Well things seem to be drawing to a close now, only a few more days in LA left on our epic journey now.
We set off this morning out into the jungle that is LA traffic. The Dodge is still hanging in there. We've done over 3200miles in Rodger in 10days, so he's doing well. I can only imagine what the rental people are gonna say. We certainly have taken full advantage of the unlimited kms.
LA traffic is ridiculous - I'm usually pretty good with directions and can get my bearings pretty quickly, but this place is a nightmare. Getting from Venice to Hollywood was crazy and took like 45mins. Still it was quite an exciting challenge- if you can turn it into that!
We finally made it to Hollywood blvd where we checked out the walk of fame- the footpath with all the stars. We also checked out the Kodak theatre (where the Oscars are held) as well as the Chinese theatre. Apart from this though, there wasn't much there and to be honest the whole thing was pretty underwhelming. My highlight was when we stopped to get a coffee; the elvis and spiderman impersonators were doing so too. Quite funny seeing spiderman pull up his mask to only reveal his mouth, not unlike in the movie when he kisses Kirsten Dunst, then skull a latte. Random!
The whole place is random though! We hopped back in the Dodge and drove up into the Hollywood hills. We checked out Mullholland Drv and a lot of cool houses. The views from up here are stunning. We then headed over to the Hollywood bowl, the famous outdoor amphitheater. Was quite cool to visit; made me think back to all the amazing people that have played here, like the Beatles, Sinatra and Monty Pythons Live at the Hollywood bowl performances...you know the one where Eric Idle gives it to American beer, saying "it's a little bit like making love in a canoe...it's f#*king close to water'
Was a really amazing theatre though - something like the classic roman and Greek theatres. We also visited the museum, where we found out an interesting fact that the 1920s design of the theatre was done by Frank Lloyd Wrights son, Lloyd, an architect in his own (W)right - hehe.
After that we headed up to check out the view of the Hollywood sign, as well as more awesome views over the city, before venturing into Hollywoodland; the suburb that created the sign. Interesting place, the main village centre Has a certain charm and character and it's kinda cool how all the houses nestle into the hills along the narrow windy streets.
We then drove a couple of suburbs across to Beverley Hills. I had always thought this was close to Hollywood, but no, it's a good 20 odd minutes by car. This place is horrible to get around. Anyway, we found somewhere to park and then headed up Rodeo Drv. Sim was in heaven, she was basically reliving Pretty Woman, pointing out places from the movie and reciting scenes - I guess that kinda makes me Richard Gere. I'm ok with that I guess.
Beverley hills is kinda cool. Very very swank compared to Hollywood, which has a facade of swank,but is kinda scummy really.
This could probably be said for LA in general. It lacks soul really. Behind all the glitz and fanfare surrounding celebrity places and famous sights, there really isn't much. I mean the most famous thing here is the sign and all you can do is take a pretty half decent picture of it!
By now it was 3ish and we still hadn't eaten lunch. We drove back through Hollywood up Santa monica blvd. It took us another half hr in traffic. We headed to Barnsdell Park, where FLWs Hollyhock House sat atop the hill looking over the city. Was a pretty cool building from the outside. Unfortunately, it wasn't open Tuesdays so we would have to come back another day.
We headed into east Hollywood for late lunch at a pub. This pub was pretty crazy, they had something like 40 different beers from around the world all on tap! Pretty cool, never seen that many different taps, their cellar must be crazy!
We then headed back out to Venice - just in time for the afternoon traffic of course. I kinda felt like we hadn't done much today, like I was missing out on seeing LA. However, I think we've had the quintessential LA experience---being stick in traffic all day!
By the time we got back to our hotel it was 6ish and we were pretty tired, well at least I was. Driving is exhausting!
And there we stayed for the night - too tired to even go down the road and get something to eat. Perhaps we have been here too long, we've become that lazy...?
Anyway, bring on the Theme Parks- we could use the excitement!
- Blog from iMat
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