Hollywood – not quite the home of glitz and glamour

Posted on May 5, 2010 by Travis

If we were going to do the whole America thing, how could we not do Hollywood California. We decided to spend one day wondering Hollywood and one day visiting Universal Studio. This worked out to be all that we needed, with the third day starting our drive to Las Vegas.

We booked a rental car for the whole period, which made things so much easier and enjoyable. From the airport the GPS navigated us all the way to our accommodation; Motel 6, which we were pleased to find was just walking distance from Hollywood Boulevard.

It was night time when we arrived at our hotel; we walked down Hollywood Boulevard, enjoying our first view of the Walk of Stars and a quick burger at Johnny Rockets, now about my tenth burger on the whole trip. We decided that we may as well do the infamous Genius World Records to end the night, with the VIP ticket including Ripley’s Believe It or Not! and the Hollywood Wax Museum costing total $27 per person. Guinness World of Records was worn and out dated (they still don’t have the Burj Khalifa in their tallest structures section), not even worth the $9 entry.

Day 1 – Universal Studios
We woke up early for Universal Studios, this was a fun day. Having now visited two Disney theme parks, it was good to get a change of characters. Plus Universal Studios is a full functioning movie studio, housing many current movie studios, sound stages, sets, backdrops and even office buildings. On entering we were greeted with Betelgeuse from Beetlejuice, Marilyn Monroe, Shrek and Frankenstein all who we naturally took photos with. Sonya then recommended we first go on the famous Studio Tour.

The tour started at Stage 25 and passed the office bungalows (as Universal Studios calls them). Passed through some street sets including Courthouse Square which was famously used in the Back to the Future series, but now for Ghost Whisperer. It was cool seeing a whole street and then rounding the corner and finding it was literally just a large painted wall. Toward the Fast and the Furious set (merely two cars on individual robotic arms) was a large collection of movie cars, including the Jurassic Park Jeep and Back to the Future Delorean

We past the Jaws Encounter, Desperate Housewives Wisteria Lane, Whoville from How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Norman hiding another body at the Bates Motel and the latest set form War of the Worlds featuring an actual Boeing 747 chopped up into pieces.

After the tour we headed to the Simpsons Ride, the ride which was just a simulation, distracted me from the stunning visuals. Though they did a really good turning it all into a working Krustyland theme park and it was neat seeing a life size Kwik-E-Mart.

A series of escalators took us to the Universal Studios Lower Lot, were we visited Jurassic Park, the ride was very close to that in the actual movie, with a large T-rex at the conclusion. Other highlights were the WaterWorld show, where we both got drenched (yes, the soaked warnings on the benches are accurate), House of Horrors where real actors do there best to scare you (it worked well) and Terminator 2: 3D (a combination 3D and live action show).

After leaving Universal Studio we visited Los Angeles Chinatown for dinner and then the Hollywood Wax Museum. The Wax Museum was very impressive, with amazing details on all the wax sculptures. My only gripe is Angelina could have been improved so I didn’t look like I was standing next to a cross-dresser.

We finished the night with a drive down Doheny Drive which climbed up Hollywood Hills, the way down offered amazing view of the city.

Day 2 – Hollywood Sign, Santa Monica and Pasadena
We started this day driving to Mount Hollywood which has a good view (though a little far) of the famous Hollywood sign. Griffith Observatory also sits on the city facing slope and offers amazing views of Los Angeles, we even went back at night.

From the Hollywood sign we drove south-west along Mulholland Drive to Santa Monica and the famous Santa Monica Pier which has a small amusement park and restaurants. After a picnic lunch we headed to Pasadena. Pasadena is roughly sixteen kilometres north east of Los Angeles or forty kilometres north east from Santa Monica. We walked around City Hall and through its amazing courtyards, from there we walked south to the Pasadena Civic Auditorium‎.

Back in Hollywood, we finished the night with Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Which was only a little better than the Guinness World of Records, and then a night time view from Mount Hollywood, spectacular.

Day 3 – Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and then on to Las Vegas
The morning of our last day in Hollywood, we decided to stop by Grauman’s Chinese Theatre which is famous for its numerous handprints, footprints and autographs set in the concrete in the forecourt. We took the obligatory photos of our hands in the celebrities’ handprints.

