A Little Wander around Hollywood at Christmas...

Probably my favourite thing in all of Hollywood - and I doubt if I am alone on this - is the world famous Grauman's Chinese Theater.

Located on Hollywood Blvd along the Hollywood Walk of Fame and just a few steps away from the new Hollywood and Highland Centre - this traditional bit of old Hollywood is something you might stumble on with out even realizing it.

One minute you are in a shiny new shopping district where it's not unlikely to spot a celebrity or two doing some Christmas shopping (I saw one from ER...) and then a few steps away you are standing on the Hollywood stars, and fighting your way through the throngs of tourists, locals and costumed characters trying to have their photo made with you very suddenly you are standing in the midst of one of the most famous of Hollywood attractions.

First opened in 1927 - Grauman's has been a fundamental part of the Hollywood scene ever since. The place of many of premier in tinsel town, and still the often the scene of glamour and Hollywood celebrity - not miss this sight on a trip to Los Angeles would be a crying shame.

Standing out strangely on the Hollywood Blvd in its grandiose Chinese style, this is truly a unique sight regardless of its history or importance. Not only is the building itself strange and beautiful in it's surrounding - but so are it's decorative assets including the huge 40 foot high wall that separates it from it's surroundings, and the giant fountains and carved dragons.

And while you are staring up at this magnificent sight - really taken aback by this Asian oasis in the midst of Hollywood Blvd - you might forget to look down and realize you are standing in the very midst of Hollywood's elite.

This is where you find the hand/foot prints and signatures of the stars. Amble the area referred to as The Forecourt to the Stars - slowly taking your time to take in all of the signatures of the greats beneath you.
(Be sure to find John Wayne's prints - you will be astounded by how small his feet were!)
You soon begin to feel the profound presence of the area and those who have gone before you. With the greats ranging from Clark Gable to Samuel L. Jackson - you are sure to find someone's mark that leaves a smile on your face.

Try to visit this midday, midweek if possible to make it easier to enjoy and take photos. There are those trying to sell token items in this area - but in my experience they weren't too pushy and never really got in the way of enjoying the area itself.
It's bigger than you might imagine - and just when you think you've seen all the stars you want to see, you'll spot another you want to get a snap of or try measuring your own print against. Allow plenty of time here to really enjoy it.

This is something that you simply must do while you are visiting LA. The location could not be more simple (once you have worked out parking) as it's located so close to Hollywood and Highland - and it also means that you can view the great Hollywood Walk of Fame from here as well.

It is also just a couple minutes walk from some great cheesy souvenir shops as well as the Kodak Theater - home of the Academy Awards.

Be sure to allow time for this sight - it really is a pretty awe inspiring thing.

In every trip there are certain things that you are obliged to do. Even if you've managed to make it all the way to Hollywood California with out having any interest whatsoever in films or star-gazing - it is still all but compulsory that you visit the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

If you arrive on Hollywood Blvd by car or - well, I guess it will probably be by car as there are very few ways to get around LA that aren't by car. (You could walk if you're not coming from too far away, but buses aren't recommended by those who live there.) Then you will all but stumble upon the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

With all the glitz and glamour that surrounds it; you might think that it's set aside from the largely trafficked area of Hollywood. But you would be wrong. If you start walking down Hollywood Blvd towards the main shopping district, before long you will simply become aware that there are star-shaped steps along the sidewalk beneath your feet. And with a start you realize, you've been walking the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

It's somewhat different than I pictured it, but there's something kind of cool (if very surreal) about this incredibly well known 'attraction' of Hollywood passing by unnoticed under the feet of those who work and live in the area every day.

The locals say that this area has been cleaned up a lot in recent years - though I do have to say the whole thing still seemed a lot more dingy and dated than I would have imagined. Even at Christmas when there were live brass bands playing along the walk and the flashy new shopping centre and theater (where you find the Kodak Theater - home of the Academy Awards) was decked out for the holidays in a very beautiful way, I was still surprised at how down trodden much of it seemed.

Not that it is lacking in character - and even though it's not the glitzy thing I pictured, is still a very unique and interesting thing to see on your visit to Hollywood. It can be difficult to photograph the stars, as so many people are walking past them - and do be aware that all the dressed up characters that are along the walk (some of them spectacularly dressed, and others quite sad and tatty) are trying to make money by having you take your photo with them. If you want your photo taken with Spiderman or Jack Sparrow - then you will have no trouble managing this here. But they can also be a bit pushy at times.

