Hollywood
There sure are a lot of crazy people in the US. People who eat out of garbage cans, people who come over and stand with you at the bus stop acting as if they belong there, people who dress up as Fiona from Shrek, as Legolas (badly), as Batman (twice), people who jump over other people, and people who walk up and down Sunset Blvd. (no, not the whole thing, that would take two days) for no apparent reason (and yes, the last ones would be us).
Most of these crazy people seem to accumulate in Hollywood.
Getting there, however, was more difficult than we had thought. Looking up the bus routes and schedule online was easy, but then, which side of the road do you stand on? We crossed the road three times, but in the end, only half an hour later than planned (and seeing how beautiful the weather was, waiting wasn't so bad), we were on the bus and riding on Sunset Blvd. towards Hollywood.
Just to give you an impression of the length of the boulevards here: we drove on it for half an hour, and that was only a fraction of its length. Oh, and to clarify, the "we" consisted at that point of Sylvia, Maria, Dave and me.
The first thing we noticed on Hollywood Boulevard was a very ugly silver thing. We still have no idea what it is. The second thing we noticed is that the walk of fame is kind of drab and disappointing. We didn't know most of the names (we found Johnny Depp after a while though, but this was at least half an hour further, the walk of fame is very, very long), and the stars didn't look very spectacular.
Around this point, we got a call from Tristan, saying he was also in Hollywood, at the Mann's Chinese Theatre to be precise, and we went there to meet him. Now, this Chinese theatre truly is a sight. Not only is the forecourt filled with the famous hand and foot prints of famous people (The Gubernator's "I'll be back" included), but there are dozens of -I presume-wannabe actors walking around in costumes. I spotted the above mentionned Fiona, Legolas and the two Batmans, but also Gandalf, Wonder Woman (who didn't have the legs for the part), Catwoman, NightCrawler, the Phantom of the Opera (we didn't actually recognise this one, he told us himself, in a very cheery voice), and many, many more.
Even watching bad disguises can get boring after a while, and luckily the next attraction waited at us next door at the Kodac Theatre: a beautiful view of the one thing we knew we shouldn't miss: the Hollywood Sign. On photographs it reduces to a white blur, but it looks quite impressive to the naked eye. Across the street was the El Capitan theatre, where, according to my Lonely Planet guide, Citizen Kane premiered, and where Pirated of the Carribean was now playing.
Walking down there were more sights. The T-rex above the Ripley's believe it or not, the erotic museum (oddly enough much less tackier than the rest of what we saw) many, many souvenir shops, with prices for T-shirts going down as we progressed (from three for fifteen dollars to five for ten), and so on. After a while we turned around, because Maria really wanted to see Ocean's twelve at the Chinese theatre. As it turned out to play only at 7 (it was 5), we decided to get something to eat first.
This is where the endless walking comes in. Because what looks closeby on the map really isn't. When we finally arrived at the restaurant we'd picked (the "old spaghetti factory", which looked really nice), it turned out to be full, with a 35 minute waiting time. No way we'd make the movie. So what did we do? We just took the bus back to where we came from.
We ended up at "Hooters". The concept? Very spicy food, and very scantily clad waitresses (mostly the latter). I had a quesedilla, which is a tortilla with a lot of cheese, mostly (some chicken, too). Tristan spent most of his time trying to get the optimal zoom-in on the waitresses butts.
On a small aside, there is one thing I like about American restaurants, any American restaurant, actually. You get as much tap water as you want, for free. I hate this in the Netherlands, they never have big bottles of water, just the tiny ones that you then try to stretch out over a meal, which is almost impossible. Why not just give out tap water?
At the theatre, I got a "I {heart} huckabees" poster. The movie was nice. A lot of fun, mostly, it didn't pay to think too much about the plot. Seeing Amsterdam was nice, and some of the scenes that were supposed to be located at Amsterdam station were actually filmed in Haarlem, so that was nice to see. I'm not really homesick yet, but I admit that my respulsion to Guus Meeuwis has lessened considerably.
