Today we decided to go to warner bros studios vip tour to see where they make some of the famous hollywood movies. We departed from the hotel pretty early after eating breakfast in stefans room.
There was almost not any line at all when we got to the box office and the guy managed to squeeze us in on the 10:40 tour.
While we waited we drank a coffee at the Starbucks that was attached to the souvenir store. Our tour guide was kind of a mr. know it all. He looked terrible and talked constantly without any breaks, but he taught us a lot.
First he drove us through some of the main areas of the studios, where they had built up stages such as New York and stages that were supposed to simulate parts of Europe. Most areas are constantly rebuilt so we didn’t see a lot of things that you could recognize from any movie. Finally after a long tram ride he brought us to a studio where they recorded all the scenes from the central perk cafe in the series friends. After that we got to go the the sound stage where they record two and a half men. You get kind of disappointed when you go into one of those sound stages though, suddenly that whole realistic feeling from the tv disappears when you see that all the walls are just 1 cm thick and most furniture is fake, but it was cool to have been there. Our tour guide said that if you want you can go online and get as many free tickets as you want to go and see when they record the show. If I lived in L.A i would probably do that all the time.
Finally before the tour was over we went to a car museum where got to see some of the famous cars used in the movies. You can see some of them in the picture album i posted in my gallieries.
We finally decided to go to the beach no matter what the weather would be like. Since we were out of breakfast in the fridge we took the car and went to Ihop to eat some pancakes. After that we headed for Santa Monica.We parked the car at the pier parking and then took a walk out on the pier to have a look. There were a lot of people fishing. After a while standing there you could see something jumping around in the water around 40 yards out. It turned out to be dolphins 
really cute! I tired to find some cool souvenirs to bring home but most stuff they sell is just expensive crap so there was really no point :p. I had decided that I was going to run for an hour once we came down to the beach. So while my dad and Stefan layed down on the beach I put on my jogging shoes and headed for Venice beach. Once I arrived there I realized that this is the place to be.
There were around 10 times the amount of people as there was in Santa Monica, hundreds of bars, stores and restaurants along the bay and the certainly the most weird people I have ever seen in my entire life. Lets just say that Venice beach was a place where tourists came down to spend their money and poor homeless people trying to get people to pay them for doing silly things. There was one homeless guy who was trying to do tricks on a skateboard but he fell over all the time one guy who had high heel shoes stuck in his hair and one woman who was just dancing and singing like a duck. This was crazy land but it was fun definitely worth a visit if you ever go to L.A.
After the beach me went home and got ready and then we drove to a chilis to eat some ribs. I couldnt find a chilis that was closer than 13 miles from the hotel so we had to pick that one. Once we arrived to its location it looked like a really rough neighborhood. No white people what so ever. But it was cool, no trouble, good ribs.
Igår var vi på stranden.Hoppades givetvis att vi skulle träffa Pamela andersson.Men Icke.Hon jobbar nog inte full tid nuförtiden som badvakt.Vakttornen var där i alla fall.Stranden vi var på är nog ca 1 mil lång.Där var en trevlig pir man kunde gå utpå.Där fanns restauranger och nöjesfält.
Det var kallt i vattnet.Lite varmare än ystad bara.Vi tog en långpromenad.Längs stranden var marknad.Det var fullt med utflippade människor.Här kan du vara kläd hur som helst och sälja vad som helst.En kille vi såg sålde dåliga råd för en dollar.Jonas ville inte köpa några råd han får dom gratis av mig och Stefan.Marknaden hadde många likheter med sjöbomarknad.All kunde ställa ut.Det var och uppträden med music,dans och sport.Det var ju många turister där så det handlades en hel del.
På kvällen åkte vi till en restarang som heter Chillis och åt rebenGoa grejer.
Idag skall vi åka till Beverly hills ch träffa am
Anka och hon med läppstiften.
Ha det
Connie
Day 5 we planned to continue our buss ride through L.A instead since we had decided to go the the planet earth concert in the evening, we headed over to their box office to get some tickets.
However when we came over there around 10 o clock the office was still closed and didn’t open until 12. We decided to stay and wait until they opened. In the line to the ticket window we meet a nice Chinese guy that pointed out where it was the best to sit and how we could get cheap tickets. I think our tickets cost $18 each and parking was $16 even if we parked a bit further away. But they had tickets in all price ranges.
