After a 9.5 hour flight and some semi conscious sleep I touched down in LA. I took off at 10pm Fiji time and arrived at 1.30pm the same day due to the time zone change which threw my system a bit, it was like one really long day!

I hopped in a shuttle bus and was driven to my hostel in Compton. Just kidding. I stayed in West Hollywood just down the road from Hollywood Boulevard. I thought it wise to spend a little extra on accomodation to make sure I wasnt staying in the ghetto. The drive from the airport was a long one and made me realise just how big a city LA is, its sprawling! The place I stayed at was a converted motel and quite nice for the price, free internet, free breakfast, good atmosphere.

After checking in I did the usual and went for a wander, first up to the supermarket where I was asked for a dollar by some junkie woman who then tried to sell me crystal meth! I'd only been in the city a matter of hours! Later on I went in search of a cinema as I hadnt been to watch any movies in Fiji and had missed sitting down and watching new films. I went to see Hot Tub Time Machine which was really funny and just what I needed after being on the plane for hours. Afterward I wandered back in the cold, it was 10pm by this point and I was foolishly still wearing my shorts and flip flops. The temperature difference between Fiji and the US is quite noticeable!

Next morning after grabbing my free breakfast I headed out to see a bit. I went in search of the Hollywood sign, a bit of a walk from Hollywood Boulevard to be fair. I hiked up a street where the houses got progressively bigger and more expensive looking til I reached a dusty trail which led me to a point where I could get a decent shot of the sign, the walk was worth it! On my way back down the hill I got chatting to a guy at the bust stop who lives in the area. He told me he shares a large apartment with 3 others and between them all they pay $12,000 a month in rent! I couldnt believe it! He's a music producer and on a good income so I dont think its an issue for him. I walked down Hollywood Boulevard for a while looking at all the different stars on the pavement, they stretch on for miles! I also had a look around outside the Chinese theatre which is where they hold all the premieres. It's also where they have lots of famous handprints and shoeprints of Hollywood actors past and present. I was a bit disappointed to see that Steven Seagal has a spot there (seriously!?) but Robert De Niro doesnt. I asked someone and apparently he doesnt want one, they asked him after the Deer Hunter came out in 1978. I walked up and down the boulevard spotting all the street perfomers and general weirdos that hang around there. People had told me there are a lot of crazy folks in LA and they werent wrong! Its a shame as they also have a lot of homeless people and down and outs there. Every one of them has their own sad story I guess.

I got in pretty late that evening so just chilled out in my room as I was still shattered after the flight the previous day. Some of the lads in my room were going out but I couldnt be arsed and just read in bed and got an early one.

The following morning I got up and out nice and early and visited Universal Studios. Good job I got there erly as there was plenty of queuing for the rides not to mention the trolley tour of the studios itself. The trolley tour was interesting as it took you around a lot of famous sets that are still standing including the Bates motel from Psycho, the log cabin from The Great Outdoors, Amity Island from Jaws and Six Point Texas which is where a lot of westerns were shot back in the day. It's called Six Point Texas as they sometimes shot up to six separate movies there simultaneously, on different streets. We also passed through a large hangar which was a replica of a subway station. The trolley stopped inside. Then the roof caved in, a truck hung precariously a few feet from the trolley and a subway train jackknifed as it came pelting out of a tunnel, all finished off with some flames and sound effects, pretty cool stuff! Afterward the trolley passed through an area which looked like a Mexican town where they recreated a flash flood with gallon upon gallon of water hurtling past and splashing up all over the place. We also passed through areas where Desperate Housewives was being filmed so we had to be completely silent at that point.

I went on the Simpsons ride afterward which was something different. You sit in a stationary carriage which gets raised up below a TV screen that surrounds you in all directions. The carriage moves with the movie that is played, in this case a rollercoaster that runs through Krustyland theme park. It felt convincingly real, so real in fact that I was within 10 seconds of puking all over some kids sat next to me. I wish I'd bought the ride photo afterwards as my face is a classic, pale and droopy with eyes closed, ha ha

Later on I went and sat in on a special effects demonstration which was interesting, the two guys hosting it revealed how different visual, sound and make up effects are created. I also sat in on the Backdraft 'ride', a studio area that was used in the movie. Not much of a ride, more just standing and watching a lot of flames crawl all over everything but pretty cool all the same. I went on a few more of the rides afterward taking advantage of the ones with smaller queues. I had a pretty full on day, I arrived at the park at 10am and didnt get out of there til 7pm. I had a look around the shops outside of the studios, there was an awesome comics and collectables store which had loads of cool stuff that I just cant afford!