Conclusion
Let me just say, Hollywood itself isn’t great. The first things you notice when walking down Hollywood Boulevard are the countless adult, tattoo and drug paraphernalia shops lining the streets. But this with the griminess of the streets, the poor costumes of the street performers and the randoms trying to sell you a ‘star’s home’ tour all work together nicely. I don’t think we would be visiting Hollywood again for a very long time (perhaps never) but it was good to have visited it once.

New York – Round II

Posted on May 3, 2010 by Sonya

After three days in sunny Florida we headed back to New York City. Aside from the weather, the cultural contrast was immediately apparent. New York is like any big city really – plenty of people from all different cultures, many different spoken languages, foods etc. Florida was probably a more concise representation of ‘America’ in it’s many typically American fast food eateries and lifestyle.

30th December

We arrived back at M’s apartment midday and headed to the MoMA where we were meeting Mandi. She had managed to get free tickets for us from a friend so we decided to spend the afternoon there perusing what we had missed the previous weeks. Quite a bit, we realised. The whole Picasso-Cubist era and the French impressionists such as Monet.. as well as the beautiful architecture and design sections. And of course, plenty of abstract art such as the white empty shoebox, and the four yoghurt lids. Highlights would have been Monet’s waterlilies, Salvador Dali’s Persistence of Memory (so tiny!) and taking creative photo’s of M looking ‘aggressive’ next to Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup work (she works in advertising for Progresso Soup!!).

That evening we went to a little bar in the West Village. It was so warm and cosy inside and it felt like being at someone’s house. Travis unknowingly ordered a girl’s drink, the apple cider. HAHA.

New Year’s Eve

The following day Travis and I headed for towards the Upper East Side, and dropped by the UN building and then over to the MeT. It was NYE and the subways were extremely busy. We headed back in the early evening to Mandi’s apartment as we were meeting a bunch of Mandi’s New Yorker friends for dinner that night. Dinner was in Chelsea at a trendy, modern Thai restaurant where I had a green curry chicken and a glass of shiraz. The tables were long and had benches on either side which made it difficult to get in and out of your seat. Another surprise was my trip to the toilet, by which I came across a guy… unisex toilets, very Ally McBeal. After dinner, and after agreeing we would catch up with some of M’s friend’s later at a house party, we went to a bar in St Mark’s, near Sing Sing where we had entertained ourselves with Karaoke a week earlier. Had a blast there (how could one not, with 5 shots at $10!), meeting up with a few of Mandi’s other friends. Ended up staying there for the count down, then heading to another club for some dancing. It was a bit of a crazy night, but definitely memorable – that’s for sure. And we didn’t quite make it to the house party.

New Year’s Day

The following day we had a lazy morning, before heading to Chinatown for some greasy dim sum to satisfy the uneasy stomachs. Tasty, but definitely not quite comparable to Perth standards (or maybe we’re biased?) On our way home we stopped by some Chinese grocery stores to pick up snacks for our quiet night in. We also stopped by Magnolia Bakery, only just across the road from M’s apartment, a place that is perennially busy with cupcake lovers. We bought the red velvet and a chocolate buttermilk cupcake as well a yummy gooey banana concoction that looked deadly. Given we had already chosen to splurge upon the point of no return we also bought a tub of Ben and Jerry’s – some exotic combination of flavours we couldn’t dream of finding in Perth.

2nd January

So thus, that indulgent night concluded the New York chapter of our trip. The following morning we packed our bags, took a walk along the Hudson River in West Village and had breakfast at a intimate little diner, where the quirky waiter mumbled to himself about world politics between orders.

Outside the beautiful brownstone apartment, we said our teary goodbyes, Mandi hailed us a cab and we were off on the next part of our American adventure.

Orlando, home of Disney World and NASA

Posted on March 6, 2010 by Travis

I like my holidays to be jammed packed, trying to do and see as much as possible in the small amount of time we have.

Orlando, Florida, was an example of this.

We left New York on Boxing Day and returned a day before New Years Eve giving us a full three days of tours, rides and theme parks. We decided to spend two days visiting Walt Disney World and the last day visiting NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre.

Disney World is huge, with four main parks and an additional water park; you need to spend at least a whole day visiting each one. There are even ten day passes available! As we had previously visited Hong Kong Disney Land, which is essentially a combination of Magic Kingdom Park and Animal Kingdom Park, we chose to visit Epcot and Hollywood Studios.

As expected, having visited right in the middle of the holiday season, it was extremely busy with families.

