I got quite excited when I heard breakfast was included in this hostel. Continental? FULL ENGLISH!? Well in both cases I'd be getting my hopes up... It was a choice of 2 types of cereal, sugared or plain. Oh and toast. Well what was I really expecting? Honestly?... Continental or full English actually! But it was free and it tasted good so it did the job!
There was no chance I was walking any further than I had to in LA anymore, so we figured out the bus system and hoped on one. Well the journey that yesterday had took us 2 hours, literally took no more than 5-10 minutes on the bus. I'm heartbroken... What an idiot!? Anyway, we reached Hollywood boulevard and hopped off to get started on our tour bus.
When ever I get to a new city, I always like to do a tour bus. Part of it is to soothe the massive tourist in me but otherwise it's to help me get my bearings, you get information on all the places and you usually end up seeing all your landmarks in one day! We saw places such as the Chateau Marmont, Hollywood walk of fame, The Standard (owned by Matt Damon, Leonard's DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz), The Chinese Theatre, Hollywood sign in the distance, Melrose Ave... You get the jist, we saw a lot! Obviously the only place we were really interesting in getting off and having a good look was good old Beverly Hills darling, chi chi chi! (Housewives reference!) Which is actually it's own city?? Also each street of Beverly Hills has it's own theme of tree, they don't mix trees! And fire hydrants are silver not yellow like the rest of LA, more fitting for Beverly Hills! Few little facts there if you didn't know it. As we walked to Rodeo we passed the famous Beverly Hills shield and onto Canon.
I WAS HOME! The place was beautiful! Palm trees ran along the centre of the roads, plant beds full of flowers, awnings were on the front of most buildings and the cars, the cars! I never thought I'd get bored of seeing so many Rolls Royces!! Every other person drives them in Beverly Hills! We walked down Canon which is where people go to eat then crossed over and walked up the famous Rodeo Drive. I desperately hoped it wouldn't disappoint me and it really didn't! It's exactly how it's shown in the movies, overflowing with designers shops, rich men and woman, crazy beautiful cars and right at the end - The Regent Beverly Wiltshire! OMG I'm just like Julia Roberts!! 'BIG mistake, BIG mistake... HUGE!'
We reached our limit of total jealousy fairly quick but struggled to pull ourselves away from it, so instead we swapped Rodeo for the streets of Beverly Hills! It's just across the boulevard and your straight into it, huge houses, even more flash cars and big private gates - WHAT IS THIS PLACE!? We wandered aimlessly around the streets, probably looking like criminals because I was taking photos of every other house! We walked right up until we came to a small park where we had to cross this stupid junction, which, if Americans just used round-abouts would have been super simple but instead was a free for all! All with no pedestrian crossing!? Seriously LA doesn't cater for walkers! So we chilled out in the shade of a huge tree for about an hour not wanting to leave Beverly Hills but slowly starting to realise that this was the last part of our trip together and that I'd soon be losing Fliss and going at it alone! It's slowly starting to sink in...
Well we got lost, AGAIN. We bickered about which street we'd come up but attempted to walk down them all with none of them looking familiar, so we cut our loses and went down the one we thought was the best shot. It was wrong, well sort of, we were about 3 streets up from where we'd gone in! At least we got to see more fancy houses though!? Before leaving I'd been told I have to eat at a Cheesecake Factory and because we didn't eat at it in San Francisco we had to do it in Beverly Hills, I mean come on, it's Beverly Hills!
What a good choice!! I got a chorizo and avocado omelette and fliss got a chicken salad. One, they tasted unbelievable! But two, the size of the portions are crazy, even in LA! The waiters off the beach aren't as friendly though, our waiter seemed weirdly paranoid about us being ok, and did we have everything. Umm, you literally asked us 5 minutes ago and you asked while you were sat down at a table chatting to someone else... We're fine thanks! But despite that, the food was great!
Now you obviously can't go to the Cheesecake Factory and not get cheesecake, literally not allowed. So we shared a red velvet cheesecake, oh my lord, the size was unbelievable! We shared it and couldn't finish it! Now I'm not one for leaving food, especially dessert! But there was just no way it was going down, we ended up leaving about a 1/4 of it, so disappointed in myself...
We picked up the tour bus again and passed the farmers market, up Melrose ave. where we could see the Hollywood sign, this is why I love these tour buses because of the information you find out! The sign was build in the 1920's and originally said 'Hollywood Land' but the land part fell down the hill! It's also been subject to vandalism and change since then too - once when the anti-marijuana law came in, it was changed to say 'Hollyweed' and was changed for when the pope visited Hollywood to 'Holywood'. It's since then had a full rebuild to be more secure and is now classed as a historic monument!
Our bus tour finished back on Hollywood Boulevard, we ended up doing more shopping which resulted in me not spending anything and fliss spending again! I'm beginning to see a pattern here... The only thing I did buy, were some scissors for my beard. I'm sick of looking like a homeless person and sick of everywhere saying they won't trim it for me, so I'm taking matters into my own hands!!
We finished our night a little earlier than usual, I had a beard to trim and we had a MOUNTAIN of laundry to do. So that was the flash and fabulous end of our first full day in LA. Spending hours doing laundry! I'm like a real housewife!!
x
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