Me @ iastate 2011-2012: California Road Trip: Los Angeles (in English)

Vegas and San Diego behind, the next stop was Los Angeles. Our hotel was located in South Hollywood, which, despite the name, wasn't that nice at all. We arrived at the hotel around 3pm or 4pm, and the first thing we saw was three people being arrested and their car being searched right next to our hotel! Nice! For the rest of the day we went to downtown LA just to look around and get a glimpse of the big city atmosphere. Along the way we saw three more arrests, and the first impression was that LA is not that safe! ...not to mention all the w*irdos :/

After a bit of a shocking start, we decided to visit Universal Studios on the second day of our stay in LA. For the ones who haven't been to Universal Studios, basically, it is a theme park full of different kinds of (rollercoaster) rides with their movie themes. Also, they have a tour, which takes you to the studios themselves (only outside though) and on the tour they have displayed few special effects and movie sets. We spent the whole day at Universal Studios, and got to see almost everything they have there (Terminator 3D, Jurassic Park, Simpsons, The Mummy, Shrek, just to mention few).

Like so many times, when you mention LA, you immediately think of Hollywood. So, on the third day we decided to have "a light day", and head out to see the Walk of Fame (where we would return several times later on during the trip). It was also Christmas Eve, so there was a lot of people on that particular street (walk of fame), some of them dressed up as superheroes, and asking by-passers to take pictures with them, only to get some tip. Needless to say, as a first-timer in Hollywood, I fell to this trick and had to pay $10 to Green Lantern, Spiderman and Black Spiderman.

Enthusiastically heading to the fourth day of our stay in LA, while temperature rising to around +24 Celsius degrees, we wanted to spend the day by the beach in Santa Monica. The Santa Monica Pier, where we spend most of the (Christmas) Day, is also the home for Baywatch TV show. Unfortunately, the water was too cold for swimming, so I wasn't able to let "Mitch Buchannon" to save me that time.

Rested and fully recovered for the fifth day, we continued exploring LA and especially Hollywood area. We went for a tour that took us to see Beverly Hills, Hollywood, and in the end, also, the Hollywood sign from a good view point. The tour itself was more or less just speeding through the neighborhood of rich and famous people, so it was nothing spectacular actually. We didn't even see ANY famous people... or maybe one, but I didn't know him. However, the chance for me to be starstruck came the following day when we went to see a Lakers game :D Trying to keep this short, I won't start talking about the game too much, but going to Staples Center was definitely one of the highlights of the trip for me!

If the trip hadn't already been unbelievable enough, it only got better when we took a guided tour at Warner Bros Studios on the seventh day! Again, we had the chance to see movie sets that had been used in several movies. For example, the upside down kissing scene from the movie Spiderman was shot there (see the picture below), and many other scenes from other movies, of which names I can't remember now. Also, we were allowed to enter a garage that was full of vehicles which were used in movies, such as Batman: The Dark Knight, Austin Powers, Harry Potter and Hangover. Nevertheless, my favorite part of the tour was seeing the sets of the "Big Bang Theory" TV show!

Even though it was our last day in LA, we still had enough time to go and see the campus area of USC (University of Southern California), as well as Little Tokyo, on Wednesday. Unfortunately, before leaving for San Francisco, we also had to say goodbyes to some of the exchange students who were returning back to their home countries at this point. So, for those people, I want to say thank you for making this trip, and the whole semester, unforgettable!

<3