Where the Stars are on the floor...

For today I didn't have any plan.

What should I do here in LA? There are plenty of things but what was the essential of LA I could do in one day?

Hollywood!!! I've been there before (aside from KL the only place I have revisited on this trip) but it was long time ago and I was very small.

So I had to go again, maybe this time some of the names on these stars on the floor would make more sense to me.

I looked for the bus stop of bus 704 and saw a bus standing there, but no one inside... so I waited and waited and at some point the driver miraculously appeared from within the bus and opened the doors and we set off with me as the only passenger but soon the bus filled up with people we picked up along the way.

Our route was going to take us through Beverly hills and past Rodeo Drive so I was spoilt with plenty of sights of Ferraris, Lamborghinis and old Mustangs and Thunderbirds.

Somewhere we ( I had teamed up with a guy from Brazil) had to change buses (as the driver told us). My new travel companion and I had a bit of a chat while we waited for the next bus to come and I nearly forgot that I had to change some money, as (the same as in Dublin) the buses don't give change when you buy a ticket.

After a visit to a laundry place and a sort of pawn shop, where I couldn't get any change, I went to a shop where a Korean guy gave me change. He was delighted when I thanked him and said goodbye in Korean.

When I walked out the bus just rolled up to the stop and we got on. Sometimes (well honestly most of the time) the luck is on my side.

But we really didn't need to take a bus because our stop was just 1 km up the road.
Now we were in Hollywood.

There were already stars on the walkway but none of the names rang a bell... we were still a bit away from the main area so.

Willians (the Brazilian Guy) bought a new phone in one of these dodgy little electro shops and we walked on to get some grub.

We found a cool little burger place called Hart's Burger and then continued to the Chinese theater with all the hustle and bustle going on.

We met Ironman and plenty of other interesting people... It was very much a condensed version of LA... all show, but in the end there is not much real stuff to see.

There were plenty of foot and hand prints in front of the Chinese theater and I spotted good few stars on the ground with the big names of US showbiz.

To get a good view of the famous Hollywood sign we went up to the third floor of some shopping centre and took a picture (like 50 other tourist) and then decided we had seen all there is to see in Hollywood (well probably not - but all that we wanted to see today).

We went back to the main route 704 and waited for the bus.

This time we were not as lucky. We waited probably half an hour, until finally the bus came. About 20 minutes into the ride the bus stopped at a light and the driver announced, that there as a guy in a car next to him, that told him through the window, that another car hit the bus and drove off.

Now the driver had to report this incident to his supervisor and so on, and we were not going to go anywhere soon.

We either should wait until the supervisor arrives and sends us on our way with this bus, or maybe there was another 704 bus passing by that could pick us up.

After another 40 minutes the supervisor came and told the driver to drop us all off at our stops and then return to the bus to the depot.

Not a problem I was not in a rush.

Back at the hostel Gabriel the Brazilian guy (another one) from my room and I went out for some beers and had a chat about cars (he works for Mercedes Benz in Sao Paulo) and beer, girls and travelling.

He had been in Germany for work before, but had been there in the Summer. He now wanted to go in the winter as he had not seen snow before.

It was funny... I had to explain a fully grown, smart software developer for Mercedes Benz, what snow is and how it feels like, if you touch it.

Quite a interesting experience but a good laugh for both of us.

A good end to a short stay in southern California.... tomorrow I'm off to Panama... my first central American country.