On getting back to the hostel at 9pm I once again turned down an invite to go out drinking with my roommates as my legs felt like they were about to drop off from the days outing. I had my dinner and chilled out for the night again.

On my third and final day in LA I got up and caught the bus to the La Brea tar pits which were really interesting. You can smell them from all the way down the street, I found them by following my nose! The La Brea tar pits are where complete skeletons of lots of different species of now extinct animals as well as one woman have been found preserved in the tar for thousands of years. No dinosaurs have been found there though as the tar pits only formed in the last 65,000 years. There is a museum next door where many of the skeletons are kept as exhibits. They have hundreds of wolf skulls in one big cabinet as well as complete wolf skeletons, sabertooth tigers, large three toed sloths, bison, birds, and a complete mammoth skeleton which looks absolutely epic. After the museum I walked past some of the other pits that are scattered around the site as well as one that is currently being excavated. It gives you some idea of just how many animals must still be down there as they are still finding things today. They started excavating the different sites in 1917.

I then hopped on another bus down to Santa Monica pier. Public transport is very cheap in LA, you pay a flat rate of $1.25 for a single journey, whether that be a short hop or in my case a long journey down to the coast from Hollywood. Pretty good value. Some buses are even cheaper, 75c and even as low as 25c for a circuit shuttle bus. After Santa Monica, I caught another bus down the road to Venice Beach. Venice Beach is a pretty interesting spot, full of street performers and weirdos all doing their thing for a dollar or two. Beatboxers, dancers, robot impersonators and just plain nutjobs, they all give the place a really unique feel! As well as the many souvenir shops there are a lot of hippie shops, smoke shops and restaurants.

At sundown I cuaght the bus back to the hostel and went to my hostels sister hostel on Hollywood Boulevard for a karaoke night where free hotdogs and beer were laid on. The beer came straight out of a keg from a tube, you cant get fresher than that! After the keg ran out I headed down to the Sunset Strip to carry on drinking. No-one else I asked was keen to go with me as they were on a budget, obviously a smaller one than mine! One man pub crawl it is then! I was keen to have at least one night out in LA and decided the strip would be a must do. The days of Motley Crue terrorising the strip are long gone but its a very cool place to drink. It has lots of stripbars and famous clubs there, Johnny Depp's place The Viper Room, The Rainbow where Guns N Roses used to play, The House of Blues where Tupac played his last gig before he got shot and the Whisky A Go Go where the Doors played many many years ago. I started at the House of Blues where they had an acoustic night with a fairly talented girl playing her stuff. As good as she was, I stayed for just one beer as it was just too relaxing an atmosphere and I feared losing my momentum and didnt want to tire out. So I headed up the strip and went to the Whisky A Go Go which allegedly still has Jim Morrisons poetry on the toilet walls. I checked and they've had a refurb or two since the late 1960's so someones telling porkys! That night they had a Jimi Hendrix tribute act on who were just great. 'Hendrix' could have been a genetic clone of the man himself, he was that convincing. He looked just like Jimi, he pulled all the faces while kicking out the solos, his stance was just the same, and more importantly his voice was spot on. Cracking gig. What wasnt so cracking was the price of a drink there - $11 for a Jameson and coke. Ouch. So after a couple of whiskys and the end of the gig I headed back down the strip as I had to be up and out early doors to go to San Diego. I completely forgot about the Rainbow so cant tell you what that was like! But I did visit the Viper Room for a drink. Another band had just finished playing and the place was dead. It didnt help that it was a Wednesday night either.

I went to another rock bar on my way back down and got drinking with some businessmen who very kindly bought me some shots of Jager and gave me their contact details for when I get to Vegas. By this point my internal 'pissed and need to go home' alarm had sounded so I thanked them for the drinks and I headed back. I bumped into a Mexican guy on the way home, Jimmy, who I had a long conversation with about God knows what. He probably couldnt work out what I was on about either, ha ha. I couldnt remember where to catch the bus home and didnt want to get lost so hopped in a cab to make sure I didnt end up in Inglewood by mistake.

The next morning I spotted the French guy in my room had his earplugs out so I can only assume I snored like a wrongun, ha ha. My mouth felt like Gandhis flip flop and I was still a little drunk but I got it together and left for the Greyhound station where I got my coach down to San Diego which is where I am now.

My 4 nights in LA were enough to see what I wanted to see, its a massive city but every block is grey and looks like the next one. Better to leave a place on a high than be sick of it when you leave. I had a good time overall though, I'm enjoying the US so far.

Thats it for now!