This is also an excellent place to get the great cheesy Hollywood souvenirs. Shop after shop on Hollywood Blvd sell everything from Elvis salt shakers to John Wayne coffee mugs. And of course - any number of things with Hollywood stars or California licence plates on it.

If you're looking for slightly more upmarket things from Hollywood - then go across the street to the Hollywood and Highland Center. The newly developed center has over 60 shops, restaurants, cafes and even nightclubs and hotels. It's very well situated, nicely laid out and at Christmas is particularly nice to have a festive coffee and enjoy the California sun.

Go up to the top floor for an excellent view of Hollywood Blvd and LA city in the distance.

If there is one single obligatory thing you must make the effort to do in Hollywood - it is to see the Hollywood sign. And this might be more difficult then you would imagine.

You could drive around Hollywood all day (and this is something that could very feasibly happen given the confusing streets and traffic in the area) and never spot it.

At the risk of spoiling it - I should warn you that the legendary Hollywood sign is somewhat more...demure than you might expect. Or rather, it appears to be. The size of the sign in reality is quite impressive at 450 ft from end to end, and apparently each letter is 45 ft tall. Perhaps it's the size of the peak it's resting on - which is the tallest in Los Angeles. If you expect to see it towering over the hills above Hollywood the way it seems to do in film - you might be a bit disappointed. However - it's surprisingly accessible, too.

You might have to drive around for a good bit in Hollywood in order to find a street with a good view of the sign, but to get the full experience then I highly recommend that you take a drive up through the Hollywood hills - a sight seeing excursion all on it's own.

I was lucky enough to be spending my time in Hollywood with local friends who knew all the best places to spot the sign and see the sights - and they were especially useful in spotting the sign.
Probably the best place to see it and the most chilled and relaxing place to stop off for a good view and photo opportunity is the Hollywood Reservoir and the area locals know as the dog park.

Drive up (you will be best served if you have a car for this particular route) Canyon Lake and past the very obvious dog park (it seems there are always a lot of locals out walking their dogs here) to where you can see an excellent view of the Hollywood sign. And to add to this - you even get a really great view of LA out over the reservoir - go at sunrise or sunset if you can. And if you are lucky enough to get a clear sky then you can walk away with some amazing photos.
Pose in front of the sign to your heart's content - it's a pretty quiet spot and seems to be populated with an interesting selection of travellers, dog owners, and students with guitars. It's one of the few really peaceful places I visited in LA - and is worth a viewing, even if you're not really bothered about the Hollywood sign of views of some big celeb's houses on the hill.

Unfortunately you can no longer walk (or even hike) up to the actual sign. Though it wouldn't be a strenuous hike - it is now gaurded and and alarmed to keep visitors from tampering with it. And you can't actually get that close to it driving, either - but luckily you can see it well from this spot, and there is plenty of space to pull over and walk around for a good view.

It's possible - it's likely even - that when you were asking around about what to do in California before you arrived, at least one person has told you 'You have to go to Amoeba Records.'

If you have even the slightest interest in music then you will have probably been told this on more than one occasion - and it would have been very good advice. Known as The World's Largest Independent Music Store, Amoeba records has something, possibly everything, for everyone!

A store that has become a California institution has so much more than just a really large music selection.

There are three stores in California, one in San Francisco, one in Berkley and one in Hollywood on Sunset Blvd. This one is quite a trendy place - you feel almost as if you're partaking in a local trendy pursuit than simply buying some CDs.

Downstairs in what almost looks like on old nightclub, the shop opens up to an incredibly impressive array of CDs, DVDs, and videos.

This is one of those great places where - though you may not know where to start - you instantly start to think of some hard to find item you've not seen in years, and you set off amongst the racks to find it. And better yet, it's one of those places where you are certain to find it, and nearby will be three or four other options that you didn't even know existed.

I do enjoy music, and even more movies, but went into this store mostly because friends in LA we were visiting insisted that we must, with no intention of buying anything at all.

Needless to say - I left with two bags of DVDs, a few hard to find CDs and even a book or two.

It's a very impressive place, and even if you aren't blown away by the idea of the huge second hand music and movie selection - as a part of Hollywood culture, you really should pop in and have a look around for yourself.

