We made it! We had worked ourselves up a bit about getting through US customs because of the trouble we had at the US embassy in London but our worries were dumbfounded. The lady on customs was brilliant and really interested in our trip! So here we are on our last continent. We were on the same flight as a few others from our hostel in the Cook Islands so we said our farewells and caught a shuttle bus to our hostel in Venice Beach - kindly arranged by Jason and Becky whom we shall be travelling around America with for 6 weeks.

They were not in the hostel when we arrived so we went for a walk down the beach road. Its a sunday so its rammed with people and, well.... freaks I guess! This is not what we wanted today. We've just flown for 9hrs from 5 weeks in remoteness to the most over-the-top country in the world. What a culture shock! Initially, this is how we felt. The intimidation of Venice Beach was enough to trigger the need to return to the easy, slow-paced life of the south pacific. Every other person wants to sell you something or play you their music through headphones and a cd player and every 3rd person is a little bit freaky in one way or another! I think if we'd had a day or two to settle here before being thrust into the fast lane, we could've enjoyed the weird and wonderful of Venice Beach a whole lot more because there are certainly talented people to be admired if you can hack it!

We took in as much as we could before returning to our room where Jason and Becky shortly followed and we caught up on our two weeks apart! For dinner they took us into Santa Monica about a mile down the beach where it's so much nicer! We had a footlong subway sandwich for just $5
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Our next morning was spent on the free computers in the library catching up on the last 5 weeks when we hardly even saw a pc then we made our way to tv studios to sit in the audience of a new gameshow called 'your place or mine' where the contestants compete for makeovers of each room in their homes. Sam and Becks were always shouting and cheering so they won us all free entry to a famous comedy club called Improv! It was certainly a different way to spend 3 hours! Dinner was cheap again - Sam had a burger king and me, Becks and Jase had a chinese meal. My chow mein was delicious and cost around £3.50! The cheap food is going to be too tempting here - maybe this is where we put on our weight!

On our third day, Sam and I went to see the sights that Jase and Becks had already seen which started with Hollywood Boulevard - with the walk of fame (stars in the pavement), kodak theatre (the oscars), the chinese theatre with the hand and footprints in the paving stones and our best view of the hollywood sign. Next up was Rodeo Drive - made famous in Pretty Woman for its expensive shops and situated next to Beverly Hills which we also caught a glimpse of. We also visited the Farmers Market where there is an abundance of food for sale and for very cheap. We finished our tour with a bus ride down Sunset Blvd before meeting up with Jase and Becks at the comedy club for dinner and an excellent night in front of the comedians - who were mostly very good.
Leaving L.A was an easy thing for us to do. What we saw was great because we'd seen it all on tv but I don't think we could've got much more out of it. We picked up our hire car which totals $917 per couple for 44 days and had a fun drive around Beverly Hills admiring the huge and unique houses before heading northbound on the pacific coast highway. Free again!!!