July 12, 2003
Santa Monica (July 6-12th)
Well Santa Monica is lovely, if a little pricey and short on things to do. Firstly whilst the hostel is still cheap, it's the most expensive I've stayed in so far at $28USD a night for HI members. Still it's very nice and literally one block from the beach. I haven't really done that much for the last week except see the sights, visit the beaches and cinemas, oh and some drinking.
On monday I really did very little except go and watch T3, get a haircut (I've since found out I could have got a much cheaper one at the Vidal Sassoon academy) and then spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach, oh and I had dinner at the "English" pub round the corner from the hostel.
On tuesday I took a trip out to Universal studios (nice discount for staying at the hostel as well!) and whilst all the rides were pretty tame they were still great fun, in particular Shrek 4D was superb, as was the live fire Backdraft show and the 50 minute long studio tour, with all it's various surprises along the way. I foolishly went out for a curry on tuesday night.
The Bates Motel
On wednesday I took a sightseeing tour (again discounted) which took in Venice Beach, Hollywood, Bel Air, homes of the rich and famous, Rodeo Drive, Sunset Strip. Also the toilets where George Michael was arrested and the location where Hugh Grant was arrested. Went out for dinner at the 50s style burger bar Johnny Rockets (puns aplenty in that name for sure).
Venice Beach, where White Men Can't Jump was filmed
The Hollywood Sign (covered in smog)
Very large advert (if you're wondering who it is, it's Vincent Pastore who played Sal aka Pussy in the first two seasons of the Sopranos)
Santa Monica Beach
Thursday was spent on Venice Beach, before heading off to see Pirates of the Caribbean, which is an absolutely superb movie, probably the best of this summers big movies. Johnny Depp pulls off a cracking English accent and most of the supporting cast are English which is a pleasant change. The chap who played Lieutenant Gruber in Allo Allo has a small part, also Jack Davenport from This Life and Coupling and Mackenzie Crook (or Gareth from the Office) plays a very amusing pirate with a wooden eye. Then in the evening I headed down the pier for a free concert with the Afrocelts playing (formerly the Afrocelt Sound System). Whilst I like their music they're not really a band to watch live, so I headed off with the others who'd gone down to a pub for the rest of the evening, then a manky little club called the Circle which was literally one room with a giant bar in the middle. I should also mention I saw my first celebrity in the form of Ed Begley Jr at the concert.
Today I decided to not do much and went to watch the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, not too bad, but not that faithful a version of the original comic (why in hells name did they introduce Tom Sawyer and Dorien Gray I'll never know). Anyway that's about it for Santa Monica, off to NZ tomorrow night.
Posted by Alexis at July 12, 2003 03:14 AM