great, fantastic, phenomenal- regardless of what you called it, we were painfully aware when we woke up at the holiday inn that this was our last day in america, and that at 7:30pm we would be at the airport and flying home to melbourne.
we awoke with a disney hangover- a dry mouth and still covered in tinker bell glitter. ordering room service, we sat in bed and slowly awoke. we packed our things, piled back into the car and headed for the center of los angeles.
arriving at the hollywood walk of fame, we were more than disappointed at what we found. scaffolding sat above a walkway, under which you could make out the outline of stars with names. we began to walk, and i found that i didn't know most of the names that were laid out before me. the weather was hot, and the people looked rough. not exactly what i had in mind. i now understood what people meant when they said l.a. made them feel dirty!
i sought refuge in an immaculately clean mac store, seeking out a lipstick that had been out of stock in san diego. stepping inside, i found a tall muscular lady covered in tats, complete with big fake boobs. something tells me you haven't always been a lady... her attention darted from the woman she was serving and she stared at me. 'you're beautiful'- she continued to stare, almost in a trance, before snapping back to the woman she was serving. not surprisingly, i didn't know what to say, and believe i probably offended her manhood. i mean...womanhood. i think... regardless, i found myself very happy to exit the store.
getting cosy with hugh hefner.
we took a trip to the wax museum, which was an awful lot of fun. walking into a room full of wax figures, i couldn't help but feel a really strong presence of other people. it was enough to make my hairs stand on end, and i couldn't help but feel that at any moment they were going to move and grab me. house of wax obviously had a slightly scarring impact on me...
we arrived at the chinese theater, where all the stars had their hands and feet imprinted in wet cement. this was actually pretty cool, to see the tiny feet of those such as doris day and marilyn monroe. i lent down and planted my hands into marilyn monroe's hand prints. a perfect fit. well, would you look at that!
from the theater, we made our way back to the car along the other side of the stars. people bombarded us with pamphlets for star tours, and young guys tried to hand you cds of their latest recording sessions. it was all a bit much really, and i came very close to screaming at someone. paparazzi stood around, as limos lined the streets. it was at that point i was very happy we had gone to san diego and not to los anegeles for our last five days!
driving on, we came to sunset boulevard, and drove through rodeo drive. the demographic shifted, as did the shopping on offer. chanel, ysl, d&g and louis vuitton sat one after another, with tall palm trees and blue skies. it's easy to understand that people would enjoy l.a. if they had the opportunity to live only in these areas and never go into the land of the dirty.
as our time in america dwindled down to mere hours, we drove out to manhattan beach for dinner. it really was a cruel move on sharon's part- taking us to such a picturesque beach area before taking us to lax airport to fly home. we had a beautiful dinner and walked the pier as the sun met with the ocean. i seriously considered my options in running away from the car and never coming back. but i figured it may not work out as well as i was envisioning...
reaching lax airport, mum and i were very quiet. we got changed into our heavier clothes in the car park- in order to make it through baggage check in under weight. successfully checked in, we fare welled sharon and went through into security. an hour or so in the gate and we boarded our flight back home. farewell america.
-danielle.