Day 1: Disney World – Epcot

The Epcot theme park was interesting, a lot of sciency rides and attractions; our first was a go at a Segway, which was really fun. Sonya didn’t quite get the hang of it. A lot of the more childish attractions, where actually quite enjoyable, like the Innoventions – Test the Limits Lab, slamming doors and dropping barrels.

One of the main attractions of Epcot, besides the giant Epcot sphere, is the World Showcase. The World Showcase is a section of the park divided up into eleven individual country themed areas, within each were replicas of the country’s most iconic buildings and landmarks, information on history, culture, and many restaurants and small themed rides. Visiting it all used up most of the day, being sunset when we left England, England even featured a replica Beetles band. The World Showcase did make us want to discover more countries, and this was all while we were already on a holiday.

We finished the night off with some of the edutainment rides, and the Mission Space ride which simulated up to 2.4Gs of g-force. We both left the ride feeling quite queasy. We also had the obligatory photos with Disney characters; Mickey, Pluto, Minnie, Donald and Goofy.

Day 2: Disney World – Disney’s Hollywood Studios

The second day was spent at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, which I thought was a lot more fun. We started the day with a live performance of Beauty and the Beast, while we waited for our Fastpass (Disney’s solution to the enormous queues) time to the Tower of Terror to arrive. As we waited in the queue for Tower of Terror, Sonya started to have childhood flashbacks of the time she cried after the ride; after all, she was only 17. I didn’t know what to expect, thinking it to be more of a horror house, especially after experiencing Disney’s famous pre-ride entertainment. The ride turned out to be a series of ‘high-speed drops’ which left me grinning the whole time all while Sonya had her eye’s closed.

For lunch we shared a giant turkey leg, which at $7 wasn’t too bad value, given Disney’s ridiculous prices. After we visited The Magic of Disney Animation, a live show that gave an insight into the creation of the dragon Mushu from Mulan. The entry and exit to the show had a lot of cool Disney artwork and stills. “A Spectacular Journey into the Movies” was a ride that toured the audience around various movie scenes, some memorable ones being The Wizard of Oz, Casablanca and Indiana Jones. There was a little gallery on the history of Walt Disney, titled One Man’s Dream, which included his achievements and various memorabilia, which was also very interesting.

For the last part of the night, I managed to convince Sonya to queue up for the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster a “high-speed roller coaster”. It was a pain staking 80 minute long line, but the 2 minute ride was all worth the wait, I, again walking out with a cheesy grin. Sonya again had her eyes closed the whole time! And this was confirmed by the ‘memorial’ photo that gets taken during the most intense part of the ride.

Day 3: NASA – Kennedy Space Center

Visiting NASA was just one of those nerdy things I have always wanted to do, I wanted to always view a space shuttle on its launch pad, unfortunately I wasn’t able to do this due to arriving about a fortnight too early (Shuttle Endeavour was due to launch on 8th February 2010, and the shuttle is usually on the launch pad for about one month prior to launch). However, I was not left disappointed.

Kennedy Space Center, located at Cape Canaveral, located roughly 72 kilometers east of Orlando. After talking to our hotel’s tourist information lady, and being informed buses would cost $80 each, we were advised to rent a car. We were extremely lucky being able to rent a car in a days notice, due to the holiday season, we also paid and arm and a leg $135 USD for one day rental). When we casually hopped into the car for the first time, I was presented with a missing steering wheel, while Sonya on the driver’s seat, then it clicked, for that moment we had forgotten the driving sides were reversed to that of Australia. This would be fun we thought. However, Florida was very easy to drive around, as the roads were wide and long, which made things easier. I had left my GPS in New York as I didn’t think we would be driving in Orlando, but the locals were happy to provide directions.

The amazing thing about the Kennedy Space Center, is it is a working site, that huge Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) the tour bus drives past is actually where they ‘mate’ the space shuttle to the rockets, those huge dirt tracks (the Crawlerway) the tour bus drives next to, are the real tracks produced by the crawler-transporters when moving the space shuttle to the launch pad. We where taken to the closest observation platform for the Launch Complex 39 – A and B launch pads, but it was still a fair distance away, though, it was still a good feeling seeing them from afar (minus the shuttles).

One of my highlights was The Apollo/Saturn V Center, it started with a tour through the actual Apollo 11 launch control room which leads to the massive Saturn V rocket. I could have starred at those five F-1 rocket engines for hours, the size was overwhelming. In the Apollo/Saturn V Center you could also touch a real moon rock as well as visit an eerie dark museum which featured the original Apollo 11 space capsule and space suits from various time periods.

