South Carthay

Yesterday we spent the entire day travelling so it's not worthy of its own blog post. The journey was relatively uneventful until we reached LA when I struggled a lot to get my fingerprints taken on the electronic check in machines at the airport due to sweaty hand syndrome (perhaps from the wine we drank on the plane?!) The lady had to fan my hands to cool them down so that the machine could read them. She also gave me a cherry sweet as she said she could smell the wine on me and that if the officer smelt it he would take me to secondary. I'm not sure what secondary is but I didn't want to find out. We'd only had a couple of glasses so we really didn't have anything to worry about but she put the fear of god in me which didn't help with the sweaty hand syndrome! It was totally fine though. The officer was lovely and I sailed right through!

The plan was to then get an uber to Jeff's house, the Airbnb where we were staying however both of our travel cards decided to stop working so we couldn't book an uber. We then tried to get cash out but they weren't having that either so we had to draw cash out on our UK card and pay more than double for a regular cab. Taxis in LA are not cheap!

We only have 3 days here so we have a very busy schedule. This morning we started off with the Hollywood behind the scenes walking tour which was really good. We walked along the Hollywood Walk of Fame spotting lots of celebs stars. Much to my disappointment Ryan Gosling does not have a star! We also learnt that in order to get a star you have to be nominated and then it doesn't just get given to the star, they have to pay $30,000 for the pleasure. They also have to sign a contract to say that they will attend the unveiling of their star otherwise they can't get it. This is because Barbara Streisand didn't turn up to hers, naughty lady! As a result there are a number of celebrities that have been nominated but they just haven't freed up their calendar for the unveiling.

Mel Gibson doesn't have a star because he refuses to pay for it. There are also a few other VERY big celebrities that don't have stars such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Angeline Jolie. As the tour guide put it there is absolutely nothing in it for them. They are already huge so why would they pay thousands of dollars for something that people will walk all over? He makes a very good point!

The tour also took us to the Egyptian Theatre which is the birthplace of the movie premiere as well as the Dolby Theatre (home of the Oscars) and the Chinese Theatre. Outside the Chinese Theatre there are hundreds of hand and footprints of various celebrities. Unfortunately we were unable to walk around these today as they were setting up the red carpet for the premiere of the new Spiderman movie. We did get to peak the prints of Twilight stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner though as well as Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint. In order to have your prints there the movie premiere has to be there. Emma, Daniel and Rupert really wanted to have their prints there so they specifically asked if the premiere of one of the movies could be there. Apparently Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone have their prints there from La La Land but we couldn't see them due to the premiere. We also got to catch our first glimpse of the Hollywood sign which was pretty cool!

Our next stop after the walking tour was the Warner Brothers Studio for our studio tour. It is the live working studio so we got to see loads of iconic buildings from so many TV shows and movies including the park where Phoebe does her funny run, the orphanage in Annie, the drainpipe where the famous upside down Spiderman kiss was filmed, Dexters first kill room and even the road in Jurassic Park where they are running from the T-Rex! We also got to walk around the real set of The Big Bang Theory which was amazing! Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos there though.

Aside from driving around the various sets and famous streets etc. we got to go inside the enormous warehouse where they store all of the props. It was amazing! We got to spot a few iconic props including the blue or red pill chairs from the Matrix. We also got to see the real life Batmobile and the Jokers very pink car from Suicide Squad. The best part however had to be sitting on the couch in Central Perk on the real life set of Friends! Second to this was getting to sorted into my house by the infamous Harry Potter sorting out. I am now officially a Gryffindor! I can't tell you how relieved I was that I wasn't a Slytherin. I felt like Harry Potter! Mr Thatcher however is a Slytherin!

Our excitement for the day wasn't over yet though. We decided to get the bus back from the studios and had to change buses on Hollywood Blvd near the Chinese Theatre at the exact time the celebrities were pulling up to the red carpet in their ridiculously expensive cars (including a Tesla) to the Spiderman premiere. We thought it would be rude not to try and have a peak and managed to spot Stan Lee from afar! Pretty cool!Read more