Hiking to the Hollywood Sign

As I had planned to go to the Hollywood Sign anyway, I joined the hostels activity to hike there today.
However, we only walked to a place where you could take nice pictures in front of the sign, which was still a bit further away.
I wanted more than that and thus, I decided to hike up behind the sign together with three other people of our group. It was only about 35 minutes further up the road. In addition to that, the whole path was paved so it wasn't hard to get there at all.  Consequently, I didn't really understand why we didn't go up there with the whole group.
Anyway, we had a really nice view from up there and we were almost right behind the sign. There was only a fence seperating us from the huge letters.
The whole tour took just about four hours including a short bus ride.

I spent the afternoon planning and packing stuff at the hostel.

Universal Studios

If you like getting wet, becoming a minion and flying through Hogwarts, you should definitely check out Universal Studios!

As I wanted to spent as much time as possible in the theme park, I got up pretty early. In the end, it was just past 9:30 AM when I entered the park.

At first I went to the Harry Potter World. Standing in the middle of Hogsmeade and seeing the Hogwarts castle in the distance was just amazing. It all seemed surprisingly real, you could buy wands, uniforms, butter beer, chocolate frogs, Berty Botts every flavor beans and so much more! There was some kind of ride or attraction in the Hogwarts castle, however, after queuing for about 15 minutes, I was told that I couldn’t go into the castle since backpacks were not allowed and my backpack was too big to fit into the free lockers. Since I didn’t want to pay 15 USD for storing my backpack at the entrance of the park, the attraction seemed inaccessible to me. There was a stage in the middle of Hogsmeade and just when I walked past there was an acapella frog choir show. They sang Hogwarts related songs and offered a fun show.

I decided to take the universal studios tour next and after a quite long waiting time, I could see a lot of actual film sets as well as a few short 3D and special effect shows.

Afterwards, I watched a special effects show as well as a show about animal actors. They had different birds, dogs, cats, guinea pigs, rats and a pig in the animal show, which was really very fun and entertaining.

My next highlight was the ‘Despicable me’ area, where I could take pictures with the figures of the movie. There was also a really cool 3D simulated rollercoaster show, were you were turned into a minion for a short time. I really loved that!

Waterworld was the name of the next show. It was a really exciting performance where you could get extremely wet if you sat in one of the first few rows (which I did). Before the real performance started (it was a short story in connection with the dystopian movie Waterworld), the actors actually threw buckets of water on the people in the first few rows and even though I put my rain coat on as quickly as possible, I still got pretty wet. But as the weather was nice, this was actually very fun.

Next, I went to watch Shrek 4D, which was a cute short movie.

By now it was already getting late and after buying a ‘despicable me’ bag, I went down to the lower level of the park. Next to a ‘Return of the Mummy’-ride, which I didn’t want to do as it seemed a bit too extreme for me, there were a few lockers that were big enough for my backpack and didn’t cost too much. Thus I quickly put my backpack in there and ran to the Hogwarts ride.

Walking through Hogwarts was really cool, the pictures on the wall actually moved and I could walk into Dumbledore’s office as well as the defense against the dark arts classroom. When I finally arrived at the real ride, I was actually a bit scared since it looked like a real rollercoaster. In the end, it really was a bit more extreme than what I was used to so far: It made me sometimes lay on my back or my front. However, as it wasn’t moving too fast, it was still ok for me. Also, since everything I saw was really amazing - I was flying through Hogwarts, seeing dragons, dementors, a quidditch game and all of the well-known wizards – the scary ride was well worth it.

As soon as I was done, I ran back to retrieve my backpack before I would have had to pay more for a longer storage period.

The last ride I went on was the Transformers ride, which turned out to be a bit more intense than I had expected and it kind of made me feel uncomfortable. But since it wasn’t too long, it was still ok.

I finished my visit by buying a Harry Potter Ravenclaw T-shirt as well as a butter beer. The butter beer tasted kind of weird, it was like coke with cream. But after I got used to the taste, I actually liked it.

