Los Angeles -
USA from coast to coast

Monday, August 7'th

The day after returning to LA we began exploring the city, our main focus was Hollywood and the movie industry. So we started out by driving to the Universal City and checking out what was going on. Apparently there was a theme park, it was already to late in the day to get through it all so we decided to come back tomorrow and see it all. The second item for today was to get to the Hollywood sign, but we didn't know where it was, where could we get a good view?

We asked other tourists, but they didn't know either. We stopped for a drink on the premisis and asked the bartender how to get close enough for a good picture. She thought briefly and drew us a map on a napkin on how to get to the junction of Hollywood Freeway (101) and Vine. After a 10 minute search for the car on the huge parkinglot and another 15 to get the five miles south of Universal City, the sign was right in front of us. We wouldn't drive all the way up there, just close enough for pictures.

The district turned into a nice residential area and we didn't want to act too touristed, so before we were getting to far up the tortuous roads we made a brief stop, five pictures and a minute of Video and we were off again. This time we was not lost, an important milestone.

We ended the day with steaks in a fine restaurant in downtown Pasadena concluded with an hour of Billard and an other movie, this time the scifi flic Virtuosity which was the best we saw I think, it never got up in theaters in Denmark, odd. While leaving the cinema we came across a movie being shot near the carpark. Many movies are shot here in Pasadena, if you see a odd sign on the freeway pointing to the next exit it usuall lead to a movie-in-progress. Perhaps they need extras, just follow the signs. We did not see any of these, perhaps we didn't looked hard enough.

Tuesday, August 8'th

We spend all of Tuesday at Universal Studios and their theme park. Most of the time was waiting in line but they have this nice system to cool off the guests by spraying atomized water in the air. It give a refreshing mist and it doesn't matter that much that you have to wait half an hour in line. The "Back to the Future" ride is awsome and the almost build "Jurasic Park" and "Waterworld" looks promising. But this is too touristed, the Paramount tour was a much better visit.

When leaving we noticed that the theme-park ticket also meant a discount for the Universal City Cinemas so we went to see "The Net" with Sandra Bullock. A okay flic and we could recognice some of the locations where the movie was shot. Movie watching will never be the same again, always disturbed by the need to recognice the location now that we have been on some of them.

Wednesday, August 9'th

This morning we heard in the news that Jerry Garcia from the Grateful Dead had passed away, they were already talking about memorial concert on Venice Beach the following Sunday. Not that I knew much of GD but we planned to go to Venice on sunday anyway. We didn't have any planes for today so we drove around and picked up items on Shehabs shopping list. Folks back home had ordered plenty of stuff that Shehab could pick up (and pay for) so that was the project for today.

A semi-professional VCR here, Move Laserdiscs there (the old LP size ones) and along the way we got more familiar with the city and know our way round. At lunchtime we drove almost to the end of Sunset Blvd to locate a restaurant that was recommend by friends back home - a Hare Chrishna place it turned out to be. I don't know if we got the address right but it was delicious, plenty and cheap.

On the way back we payed a visit to another of Shehabs aquaintance, a HiFi engineer working for Snell, developing HiFi equipment in North Hollywood. His house and amazing basement was converted into a home-movie-theatre laboratory. With a Line-Quadroupler installed I couldn't distingush between Video and the real thing. The sound here was better than the local Movie-Plex.

At dinnertime we tried to get a table at "The House Of Blues" but you have to reserve many weeks in advance. Instead we had dinner at the Dennis Hopper/Peter Fonda place, the only restaurant that offer valet-parking for MC guests. It sound like a rough place but that is just the image, it is okay. The rest of the night we Nightclubed in East Hollywood, it was 2AM when the place suddently closed, was it because it was a school night? This could never happen back home even though it was Wednesday, a strange city.

Thursday, August 10'th

When you are in California, you have to spend a day at Disneyland, the most famous theme park. I know this is a place for families with kids, but I can recomend the rides at Future world - quite good. This is America with a capital A, it will reinforce your prejudice of USA but I don't see it as a bad thing, the happy-family-without-worries image.

