LA-LA Land

After Dan managed to successfully drive us to LA he was keen to relax with a strong drink. I can’t imagine why, it’s not like I’m a nervous passenger or anything! We quickly checked into our downtown hostel, Stay, which was very modern and funky and managed to make it to a bar a couple of blocks away in time for a happy hour drink. Obviously, being in LA, I was on celebrity watch. And who should we see in the first bar we went to? None other than Sean Maguire! For those of you who don’t know him, (where have you been?!) he was that Irish kid in Eastenders about 15 years ago and has also “starred” in a US sitcom called Eve. Amazingly Dan was unimpressed with my celeb-spot but I personally was thrilled, our first bar and we’d already seen a celeb! I admit he’s not exactly A List but still…! Unfortunately Sean was our one and only spot so nothing more to report on that front!

After that excitement we moved onto an Irish bar called Casey’s. For some reason Dan is always keen to visit an Irish bar. I think it reminds him of home….I was still suffering from a very snotty cold so happily watched Dan sink a few Guinness’ and ‘The Car Bomb’ beer concoction, which looked particularly disgusting! Before too long we were back at the hostel sleeping up a storm.

The next day we were up bright and early ready to see Los Angeles. First stop was Hollywood. My terrible navigating the previous day meant I was driving while Dan calmly directed me through the awful traffic and very confusing Freeway system! We made it to Hollywood Boulevard successfully and parked up to visit the lovely Farmers Market. Full of colourful berries and fresh seafood it was a lovely morning stop. We then wandered towards the Hollywood sign but lost it so many times we decided to turn back and head down Sunset Boulevard.  We walked a few blocks of the Walk of Fame stars – the most recognisable was Lassie! – and had a peek and the Kodak and Chinese Theatres.

Next stop was the Getty Museum, a huge complex up in the hills with some amazing art, sculptures and a very well manicured gardens. We checked out the Gods of Angkor exhibition which reminded us very much of our time in lovely Cambodia. Another temporary exhibit was of beautiful photographs of Cuba; inspiration for our next trip?!

Following a dose of culture we thought we’d make a stop in Beverly Hills, an area renowned for its beauty obsessed designer shoppers. Driving down Rodeo Drive it’s hard not to like the place: Gucci, Chanel and all the designer names! No more shopping for us though. We stopped for a coffee at the only affordable place – Starbucks! Lunch was on Hollywood Boulevard at a place called Palms Thai. We had our first valet experience which didn’t go overly well – there was a miscommunication with the Russian valet who thought we were trying to get out of using the service when actually we were just asking for instruction on valet-etiquette! The Thai place is famous for it’s Thai Elvis, who unfortunately only performs in the evening!

Our last night in LA was spent exploring Little Tokyo and Chinatown. There two areas are near downtown so we could have a stress free evening with no driving! We’ve found portion sizes pretty big here, in fact I haven’t managed to finish a single meal, but we are loving the doggy bag concept. We even got the Chinese takeaway boxes and a fortune cookie! After walking off our dinner passing some of downtowns crazy gang (it seems to attract an eclectic array of tramps) we headed back to the hostel to rest up before our coastal adventure!

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