Fear and Loathing in Los Angeles

I flew into L.A. last night while listening to New Dawn Fades from the Heat soundtrack. It boarded on a religious experience. Today I found out how not to get around L.A. I was given some bad advice and caught the Metro line which basically does an entire circle through L.A. to get to Hollywood when I should have just caught the Santa Monica buses and gone in a straight line. I now know better but that didn't really help me when I found myself completely lost somewhere past 14000 Sunset Blvd on the way to Malibu. I finally found the correct way to get back to my hotel at about 4:30 and got back at about 8:30. So I found out how not to see L.A.

Hollywood was kind of interesting if underwhelming. I expected it to be bigger and grander. Mann's Chinese theatre is actually kind of small, but it's right next to the Kodak Theatre which is a bit more impressive. The thing I found odd is that no matter where you are in L.A. it still kind of feels like a small city - there aren't many high rises. The only clue that it's not is that the suburbs go on forever. It's only when you rise above the city, on the train or on the freeways, do you really get to see how expansive L.A. is. The freeways are actually quite impressive in their magnitude and are as a loud as a jet engine.

I'd have more to say but the Internet is ridiculously expansive where I'm staying and I'm about to run out of time.