001 - mon 01/05/2006 - melbourne/los angeles

so we got up at 6am, our bags mostly packed, outside it was still dark. we got ourselves together and then jenny and betty (suz's aunty and nan) drove us to the airport. it turned out our plane was delayed for two hours, which gave us more time to wander aimlessly through airport shops - probably not the last time we'll be doing this in the next nine months - and also eat breakfast from the airport food court - definitely not the last time we'll be doing this.

we said goodbye to jenny and betty and then went through customs. we still had time to kill in the terminal, so suz and i started trying to guess which of our fellow passengers from melbourne to los angeles were american and which were australian. our game, perhaps unfairly, was based largely on the size of the people in question. and then we saw pauly shore. he was in melbourne for the international comedy festival and was obviously returning home. he looked pretty under the weather. fifteen minutes after pauly shore and his entourage (and the rest of the first/business class passengers) boarded the plane, we got on too.

on the 13 hour flight to LA, i watched 'walk the line' and 'match point' and parts of 'king kong.'

when we left melbourne it was about 1pm, when we arrived in LA it was about 10am (the same morning). getting through immigration and customs was way more painless than we expected, and before we knew it we were in a shuttle bus on our way to our hostel. our bus ride was less than scenic, probably to do with our growing sense of disorientation (having been awake for 17 hours and it still being morning) and also the grey smog that obscured the horizon. i think in melbourne you get pretty used to being able to see the horizon.

we checked into the hostel, which turned out to be just off hollywood boulevard. we found ourselves a room, set our bags down and assessed the surroundings. grungy but cool, a laidback, social vibe. we were feeling pretty good until we realised that we'd misplaced something - namely, a small bag that contained both our digital camera and mp3 player, brand new shiny (relatively expensive) electronic devices that we'd bought basically just for the trip. 19 hours into day one, things were beginning to feel desperate.

we left a message with the front desk to check to see if the bag was still on the shuttle bus, and then headed out onto hollywood blvd, figuring that hitting some sights might distract us from the fact that something very bad might have just happened. we wandered down the boulevard, lined with palm trees, reading the names of the stars under our feet. the walk of fame! this was it, hollywood, land of dreams! our spirits were up, so we pressed forward. we passed a tattoo shop, and then a souvenir shop, and then 2 more tattoo shops, and then a few souvenir shops, a wig store, a tattoo shop, a store selling trashy lingerie, and then 7 tattoo shops. jetlagged and now feeling bewildered, i demanded that we have beer. we found a pub, and had beer. we felt better.

we hit the road again, determine to find 'actual hollywood sights.' a couple of hundred metres down the road, the street traffic started to get busier, and then all of a sudden - kodak theatre, home of the oscars. and then the chinese theatre. grown men dressed in spiderman costumes. hey look, there's a dodgy guy dressed up as jack sparrow! there's some middle-aged japanese tourists wearing nirvana t-shirts and baseball caps that say 'i love la'! we'd found hollywood.

we took it all in for a couple of hours but then decided that we felt so terrible (22 hours or so into day one) that we'd go home for a nap. so we did. when we got back to the hostel, they informed us that the shuttle bus had returned our camera and mp3 player. we slept the sleep of the tremendously relieved (which turns out to be a sleep of short duration) then woke up to partake in the hostel's cheap in-house barbeque. waiting in line for a char-grilled burger, suz befriended a tall swiss man named marko. he joined us for dinner in the courtyard out the front of the hostel. after that we took a walk with marko down they boulevard, checked out the chinese theatre at night (jack sparrow was still there, and so were the tourists). we headed back to the hostel for much-needed sleep, having successfully stayed awake through not one but two monday may the firsts.