LA time

first, if you want, you can see the relevant pictures in the following link (before, after or while reading the post) - http://tomeraroundtheworld.shutterfly.com/action/?a=0AbNGzFq3Ys2LCMg

As you know, in order to make sure that even my "urban friends", that doesn't like the back country, will be jealous of me, i decided to spend a few days in LA (i didn't want them to be too jealous, so i decided against visiting San Fransisco)

that, and visiting some family's friends...

so...

I arrived on LAX at the evening of Sunday, Nov. 5th.

Tzvika, a family friend picked me up, took me in, fed me, and took good care of me.

on Monday we went to some of the most known places in LA...

we saw surfers and expensive houses in Malibu, we saw the part of long beach that was used in "bay watch", and we went to Venice beach (where Schwarzenegger started his career).

Afterwards we went to Santa Monica, a nice suburb, and spent some time over there.

after a short while in USC (where Tzvika lectures), we picked Shani - Tzvika's wife's daughter - up and went to a restaurant...

a Mexican restaurant...

with valet parking...

It was so different from Mexico!

even the frijoles (beans) were completely different!

well, on Tuesday we went to Santa Barbara, where we met Adi (Shani's sister) for lunch and visited Santa Barbara's monastery around which the city was built.

it's a very lovely town, and the monastery was very nice too.

Wednesday Tzvika dropped me off at Universal Studios, and i had a few wonderful hours.

i was warned quite a lot not to expect too much, but i wasn't told what there is to do.

so i didn't expect nothing.

especially not rollercoasters and such things.

i thought it'll be more like "behind the scenes" or something...

so i had a lot of fun.

later i was picked up by Ruti, another family's friend. we had a felafel, and later we went to "the grove".

it's something like a mall, only it's open - not inside a building. and it's built quite nice.

we strolled around a little, and went to see "Borat" in an American cinema.

Big hall, big screen, big comfy chairs.

and the movie itself was very funny too. apart from the part where Borat starts... well, for those of you who didn't see it yet, I'll just say that there's one part i would really prefer not to have seen...

Thursday evening Ruti took me to Hollywood Blvd. we saw some of the stars on the pavement, though not all of them due to some movie opening in the Chinese theatre and to Tony Bennett's 80th birthday party taking place in the Kodak theatre (where the oscar ceremony is held).

After "soaking in the atmosphere" we went to sunset Blvd (st?) and had a nice dinner.

on Friday i spent about 2 hours in the cars museum, which was very nice.

in the evening we went again to Santa Monica, where they have in the evenings (at least on Friday's eve) lots of activity - a whole st. blocked for vehicles, full of restaurants, youngs, and quite a few performers acting in the st.

it was very nice - singers, break dance dancers, bands, athletics etc.

on Saturday Ruti took me to Rodeo Dr. (apparently one of the most famous streets in the world), and i wandered around Beverly Hills a little, saw a Roles Royce, a few Jaguars, lots of Porches, and various other nice and expensive cars...

By the way, Ruti's house is big. very big. for example, there are 12 restrooms...

in any case, at around 14 we met Tzvika and Ann (his wife) and went to the Getty center, where we saw a nice collection of 16-17th centuries paintings - mainly dutch and Flemish (including Rembrandt, Rubens and Van Dyck), and explored the beautiful garden.

we parted from Ruti, picked up Shani, and had a nice dinner in a Lebanese restaurant.

Sunday i spent most of the day exploring Disneyland!!!

it was lots of fun even if a little disappointing.

i think that the problem was that the lines were longer than i hoped it would and the rides were shorter than i expected. but i still had a very good time...

i guess that it's much better when you go with little kids. and not during the weekend...

by the way, in Disneyland i saw for the first time those unbelievably huge fat big bulging Americans. a lot of them can't even walk, and they use a motorized wheel chair. how can a person get to be in such a miserable state?!?!

the next day i mainly packed and finished the third Mexican post along with its photos...
after that i took off to Fiji. but's that's for another post...