The Hitchhiker

11/05/2010

Actually the longest day ever!

I left home at 5.30am bst and arrived at heathrow in plenty of time for my 7.55 flight to Washington dc.

Unfortunately the lady at the check in desk told me that my flight was going to be delayed due to the volcanic ash that I 'wouldn't have a chance in hell' of making my connecting flight to LA. So after some umming and ahhhing, lots if tapping on her keyboard and charging me an extra £60 she put me on the direct flight to LA in premium economy.

It wasn't scheduled to leave until 10.05 so I had like 3.5 hours to waste walking around duty free and eat breakfast. I bought new perfume, a massive book and a load of rubbish magazines and ate muesli for a while.

Luckily my flight was only delayed by 45mins, I was told to expect up to 2hrs.

I mainly slept and read magazines for 11hrs which was pretty dull. The plane was pretty old and there were only 2 films on for such a long flight which was rubbish. I watched Sherlock homes. Plus in 11hrs there was an awful meal an hour in and a snack before we landed so I was ravenous for most of the flight. Also I was ID'd to buy a 6dollar beer, because I 'looked like 17'. Sigh!

I eventually got to LAX at 1420ept and was picked up by Andrew and Johny. Me and andrew chatted whilst Johny navigated through the really bad traffic through LA to Hollywood where our motel is. I was feeling relatively chirpy considering the whole jet lag thing so after a quick shower we went for a wander down Hollywood Blvd and saw some stars on the road, we particularly liked ricky martin's . . .

We ate some yummy burgers and tried to walk near where the premier was for 'letters for juliett' but were sent to the other side of the road. Denied.

We then decided to go for a nightime drive up Mulholland Drive - which is the setting of one of andrew's favourite films. We saw great views over Universal City and LA, and then I fell asleep on the way home. Just getting into bed now at 11pm which I think is pretty good concidering I've been up for over 24hrs (minus a nap or two :-P ) sleep time for the hitchhiker x

12/05/2010

I was wide awake at 6.15. Not too bad I things concidered.

I used the free wifi for a while until the boys woke up. Our first job of the day was to try and find the diner that was featured in mullholland drive and eat breakfast there, so we went to Compton which was pretty dodgy and tried to find it, but couldn't find it . . . So remained hungry.

We ended up having a very nice breakfast near the marina on the way to Santa monica. I had a short stack (2) buckwheat pancakes (that was the healthy option!), andrew had a full stack (4) of buttermilk pancakes - I don't know where he puts it, I could barely move!

We had decided to spend the day at Venice beach, we had already seen down Hollywood blvd and the Chinese theatre, had driven through downtown And Disney and universal studios was outrageous money.

Venice beach is strange, it's like Camden Market but by the sea. There are lots of hippie shops and drug paraphanalia on this lovely White sand beach. It also has an amazing skatepark and a spectators area where you can watch people doing tricks and stuff, and loads of basketball courts and outside gyms. There was one outside gym that was huge with loads of guys swinging from hoops and doing the double bars . . . I just went on the swings. At one end of the beach was a massive pier a bit like the one in Brighton with some rides and stuff.

We spent most of the day walking up anddown the boardwalk and chilling by the sea, it was pretty warm but there was quite a cool breeze coming from the NW. I went into this really awesome bookshop and asked to be recommended a book buy this lady and she handed me one and I bought it, when I started reading it it was based in Devon and written by and englishwoman . . . Oh well.

As I said we went and lay on the beach for a while and Johny went for a swim whilst me and andrew chilled and read our books. I had a mild panic attack as I looked over to where Johny had been swimming and there was no one just a load of massive rolling crashing waves.
Andrew and I took it in turns to try and find him, he eventually returned after having gone for a run. Silly girl!

After I was sufficiently sunburnt and we had walked the length of the beach a few times we decided to call it a day and start heading home. We thought we might have a night in with some take out and some beers. So we stopped at a walmart for some junk food for the trip (I tried a Twinkie, it was delicious, I now know what that guy in zombieland was going on about) and they didn't sell Alcohol, they checked all you recipts on the way out and there was Security and police everywhere, we deduced that we weren't in a very nice neighbourhood so gave up on the beers and headed back to Hollywood and found a Japanese restaurant that did take out, we got a selection of noodles and sushi and headed back to the room and watched Sex and the city.

Tomorrow we hit the road . . .