Buses and blisters

4^th September 2011 – 8pm

Another day another blister! We are really not looking forward to lifting those packs tomorrow after another day of walking!

We went about today in the worst way, oblivious at the time. We got a really early start. We walked out of the hotel at 7.15 with the intention of getting to Santa Monica by train then bus. We heard it was a bad idea to use the public transport here and to hire a car but we were stupidly optimistic because the roads seemed so quiet and the buses looked like a good option. Via the ghetto, it took us 3 hours to get from Downtown to Santa Monica, about 20kms as the crow flies. Once we got there, we were so over it that we didn’t bother travelling further to Venice Beach or to the Getty Centre, but Santa Monica itself was quite pretty. Beautiful location and weather, but the stench of homelessness (and wee) really ruined it for us. Matt was getting so cranky about it, and he’s not easily grossed out!

SANTA MONICA PIER

We took a cab to Hollywood. It was the easiest (and probably most expensive way besides, say, a helicopter) to get there. Hollywood was INSANE. Very busy but by no means too crowded to have a good time. The Walk of Fame was great, we saw Johnny Depp’s star pretty much straight away and heaps of other goodies and we have the photographic evidence! We jumped on a tour bus around Hollywood (with the promise of a great view of the Hollywood sign) and Beverly Hills. We saw Johnny Depp’s nightclub “The Viper Room” then walked down Rodeo Drive, I wanted Matt to buy me something but he wouldn’t be in it. We’d have to take out another mortgage to afford ANYTHING. The bus was crammed, hot and not very pleasant and the “great view” of the Hollywood sign was a fizzer. We just couldn’t work out how to get any closer to the damn thing. We had to skip a few things because we ran out of time. Madame Tussauds will have to wait for another time/city and we never got back to the end of the Walk of Fame to see Elvis’ star. It’s goes for miles and miles and in 4 directions. 

CHUCK NORRIS!

HARRISON FORD!

HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD... INTERESTING

AND THERE IT IS!

 

We headed out to Silver Lake this afternoon which is a nice little area with a few restaurants and cute little shops, but sadly it was a bit of a waste of time as we arrived just as everyone was shutting up shop! We had Mexican for dinner just around the corner from our room, it was soooo good and tonight we hope to get our bags packed for an early night.

Amy.