We arranged with Rajiv to pick him up in the late afternoon at a family gathering, we headed for Anaheim before noon and found Disneyland after floundering around, searching for the entrance. A huge parkinglot with open shuttle busses going from each section to the gateway, we parked at "A49" or something. I hope we find the car again.

Inside we took the train that circle the grounds to get the general view, visited the classical sights; Sleeping Beauty Castle, said hello to Mickey and stumpled upon a loud parade.

A burger and Fries and off to the more entertaining switchback rides, we got wet in the Wild West and dizzy in Future World, a fun day where we felt like kids again. The night came quickley and we strided for the exit, we couldn't abandon Rajiv at the family-thing any longer. No problems finding the car and Rajiv at the outskirts of Anaheim. On the way home we rented some moves at the local Blockbuster, I remember that "Shallow Grave" was one of them. We all fell asleep in front of the telly.

Friday, August 11'th

Today was set aside for the Grand Tour of Hollywood. We parked at a supervised parkinglot behind Mann's Chinese Theatre in the morning, and bought tickets for the tour in front. We were there half an hour early, to be sure to park the car and to take photos of the hand/foot impressions of famous movie stars, the entire courtyard of Mann's is covered with these tiles. At 11 O'clock a fleet of mini-busses arrived on Hollywood Blvd, we had booked us on the extended Tour of the Stars that would take us up in the residential area, to get a glimpse of celebrity homes.

We started out with a trip to the Rose Bowl, to pick up the rest of the group. It consisted mainly of tourists like ourselves but also some recent newcomers to Los Angeles. A good idea, how often are you a tourist in your own city? Then it was on to Beverly Hills, one manor was bigger than the other and wellknown actors had lived in them all. Most impressing was the Spelling castle, the entire trip up here was in fact going round this place.

Then it was the Clubs in West Hollywood, some we knew and some had a story attached; The Viper Room, owned by Johnny Depp, where River Phoenix toppled over and later died in the Hospital. The Financial district, Rodeo Drive, expensive restaurants, The Town Hall and a Market selling Tourist stuff. A lot of impressions that is a blur in my mind. Near the end we made a trip to Grifith Observatory, when you see it you are bound to think of James Dean in the movie "Rebel without a cause".

There is also a fine view to the southHollywood Sign from the Griffith Observatorie on Mt. Hollywood, they had an excelent exhibition about the Hubble telescope. If you want a really good "Hollywood Sign" picture, take a fake photo inside the themepark at Universal, right next to the escalators to the studies.

Back at Hollywood Blvd we were exhausted, We walked a bit up and down the Walk of Fame. I got my picture of the William Shatner bronce-inlaid star that make out the sidewalk, the true Captain of the Enterprise. Before we headed back to Pasadena Shehab wanted to buy sone Nike Air sneakers, he had seen them in a shop in Beverly Hills. We found the store but they wouldn't accept the VISA-Card, apparently he had reached the limit so I paid with my MasterCard, there was still something left there. Only four more days to go, I hope we don't run out of money before that.

That night we had dinner at Hard Rock in downtown L.A. - Now I have enough T-Shirts to last a decade. I think there hs gone inflation in these cafés, every country have one by now, and you don't even have to go Peru to pick up a "Hard Rock Café Lima" shirt, so I think I have bought my last. That evening we went to see yet a movie, the most expensive at that time - Waterworld, that have gotten terrible criticism but I thought it was quite okay. Mad-Max-goes-sailing kind of story.

Saturday, August 12'th

Today we got up late and just sort of toddled about in Pasadena. We had Pizza for lunch and shopped a little on Colorado Blvd. I bought some novels in a second-hand bookseller (antiquarian bookshop). Not that I found the Tom Stoppard story I have been looking for. But books here were so cheap and looked like good airplane-novels. Tom Wolfe (Bonfire of the Vanities), Anthony Burgess (A Clockwork Orange) and a novel based on the "Alien" MP.

Then it was time to buy some more sporting gear, A Baseball Bat and Ball, Shehab also wanted to buy a catchers glove but it was too expensive so he settled for a genuine wodden club while I choose a nice aluminium bat with a good swing and a "Solid Cork / Rubber Center" ball. It will go well with my collection of knives.

