Karol Kaczmarek

We left Sequoia National Park in the afternoon and started 5-hour drive to Los Angeles. After looking outside the window it was clear we are heading to the south!

We checked in to our hotel in downtown around 7pm and went out for a short walk around and dinner. My first impression – there is police everywhere! Surprisingly, I felt much safer in LA than in SF, where really weird (but really, really weird!) people were on literally every corner . Later on it occurred that just few blocks away from our place is main LA police department, that explained everything It was also quite noisy there, as LA is patrolled with helicopters most of a day.

There was also some shooting on the street for the movie/advertisement of Prime Suspect were people were walking back and forth all the time. We’ve joined them. Does it mean we gonna be famous?

On Thursday we went straight to Hollywood. Maybe the legend of this place brought by movies made me expecting too much, but first time during our trip I was disappointed and so was Czarek. Many buildings are old and derelict, the walk of fame is boring…

and while walking along the Hollywood Boulevard every 30 seconds you are stopped by someone wanting to sell you something, usually some tours. There was nothing to do (unless you are interested in watching celebrities made of wax etc.), so we bought 2 of them, one general to visit nicest and most famous places in Hollywood and another one to see movie stars’ homes.

It made our visit there a bit more entertaining, as professional guides were able to tell interesting stories and present the area in more interesting way it seemed to be at the first sight.

By the way, all lamp posts in main part of Hollywood had posters of Polish Film Festival which will be held there in Octover  

And here is mine second note about LA: it’s covered with smog, yuck!

Next morning (ok, it wasn’t really morning already, nights in LA are so much fun!) we went to the Universal Studios, which is a bit pricey (77$), but a lot, lot of fun! Shows presenting how special effects are created

virtual roller coasters, (you feel like you are riding the rollercoaster when are not really moving anywhere!),

tour through Universal stages where movies are recorded (where everything is faked…),

the biggest 3D cinema in the world (you watch King Kong and T-Rex fighting around you, as screen surrounds you)

and much, much more!

We spent there whole amazing day and we still didn’t manage to see everything, hopefully next time! 

In the evening we went to Santa Monica Beach to see it during night (where we were stopped by the police, cause Czarek likes ignoring some/most of signs;P Luckily policeman just asked whether he can read in english and wished a good stay in California ) and on our last morning in LA we checked it once again, during a day  

It was also first cloudy day while we are in California, but who cares, we were just about to set out to San Diego!