Back to where we belong... the Hollywood hills

Early to bed early to rise, Hollywood's waiting...you're in for a BIG surprise.  Me and Liz are arriving and we will be hitting the town for a big weekend of madness.

$100 taxi to Hollywood, expensive start to the day ay? But I'd much rather pay that than risk going back to that metro station in downtown LA.  Creepy! People would just look at us and they would instantly know we weren't from round here. It's as if an alarm triggers in their head going 'Tourist, Tourist, Tourist,' and their like vultures coming at us.  It's definitely the accent or even the big bags of luggage...for me my paleness is probably the giveaway! Haha. A taxi was definitely the safer option!

Checked into Banana Bungalows... the hottest accommodation in Hollywood.  Only 5*for us haha.  Just kidding, I'm sure you already know by hearing the name of the place. It's not bad though, plus we were instantly upgraded again...8 bed dorm with kitchen, 2 bedrooms and bathroom.  Woop!

We had lots on the to do list for the day...washing, photo uploads, cooking, find a T-mobile shop and of course get ready to party celebrity style! We had all day to do it as it was only 11am!

So we headed off on a walk down Hollywood Boulevard. The strip is massive it took us a while to get down to the Chinese and Kodak Theatres. We walked the whole walk of fame...saw lots of famous names.  There are a lot of blank stars...one of which is saved for me and will have 'Josie Lawthom' written in it in the near future. Haha! We stopped for some lunch where we had the best sandwich I have ever tasted, it was chicken in carbonara sauce...it was just beautiful. Yum! Next on the list was T-mobile, not so easy to find.  The google maps came out but it wasn't really helpful. We asked people in hotels and bars but nobody knows where anything is around here, not even the taxi men!  Well, we definitely walked the calories off walking about 4 miles, looking for a T-mobile shop and also somewhere to get some food to make before heading out.  Finally found a supermarket AND T-mobile right next to each other...Perfect! We got lots of healthy food for tea, there's just too much grease and fatty food around when eating out...so we made the most of having a kitchen and made our own...cheaper as well.

We were pretty far away from the hotel so caught a bus back. We saved our little legs for dancing later that night.

Got in about 5pm, we got our washing done and uploaded the photos for all to see at home...then Liz made our salad before we started getting all glamed up. It was a White party, so we dug out our White dresses and we were ready to go.

Waiting for our shuttle we met two people from Wales, Victoria(Tor) and Jac(spelled the welsh way). Another jack on our travels. Liz and him(jack tour guide) are just destined to be haha.

It's really random, Tor goes to Uwic and does the same course as Liz and knows the same people. Half way around the world and we bump into someone who has mutual friends... It's a small world!

The shuttle finally arrived, an hour later than scheduled, and we were on our way to the pre party! Yay!  3 free drinks came or way...well four for me, I took a drink and the guy serving didn't take my coupon. Good times.

It was time for our limo ride down Hollywood Boulevard, to the club. We were sat in the back of the limo which was an extention off the actual limo, it was outdoors, windy and bloody freezing. The front of the limo was nice, it just looked stupid with an extension off the back! But it got us from A to B so it was all good!

We danced a while in the first club, everything was white, it looked awesome.  After a short while in there the fire alarm kept going off,  so we were evacuated and the guy who organised it all took us to another club. He paid for us to get there, so we weren't complaining.

It was a strange club, like a maze, two rooms either side of each other lots of stairs going between rooms or outside and when the part of the club we were in shut we were taken downstairs to what was a massive arena sort of thing with a band on stage.  HUGE dancefloor!  It was deceivingly big and weird...it was fun though. We got a taxi home a bit later where the party continued in the small bar at banana bungalows. Wasn't really a party more like a gathering. I shot some pool for a bit (I lost...again) before heading to bed.  

Absolutely HANGIN in the morning... It was very hard to get out of bed and actually have motivation to anything. Liz has no memory and I remember it all. There's a first for everything haha.  

We woke up to Toria at the end of Lizs bed. Pretty sure she was still drunk. We planned to meet in an hour to head to Santa Monica beach with them.  So me and Liz got up to have some brekkie and then we all headed off,  all of us laughing and reminiscing the night. The Welshies definitely know how to party!!

We got on the bus thinking it would be a 45 minute ride...it turned into 1 hour and 15 minutes. A stupidly long journey... especially with a hangover. Plus there were no seats so we had to stand until people got off, which nobody was doing.  Tor got a seat first and I crushed her by sitting on her lap until i got a seat. We got seats in the end, thank god. I couldn't have stood the whole duration, No way!!

Finally arrived at Santa Monica and headed straight to the beach.  We parked up on the floor and chilled for a little while, until some guy came over to ask for some sunscreen. Quick tip...always say no!! He ended up staying to talk and his absolute nut job of a friend joined us.  He was extremely forward saying how much he loved white women! He didn't like black women as they were too roudy, he also told us how he was friends with Lil Wayne and the Game! The crap just kept rolling off his tongue. He was a major cocaine addict who kept forgetting conversations he had with us 5 minutes before.  It didn't take us very long to move and leave crazy guy to someone else.

We headed onto the pier to have a gander.  It's a huge pier with a fair and lots of restaurants on it. It looks sooo cool. We went to get some good ol' coconut shrimp before going to hire some roller blades and skate along the seafront.  I hadn't roller bladed in years... but I surprisingly remembered how to skate and didn't fall! Yay for me! Can't say the same for Toria.  She couldn't stop, trying to avoid a big group of people, she completely lost balance and down se went. It looked painful but she was laughing and so were me and Liz. I was behind and had to turn and bang into a wall to stop myself, as I don't know how to stop! If I didn't I would have lost my balance from laughing!  It was hilarious.