After lots of pit stops for burgers and muffins and coffee - the kind of things you always end up eating while sight seeing, if you're in the mood for something a little bit different then just around the corner is the Csardas Hungarian Restaurant and Bakery.

It's a very inconspicuous little place on Melrose Ave, and not probably a place that would catch your eye in the midst of all the Hollywood restaurants as a place to eat.

But it is a somewhat interesting place - and I felt the need to review it if for no other reason that I'd never actually been to a Hungarian Restaurant before.

My grandfather was from Hungary, though growing up in the south I only ever had a few samplings of the food of his heritage. When the friends we stayed with in LA heard about this (one of them was Hungarian) they instantly rushed us over to Csardas - one of their favourite places to eat.

As I've said - not having yet been to Hungary, or having ever eaten completely authentic Hungarian food myself I can't testify to just how authentic it is. I will stay, though, that the Hungarian friend we went with takes his family there when they visit from Hungary and they all really enjoy it.

It's also worth mentioning that the restaurant is run by Hungarians, and the entire place has a pretty authentic feel. It's a very neat and clean little restaurant/bakery - and though it's not stylized as a 'Hungarian' restaurant, you do get the impression instantly that this might be very similar to a local place you would stop into there.

There is a very homey feel to the place, and you do get the feel of the bakery as well as that of a restaurant. The smell of the bred is fantastic when you walk in the door and I recommend you get some to go and enjoy it later - as it was very good indeed.

It is simple, though there is a piano in the corner where later in the evening there is some live music produced for those enjoying their meal.
It's also quite a social place - you feel that those who come there come often and many of them know each other - which makes for a pretty nice eating experience.

The food itself is good. I found it very tasty, though in many ways it doesn't seem as if you are eating restaurant food - which might be a disappointment for some people. You do feel a bit as if the motherly Hungarian figure behind the counter has just gone and scooped up some of the family meal for you to share.
Not that this is a bad thing - I rather enjoyed the novelty of it.

The portions were very healthy indeed. I am not a small eater and I still took quite a lot home to snack on later in the evening (with my bread purchase, of course...)

We all ordered something different to sample as many different things as possible, and I was pretty impressed with everything I tasted. I was particularly impressed with the meats in the dishes (which they didn't skimp on in anyway) as they were incredibly tender and full of flavour.

As I said, all the food was good, though I particularly recommend the Transylvanian Gulyas, which was very, very tasty and a huge portion.

The prices are pretty reasonable for the amount of food that you get. The entrees are around $10 each and they also have early evening specials and lunch buffets during the week.

I have to say - the food here didn't blow me away. But the service was good, the place was neat and clean, the food was very good and a bit different than anything I'd had before. I wouldn't say this is a restaurant you 'must try' while you are in Hollywood. But if you are at all interested in authentic European cuisine then this might be an excellent and enjoyable experience.

When I came into Los Angeles to spend the month of December leading up to Christmas on the California coast - I was fortunate enough to know someone locally who could point me in all the right directions for what to do and see while visiting the area.

As I mention often in this journal - the size of LA is something that is really hard to comprehend until you are in the midst of it - and even before you are aware of just how vast the driving times can be from one end of the city to the other - it might still be daunting knowing just where to start your Hollywood adventure.

Not only was I lucky enough to have a few friends dotted around this mammoth city, but I was even more fortunate to have a few friends in film who'd been in the city almost a decade. And though I can't give you the most obvious and helpful advice I would like to give about visiting LA (That is, to know someone who is familiar with it and can tell you all the great things to see and do) I will try to pass on some of the knowledge I got while I was there.

Hollywood is a strange place - and I won't spoil it by telling you too much about it, in case you've never been. What I will say - and I feel that I can say this with a decent amount of confidence - is that it won't be what you expect. I'm not entirely sure what it was I did expect of Hollywood - but I do know that it was much different than any image I had in my head before I left.

And though I'm sure everyone has an idea of what they specifically want to see and do in 'Hollywood' California - there are a few little gems I found via my local friend which I think are certainly worth mentioning.

And the first and oddly one of my favourites, is Pink's Hot Dogs.

I will be honest - I came to LA mostly to visit friends at the tail end of a round the world journey. I'd been scouring travel guides and leaflets for the past year for things to see and do around the globe, so I hadn't really researched much in LA and didn't have any set notion of what I wanted to see while I was there. So when my friend told me that we had to go to Pink's during my visit - I had no idea what she was talking about.