After that we decided to go and do some shopping at Melrose avenue and the Grove, which is an outdoor shopping area close to Beverly Hills. Stefan wanted to stop in an store called Affliction. This brand is promoted by the guys in UFC.
I didn’t really find anything on the Grove. I was trying to find something fun to buy for the girls back home in Texas but they only had weird shops. I will take a look later this week.
Later on the evening we bought some subway and brought some beers from the hotel down to the Hollywood Bowl and watched the planet earth show. Planet earth is basically a show where photographers have spent months even years out in the field studying and filming wildlife and then made a movie out of it. In this particular show at the Hollywood bowl the movie was accompanied by a symphony orchestra. It was a nice show.
On the Friday we woke up in L.A and decided to catch a buss ride through downtown, Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica. Mainly to have a look around and get an idea of things that we would like to do the rest of the days while we are here. We walked downtown to catch the buss outside one of the hotels.
After some coffee, we met some Spanish people that also where here for vacation. My dad obviously started to talk to the immediately and we made some new friends. Once in Hollywood we jumped of to have a look around. We ate some lunch at a flat bread restaurant and then took some photos. We managed to miss the next buss so we went in to Hard Rock cafe for an hour to drink a margarita. They weren’t any good, especially if you compare to the ones at Los Mocaljetes in Fort worth, but a drink is a drink of course .
After that we finally got on the buss again and started to head for Beverly hills. We passed Rodeo drive which is one of the most expensive streets to shop here in L.A. There was a Bugatti veyron parked outside one of the stores. This was the second one I have ever seen in my entire life. So far we have not seen any famous people, but a lot of fancy cars.
We catched one buss after another until we reached Santa Monica beach. This is where Baywatch was recorded and also where the very famous pier theme park is located that you see in a lot of the movies.
We had planned to jump of in Santa Monica and have a look around but unfortunately the buss schedules where tight and in order to be able to get back to the hotel we had to stay on the buss.
When we came home from the buss trip we got ready and talked a little bit about the rest of the week. Stefan wanted to eat a real steak so I looked on the Internet to see if I could find a Outback steak house close to our hotel. There was one approx 8 miles form where we stay so we drove over there and eat a nice steak with sweet potatoes.
I am trying to take it easy with all the fat and cheese now when I don’t have access to a gym. Hopefully when we get to San Francisco there will be one at the hotel .
24
Day 3 – Pick up at airport and downtown L.A
0 Comments | Posted by admin in JK Roadtrip USA
We woke up at the eco lodge after a good nights sleep. Since the inernet wouldnt work at the hotel we went to a starbucks this morning to drink some coffee and upload the pictures from yesterday. We later found out that Stefan was not expected to arrive to the airport until 12:40 pm but since we didn’t really have time to go downtown in the mean time we went over to the airport to wait for him there.
We sat down on another starbucks actually and drank some more coffee. I believe you can say that we are coffee people :p.
Stefan arrived after two hours of waiting and we started to head for the hotel in downtown L.A. I was driving the car and it took some time to figure out where to drive. At a few time points i had was driving in cicles trying to get back in the right direction. L.A is one of the worst places to drive a car in in the USA. I am so happy that we have a working GPS with us, I dont know what we would have done without it.
The hotel is really nice. Its an old Indian man and his wife who owns it. It was the cheapest hotel I could find and considering the location and the hospitality of the people it is just amazing. We pay ca. $65 / night and it takes 10 min to walk to downtown. They dont serve any breakfast at the hotel but the indian man asked us if we wanted some cereal and milk in the morning he would be happy to put it in our refrigerator for us.
After we had planned a little bit what we are doing during the time we are here we took a quick shower and started walking downtown. Its a nice city L.A but I have to admit most american cities always look the same in the core. The surroundings are different but the actually middle/center of the town is almost always the same.
We stopped to eat at an Irish restaurant. I had a vegeterian pasta and a cold Bud light beer.
We woke up at the hotel in Phoenix. Got a lot of rest which was exactly what we needed. We found out later that the drive to San Diego was longer than we expected. So we decided to go to a desert botanical garden, then visit heart attack grill and then try to head out of Phoenix. The botanical garden was awesome. Full of different stuff that grows in the desert. When we came to heart attack grill the GPS nav stopped working, which for us was kind of a small crisis since it would be impossible to navigate around in LA without it. Heart attack grill was just insane. When you came in there was a nurse who checked your symptoms and gave you advice on which bypass burger you should buy. If you bought the quadruple by pass burger you got a free wheelchair ride out of the restaurant. However me and my dad decided to stick to the double bypass burger which was probably a good idea…I am going to have to spend the next 3 weeks living on water and bread to compensate for that greasy hamburger :p. Here is a youtube video about it if you are interested.
