Hi everyone,
Sorry that its been quite so long since i last sent out an email but I’ve been being incredibly lazy recently. Well, after Hawaii i flew to LA where i spent the first night there in a Travelodge! I decided enough was enough! i was splashing out! So $70 later i found myself in a huge room with it’s own bathroom! A huge tv with sky! a sofa! a telephone! a pizza menu! I was spoiled! but i didn’t go for the pizza because frankly after $70 on my room compared to an average of about $20 everywhere else, pizza just wasn’t an opiton.
Mann's Chinese Theatre, the Batman Premier
I did however take full advantage of the sky TV and as i just couldn’t sleep that night i got to watch quite a few movies. The next morning i got my free breakfast! And then realised the fairytale was over and that i did actually have to leave the hotel for my hostel in Hollywood. However, i had to find a cheap way to do this, since the only option seemed to be a cab which was going to cost about $40. Eventually i decided to take advantage of the free shuttle to the airport that the travelodge offered and then to get on the shuttle from there that would take me to the hostel for about $13 and once i got there the hostel would refund half the cost of my trip as i’d booked two nights with them! which would have been great if i’d remembered to get a receipt…
Hollywood
The hostel in hollywood was actually quite nice, with the rooms being en-suite and all the staff were very friendly, they also offered a free pancake breakfast. I only had two days to spend in Hollywood, which was plenty and especially since by this point in my travels i was just exhausted. I hadn’t stayed in one place for longer than 5 nights since my first week in Sydney, 4 months previously. So in the time i was there i just did as many of the touristy things i could fit in. My favourite bits were actaully the free ones including the walk of fame with the stars on the side walk (kermit the frog has a star!) and the hand and foot prints of famous people at Grauman’s Chinese theatre. To be able to look at Maralyn Monroe’s, Gene Kelly’s, Dick van Dyke’s and Shirley Temple’s handprints and footprints was amazing. (Gene kelly had tiny feet) I went to the museum of hollywood where i got to see old props from movies and go onto the star trek set and onto the cheers set which has been entirely constructed in the museum. So i got to sit in Norm’s chair and stand behind the bar! I also went on one of the tours of the stars homes and got to see loads and loads of famous houses, James Dean, Elvis, Courtney Cox, Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, The osbournes, John Lennon and loads more. Unfortunately no star sitings on the tour, but talking of TomCruise…
The first night i was there happened to be the Batman begins premier!So just by strolling along the street at the righttime i got to see Michael caine, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Adam Brody, Carmen Elektra oh and Tom cruise and Katie Holmes of course! Wow that really is a lot of name dropping in one email! Maybe LA rubbed off on me more than i thought!
So it came time to leave and to be quite honest i was done there, that was enough LA for me. I didn’t find the place to be particularly amnazing and it’s clearly somewhere you’d have to have money and superstar status to appreciate.. unfortunately i have neither of those…
I was getting out of LA by train up to near San Francisco where my aunt was going to pick me up. Firstly to get to the train i had to hike five star studded blocks with my backpack, just to get to the subway station to get on the train to get me to the main station. But i finally got there and got checked in only to discover a delay. The train left an hour late and just kept losing time. What was supposed to be an 11 hour train ride turned into 15 hours and i finally got in at 2:30 am.
My poor aunt and cousin had by this point gone to stay at a hotel and came out to get me when the train finally got in. We got about 3 hours sleep, intrrupted bya call from the student loan company to let me know my course didn’t seem to exist so i couldn’t have any money. Hmmm. So i spent 3 and a half weeks with my aunt and i really used that time to recover and just relax and work my way through their bookcase. We did go into San Francisco to see Les Miserables and then have dinner at a pretty little town overlooking the Golden Gate bridge and the bay. I would have chosen that day toforget my camera.
I aslo got to see a lot of Rachel’s horse as she’s very into horse riding. But before i knew it it was time to leave. There i was having gained another piece of luggage, an entire new wardrobe (hand-me-downs from my 14 year old cousin) and another year of my life (i had my birthday while i was there and heading out the house at 5am for the airport.
Rachel and the donkies
I spent the 4th July here with my uncle in Boulder and we went to the most amazing firewroks display i’ve ever seen. Although it really isn’t a British holiday, with the whole point of it being “woo hoo, we got rid of the British!” as you can imagine, i didn’t draw too much attention to myself.
It’s been quite an All American visit to Boulder since i also got to go to a Cheerleading competition (whoops it’s not cheerleading, it’s dance squad… with pom poms…and cheerleading outfits…and they perform at games… what am i missing here? Anyway it was interesting to watch, despite it being a littl disturbing to watch 14 year olds dance quite so provocatively, with facial expressions to match. But Cory’s team had problems with their music and ended up having to keep going without any music. The whole audience cheered all the way thorugh and gave them a standing ovation at the end. Still, all the girls were really upset as this competetion decides who gets to got through to the nationals.
Poms
So that’s all up to date for now. In just over a week i got to New York to meet Jon (who i met in New Zealand) and in the mean time i’m doing some babysitiing for Cory’s mum’s soon to be step children. So the next update will be from the UK. I can’t quite believe i’ve been away from home for nearly 6 months now and nearly made it all the way around the world!
I hope everyone’s well and i’ll see you alll soon.
Sarah xxxx
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