We had a stopover in Los Angeles on the way home from Australia in 2001. Unfortunately, to my disappointment, we didn’t get to see anything because our body clocks were buggered, so we spent the whole day sleeping then the whole night awake!! I remember we left Sydney, Australia at 1.30pm on the Tuesday afternoon and arrived in Los Angeles something like 6.30am Tuesday morning. So really, we had flown 13 or 14 hours but our clocks went back 19 hours. It was really weird going back to the time and day before we even got on the plane, it was like we hadn’t done any flying at all, yet we had been awake so long. Being on that flight was like being trapped in time.
Because of that, we decided to have another stopover on the way home from New Zealand (via Hawaii) and stay for 2 nights, to give us the opportunity to see what we wanted to see. To be honest, two nights was enough. I mainly wanted to see the Hollywood sign and the Walk of Fame, so I was happy when we found a trip that gave a tour of LA which would take us to the famous spots. It was an afternoon trip, so we spent the morning heading to Santa Monica Beach, walking along Santa Monica Pier. We were there at the end of March when the weather wasn’t brilliant, so the beach looked deserted. I can imagine it’s a lovely location on a hot summer’s day.
The first stop on our trip was to see the Hollywood sign. Spotting the Hollywood sign from a distance was just how I had imagined it. It was no different to what you see on TV. That stop on our tour around LA lasted about 10 – 15 minutes, but it was enough to see it with our own eyes, take some pictures and say “been there, done that, got the t-shirt!”
The next stop was to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I was quite excited by this point because I wanted to find the star for Dick Van Dyke. You can imagine my excitement when it was one of the first ones we saw! We was lucky to find it so quickly because that walk is about 3.5 miles and contains thousands of names; it would have been impossible to look at them all in one go, especially since we only had about 40 minutes before getting back on the bus. The stars were a pink colour with gold edges set in black marble with the names written in gold. After about 15 – 20 minutes, we had seen enough to be satisfied. I still wanted to find Celine Dion though (Rob’s favourite artist) and luckily, she popped up as we were about to give up. The location of the Walk of Fame was a bit odd, leaving me rather unimpressed. The street itself felt rundown. Shops were selling cheap, tacky items and pizza places were next door. There was also the glitzy Chinese Theatre right in the middle. A weird combination; there was no feeling of ‘Hollywood glamour’. I really did think the Walk of Fame would have better surroundings, maybe located on the path of some park or expensive shopping centre. It would make more sense if it was in the street next to Rodeo Drive or something. Anyway, I’ve seen it, so I’m satisfied.
The rest of that tour took us to some famous, well known, spots in LA. We saw the outside of the theatre where they hold the Oscars and we spotted the house of David and Victoria Beckham. We also drove past some other famous homes but have no idea whose houses they were as the driver was speaking through the speaker while driving, so we couldn’t see him. We also drove around Beverley Hills, going past the Beverley Hills Hotel and had an opportunity to do a bit of shopping in Rodeo Drive! *cough* I didn’t feel star struck when seeing all this, to me it was just another hotel, another street, another house, another shopping centre – all of which are ridiculously overpriced.
Back at the airport for our final flight home, we were dismayed at how disorganised they were. LAX is definitely the WORST airport we have been to. We had to queue up for more than an hour to check in. I think we were stood in the same spot without moving for 15 minutes at one point. Once we checked in, we found we had to take our cases to a different desk, which required more queuing up. Once that was sorted we were relieved to have some time to relax, until we discovered we had to queue up again to have our passports checked before going through security, even though we had our passports checked when we checked in. Those checking our passports the second time were really really picky. They examined every feature on our faces and compared them to our passport photographs. I spotted one bloke trying to explain why he had short hair compared to his longer hair on his passport. Bizarre! What doesn’t make sense it why checking in took so long when they didn’t even take our cases and did very little. I’ll never work it out! After all that palaver and finally getting through security, it was time to go to the departure gate, so we didn’t have time to do any shopping. People were still queuing up at check-in by the time we got to that stage, so I’ve absolutely no idea how that flight left on time.
I wouldn’t be bothered if I never went to LA again. Our hotel was a bit out of the way and when walking back through quieter streets, it didn’t feel very safe. I don’t know why, just couldn’t shake off the feeling of needing to look over my shoulder every now and again. I can’t work out if I prefer LA or New York. LA was quieter but New York has more to offer so I guess I like both places the same.
Tags: USA