USA West coast road trip - Part 7 - Los Angeles

Day 17 
We arrive around 3pm at Greg's. He lives in a lovely old-fashioned flat of Santa Monica with two flatmates. After 5 hours in the car, we need a stretch and go for a walk around Venice beach. The girls go Alert of Malibu style while I get nostalgic thinking about the Brighton pier. We wave again at the end of road 66 before going to the Big Dean. We sit next to a group of big Mexicans covered with scary tattoo. We learn that they are acommon reference to the Día de Muertos. Warmed up by the beers we shared with them, we go to the Basement . It has a warm wooden decoration but is not as friendly and fun as our previous stop. We then move on to another bar which I forgot the name of (nothing to do with the amount of alcohol I had by then).

Day 18
We have a big and delicious brunch in the garden of the Omelette Parlor then drive around LA with Greg. The streets are wide and if it's hard to believe I'm in the same State as San Francisco. Compared to the smaller city, Los Angeles looks like a concrete maze. After a drive through the boring Beverly Hill we end up at the Drag Queen Bingo in West Hollywood. If you have to do one thing in LA, this is it! The host were just hilarious, food was good and Caroline even won a basket of Dvds and stuff. Great night!

Tag rugby at Venice beach

Day 19
We spend the day at the Universal Studio. I love the 3D attractions especially the Transformers which is so fun. I am disappointed that the train just goes through the decors. Even if seeing a tube station get flowed is impressive, I wish you could actually play hide and seek in them. At the end of the day, it's not really worth the price. 
To compensate we have cheap Hot dogs with Greg in a delicious Hot dog bar of Santa Monica. 

Day 20
Shopping day! That was a big discussion, how much time we would allocate to shopping etc..In the end, we nearly did no shopping before we reach LA. So a day on the 3rd street was quite a change. We don't spend nearly as much as we tought we would. Greg takes us to the Backstage to do a little spending there (of food no drinks of course).

Day 21 
We have breakfast at The Coffee bean and tea leaf, which will become my favourite coffee shop (their cakes are just so good).
Then finally walk the Hollywood boulevard. So disapointing. People are just gazing at stars on the pavement. They are only few hand prints, even less than in Cannes.

"Charmed" house

We hit the road again to see the Charmed house. Even if you are not a serie's fan, the street is lovely and its houses are a good occasion to play "which house shall I buy?". Of course, "none" is the answer.
We have Thai food at Greg's before heading to a Mexican restaurant (very hungry girls we are). We then hit a hip hop bar (don't ask me why) before going to the Circle bar which his really nice American friends.

Day 22
Last day in LA. We have breakfast at the Omelette Parlor again before heading to the aiport. 
Glad, we decided to do SF to LA as it is much easier to leave LA than it was to leave SF. 

As it turn outs, the girls' flight will be delayed and they will stay one more night in LA.  

In the end, everything went well, we had fun, saw beauties and were enchanted by our holidays in the States. Three French girls on the road for three weeks. Two of them hardly knew each other. I didn't do much of the planning, I kind of jump the train. I'm very happy I did.

THE END 

(If you read French, it's not really the end, there is one more post ;)