The final destination on the bus tour was the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF) where International Space Station modules are tested. Unfortunately, it was very quite in the assembly plant as there was nobody working there.

Back at the Kennedy Space Centre park, we got up close and personal with a retired space shuttle, and finished the night visiting the Rocket Garden, a large collection of illuminated rockets.

New York, New York – Part I

Posted on February 14, 2010 by Sonya

Hello, New York

After a long twelve hour flight from our stopover city, Tokyo, Travis and I found ourselves on the steps of JFK airport. We were tired, smelly (as we hadn’t showered in over 24 hours) and disoriented but that didn’t dampen our excitement at all! There was fresh snow falling from the sky (little did I know at the time this was the calm before the snowstorm) and I was particularly excited, make that ecstatic, about seeing my oldest friend (as in the one I’ve known longest!) Mandi after her almost two year absence from our hometown.

We emerged from the airport and frantically put all the warm winter gear we could find. It was excruciatingly cold that night, and I certainly was not psychologically prepared for the cold weather seeing as though 24 hours earlier, I had been basking in the sun at our annual outdoor office Christmas party. The taxi ride to Mandi’s apartment was slow. The taxi driver had advised as that it was in his (and our) best interests that he drove slowly so as to avoid a similar fate to two cars which had driven/slid off the road due to the ice.

As we approach Manhattan I recognised for the first time the beautiful Christmas-feeling that Mandi had described to me during our chats and emails. The streets were covered with snow, Christmas lights lit the busy street and it was just so picturesque. We found ourselves at Mandi’s apartment in the quaint West Village and after all our hugs and greetings it was quite late already. Whilst comfortably warm inside we decided to brave the cold to grab some late night dinner (or brunch as Travis and my brains told us) at a diner nearby in the Meat packing district. The two block walk felt like an adventure (given the novelty of snow and cold) and so we were then rewarded with our first American meal – some yummy American burgers, buffalo wings, disco fries and Oreo milkshakes!

Day 1

We awoke leisurely on Sunday morning, had brunch (I had my first Bloody Mary) and made plans to take a walk through Central Park. It was so pretty! The park was filled with white snow covered trees, children tobogganing off the slight hills, ice skating rinks, freshly created snowmen. Not to mention the familiarity of scenes from numerous movies. We visited a shopping mall near the subway picked up some hot coffee, some delicious macaroons (Bouchon Bakery) and headed back home.

That evening we met up with some of Mandi’s buddies at what I learnt was a speakeasy. Unlike their historical counterparts speakeasies nowadays are legal, sell alcohol legally and have only inherited the exciting underground atmosphere of the Prohibition times. The speakeasy was located through a backdoor of a small corner-side deli. Upon entering the door we were escorted down two flights of stairs and through what looked like the restaurant’s kitchen. The restaurant we went to (La Esquina) served Mexican cuisine. The decor was amazing. Dark lighting, big wooden tables.. it felt like we were in a swanky dungeon of some sort (which happened to serve tequila with warm apple cider, on the house!). Anyway, dinner was fun and our first introduction to the many crazy New York apartment living/hunting/house mate conversations to come…

Day 2

First day of Travis and my self-exploration of Manhattan. Mandi was working and so we decided to use our newly acquired Metro card to wander around the city. We ended up walking from 14th St (around where we were staying) uptown to Times Square. Took us a while as we were consistently distracted by all the people, bustling streets, quirky shops and photo opportunities. Incidentally, good foot wear is essential during the Winter season and my Perth-bought boots didn’t meet the standard requirements for general footpath walking (no grip). As a result, I fell down smack bang in the middle of Times Square which was very, very embarrassing. Lucky my coat was black. After Times Square (stopping to eat some breakfast at Maxines – bagel, cream cheese and smoked salmon for me!) we headed to the Rockefella Center to enjoy the views of the city. On our way, we passed Radio City Music Hall, some giant Christmas baubles and various other New York things. Might I add we also ensured we visited all the uniquely American stores such as American Eagle, Old Navy, Urban Outfitters, Macy’s, Bloomingdales, etc.

