TRAVEL // Los Angeles, California Pt. 1

Hey there!

I think this will be the post before the penultimate post recalling my trip across North America. It feels as if I have relived my journey for a second time and, yet again, I feel really quite sad it is over.

Anyway, we took the Coastal Starlight Amtrak from San Fran to LA. It may have taken 14 hours but I read an entire book and met some rather lovely people too. It was a long journey, and not the cheapest, but we got some of the most beautiful views (eventually).

We eventually got to LA and got a taxi to our hotel. It wasn't extortionate but we only went about 7 minutes down the road, so you'd sure hope not! We booked a room at Stay On Main which was pretty much the only reasonably priced place we could find. The lobby of the hostel was absolutely gorgeous and breakfast was included (oh yeah). We booked a private room and bathroom and, whilst it was nice to not have to share a bathroom, it was not the nicest room! However, what can you expect? I had just been staying in a boutique hotel in San Fran so nothing was going to compare. I cannot fault the location though. It was less than a 10 minute walk to a metro station direct to NoHo (North Hollywood - man that made me laugh).




On our first day in LA we went to Universal studios but that deserves it's own post (of course!). Our first day in Hollywood however was full of rain. I thought it wasn't meant to rain in LA but it does and it was so heavy I actually thought I was going to be in a reenactment of Twister. As soon as we got off the Metro we were approached by people saying they were doing a half price Hollywood and homes tour. We jumped on to realize they had no roof on their van and that it would rain 20 minutes in. Fortunately we managed to photograph the Hollywood sign and Downtown LA before the heavens opened!




Whilst it was raining I managed to convince my sister to tour the El Capitan Theatre. It is the cinema where all of the Disney premieres take place. That's right, Johnny Depp, James Franco, Angelina Jolie and the cast of High School Musical have all been backstage in this place. We got to go through all of the backstage dressing rooms, have a look behind the cinema screen and got lots of little facts and tidbits about how it runs. The manager of the cinema also took lots of photos of us which we really appreciated and even gave us popcorn when we left.




What makes this cinema just lovely is that they actually put on a little something more when it comes to cinema showings. Tickets may be $15 (which isn't that much more than anywhere else to be honest) and they may show only one film at a time, but they always have a little extra with the show. They were about to play the new Avengers film and so had a costume exhibition. They were telling us of lots of other events they held and I know that if I ever came back to Hollywood I'd 100% go see a show there.

So that's a brief overview of my first day in Hollywood. Have you ever been? What are your favourite spots along the Walk of Fame? Let me know!