CHAPTER 2- Los Angeles

So the next stage of our trip has begun-America. We set off early in the morning of Saturday May 1st towards Heathrow, our bags full of clothes rather than mosquito nets and over-sized medical kits. After an easy check in, we had a few hours wait before we got our flight to LA airport. While we were slightly down about not being able to stay with Grievzy's cousin, we had a few ideas of where we were going to stay. We ended up, after a long wait for a shuttle bus that never came, in a hostel near a place called Inglewood, very near Compton as we found out. After getting checked in, we had our customary chilling period, before decided to take a power nap before possibly meeting with Catherine Grieve. However, after waking up at 4am the next day it was clear that wasn't going to happen, and so after a few more hours sleep we got up early, and heading to a place called Santa Monica, meant to be a "more agreeable" place (to be fair we were kept up a lot of the night by sirens in this Inglewood area). The day was mainly made up for us walking around the beach area, checking out the famous Santa Monica Pier, before heading down to another beach area called Venice Beach. We also managed to find a a bunch of classic "Gs" playing basketball on outside courts. Finally after going lobster red on the beach, we hit a cafe to wait to meet Catherine Grieve and then take a ride through the Hollywood area in her blue hummer, which made us feel pretty damn cool. We then had some lunch in the Beverly Hills area, and with our best British accents we explained our sleeping situation near Compton. We were then all good to stay at Catherine Grieve's that night, which was great. We headed back to "the ghetto" (though everyone who lived in LA thought it was a really rough area, we hadn't really experienced that bad side) to get our stuff, then hit Catherine G's place. That night we chilled on the rooftop pool in LA, before heading out to get some food. Monday, we headed out to get some food, before walking around for 3 hours trying to find the CBS studio to try and get on a live audience for a show. However, once we found it, there was only "The Price is Right". Still, we had walked around a lot of the surrounding area of Hollywood, checking out the Walk of Fame and other sights (and Grieve and I really thought we saw Johnny Depp). We hit back home for an extended chilling session, and a Pizza Hut delivery. Tuesday and Wednesday our main attraction was hitting Universal Studios to see what that was all about, with such rides as "The Mummy" ride and the "The Simpson's Ride". The two days were good fun, however our faces took a hit, sunburn-wise! Yesterday night we headed to a small gathering at one of Catherine G's friends houses, which was good to meet a few other people from LA. Today we are heading off to San Francisco on a night bus, having seen a lot of the cool sights around LA, including today seeing "Nightmare on Elm Street" in the Chinese Theatre, the place where a lot of the premieres come out in Hollywood.