At night we had arranged to eat at Gladstones, one of my favorite resturants in Los Angeles. It is located just where Sunset Boulevard stops and the Pacific begins. We had actually booked this more than a week ago and even then there ws a line. We had to wait ½ an hour but you can always take a walk along the Pacific, Gladstone's you can't miss. We got seted with a view of the sea, night was aproaching and the scenery was fantastic, and so was the food. I had a entire grilled cat-fish for myself, and it was beyond this world and plenty. Also try their Mile cake as desert, I'll bet you won't leave the table without a doggy-bag (It's huge).

That night we didn't do anything except to take car of out overeating, we were transformed into coutch-potatos watching TV on a Saturday night, pathetic.

Sunday, August 13'th

Today was Venice-beach day and we felt a little better from the massive food-intake last night, but it was afternoon before we got out of the house. The radio-announcer said the Jerry Garcia memorial consert would last until 3PM so that we couldn't make. But Venice it was. We parked in a nearby multi-storey carpark and walked down to the beach. There were many people out here that day, perhaps it was the consert, perhaps because it was Sunday.

When you want to go and swim in the Pacific, consider Venice Beach. Although the water can be poluted, we are still alive - but then again we did only dip our toes while strolling the shallow waters. Venice Beach offer the boardwalk reserved for people skating, and you will definately catch a glimse of Harry Perry, the skating, eletric guitar playing guy who have been here for a couple of decades. If you have been to Venice Beach but didn't see a skater with a

Monday, August 14'th

Tomorrow is flying-home-day but we wanted to see as much as possible, we gave ourselves the choise between Warner Bros. and Paramount tours, Paramount it was, mostly because we could find it on our map.

Besides Universal, Paramount also offer a view of their locations. This isn't a theme park like UIP, but is sure exiting, you valk between the different sets, and if you are lucky you might catch a glimpse of a Klingon here, two of the Star Trek series are taped here. They have a small shop for Paramount-stuff, I bought yet a T-Shirt.

You are not allowed to photograph on the premises, I guess thi is to prevent any disclosure of unfinished to a broder audience, but I sneaked to take the watertower photo above. This is a good tour, no fake tourist-attractions, it is the real stuff that you can go and feel with your own hands. The guide knew her stuff and told of where the different street-sets had been used, spiced up with little anecdotes from the world of Motion Pictures.

Many soaps are taped here, we saw the pool that were used to shoot the scene

We rushed back home, shehab was expecting a delivery from UPS. The camera he had been looking for had been chosen but to save around 10% he had ordered it on the phone and today it would arrive. When we got home there was a note on the door saying UPS-guy had been there half an hour before. Shehab said he would try to find the UPS-Van in Pasadena. So the rest of the afternoon he drove round stopping big black vans with golden logos. It must have been a weird expierence for the drivers, was it a hold-up or what. Shehab didn't succeed so he called the local office and ask them to hold back the parcel, then we would pick it up on the

That evening we invited Rajiv and his room-mate to Sushi/Sashimi, this is a delicacy. But be aware of the green paste (Wasabi), a Japanese horse radish that come with your fish. Suddently I needed water, and fast. Well, no fear that I will dehydrate on the plane tomorrow.

Tuesday, August 15'th

Last day of our American adventure, we had to leave for LAX at noon in order to return the car, check in and get our British Air Jumbo to London and from there there back to Kastrup. Shehab phoned UPS to be sure that the camera he had ordered was at the office, and guess what, it was not. Instead they said it was in a vehicle and would be delivered in the afternoon. So Shehab took the car out for a final spin in Pasadena, hunting down UPS-Vans and checking their cargo-hold. But no success, from time to time he returned

A few months after this hectic Tuesday I got a mail from the "City of Pasadena", a parking fine on the amount of $25, for parking on Marengo Ave. in the daytime. I send the money, hopefully they got there alright.

The rest of the day ran like clockwork, the return of the car was unproblematic and lasted 57 seconds. Receipt printed and money withdrawn on my MasterCard included. The shuttlebus to the check-in stand in 5 minutes and we were suddently early, better than the return from Bangkok last summer. Our last US$ was spend on junkfood in Heathrow, it was great to go home now cause we were broke. The trip was roughly $3000 excluding the plane-tickets, but worth every cent.