Hollywood is really what you expect it to be; a superficial theme park style tourist attraction. There are big brands, shiny new malls, huge cars and all the souvenir T-shirts you could ever need. It's a place of bored security guards, pilgrim tourists and tacky attractions.That's not to say that the novelty isn't enjoyable though. You can walk around all the places that you've seen on TV or read about and that's quite satisfying in itself. I went and walked around the Kodak Theatre, where the Oscars are held each year and the Hollywood and Highland mall, a meticulously shiny new development.
At 11:30 I got on a 2 hour tour of Hollywood, mainly focused on Beverly Hills and Bel Air, where many of the stars live. The guide drove us up to Mulholland Drive, where we stopped briefly at a panoramic viewpoint over the city. You could see the famous Hollywood sign and the rest of L.A., although you had to look past the endless smog. The whole of the city is consumed with a haze and it must be one of the most polluted places in the developed world.We continued along Mulholland Drive, spotting the first of many celebrity mansions along the way. The hills are home to many expensive houses, but it's also some of the most dangerous real estate around. Mudslides occasionally claim a multi-million dollar home, with no 'mudslide insurance' available to cover for the cost.
Part of Mulholland Drive includes The Summit the most prestigious of the few gated communities, where Jennifer Lopez and the like live. Britney Spears was currently staying there with a friend, and there were around 20 paparazzi SUVs waiting for any sign of movement outside. We also drove pat Leonardo DiCaprio's solar-powered house and few few other notable homes including Meg Ryan's and John Travolta's.We headed down into Beverly Hills and Bel Air, where the impression of being in a toy town increased dramatically. Immaculately maintained streets with matching trees either side of the road are home to many of the rich and famous. It demonstrates the huge contrast between the bubble of wealth and the rest of the city outside. The area has the only post office with valet parking in the US and has a hgih school where the fees are around $50,000 a semester. The guide was great and the trip was certainly enjoyable, but you couldn't help but feel as if you'd just been driven through someone's fantasy world.
After the bus tour, I had lunch and then went to an Internet cafe before booking tickets for a film later on. I had a further walk around, then met up with a couple of the guys in my hostel room to go out for dinner. We found a typically-styled American diner to eat at, and then I went to see Ocean's 13 at the Chinese Theatre. The film was entertaining if predictable, but it was nice to see a Hollywood blockbuster in Hollywood.
