Hooray for Hollywood

Well here we are in Los Angeles and it has been an eventful first day. Very confusingly it is still Tuesday 28th February because we crossed the international date line and we are now eight hours behind UK time instead of thirteen hours ahead of UK time - but we have skipped backwards so Tuesday has been going on for a long time! It’s very hard to get my head round! I got quite a lot of sleep on the sky couch on the Air NZ flight from Auckland to LA, unlike poor James who was unable to fold up his legs to fit the couch without pain. This time we got through security nice and quickly, unlike three weeks ago in Houston, and found ourselves outside the airport ready for the next part of our adventure. We spotted a bus that was heading to Union Station and hopped on to it, saving ourselves an expensive taxi fare. Then we decided to take the metro to Hollywood, to our hotel. It seemed like a good idea because it was a direct line of eleven stops, and the train was nice and quiet when we got on. However we spotted a dangerous looking knife lying on the seat behind us, and then as the journey went on, the carriage filled up with some very insalubrious characters. The man beside me was swathed in furs, covered in paint and glitter, and had bits of fluff stuck to his bald head. A spaced out looking teenager spotted the knife and waved it about a bit before putting it into his backpack. And the man across from me soiled himself. Believe me, it was unmistakable. Luckily he left the train shortly afterwards. Traumatised, James and I made our way to our hotel, the Hollywood Roosevelt, and that’s when things started looking up. We were upgraded to a fabulous room overlooking Hollywood Boulevard and the Chinese Theatre, and we can even see the iconic Hollywood sign on a hill to our left. We took an Uber to the Griffith Observatory (with Ivan, the most depressing driver in the world who thought that everything everywhere is going downhill fast, especially LA!) which I have wanted to visit since watching the film La La Land, and it was a really interesting place inside and out with views over the city. We went around all the exhibits and to the planetarium show which was presented by an actor so animated and emotional that he deserved an Oscar! We jumped on a shuttle bus back down the hill and then another Uber back to the hotel. James refused to go back on the metro and I agreed with him. Dinner was in the Hard Rock Café across the street and then back to our comfy room, from where we could hear an alarming amount of sirens screaming around the area.