So, that was it. The Hollywood Experience. So celebs, unfortunately, although we did see two limo's. They were probably all at the Golden Globes.
Back to normal now. Homework tomorrow, bed now.
Hedwig
Most of these crazy people seem to accumulate in Hollywood.
Getting there, however, was more difficult than we had thought. Looking up the bus routes and schedule online was easy, but then, which side of the road do you stand on? We crossed the road three times, but in the end, only half an hour later than planned (and seeing how beautiful the weather was, waiting wasn't so bad), we were on the bus and riding on Sunset Blvd. towards Hollywood.
Just to give you an impression of the length of the boulevards here: we drove on it for half an hour, and that was only a fraction of its length. Oh, and to clarify, the "we" consisted at that point of Sylvia, Maria, Dave and me.
The first thing we noticed on Hollywood Boulevard was a very ugly silver thing. We still have no idea what it is. The second thing we noticed is that the walk of fame is kind of drab and disappointing. We didn't know most of the names (we found Johnny Depp after a while though, but this was at least half an hour further, the walk of fame is very, very long), and the stars didn't look very spectacular.
Around this point, we got a call from Tristan, saying he was also in Hollywood, at the Mann's Chinese Theatre to be precise, and we went there to meet him. Now, this Chinese theatre truly is a sight. Not only is the forecourt filled with the famous hand and foot prints of famous people (The Gubernator's "I'll be back" included), but there are dozens of -I presume-wannabe actors walking around in costumes. I spotted the above mentionned Fiona, Legolas and the two Batmans, but also Gandalf, Wonder Woman (who didn't have the legs for the part), Catwoman, NightCrawler, the Phantom of the Opera (we didn't actually recognise this one, he told us himself, in a very cheery voice), and many, many more.
Even watching bad disguises can get boring after a while, and luckily the next attraction waited at us next door at the Kodac Theatre: a beautiful view of the one thing we knew we shouldn't miss: the Hollywood Sign. On photographs it reduces to a white blur, but it looks quite impressive to the naked eye. Across the street was the El Capitan theatre, where, according to my Lonely Planet guide, Citizen Kane premiered, and where Pirated of the Carribean was now playing.
Walking down there were more sights. The T-rex above the Ripley's believe it or not, the erotic museum (oddly enough much less tackier than the rest of what we saw) many, many souvenir shops, with prices for T-shirts going down as we progressed (from three for fifteen dollars to five for ten), and so on. After a while we turned around, because Maria really wanted to see Ocean's twelve at the Chinese theatre. As it turned out to play only at 7 (it was 5), we decided to get something to eat first.
This is where the endless walking comes in. Because what looks closeby on the map really isn't. When we finally arrived at the restaurant we'd picked (the "old spaghetti factory", which looked really nice), it turned out to be full, with a 35 minute waiting time. No way we'd make the movie. So what did we do? We just took the bus back to where we came from.
We ended up at "Hooters". The concept? Very spicy food, and very scantily clad waitresses (mostly the latter). I had a quesedilla, which is a tortilla with a lot of cheese, mostly (some chicken, too). Tristan spent most of his time trying to get the optimal zoom-in on the waitresses butts.
On a small aside, there is one thing I like about American restaurants, any American restaurant, actually. You get as much tap water as you want, for free. I hate this in the Netherlands, they never have big bottles of water, just the tiny ones that you then try to stretch out over a meal, which is almost impossible. Why not just give out tap water?
At the theatre, I got a "I {heart} huckabees" poster. The movie was nice. A lot of fun, mostly, it didn't pay to think too much about the plot. Seeing Amsterdam was nice, and some of the scenes that were supposed to be located at Amsterdam station were actually filmed in Haarlem, so that was nice to see. I'm not really homesick yet, but I admit that my respulsion to Guus Meeuwis has lessened considerably.
So, that was it. The Hollywood Experience. So celebs, unfortunately, although we did see two limo's. They were probably all at the Golden Globes.
Back to normal now. Homework tomorrow, bed now.
Hedwig
posted by Hedwig @ 11:02 PM
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