Waking up in the hotel on Venice Beach, we had breakfast in a rather nice bistro facing out to the sands and the sea, and discussed our plans for the day ahead. In the end we thought we better do the ultra-touristy thing and head toward movie-land, and Universal Studios in particular. Now, just to give you the scale of LA and the surrounding area, it looked on a map as though it was a short 10 minute drive. In actual fact it was around 25 miles away, and through the traffic ended up taking us the best part of an hour. However once we got there, as it was a weekday, it wasn't as rammed with people as you would expect at this time of year.
We parked up in the Jurassic (car) Park(!?!) and headed into the Studios, where we found the entry prices to be pretty much in line with what you find for an amusement park back in Blighty - around $70 per head. In we went, and we headed right for the infamous studio tour in the bendy-tour-bus. This lasted around 40 mins or so, and took us passed sets and buildings where many a famous movie were made - but alas, no sign of anyone remotely recognisable, and only one small independent movie was being made on the lot on that day. 
All the little skits and set-ups around the journey, such as the Jaws appearance and the underground-train-crash and earthquake, are all things you've seen a hundred times on TV, and whilst quite amusing in the flesh, it wasn't the most hair-raising experience in the world (not that I have much hair these days!).
We spent the rest of the afternoon jumping on the occasional ride and show, such as Terminator 2 (old-school head-achey 3d effects), The Mummy Ride (good laugh, but only 90 seconds long!), and the Jurassic Park River Adventure (suprisingly fun, and very wet!). It was all pretty standard stuff, and we did enjoy ourselves, but being in our late-twenties, maybe we went there around 15 years too late.We left the park and headed to our motel for the night, a rather sweet place called El Patio on Ventura Blvd. in Studio City. While we organised our stay in the room, Adam checked his Facebook to discover that some friends from Forest Row - Adam Rogers and his ladyfriend Karlyn Culmer, where staying in LA, just 10 mins away from where we were. The fools have got this crazy idea about travelling from one side of the country to the other!! Whatever next eh?
Anyway, we grabbed a taxi to where they were staying, and was taken aback by the view they had from their window of the Hollywood Sign. We decided to go for dinner and drinks in a bar called Birds, an Alfred Hitchcock themed eatery. Downing pitchers of beer, and bottles of champagne, much fun was had, and it was good to at last socialise properly with someone on this trip, even it did take people we knew from back home to do it!
One of us even did a bit of star-spotting, as Mr Rogers headed to the shop along the way briefly, and joined the queue in the store right behind one Miss Christina Ricci. I suppose one of us had to do some star-spotting in Hollywood.
We said our goodbyes to the guys, and drunkenly called a cab to take us back to our hotel, but not before agreeing to meet up again for a trip up to San Francisco this weekend. At this rate, we may have to get them to write a blog-entry!
The next morning, hungover and tired, Adam and I made the easy decision to head to San Diego for a couple of day's rest lying on beach in the sun. I think after all that's happened over the last few weeks we deserve a bit of a break. Expect a rather empty sounding blog-entry soon!!!
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Now playing: Bros - When Will I Be Famous?
via FoxyTunes
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