We step off the Metro and we're in Hollywood baby, right on the boulevard. After strolling along the street admiring the celebrity stars along the floor we step come across our hostel; Orange Drive Hostel... amazing location just a few steps off the boulevard. Our room is spacious and nicely decorated, the whole hostel has a vintage 30's vibe, one of the nicest rooms we've had so far. There were supposed to be extra charges for towels and wifi but the nice guy on the counter threw those in for free, bonus. We were really excited to be in Hollywood, particularly because Dom is a massive film boffin, so dumped our bags and headed back down the Boulevard. We stumbled upon Graumann's Egyptian Theatre and were just perusing the show times when a mysterious gentleman approached us asking if we wanted to see a movie. We told him we were just looking really (Dom was disappointed that we missed Terry Gillian who was there just a few hours ago for Q&As). He then said 'here take these' and handed us a couple of tickets to a Belgian film called Bullhead which was starting in two minutes. We were both suspicious of the generosity so Dom asked how much he was expecting to which he replied "nothing, have fun, go inside, explore the theatre and tell your friends back home that you've been inside, it's beautiful in there" and as quickly as he appeared he vanished into the Hollywood lights. Film was great, a tragic revenge thriller set in the murky and mafia-filled world of farm animal drugs....sounds s***e but honestly it was really good. What a perfect way to spend the evening.

On Friday we had a fun packed day at Universal studios * woop woop *. We were so lucky that it wasn't peak season and spent the day running around like excitable children hopping from ride to ride with hardly any queuing. Our favourite attraction was Krustyland complete with it's very own Quik-e-Mart. We loved the build up to the virtual Simpsons rollercoaster ride; they were playing tv clips (which Dom knew word for word), the Itchy and Scratch health and safety video and just the sheer effort gone into making the scenery so Simpsons-like. The ride itself was exhilarating, silly and a hell of a lot of fun. When we emerged Dom exclaimed 'Best. Ride. Ever.' and proceeded to pick me up and spin me around. We did a 45 minute tour of the Universal Studio's stages and sets and saw where they made films such as Jaws, War of the Worlds, The Grinch who Stole Christmas and our favourite..... Back to the Future!!! They were filming Desperate Housewives during our tour so we had to be extra quite when driving past Wisteria Lane. Unfortunately we didn't catch a glimpse of any of the cast. We enjoyed Terminator 2: 3D, Jurrasic Park water ride and Shrek 4D (Donkey never fails to make me laugh). Whilst in the park we bought an 'all you can eat pass'... after consuming burgers, pizza, lasagne, cookies, fried chicken, cupcakes, jelly, salad and more I think we got our moneys worth. We had such an amazing, fun, exciting day we were both beaming ear to ear.

The next day before travelling to Venice Beach we headed to The Griffith Observatory (a center for astronomic exploration). On our way there we had to walk down the Hollywood Boulevard again to get the metro and to our excitement they were setting up for the world premiere of The Muppets! We were just about to cross the road when we heard Kermit's voice "hey you two better be safe when you're crossing the road... perfect weather for leather jacket's today" (dom and I both have leather jackets....owned by Kermit!) There was a blacked out jeep driving past with what we can only assume had theeee one and only Kermit inside, yay! Unfortunately we didn't get to see any of the other stars as they were just setting up the red (actually green) carpet. We didn't hang around as we assumed the premier was going to take place in the evening but later as we headed back to the hostel we realised that it must have already taken place as they were packing away - bloody hell!

Well... the observatory.....Dominic really enjoyed this place; it was informative and had some great views. I didn't enjoy it so much...it was like one of those school trips that you didn't want to go on because you have zero interest in the topic but you had to go because it was part of the curriculum. I tried to be interested by reading the information but this actually made me even less interested, if that was actually possible. I was well behaved though as Dom walked around enjoying the exhibits I just found it all a little too educational...where the hell were the kids interactive displays??!! We stopped for a delicious fruit salad. Dom was trying to be adventurous and put hazelnut milk in his coffee but then found it undrinkable (lol) but luckily the woman let him get a new drink. I drank about half of this and for those of you who know me well will know I go craaaaazy on caffeine so spent the second half of the observatory buzzing and hopping from scale to scale to see what I weighed on each planet. Much more fun than reading about satellites. We saw the famous Hollywood sign and Dom took pictures from every possible angle. We headed back and got a Subway for lunch. Now, in America there's a policy that if you don't get a receipt you basically get your meal free, it seems to be a massive thing but we're not really sure why it's such a big deal. Anyway, Dom paid for his sub first and got a receipt, I paid for mine and didn't get one. Being a typical British citizen and tourist in a foreign country I didn't want to make a fuss (believe me if I was in the comfort of my home I would have) …. why didn't I bloody say something and get a free sandwich? Dom thinks that the guy deliberately did it because he fancied me. Now, i'm not being big headed or saying that I think I'm some sort of bombshell but he did manage to throw in at least three compliments whilst serving me so I think Dom may have been right that he was being kind and letting me have a free sandwich. This was sort of confirmed as we walked out and he gave me the "why didn't you say anything? I was trying to seduce you with a free sub" look. Damn it!

We caught a taxi to Venice Beach and are currently in our uber cool, exposed brick, mural on the wall room, or should I say apartment it's that big? Dom is stuffing his face with a family sized bag of cheezy cheetos. I think he thinks that because i'm engrossed in writing this that he can get away with not sharing so I better go and get some before he scoffs the lot.