The things you can do in LA with out spending a lot of money are somewhat limited, (though they do exist if you know where to look) and this is one I can highly recommend if you want a little taste of the Hollywood 'star' scene in a realistic setting.

On a little corner on North La Brea Ave is Pink's Hot Dogs. A little, almost nondescript building which you would probably pass by with out noticing if it weren't for the inevitable long line always looping its way out of it.

It’s tiny building, with a very small selection of rickety tables and chairs - this is not the Hollywood glamour you may have been imagining - but it is a Hollywood institution, for locals and stars alike.

Do expect a bit of a wait (it's all part of the historical Hollywood Experience...) as there is almost always quite a line, despite how quickly the staff manage to put out orders and move people through.

And if you are there in the winter - be sure to wear a coat (yes, even in California) as you'll be standing outside waiting for some time, and even in the little building it's not much warmer.

Inside are dozens and dozens of headshots of celebrities who've eaten at Pinks - you soon realize as you make you're way through your messy meal you are getting a real taste of Hollywood.
Not only does the staff manage to get your order right despite the fact that you had to shout it to them over the din of the crowd behind you - but the hotdogs themselves are pretty tasty, too.

But the true pull for tourists, and the reason I think you should add a trip to Pink's to your time in Hollywood is the selection of hotdogs. The menu and selection is enormous - and aside from the great selection of dogs and toppings, there are also the 'star' dogs - hot dogs which have the claim to fame that certain celebrities have come and ordered them special. (Yes, you can order a Rosie O'Donnell Long Island Dog, or a Patt Morrison Baja Veggie Dog - there is even a Martha Stewart dog.)

The price is pretty reasonable, too. Most of the hot dogs are around $4, a little bit more for the specials.

It's kind of a strange taste of Hollywood - but one that it well worth seeing (and tasting) for yourself.

If you've never been to the states - the one thing that might strike you on your first visit is just how many wonderful options there are for where to eat. Fast food, fine dining, cafe, restaurants - there are no limit to the wonderful selections, and most of them at a very good price.
Even in LA - where things are a bit pricier than they might be in other parts of the country, the price of good food - especially fast food - is excellent.

Even coming from a year in New Zealand - a place that is supposedly known for being cheap - Los Angeles seemed a gloriously cheap place to eat. Finally any number of filling, tasty options were available at a reasonable cost.

And even if you are from the states, or are coming back after sometime away - what you will probably always notice is that when you go to visit friends in a new place - they will always have a list of great places you 'must' eat before you leave.

And no where was this truer for me than LA. I returned to the states after being gone for four years - the last of those years spent in the South Pacific, desperate for a good cheese burger and other wonderful American fast foods.

On landing in LA my friend driving me from the airport asked what we were in the mood to eat first. My mind boggled, and having never been to California before, I decided to leave it in their hands. When they asked if we'd ever been to a Fatburger and we said 'No' the car instantly did a U-turn and headed for the nearest one.

As I've mentioned in this review - it really helps to know someone in a place like LA, and this was true of restaurants and fast food places too. I already knew I had to try the In-N-Out Burger (a review for another journal) but I was completely unaware of the institution that is Fatburger.

And I can say with no small amount of enthusiasm - that if you like a good burger, you must try one at the earliest available opportunity.

In a time when restaurants are all trying to promote a 'healthier' image - Fatburger shamelessly, even proudly provides good old fashioned tasty, greasy burgers.

You can find Fatburger restaurants all over LA - and California for that matter - but the one in Hollywood is in East Hollywood on N Vermont Ave just a few minutes from Griffith Park.

This is an excellent example of a good old fashioned, greasy-spoon burger. Have it however you like - cooked right before you and made to your specifications - this is a burger to die for. Customize the size and style of your burger as much as you want from the 'Baby Fat' at 2.5 oz to the XXXL Triple King which is a whopping and wonderful 24 oz.

If you feel like being healthy (though I personally recommend you suspend this worry while visiting this establishment) then you have the option of a grilled chicken sandwich, a turkey burger or even a veggie burger.

Or if you're feeling a little indulgent and not so healthy you can add on toppings including bacon, chilli, or fried egg. Or all three.
Add to this onion rings and an old time shake and you have a meal - well, one that you shouldn't repeat again for a while but that you can revel in on your visit to Hollywood.