Day 55 (Tuesday Nov 16th) "Nice night for a walk"
I didn't leave the hostel until about 2pm and I kept forgetting things so I didn't get to Mann's Chinese Theater until about 3pm. I just wanted to go there during the day because that's when it was seen in Speed. I then got the subway over to East Hollywood and checked out the Vista Theater which was used in True Romance. Then I started my walk to Griffith Observatory. It's on a hill that overlooks L.A. so it was a bit of a tiring hour to get up there. On the way I stopped by a tunnel that was featured in Back To The Future and War Games. Some opening scenes from The Terminator were filmed at the observatory but for a change that wasn't the only reason I was visiting a filming location. It was really nice up there, the building is quite interesting and there were some really good views... through the smog. I took a different trail going down and then went for a Thai yellow curry at Truly Vegan. They had a comedy night at the hostel but when I walked past I heard some terrible jokes so I decided to just chill in my room and get an early night.
Day 56 (Wednesday Nov 17th) "China Wednesday!"
I checked out of the Hollywood hostel and got the bus to Santa Monica. On the way I stopped at the Viper Room where River Phoenix died. It was something I had to check out but then wished I hadn't, it just felt kind of morbid and not very fun. After checking-in at the Santa Monica hostel I struggled for an hour to get on the internet. I couldn't actually get online in my room which was a bit annoying but they had little library room with a good wi-fi signal which ended up being where I'd spend a lot of my time. Sharing my bunk was a middle aged Australian man called Russell. The only way I could print stuff was by using their computers which was about 10 cents a minute with a $3 minimum. It was rather annoying and I ended up having to call up customer service because the code for the rest of my minutes disappeared before I could write it down (I can't be bothered to explain that any more that I have, it was annoying, I'll leave it at that). I tried to find a veggie or vegan food place nearby using Google Maps but there didn't seem to be anything cheap in the area. I walked around the block a few times and eventually found a Greek fast food place with a falafel wrap thing. I walked to the corner or Ocean Park and Main St which is where Annie got on the bus in Speed. Then I walked up to Rose and Main which is where Bob's bus blew up. I tried to re-enact the phone call between Dennis Hopper and Keanu and then went in to the Firehouse Restaurant. It's more of a bar now so they didn't have any muffins, instead I had chips and salsa. I walked back to the hostel via the beachfront and Santa Monica pier and then went online for a bit. When I got back to my room there were two Welsh guys dressing up as Austrian women. They introduced themselves as Chris and Leigh and explained that they'd recently started a tradition of dressing up every Wednesday and calling it China Wednesday to confuse Americans. There was also an English guy Stuart who had dressed up as a gynecologist. I blew up some balloons for the Welsh guy's breasts and decided to join them on the hostel pub crawl. There were about twenty people out on the pub crawl, we had three voulenteer guides that were going to take us to four bars. At the first bar we played drinking games with a a Korean guy and a Japanese guy, it actually went pretty well despite the language barrier. In the second bar they had a Beatles cover band and after a few songs they let people go up and sing with them. We put our name down for a couple of songs but only Stuart and Leigh had time to do one. The third bar (which ended up being our last) was a long sports bar with karaoke at one end. I put my name down for Power Of Love and gave the woman in charge $10 so she could bump my name to the top of the list. I was quite drunk and didn't dare imagine the state I'd be in trying to sing that song an hour later. I chatted with lots of people including a Terry McDermott lookalike, nobody knew Terry McDermott so we resorted to chanting "Keegan! Keegan!" at him. The Welsh guys spent a lot of the night explaining China Wednesday to everybody, they came up with a whole fake history for it. I befriended a Japanese girl who didn't know any Japanese because she was brought up in Brazil, that didn't stop me trying to speak nihongo to her. Lots of drinking took place and I was told by the Welsh guys that they found me asleep in the hostel library. I have a few videos from that night and my narration did sound quite nonsensical but Daniele (JapBra) and a couple of other girls made sure I got back to the hostel.
