. On arrival it is pure chaos, herds of tourist are moving to and fro in every direction. Impersonators try to grab you wanting a dollar a photo.Michael got a photo with a midget version of Mr.T for a laugh. We past by the Chinese Theatre show which hosts many premieres and posed next to the cemented hand and footprints of the most famous stars.
Next we drove up to the Hollywood Sign which we found with our sat nav. We drove right to the top, all the way up the winding hill passing residential homes. At the top there is little space to park but if your quick you probably wont get clamped. Luckily we saw a resident come out his house who told us we can park outside his house. We were greeted with no entry signs but everyone was there taking pictures so we walked up the path to a hill with great views of the sign and of the LA skyline.
We then visited the Universal Studios where it is $10.00 to park your car. There you can walk around the Universal Studios City Walk which is full of shops and restaurants. On a backpackers budget we decided not to do Universal Studios because it was so expensive, we were looking at $100.00 each. Instead we took our pictures outside the iconic spinning globe and posed on the pretend red carpet, bloody cheap skates ey!
We drove our car around Sunset Boulevard, over looked by towering palm trees just like in the films. Just off here you can drive around and see the celebrity mansions. They were the biggest houses I had ever seen, it was absolutely unbelievable. Using a map we tracked down the Playboy Mansion and stopped the car in front of its gates. A blond girl with a kaftan covering her bikini came out at the same time, speaking to someone on her mobile. The house is covered with towering walls so there was no chance of a sneak peak. We were tempted to ask the girl when the party started but we chickened out and drove to Beverly Hills instead!
I always remembered Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills from Pretty Woman where poor Julia Roberts was sent away in tears because she wasn't posh enough, bless her. When I got there I could immediately see why lovely Vivian was sent packing with her patent leather mini dress. This place fancy, reeaaalllll fancy! The streets were lined with Gucci, Channel, Burberry. All the high end shops that you wouldn't dare step into unless you had hundred grand in your bank account. Anyway, we drove past and marvelled at the glamour of it all before making a swift exit.
Exhausted, we checked into our first motel. As we had read, don't believe the prices displayed on the flashing signs. Its always ends up more by the time the tax gets added on. For that night we paid $99.00 for one night with breakfast. This would be no problem if we were on holiday but we were on a backpackers budget.We soon realised that to survive the next 3 weeks we would have to camp, paying for motels was just too expensive! Here are some pictures:
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