No Itinerary

Day 118

Our weekend in Hollywood was indeed packed with glitz and glamour, although not that we expected this when we arrived. As we landed at LAX aiport we discovered that there was no room at the inn in the hostel we had planned to stay at, and instead found ourselves on our way to Hollywood to a far more expensive hotel on Hollywood Boulevard.

As we arrived we immediately noticed the difference between backpackers in the US and those we had encountered so far - namely we at least 10 years older than them! Typically the difference in years meant they had far greater capacity for drinking and consequently generally inconsiderate behaviour. After a night of being awoken by pointless drunken natter (god we sound old) we decided to move on.

Thankfully the next hostel was far more civilised, although for some strange reason I found myself the only white person in a room of Oriental women. Bonus, since most Oriental women cant drink anyway so nice peaceful nights were had by all.

As we settled into our room overlooking the Kodak Theatre we noticed a red carpet was being set up outside. We popped down to ask what was happening to be told it was a lifetime achievement award for Sean Connery. Excellent we thought, fingers crossed for some celeb spotting later in the evening. We then took a fairly tacky tour around Hollywood where, of all places they took us to the local cemetary! During the trip the driver told us that the event at the Kodak Theatre was infact the MTV movie awards, which meant lots of celebs, so understandably we were excited by this point.

As the evening warmed up we took our places right by the entrance (at the top of a set of stairs) and waited for the ’stars’. Typically a cheer would arise from the crowd below, we would look on expectedly and find that either a) we had no idea who they were or b) it was someone reasonably famous and therefore instead of walking up the stairs they were escourted to the lower tiers of the theatre meaning we didnt really get to see them close up. From a distance we saw Harrison Ford and Sean Connery. Close up we saw Jane Seymour (twice - apparently no one recognised her the first time!). As the bouncers told us everyone had arrived we were slightly surprised there were not more celebs…after all, who were MTV actually going to give the awards to? The mystery was resolved when we were finally told that the MTV awards were taking place down the road and it really was only a lifetime achievement for Sean Connery. And obviously, since the events collided any other celeb friends he might have had other things to do! Oh well.

The next day we spent many hours on public transport as we went to see Chinatown, Beverly Hills and Venice Beach. In the evening we visited West Hollywood were we had been reliably informed (by the paper) that a womens rights march was scheduled for the beginning of gay pride weekend. The paper was indeed right, and we gathered with about 300 other women (and a few gay men) to begin the march. However, first a series of rousing speeches from prominent gay activists in the local Hollywood area, most understandly upset with their current president and his attacks on existing gay rights in the US.

Once the speeches were over, the march was led by a local group of leather clad women motorcyclists. The sound was deafing and the whole thing was really quite exciting as we got ready to march for gay rights everywhere. However it seems people in LA really dont WALK very far, as no sooner had we started than we reached the half way point and had to turn around. All in all, I’d say the actual march took 5 mins, and some people even cut corners and jumped across the verge when we turned around!! Amazingly, for us this, we actually got paid $50 as a group were making a documentary on the march and were paying willing participants who didnt mind them releasing images of them. Hopefully they got some other footage, otherwise it will be a pretty short (and expensive) documentary!

You just gotta love Hollywood! That’s all folks!