To Hollywood
Saturday (continued...)
As the train wound its way onward I got a chance to chat
with the people I had dinner with. I was seated with a guy
and his daughter, he pointed out places that we were passing
- Pismo beach, a good sunbathing spot, was something I would
have liked to have seen but alas it was a day excursion by
bus.

The sun set and the many lights of the off-shore oil rigs
lit up the dark ocean like a christmas tree. I decided to
relax a while and take stock.
Santa Barbara came and went; eventually the end of the line
approached - my stop. LA at last! The car staff were good -
the lady who was looking after us had been on a several-day
train journey from LA to Seattle and now back again, and she
made it clear that she didn't care whether we got off the
train or not - she was getting off anyway! In the darkness I
could see the stark outskirts of LA: large buildings, school
bus depos, XXX live nude shows, all that you would expect
really. When I finally got off the train I wasn't entirely
sure how to proceed. I knew I had to get to Hollywood
Boulevard, via the subway. A scary experience, it was eerily
quiet down there to begin with but as the subway train got
on its journey so the people crammed in, until eventually it
was like rush hour on the London Tube. Most seemed to be
working people, yet it was after 9pm; I guess they really do
work late!
10pm, and I arrive out of a hole in the ground on Hollywood
Boulevard. It is dark, there aren't many people about, and
it looks like the wrong side of town. Oh dear. The hostel
was cunningly disguised as an old appartment block - no
wait, it WAS an old appartment block! The front desk was
behind re-enforced glass and the warden there looked very
nervous indeed. I checked out the kitchen and living room
areas - a strangely small kitchen which looked kind of
grubby (yet people were bravely cooking a chicken stew), and
a big screen tv being watched by some leather-clad smokers.
I went to bed. The dorm was along a bare-boarded corridor,
the lift stopped working that very evening, and the dorm
window wouldn't shut properly; the bathroom didn't work at
all and we had to use one along the hall in an empty dorm, I
gather the place was in mid-renovation. With the sound of
police sirens blazing away somewhere in the distance and a
slight feeling of insecurity, I tried to get some sleep.
Sunday
In the morning I left as soon as I could - this place gave
me the creeps! But where was I? This didn't look like in the
movies. I surmised that it must be along this way as I had
come from the other direction and there it just seemed to
turn into a freeway. There was already a warm breeze
blowing.
Eventually I saw a bus load of tourists all pointing and
looking at something far off in the hills - a familiar land
mark at last! In one direction there was a freeway, and the
other...

Hollywood! This was the first famous American landmark I had
seen on my trip so far, and it re-affirmed that I was in
fact in America and not some obscure never-ending
metropolis. Hang on a sec...!
The bus driver kindly gave me a ride into the main tourist
part of Hollywood Boulevard, most likely the only part of
Hollywood worth seeing with the exception of some celebrity
homes and movie studios, a glorified industrial estate.
I walked along the 'Walk of Fame'
with all the stars in the pavement, saw the sights that were
there to be seen for free - Black Hawk Down was showing
at the Manns Chinese Theatre, but I couldn't be bothered sitting
in a cinema - checked out a
few of the souvenir shops and then sought a way out. My ruck
sack and bags were becoming quite heavy. I discerned from a
shop keeper that the bus out of here went to Santa Monica,
some 25 miles through LA towards the coast. I managed to get
the next bus and the ride was a long one - two whole hours
or more I sat, stood, changed buses at Pico, all the while
heading in one direction - South West - towards the coast.
We passed through many different areas; in some streets the
houses had bars on all the windows, in Beverly Hills most
had key-coded gates and lush green lawns (a lot like Fresh
Prince of Bel Air). When the bus stopped I was amazed at
what I saw...
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