Back on the road we tried to get the gps working but it was impossible. After a while we managed to get the number to Tom-tom and they helped us reseting the hard drive. We stopped to fuel the car and I met a really nice guy from Oklahoma that was heading for San Diego as well. He told me that he had made the exact same trip as we are doing when he was younger and that it was awesome.
I am having a great time actually. Of course there is stuff that is in my head all the time, missing my girlfriend and Texas, concerned about the mileage on the car (I only have 2500 miles / month to drive for, once it get over that its 25 cents / mile) but otherwise its great fun!
Once we reached the California border there were a lot of car inspections, where they checked for drugs, fruit and vegetables and maybe Mexicans, who knows? They had road blocks 3 times on the way to San Diego. In the third road block my dad was driving. Two lanes merged and some younger dudes tried to pass us in the closing lanes. My dad refused to let them in which really pissed them off obviously lol. So when we came out on the other side they had to show us Texans whos in charge around here. They threw a few bottles out of the window. None of them hit our car but you can imagine what would have happened if they did.
When we came down to San Diego the weather sucked so we just stopped on the beach for a while to take some pictures and feel the water. It was really cold, Is it not summer here??
When we came back to the car we noticed that we had left the window rolled down. We were lucky that no one peaked in since the car was full of phones,gps,bags,money and so on. But its a good sign, maybe luck is with us on this trip
.We finally arrived to LA after a two hours drive. I figured that it would be easiest to stay at a hotel close to the airport since thats were we are picking up Stefan. However since the airport is so close to the city and a lot of people are flying out from there all the hotels were full. The only hotel we could get was a holiday in for $150 and they only had single rooms. So instead we looked at the gps and found an Eco lodge around 4 miles from the airport. Payed $65 for a really nice room not so different from the one we stayed in in Phoenix.
I couldn’t get the Internet to work at Eco lodge so this morning we decided to go to Starbucks and eat breakfast and upload the pictures and stuff. You can find the pictures here.
Now we are heading back to the hotel room pick up our stuff and checkout then we are heading to the airport to pick up Stefan. Hope you enjoy the reading and if you have any comments or ideas on what crazy things we should do while we are here in LA please leave a comment.
See you later Over and out / JK in LA
21
Connie starts to blog now as well
0 Comments | Posted by connie.kristensson in JK Roadtrip USA
Igår statade vi i Texas,passerade Oklahoma,Mew Mexico och stannade för övernattning i Nevada. Vi är i Phoenix en stad med1,5 miljoner innvånare.Längs vägen såg vi många hus helt ensamma ute i öknen. Här är mycket plats för dem som bor här. De samlar på allt direkt utanför huset. Inte ovanligt att de har 10 – 20 gamla bilar ståeende utanför En guldgruva för min morbror som renoverar gamla klenoder.
Conni
Well, It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be! After a quick breakfast we tossed our bags in the car and started driving to Phoenix. The Gps obviously picked the wrong direction and pointed us towards El Paso. Since this road is much smaller and there are greater distances between cities we decided to take I-40 instead. However yet another time my GPS decided to plot a silly route through Oklahoma (Don’t ask me if this is the quickest or not). Just when we had crossed the border into Oklahoma we hit an enormous line. We waited for almost to hours until we started to feel some movement. Apparently there was a truck which had tilted over and it was laying across both lanes. The trip in general went fine, we were both used to long drives since before so it was not a problem driving 1100 miles all the way to phoenix, however I must admit that my head was kind of spinning when we got here due to the straightness of the road. We arrived to Phoenix around 11 local time. Checked into a best western and we are staying here until tomorrow morning. Tomorrow we will take a lot what there is to do in Phoenix, then we will start heading for San Diego and Los Angeles and try to see if we can drive through some of the national parks. If you want to see the photos from today here is the link.
Finally the day is almost here! JK roadtrip is going off, slightly modified to what you have been reading about before. This was due to the cost of doing a circular trip across the united states. So what we decided instead was to make a road trip to the west coast. I am sure that there will be plenty of more occations to make another road trip through every state of the country .