That evening we caught up with Mandi and walked around The West Village, passing through some interesting sites including the Carrie’s Sex in the City apartment, SJP’s real apartment, Washington Square and various other famous people’s apartments. We had pizza at nice little Italian restaurant (the mozzarella cheese was yum!) and then sampled some very unique desserts at Momofuku (the milk bar). We had:

cereal milk icecream
compost cookie – pretzels, potato chips, coffee, oats, butterscotch, chocolate chips
crack pie – toasted oat crust, gooey butter filling

New York has everything!!

Day 3

We dedicated this day to general site seeing once again (since M was working – her last day). Took the subway downtown to Ground Zero site (not much there), walked down Broadway, past City Hall towards Wall St. Visited Tiffany & Co on Wall St and walked all the way around to the Statten Island Ferry Terminal. We decided to skip the Statten Island Ferry and go to Liberty Island instead (so walked further on to the next port) to see the Statue upon which we realised the line was gigantum! It was cold but we decided to do it anyway. Twenty four dollars later we were waiting in the queue (which was at least 500 m long) eating our all-American hotdog (with sauerkraut and mustard) and freezing our fingers off. We finally boarded the Ferry and took a pleasant boat ride over to Liberty Island. Usual touristy stuff, photos. Met a friendly Columbian guy who seemed to be travelling alone.

On the way back we decided to walk up 6th Avenue. Stopped by a burger joint where I had the smallest burger I have ever seen (it was called a mini burger) so as not to disrupt my appetite. Lucky for that because late that night M took us to dinner at Boka, a Korean restaurant in St Mark’s which specialises in fried chicken (Bon Chon chicken) – really delicious! We had a couple of dishes of that, some soju and after a satisfying night out, headed home.

Day 4

Christmas Eve. We started the day by taking the subway to Brooklyn. Since we were there, Mandi decided to introduce us to Brooklyn’s most famous Pizzeria, Grimaldi’s. It was so delicious! Definitely some of the best pizza I have ever tasted, the base was just so tasty. Highly recommended. We were lucky to arrive with only a 2 minute wait but when we left there was a 30 minute line!

After pizza we headed towards the Brooklyn Bridge to cross it. This was fun but freezing!! Took lots of ‘creative’ photos. Upon reaching Manhattan Island we started walking towards Chinatown. I could smell the Chinese food before I could see it! The streets were lined with markets selling I love NY shirts, designer perfumes (which look and are said to be genuine but at a fraction of the price), all sorts of jewellery, knock off handbags and other knick knacks. We wandered around for a while and then explored some of the other cultural areas (Little Italy, Little Korea) around the area. Before heading back to Mandi’s we checked out American Apparel & Top Shop.

That night we went to an All you can Eat Brazilian BBQ Cuisine. Churrascaria Plataforma. The restaurant was $60 per head and offered all sorts of BBQ meats and Brazilian side dishes, a buffet including fresh sushi and salad. Needless to say I was extremely full afterwards!

Day 5

We spent the morning planning to visit museums. Whilst we didn’t make it to the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), we somehow ended up at the Museum of Sex (nothing particularly interesting I thought), had lunch at a pizza bar, then Travis and I wandered to the New York Public Library, took some photos and walked up Fifth Ave and visited the Apple Store.

We had dinner at the famous Carnegie Deli where Travis had the shockingly huge corned beef sandwich and I had a tasty potato knish.

Christmas Day

In the morning Mandi and I went to yum cha by ourselves while Travis slept in.

That evening, we made a scrumptious dinner (well M did most of the cooking whilst I played kitchen hand/table setter) at M’s apartment.. pork belly, stuffing, roast vegetables, roast duck (courtesy of a shop in Chinatown) and pecan pie for dessert. A couple of visiting friends from Oz joined as did M’s work colleague.. it was a fun evening with lots of laughs.. much of it related to the horrid BeanBoozled jelly beans. Braving the cold, we later decided to go to Sing Sing Karaoke bar in St Marks for a few tunes.

Boxing Day

Now looking back I really cannot recall exactly what we did Boxing Day. We went to the MoMA where we caught up with Amy and Kim (friends from Oz). MoMA was amazing.. and huge. We barely managed to see half of the exhibitions so decided we would visit the museum again the following week.

On the night of the 26th we left for Orlando for a short 3 day trip…hoping to escape the cold!

Sonya and Travis

tales of travel and adventure

Category Archives: Travels

Hollywood – not quite the home of glitz and glamour

New York – Round II

Orlando, home of Disney World and NASA

New York, New York – Part I