Los Angeles

It turned out that the website we'd booked the hostel through had given the wrong address, so first we turned up to the wrong hostel, then had to walk several blocks in the heat with all our gear to the right hostel. Then we weren't allowed to check in early, so we stayed in the lobby for a little while, then headed out again to see LA. Our hostel was in a good place just off the Boulevard, so we saw a lot of Hollywood just by walking to and from it. It was very near a shopping centre, so we got some smoothies to revitalise ourselves and went in a few shops. For lunch we had some tasty sushi, we decided to head downtown to see what that was like.

Well, it turns out that downtown LA is, basically, horrible. We made the mistake of venturing too far east into a very poor area, and felt very exposed and vulnerable walking around. Also there just didn't seem to be any nice shops or sights around. So after wandering around for a while we got back on the underground to Hollywood Boulevard again. I bought some pizza for dinner and we spent the evening in our room working out how to get to Burbank the next day.

On Wednesday we felt we'd seen enough of Hollywood, so after breakfast at Starbucks we got a bus to the La Brea Tarpits ("La Brea"actually means "The tarpits", so that's like saying 'The "The Tarpits" tarpits', but anyway) where we spent a pleasant couple of hours. It was a good museum. I like it when museums are kind of antiquities in themselves. This one had a definite seventies vibe to it. We saw lots of skulls and some animatronic mammoths and things, and a video about the tar pits and the excavations/scientific discoveries they were making there. Then we bussed back and had lunch in the shopping centre again, this time at a place where you have a computer screen in front of you and order all your food through that. You can also play games or do quizzes while waiting for your food. It was a bit silly and slightly expensive for what we got, but kind of worth it just for fun. Afterwards we went back to the hostel and sat outside waiting for our taxi to take us to the airport. I would like to go back to LA, but next time with a car or to the coastal bit, as that was too far away for us to get to this time.