Let My Opera Begin...: Movie Star Mansions and Beverly Hills. Sun 4th Nov.2012

An historic Theatre where first showings of movies are played...

To-day, Sunday is bright and sunny, again and we are booked on the Hollywood Mansions bus tour at 11.30am. It's a 2 hour trip so we will have a great time touring the district and hope to get heaps of photos for you.

Breakfast at the hostel this morning...Daylight saving was closed off for winter.

Temp is in the comfy 20's as has been since we arrived.
Some days it was smoggy until 11 am ish, but after that the sun shone and the days have been great for photos.

This has to be the best drink ever! You get the large mug full to the brim and the left over in the blender...$3.75...

The weather is very much like the Gold Coast to Brissie area and the only difference is that the sun rises in the west and sets in the east...seemingly, as north is still up, but east and west are on different sides!
Just had breakfast downstairs in the grassed area and there were about 20 or so Aussies and Kiwis there. This hostel is full of them!

Our bunks...

This is the first hostel room we have actually encountered so far.
We are in an 8 bed mixed sex dorm which has 2 separated bed rooms in it and we were in with a boy from Melbourne and another Aussie girl who left last night to stay with a friend.
So we ended up being in here by ourselves, as the boy (21yrs) moved into the spare bed in the other room. They go back to Australia to-day.
Beds and pillows have been very comfy so far, places clean and for the less than $30 a night each with taxes and free WiFi and breakfasts and loads of other traveler comforts...for budget travelers, I have no complaints.

My drink was the Yoghurt Delight for after breakfast...

Val can't get over how cheap it is. She has only spent about $100 so far, as she sent me $1000 before to cover her insurances, hostels and deposits in advance and as we didn't get to NY where things were a lot more expensive, we are ahead with our budgets.

A local TV presenter Kayana...

I still have $150 of hers to pay for the next lot of hostels and the original $1000 she sent has covered the trip to Disneyland, the upcoming trip to the Canyon and 2 nights accom in Vegas, her travel insurance and all hotels/hostels so far. So, that's 10 nights accom, bus tours, Disney etc, up until next Wednesday before she has to begin paying for accom herself.

The weekly travel cards we bought are a great saving too. Food is cheap and we haven't yet found a supermarket! I am able to get by without my rice cakes so far as I've been eating corn tortillas and some nachos but mostly salads, beef and chicken meals which cost around $8 or so. We bought fruit from local stores, about 60 cents average a piece, but that's OK as they were a massive size and a meal in themselves...

Have been very surprised in the little stores here selling take-away food...heavy emphasis on fresh and real foods...not the processed junk food that is in our take-aways in Australia.
We have only seen 2 Maccas stores so far, one here in Hollywood yesterday and another one somewhere the other day.

Lots of Mexican food outlets selling freshly made foods using corn as the starch, instead of wheat, so I am happy eating here.
Must away and catch the tour bus about 200 meters up the street...