We arrived at 6pm local time to find out that our connecting flight that was meant to depart at 10pm was delayed till 6am. We followed instructions and went down to the check in desk to find out where we would be staying. Unfortunately several flights had been delayed and we joined the back of a very long queue. Needless to say after several hours of queueing by the time we got to the check in desk all the hotels were fully booked and we had to go and sleep in the departure lounge. We were both pretty fed up to be honest, knowing that we didn't actually need to be in Fiji and it was starting to look like there might be real trouble getting out again. There was a huge backlog of flights and some people had apparently been waiting 5 days to get a flight out!! We headed up to the lounge to have our complimentary dinner and try to get some sleep. Convinced that we weren't going to be able to get on the flight and so not get home for christmas I didn't sleep a wink and just stayed up watching the departure gate to make sure I was the first in line when it opened :) In fairness to the Fijian staff they were all really friendly and the security guards brought round blankets and pillows for everyone and it certainly wasn't their fault that the flights were delayed! Luckily I needn't have worried, when the plane arrived it was huge and everyone piled on.
Having left in the morning, after a 10 hour flight we arrived the night before which is always confusing but obviously the way when crossing the date line. We decided that instead of getting a taxi we
would try and get our heads around the LA public transport and set off in search of the free shuttle that would take us to the bus station. Luckily we met a really nice french couple at the bus stop or we would
have missed the last bus or had to pay $20 for a $2 bus ride...such tourists! We arrived in Santa Monica and made our way through the very nice christmassy streets to our hostel. It was in a great location,
two streets from the beach and one from the main strip. We dropped our stuff off and headed out for some food. We went to a really nice humous cafe with freshly baked flat breads and various dips – it was yummy! Then it was off to bed to catch up on a lot of hours sleep!!
The next day and actually our only full day in LA we decided to head up to Hollywood to see the walk of fame. We once again opted for attempting the public busses as it was just so much cheaper than
getting taxis. Mike, having never been to America before, wanted to have a big american pancakes breakfast, so we set off early in search of calories. Unfortunately when we arrived at a typical american diner we were actually scared off by the very calories we had gone in search of! There were more calories in the pancakes than in a whole days recommended intake and they were proudly displayed just next to the price so there was no denying their existence...we retreated and did a quick side step into the coffee shop next door to order skinny lattes instead.
After several buses (and several hours) we arrived in Hollywood and made our way down the 'walk of fame' towards the tourism bureaux to book a Hollywood homes tour. We did just that and it wasn't long
before we were sitting in the back of a huge open air tourist truck being driven down Sunset Boulevard. In our ridiculous truck it wasn't surprising that we were on the receiving end of rather a lot of rude
remarks but our driver (and guide) was very good at cutting up any perpetrators on the road, in doing so welcoming an onslaught of horn blowing. We saw over 40 celebrity homes including Justin Timberlake's, Christina Aguilera's , Simon Cowell's and Michael Jackson's and I have to say we thoroughly enjoyed the tour!!The houses in Beverly Hills were obviously just amazing and although we didn't manage to see any of the illusive celebrities we both had a great day and finished it off with a well deserved mexican dinner. We headed back to Santa Monica and managed to sneak in some late night shopping before retiring to bed.
The next and final day of our trip we went down to Santa Monica Pier where Mike had an absolute field day playing,sorry working out (!) on the fitness rings. We then walked down to Venice beach/Muscle beach to check out if there were any beefcakes working out. It was a gorgeous
hot day with bright sunshine and as we strolled along the beach sipping coffees and watching passers-by it did not feel like Christmas was only a couple of days away!!
Having left in the morning, after a 10 hour flight we arrived the night before which is always confusing but obviously the way when crossing the date line. We decided that instead of getting a taxi we
would try and get our heads around the LA public transport and set off in search of the free shuttle that would take us to the bus station. Luckily we met a really nice french couple at the bus stop or we would
have missed the last bus or had to pay $20 for a $2 bus ride...such tourists! We arrived in Santa Monica and made our way through the very nice christmassy streets to our hostel. It was in a great location,
two streets from the beach and one from the main strip. We dropped our stuff off and headed out for some food. We went to a really nice humous cafe with freshly baked flat breads and various dips – it was yummy! Then it was off to bed to catch up on a lot of hours sleep!!
The next day and actually our only full day in LA we decided to head up to Hollywood to see the walk of fame. We once again opted for attempting the public busses as it was just so much cheaper thangetting taxis. Mike, having never been to America before, wanted to have a big american pancakes breakfast, so we set off early in search of calories. Unfortunately when we arrived at a typical american diner we were actually scared off by the very calories we had gone in search of! There were more calories in the pancakes than in a whole days recommended intake and they were proudly displayed just next to the price so there was no denying their existence...we retreated and did a quick side step into the coffee shop next door to order skinny lattes instead.
After several buses (and several hours) we arrived in Hollywood and made our way down the 'walk of fame' towards the tourism bureaux to book a Hollywood homes tour. We did just that and it wasn't long
before we were sitting in the back of a huge open air tourist truck being driven down Sunset Boulevard. In our ridiculous truck it wasn't surprising that we were on the receiving end of rather a lot of rude
remarks but our driver (and guide) was very good at cutting up any perpetrators on the road, in doing so welcoming an onslaught of horn blowing. We saw over 40 celebrity homes including Justin Timberlake's, Christina Aguilera's , Simon Cowell's and Michael Jackson's and I have to say we thoroughly enjoyed the tour!!The houses in Beverly Hills were obviously just amazing and although we didn't manage to see any of the illusive celebrities we both had a great day and finished it off with a well deserved mexican dinner. We headed back to Santa Monica and managed to sneak in some late night shopping before retiring to bed.
 |
| On the celerity bus tour |
The next and final day of our trip we went down to Santa Monica Pier where Mike had an absolute field day playing,sorry working out (!) on the fitness rings. We then walked down to Venice beach/Muscle beach to check out if there were any beefcakes working out. It was a gorgeous
hot day with bright sunshine and as we strolled along the beach sipping coffees and watching passers-by it did not feel like Christmas was only a couple of days away!!
We made our flight back to London without any problems and although we spent the whole overnight journey watching films and periodically turning to each other saying 'I can't believe it's over' it was very
exciting to see both sets of parents waiting eagerly in the arrivals lounge.
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