USA LA

Well I've been in LA since Wednesday morning (at time of writting it is about midnight Friday). The flight was long, about 13 hours, but was made just that bit more comfortable by the diverse range of TV shows and movies on the in flight entertainment. The aircraft was an Airbus A380 ( VH-OQB Sir Hudson Fysh). I actually quite enjoyed the flight except towards the end when it became unbearable.

On arrival in LA we passed customs easily and collected our luggage. We then managed to find a shuttle bus to take us to our hostel in Hollywood.

We walked up hollywood boulevard to Hollywood and Highland were the main tourist atractions are, with a German guy we met at the hostel named with Moritz (don't know how to spell his name). We ended up spending most of our time with him and for one day with an English guy named Gavin.

In the afternoon we got the metro and a bus to the NBC studios in Burbank for a filming of the Jay Leno show. That was really interesting as my only other experience with live TV was a taping of Spicks and Specks a few years ago. the main difference being the number of times the audience was counted before entering the studio (at least 10 times) and the very tight security, including a walk through metal detector and wand.

The show itself was great, the main guest on the show was Steve Carell from "The 40 Year old Virgin", "Evan Almighty", "Get Smart" and the US version of "The Office". He also completed a lap of Leno's race track out the back of the studio in an electric car. He managed to secure second place behind Cameron Diaz.

After the taping we got the bus and train back to Hollywood and i basically crashed after being awake for 30 hours straight.


Day 2

we arranged to go to Universal Studio's with Moritz and Gavin (the English guy). Again it was a short ride on the metro to Universal City and then ou get a shuttle "tram" up the hill. It was better than I remembered, although a number orides have been replaced since I last went in 1994. Most interestingly the Back to the Future Ride has been replaced by the Simposon's ride, only you still clearly ride in a Delorean. ET was gone and replaced by the Mummy rollercoaster, and one "new" ride was the Jurrasic Park ride. Overall it was pretty good. We also did the backlot tour, the backdraft experience, and the special effects tour. We saved the best to last which was the Waterworld show, lots of Jetski action with lots of explosions. One hint I have is to not sit in the green seats if you don't want to get wet.

Day 3

We said goodbye to Gavin who was leaving for San Francisco, and then we got the bus from Hollywood to the Getty Centre. That Getty Centre is amazing, a great collection of art and some fascinating architecture. We then got the bus via Westwood to Santa Monica. Mike and Moritz went for a swim. We walked on the pier and up the beach before heading back to 4th street for dinner. Out of all the places we visited in LA Westwood and Santa Monica probably had the best