We skated for just under an hour, I was in so much pain. My feet were numb! I zoomed back as quick as I could to get the stupid things off my feet. Jac walked the whole way, he found it a bit difficult to keep up. Haha.

We headed back to Mussell beach after returning the skates just to chill for a little while. We sat right next to the lifeguard hut.  Mmmmm! one was absolutely gorgeous, we had to get a picture with him!! Liz got him to take his jacket off for the photo as well. Good times!! It got soooo cold we started walking back.

The time came to head back to Hollywood... another looonnngg ride on the bus! It's so uncomfortable my bum gets numb! I was not  looking forward to it.

The driver told us he'd let us know when we needed to get off to change buses. We asked him about 30 minutes into journey where we get off and he said oh we just passed it! Great stuff. A longer route home for us.

Finally, after a stupidly long journey and walk we got back to the hotel. Liz made our food straight away...we were starving! All this walking builds up an appetite, you know!   After food we got ready to go out. We joined Tor and Jac for some pre drinks in their room before heading off on another night out in the Hollywood hills.

The club was only a 10 minute walk away and had some famous DJ playing, never heard of him before though.  He was also filming a music video at the venue, cant believe that's 3 in two weeks that we've actually been in. We will be all over American screens before you know it haha. Famous for partying... sounds about right!  We skipped the queue and joined the party. It was pretty packed already, got a drink and started dancing. We did not fit in there at all, the whole place was full of fakes...fake lips, fake boobs, fake hair. We went back to the bar after a little while but didn't get a drink, it was far too expensive in there.  We sat down and 3 dancers (two girls and a boy) got into a massive cage in the middle of the dancefloor and were basically all making out, stripping and licking each other...it was GROSS!! Completely put us off being there and couldn't be bothered to wait around for everyone else to leave. Jac had already gone, Tor sent him home as he was stupidly drunk and a bit later we got a taxi back to the hotel. Jac was not back by the time we'd got there.  We found out in the morning that he walked 2 miles in the wrong direction and in that time he sobered up slightly, which made him realise he needed to turn around and walk the other way!!  Haha!  Crazy fool.

We had a nice lie in before going to explore Beverly Hills. Jac and Tor were going to the Guiness world record place, so me and Liz ventured down to the bus stop. We did a bit of celeb stalking on the bus journey there...finding out who lived in the area.  We got Simon Cowells address...how cool! So into google maps it went and we were 20 minutes walk away... So of course, off we trotted to get a snap shot by his house. Unfortunately he Wasn't there to greet us or make us some tea. His house was under renovation. Never mind! Maybe we'll be neighbours when I get my house there(the house next door is up for sale), or even better, get to stay there when Liz becomes his wife!   

I did (well am 99% certain) get a glimpse of Anthony Hopkins as he drove passed us. I am positive it was him...and if it wasn't then he has a twin that nobody knows about living in Beverly Hills.  The houses are beautiful here, very well hidden mind, they have big gates, bushes and security cameras surrounding their properties.  This place is where the money's at!

After a lot of walking and fantasising about being a resident in Beverly Hills, we caught the bus back to reality. We stopped a few stops before our hotel so we could get something for tea...but we walked for ages trying to find a supermarket.  It seems if you're looking for something in-particular you will not find it. We did eventually after asking a number of people and a lot if walking!

Dinner time finally came, we had no energy left and needed refuelling.  Tor and Jac got back later on in the evening, they'd been to pick up their car...it's going to be a road trip for them over the next couple of weeks. They kindly offered to take us to the airport, plus take us up to the Hollywood sign and through Beverley Hills again.  We got to join them on the start of their road trip.

We watched some 'inbetweeners' episodes before everyone went to bed.  Two Australian guys had moved in to the dorm that night...they were heading out so I joined them for one or two drinks as I wasn't very tired.  We went to downtown LA and explored the nightlife there.  It was Labour day so there were people everywhere.  The bar we went to,(this little mexican place) was quite cool but it was just too cramped and a bit random...they played quite rock/punk music,had sport on every TV and had quite chavvy people as customers. It just seemed quite Odd! We weren't out for long, I got a bit bored, so we went home.

Early morning for us, we packed up and began our own little celebrity homes tour in the jeep the guys hired. First stop was the Hollywood sign.  Jac led us to the best place to have a picture.  We saw awesome views of downtown LA and we were quite close to the sign! It was wicked!

Back on board our jeep tour we started celebrity spotting.  Jac bought a celebrity homes map, which was huge and was a mission to read.  We got to a few of the streets but the homes were down private roads and you had to have a vehicle check before entering. We tried the 'we're lost...can we go in and turn around' trick, but failed...miserably! Worth a shot though haha! So Cameron Diaz, Samuel L Jackson and Charlie Sheen's houses were off limits.  We got to see the gates to the playboy mansion...and while we were outside we wrote a little note to Hugh Hefner and posted it in his postbox. We left a number so I'll let you know if he gives us a call haha!  We saw Ozzy Osbournes old house, now owned by Christina Aguilera and we got to see a glimpse of Michael Jacksons house.  All of them are pretty well hidden by trees and gates so you don't really get to see much. But it was a fun trip.

So now a road trip to LAX airport.  The time has come for us to leave the highlife of Hollywood and head  down to Florida! It's almost time for a catch up with Mr Aled Edwards and his family!  It's going to be awesome.

We will be partying with the likes of Mickey Mouse and the rest of the crew!

It's going to be a whole new world...Disney here we come.

Will holla at y'all in a few days.

Much Love

J.L xxx