USA West Coast

Los Angeles and South to Mexico
Los Angeles We cruised into LA at about 10am and dropped our gear at the Hollywood Hills Hostel on Hawthorn Av, just of Hollywood Blvd. This is another travellers hangout, well equipped with laundry, internet, bar, kitchen. We drove up into Beverly Hills, which was nowhere near as posh as we'd imagined. The views of LA were good – an urban sprawl part-hidden in smog, stretching for as far as our eyes could see. We had to return the car to LAX airport, which was much further than we'd imagined. We caught a city bus back, a grimy threatening thing. Every surface was graffiti-covered, even the seat covers and windows. It was impossible to see out. Once again, the bus was full of very impoverished people, in this land where anyone with two cents to rub together has a car.
Hollywood Hollywood itself is a complete toilet. We paced the walk of fame, ie metal plaques embedded in Hollywood Blvd, but recognised few of the personalities. Hollywood Blvd is lined with sleazy restaurants and cheap shops selling tat. There is nothing to see, just lots of undesirable characters and dozens of nervous looking policemen, deployed to stop tourists getting robbed. We ate in one of the sleazy bars, a slimy polish hot dog and revolting Nachos. The nightly TV show on the bar's telly was a blow-by-blow coverage of the day's crimes as filmed from the police helicopters. Armed robberies, car chases and so on. We retreated to the hostel bar and later tried to sleep. This was difficult given the constant buzzing of the police helicopters above.
Paramount Studio Tour It poured with rain most of the time we were in LA, making the grim streets even grimmer. Rather than fester in the hostel, we decided to take in a tour of the nearby Paramount Studio ($17 each). This consisted mostly of trudging round endless 'lots' in a downpour, following our "goofy" would-be star guide. About half the studios are used for US TV shows I've never heard of, so we didn't see any actors of note. However, the props store was pretty cool; Adams Family stuff, Point Break, Officer & A Gentleman etc. Amazingly none of the thousands of items are computer catalogued, it's all done by hand.
Outside, we actually managed to find a reasonably good Italian restaurant called Fabuloso, amidst the Dunkin Donuts and drive in burger joints. It continued to pour with rain all day. I couldn't wait to escape to Mexico, which we did the next morning aboard a greyhound bus.		In the evening. we ate in one of the sleazy bars on Hollywood Bvd, a meal of slimy Polish hot dogs and revolting Nachos. The nightly TV show on the bar's telly was a blow-by-blow coverage of the day's crimes as filmed from the police helicopters. Armed robberies, car chases and so on. We retreated to the hostel bar and later tried to sleep. This was difficult given the constant buzzing of the police helicopters above.

You are reading the story of Adrian and Katie's travels through the Americas between May and August 1998.
Adrian and Katie put the rat race on hold for a year to travel the world.

        

Adrian & Katie's World Tour News - USA West Coast                                     Last Updated: 2 September 1998
Web Page by Adrian Ball  (email: adrian.ball@virgin.net)