American Style

After a 12 hour flight from New Zealand we arrived in Los Angeles This is what happened in 4 days:

Venice Beach

Venice Beach

• We stayed in a hostel quite far away from the centre. Yet, it was cheap and we got a free breakfast. This was american style - consisting of a muffin and coffee.
• We went on a L.A. tour and saw the main attractions of the city. We almost saw a celebrity when spotting paparazzi running outside a fancy shop in Rodeo Drive (we assume it was Johnny Depp), and we saw walk of fame, the chinese theater, the Hollywood sign, Mulholland Drive, Venice Beach and a few celebrity apartments. Also part of the tour was shopping in Farmers Market (no farmers present) and the Grove. Our new favourite shop is Anthropologie
• Public transport is complicated in L.A. We spent 2-3 hours when taking the bus home. And people looked startled when they saw us since we were the only white people around. It must be unusuall that tourists find their way to the bus - so, both busdrivers and passengers were really helpful towards us.
• 1 day in Universal Studios! 

• We catched a lot of attractions and interactive rides in both 3D and 4D. For Randi the rides were disappointingly short, while Astrid was scared to death. It was particularly funny to see the pictures taken during each ride - Randi is always laughing while Astrid screams. 
• The highlight of the day was the studio tour where we got to drive through different sets. We saw Wisteria Lane (Desperate Housewives), a scene from Jaws, Juriassic Park, Bones, True Blood etc. We saw a Toyota commerical being shot and we found ourselves in a french, german and spanish street (amazingly) at the same time.We drove through the world's biggest 3D film starring King Kong himself, and a couple of dinosaurs.
• We did a lot of eating since we had a eat-all-you-can-pass (beware-it doesn't pay off, it only makes you fat). Randi lost her lasagna plate in the middle of a restaurant and the waiter was amazed that she cleaned up after herself as this was not normal. 

The Hollywood sign

• Randi spent a day visiting the Norwegian seamen's-church in San Pedro, -were her parents and her brother lived for 3 years. She ate waffles and went trough old papers finding articles about her parents. As the only remaining church playing the norwegian anthem on speakers for the norwegian boats, they played it when she was there, and it was loud! Randi also got a private ride back to the hostel from another norwegian lady who ment this was safer than taking the bus...
• Astrid spent her thursday on a remote beach, Playa del Rey, with a talkative italian guy still living with his mother. Apart from him, it was a quiet beach with no tourists as far as the eye could see.
• Later that day we took our good friend, the bus, to Santa Monica beach. We walked at the pier and strolled by the beach watching all the the bodybuilders flexing their muscles.
• (This was a big day for Astrid since this is where her big childhood crush David Hasselhoff was running around during his time in Baywatch)



Walk of fame



Shopping in the Grove



Universal Studios



From the movie "the grinch"



We witnessed some scary things in LA 



The norwegian seamen's-church



Santa Monica pier


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