I didn't leave the hostel until about 2pm and I kept forgetting things so I didn't get to Mann's Chinese Theater until about 3pm. I just wanted to go there during the day because that's when it was seen in Speed. I then got the subway over to East Hollywood and checked out the Vista Theater which was used in True Romance. Then I started my walk to Griffith Observatory. It's on a hill that overlooks L.A. so it was a bit of a tiring hour to get up there. On the way I stopped by a tunnel that was featured in Back To The Future and War Games. Some opening scenes from The Terminator were filmed at the observatory but for a change that wasn't the only reason I was visiting a filming location. It was really nice up there, the building is quite interesting and there were some really good views... through the smog. I took a different trail going down and then went for a Thai yellow curry at Truly Vegan. They had a comedy night at the hostel but when I walked past I heard some terrible jokes so I decided to just chill in my room and get an early night.
Day 56 (Wednesday Nov 17th) "China Wednesday!"
I checked out of the Hollywood hostel and got the bus to Santa Monica. On the way I stopped at the Viper Room where River Phoenix died. It was something I had to check out but then wished I hadn't, it just felt kind of morbid and not very fun. After checking-in at the Santa Monica hostel I struggled for an hour to get on the internet. I couldn't actually get online in my room which was a bit annoying but they had little library room with a good wi-fi signal which ended up being where I'd spend a lot of my time. Sharing my bunk was a middle aged Australian man called Russell. The only way I could print stuff was by using their computers which was about 10 cents a minute with a $3 minimum. It was rather annoying and I ended up having to call up customer service because the code for the rest of my minutes disappeared before I could write it down (I can't be bothered to explain that any more that I have, it was annoying, I'll leave it at that). I tried to find a veggie or vegan food place nearby using Google Maps but there didn't seem to be anything cheap in the area. I walked around the block a few times and eventually found a Greek fast food place with a falafel wrap thing. I walked to the corner or Ocean Park and Main St which is where Annie got on the bus in Speed. Then I walked up to Rose and Main which is where Bob's bus blew up. I tried to re-enact the phone call between Dennis Hopper and Keanu and then went in to the Firehouse Restaurant. It's more of a bar now so they didn't have any muffins, instead I had chips and salsa. I walked back to the hostel via the beachfront and Santa Monica pier and then went online for a bit. When I got back to my room there were two Welsh guys dressing up as Austrian women. They introduced themselves as Chris and Leigh and explained that they'd recently started a tradition of dressing up every Wednesday and calling it China Wednesday to confuse Americans. There was also an English guy Stuart who had dressed up as a gynecologist. I blew up some balloons for the Welsh guy's breasts and decided to join them on the hostel pub crawl. There were about twenty people out on the pub crawl, we had three voulenteer guides that were going to take us to four bars. At the first bar we played drinking games with a a Korean guy and a Japanese guy, it actually went pretty well despite the language barrier. In the second bar they had a Beatles cover band and after a few songs they let people go up and sing with them. We put our name down for a couple of songs but only Stuart and Leigh had time to do one. The third bar (which ended up being our last) was a long sports bar with karaoke at one end. I put my name down for Power Of Love and gave the woman in charge $10 so she could bump my name to the top of the list. I was quite drunk and didn't dare imagine the state I'd be in trying to sing that song an hour later. I chatted with lots of people including a Terry McDermott lookalike, nobody knew Terry McDermott so we resorted to chanting "Keegan! Keegan!" at him. The Welsh guys spent a lot of the night explaining China Wednesday to everybody, they came up with a whole fake history for it. I befriended a Japanese girl who didn't know any Japanese because she was brought up in Brazil, that didn't stop me trying to speak nihongo to her. Lots of drinking took place and I was told by the Welsh guys that they found me asleep in the hostel library. I have a few videos from that night and my narration did sound quite nonsensical but Daniele (JapBra) and a couple of other girls made sure I got back to the hostel.
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