A day at the beach

Since there was a shuttle bus to the Santa Monica beach this noon, I decided to spend a nice and relaxing day at the beach. On the shuttle bus I met Will from Atlanta, who was spending one day in LA on his way to Japan. We ended up spending the whole day together.
The first thing we went to was the Santa Monica Pier. It was almost like a small amusement park. There were a few doves which were a little too friendly - about three of them sat on some guy. At the end of the pier there was a sea lion.
The beach was huge and it wasn't too crowded, which was really nice. We walked from the Santa Monica beach to the Venice beach (they are connected), which took quite some time. The ocean was really beautiful to look at. It was too cold to swim, nevertheless, I enjoyed walking barefoot through the sand and the water.
There were a lot of small shops and restaurents next to Venice beach and we decided to eat some Tacos. I had never had one so I decided to try a fish taco. I really liked it although it was a bit spicy.
As we were both a bit tired, we just lay down in the sand and relaxed there for a while. Apart from the chilly wind, the weather was really nice and warm.
We were back at the Santa Monica Beach around 6 PM and as it was getting a bit cold, we took the next bus back. The bus ride took almost one and a half hours and as we didn't want to transfer, we still had to walk about 2 km to the hostel. I had my big backpack with me and there was a jacket in it, so I didn't mind that it had become pretty cool by now. However, Will was just in his shorts and a T-shirt and he was freezing.
After getting to the hostel, we went out once more to eat diner at 'In n Out Burger' - a famous burger restaurant in California. The burger was quite good, however, the fries were already cold when we got them. I guess that can't be helped as the place was pretty crowded.

When I got back to the hostel and changed into my night clothes, I realized that I had a sunburn on my feet - the only body part where I had not put any sunscreen.

From the Walk of Fame to the Getty Museum

Although I had tried, I couldn't sleep at all in the bus tonight. By the way, as I had decided to go from San Francisco instead of San Jose to LA, I had booked Greyhound instead of Megabus. However, I was riding a Bolt Bus in the end. I don't really know how I ended up in there, but the bus driver had told me that Bolt Bus worked together with Greyhound and that he could let me off directly in Hollywood, which would be better for me.

So I arrived around 5:30 AM at one end of the Walk of Fame. Walking from there to the hostel was actuall quite interesting since I could walk the Walk of Fame and check out all the names on the way. However, the Walk of Fame isn't as fabulous as you might imagine. In fact, it kind of reeks.

As it was too early for me to be allowed to hang out in the hostel, I left my bags there and continued walking along the Walk of Fame, looking for the 'Johnny Depp'-Star. After I had found it and taken a few more detours, it was about 7 AM so that I could return to the hostel. 

After a quick shower, I decided to go to the Getty museum, as several people (two other travellers from LA whom I had met in the hostel in Vancouver / San Francisco as well as professor Gamst from my University) had recommended it.

The drive to the museum was quite long so that I arrived around 10 AM. The museum was high up on a hill which offered a great view of LA and the surrounding area. There was a huge collection of art as well as a nicely kept garden and interesting architecture to behold. As I was pretty tired from not sleeping all night, I have to admit that I didn't enjoy the trip as much as I could have. But I still admired the artworks. Especially the paintings which were depicting landscapes as well as the French decorative arts were really amazing and inspired me. 

The only irritating thing about my visit there was the staff - every few minutes, someone remarked that my bagpack was quite big and asked me why I didn't leave it at the reception. Since I just preferred to keep all documents and everything in that bag close to me, I got a bit annoyed by explaining it over and over again.

The ride back was also very long and exhausting and I was really worried that I might fall asleep since it was hard for me to keep my eyes open. Nevertheless, when I arrived at the hostel around 5 PM, I decided that it would be best not to go to bed yet. Instead I took a nice long shower, did my laundry and wrote today's blog.

At Lands End

Originally, I had planned to spent the day in San Jose in order to see the Winchester Mystery house. However, as I had been a bit sick of changing places so often in the last few days, I decided to spent the day in San Francisco and take another bus from here to Los Angeles tonight instead.
On one of my first days here, someone had recommended the Cliffhouse to me and since I had no other plans, I decided to check it out. It was a very long bus ride to get there (about an hour) but totally worth it! The area around that Cliffhouse is called Lands End and it is a beautiful hiking area.
At first I went to the Sutro Bath ruins, where I had already a nice view of the ocean and some huge rocks on which a lot of birds were sitting. Furthermore, there was a small cave to explore.
Just like the last few days, it was a bit windy today but apart from that the day was really beautiful so that I was very glad I chose this trip today.
I decided to hike a bit along the coast to the Eagle Point. On the way there, I took a steep path to the Lands End point, which offered a really breathtaking view. As I hadn't been sure if this was already the eagle point, I asked a nice woman and she told me that the Eagle Point was supposed to be further down the road. As she was headed the same way, we ended up talking a little. She was here to visit her son, who had just started to work for Google. I hadn't known that they had a base here, but I guess it might be pretty cool to work there.
Anyway, we went together to the Eagle Point, which was actually a bit dull compared to some other view points on the way. So we decided to just walk the same way back. The path was sometimes quite steep and there were many steps, which was really exhausting.
Back at the Cliffhouse, I decided to spent a little more time at the ocean while the woman, who had been keeping me company all the way, headed back to the city.
Before heading back myself, I checked out the Sutro Heights Park, which was also really nice and offered a viewing platform.

I took a detour on the long bus ride back in order to ride a cable car one last time. Moreover, I made a short stop at Ghiradelli's to get some more free dark blueberry chocolate. I think I had about six of them in my whole time here and although I don't like blueberries, this chocolate is just amazing.
Now I am sitting in my hostel and preparing everything for the bus ride later on.  

Quarters of San Francisco

When I went to the restroom last night, there was a woman from Seattle. When I told her that I had been to Seattle and thought that there were a few weird people, she actually started talking weird stuff as well about drugs, her family and the evil within you. This proves it for me: People from Seattle are all weird and creepy.

Today I went to see two famous quarters of San Francisco, the Mission and Castro. There were a few nice Victorian houses and interesting street art, but apart from that, these two quarters didn't really catch my attention.
In addition to that, I was quite exhausted from all the travelling so that after buying some food, I went back to the hostel quite early.

My Sunday in San Francisco

This morning, there was a Farmers Market close to the Hostel. After buying some potatoes and a cauliflower at the market and bringing them back to the hostel, I went out again to see the Coit Tower. Walking to the top of the Telegraph Hill turned out to be quite challenging as it was a very steep ascent. I had a nice view from up there, but I didn't go into the Tower because there was a long line and I also didn't want to pay for it. The way down was beautiful as I walked through the Filbert Street Garden.
My next goal was the crookedest street. I took the bus for a few minutes and got off close to that street. Unfortunately, I had to walk up a long steep street to get there. In addition to that, I was on the lower end of that street, so I had to walk it up as well. When I arrived at the top, I waited for a few minutes in order to take the next cable car down to Ghiradelli Square. Since it was already pretty crowded, I got to hang on the outside of the car, which was at first a bit scary but then really cool.
I ate a Ghiradelli Strawberry Hot Fudge Sundae for Lunch, which was really amazing.
Next, I walked back to the hostel since I had planned to take part in the Tai Chi activity. Unfortunately, I didn't know that the time had been changed, so I had missed it.
Instead, I went to the closest Beach and walked barefoot through the sand. I also tried walking through the water at the edge of the ocean. Unfortunately, there was a huge wave and my pants got all wet. So I just sat down in the sun and waited for them to dry. Afterwards, I walked a bit around in the area surrounding the hostel.

Since it was still quite early, I decided to go to the Alamo Square. The walk to the bus station was longer than I had expected, but at least the bus drove directly to the square. The map told me that the Painted Ladies were right next to that square, but until I saw them, I didn't know what those ladies really looked like. I had expected some statues, however, 'Painted Ladies' is the name of a row of nicely painted Victorian houses. There are in fact several very beautiful victorian houses close to the Alamo Square.

Next I walked east, past the Jefferson Square to the Civic Center. The buildings there were huge and decorated with gold. What really caught my attention were a few tree sized balloon bunnies.

As it was only around 6 PM, I walked a bit further east in order to see the place where the Interview in the movie 'Interview with the Vampire' was filmed. On the way there I actually walked past a filming crew, however, I have no idea what they were filming. 

It took me a while to get back to the hostel again, as I had to change the bus once. When I arrived, I went straight to the cafe to get some milk and butter (for free!). With that and the food I bought at the farmers market this morning, I cooked myself a nice meal: Cauliflower with eggs and mashed potatoes.