So. I went to Los Angeles. Alone. And it was a lot of
things.
At first it was scary as hell. Strangely, everything went perfect, no delayed flights, always having window seats even though I didn’t specifically ask for them, and the crying babies weren’t sitting too close. But then my body decided it couldn’t deal with this shit, that I was nervous as fuck and that I should be miserable.
I’ll tell you, throwing up in a plane wasn’t fun the first time, and it still wasn’t fun the second and third time. But it’s okay. My body and I have an agreement now.
Then it was pleasant. And then it was absolutely wonderful.
Still being a bit nauseous on my first day of sunny LA, I decided to take it easy. You know, see the sights, realise the whole street is preparing for the Oscars, see Lady and the Tramp at the Disney theatre and finally getting all the innuendos you didn’t get as a kid.
Then I met my new roommate Lucy, and I decided- jetlags and nausea be damned, I was going to live a little. So we went to the Whiskey a go go together to see pirate metal bands. It certainly was an experience…
At first it was scary as hell. Strangely, everything went perfect, no delayed flights, always having window seats even though I didn’t specifically ask for them, and the crying babies weren’t sitting too close. But then my body decided it couldn’t deal with this shit, that I was nervous as fuck and that I should be miserable.
I’ll tell you, throwing up in a plane wasn’t fun the first time, and it still wasn’t fun the second and third time. But it’s okay. My body and I have an agreement now.
Then it was pleasant. And then it was absolutely wonderful.
Still being a bit nauseous on my first day of sunny LA, I decided to take it easy. You know, see the sights, realise the whole street is preparing for the Oscars, see Lady and the Tramp at the Disney theatre and finally getting all the innuendos you didn’t get as a kid.
Then I met my new roommate Lucy, and I decided- jetlags and nausea be damned, I was going to live a little. So we went to the Whiskey a go go together to see pirate metal bands. It certainly was an experience…
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| *grunt grunt* HOOK *grunt grunt* PIRATE *grunt grunt* |
Second day. Zoo-day!
Being interested in all things to do with the animal kingdom, I decided to go on a long journey by public transport to go to the LA zoo. And boy, is it big. The only zoo I’ve ever been to that was bigger is the zoo in Prague. I mean, they have a grand total of three otter enclosures scattered over the area, which means this zoo knows its shit. Having as many otters as possible is how you run a good zoo. (And you know, having a cassowary thrown in the mix will only make me love you more)
Friday. Time to meet up.
I started my day too early, which is what happens when you share your room with seven other ladies- there are always a few that have to catch an early flight or are still in a different timezone rhythm.
I decided I wanted to go to Universal studios- mainly because I’m a big Jurassic Park fan, and partly because they did something for King Kong as well.
Imagine my disappointment when I saw the Jurassic Park ride was closed for maintenance. It just wasn’t funny anymore (The King Kong part of the studio tour made up for it though- that was awesome).
Because I’d bought my overpriced ticket, I decided to make the most of it, so I went on all the attractions. Wasn’t so bad- since I was all on my own I could skip a few lines.
The best thing about going to Universal studios was going to Universal walk afterwards. It has one of those sock shops that make me go mental. I spent about fifty dollars on socks, but hey, now I have some Hufflepuff and otter socks in my collection. There was also a Bubba Gump, so I could still my hunger for overly fried shrimps in the same day as well!
Then I made my way to the Hilton Hotel, where I was going to finally meet up with fellow fans for the first time (Such alliteration. Ten points for Hufflepuff). I was nervous again. I wasn’t sure if I was going to find the place. It was already dark because we were going to meet up at 7:30, Hollywood Boulevard is always a bit shady anyways and god, I’d never been in this part of Hollywood befo- is that a Middle-earth skirt?
I didn’t have to be nervous at all. I went inside, hoping I would discern some hobbit merchandise and instead I found a badass Thranduil (crown incl.) and an equally badass Thorin- who turned out to be female. The beard looked really convincing- kudos for being able to eat soup with that thing on!
I met some lovely fans, who were all just as excited for the next day as I was, and I felt we were all very different and yet very much the same all at once. Conversations would go a bit like this:
“So- you like Firefly?”
“I love it! Do you like Doctor Who?”
“Shut up and marry me”
Being interested in all things to do with the animal kingdom, I decided to go on a long journey by public transport to go to the LA zoo. And boy, is it big. The only zoo I’ve ever been to that was bigger is the zoo in Prague. I mean, they have a grand total of three otter enclosures scattered over the area, which means this zoo knows its shit. Having as many otters as possible is how you run a good zoo. (And you know, having a cassowary thrown in the mix will only make me love you more)
Friday. Time to meet up.
I started my day too early, which is what happens when you share your room with seven other ladies- there are always a few that have to catch an early flight or are still in a different timezone rhythm.
I decided I wanted to go to Universal studios- mainly because I’m a big Jurassic Park fan, and partly because they did something for King Kong as well.
Imagine my disappointment when I saw the Jurassic Park ride was closed for maintenance. It just wasn’t funny anymore (The King Kong part of the studio tour made up for it though- that was awesome).
Because I’d bought my overpriced ticket, I decided to make the most of it, so I went on all the attractions. Wasn’t so bad- since I was all on my own I could skip a few lines.
The best thing about going to Universal studios was going to Universal walk afterwards. It has one of those sock shops that make me go mental. I spent about fifty dollars on socks, but hey, now I have some Hufflepuff and otter socks in my collection. There was also a Bubba Gump, so I could still my hunger for overly fried shrimps in the same day as well!
Then I made my way to the Hilton Hotel, where I was going to finally meet up with fellow fans for the first time (Such alliteration. Ten points for Hufflepuff). I was nervous again. I wasn’t sure if I was going to find the place. It was already dark because we were going to meet up at 7:30, Hollywood Boulevard is always a bit shady anyways and god, I’d never been in this part of Hollywood befo- is that a Middle-earth skirt?
I didn’t have to be nervous at all. I went inside, hoping I would discern some hobbit merchandise and instead I found a badass Thranduil (crown incl.) and an equally badass Thorin- who turned out to be female. The beard looked really convincing- kudos for being able to eat soup with that thing on!
I met some lovely fans, who were all just as excited for the next day as I was, and I felt we were all very different and yet very much the same all at once. Conversations would go a bit like this:
“So- you like Firefly?”
“I love it! Do you like Doctor Who?”
“Shut up and marry me”
 |
| awesome people are awesome! |
By the end of the evening we had pretty much taken over the entire Hilton patio, which must have looked a bit odd to the people passing by because several of us had some casual cosplay going on. I had to leave too soon- I still had a jetlag to work with- but the party tomorrow didn’t seem half so scary anymore.
Funny thing happened as I walked Middle-Earth-skirt-Nicole back to the Metro at Hollywood and Highland, which is smack right next to where the Oscars happen: the whole place is of course filled with barricades and security and red carpets and shrubbery, and then there is this homeless person sitting up against the barricade with a rifle for sale. ‘Muricah, everyone.
Saturday- Mammoths and make-up.
Waking up early doesn’t even bother me anymore- I just go to the couch around the corner with my phone and message my two chicken aunts.
On my schedule this morning is a meet-up with Veronica and Kristie to go to the La Brea Tar Pits. A repeat from two years ago, but this time I did a guided tour around the pits; that’s how I learnt it’s not actually tar but asphalt, and that “la brea” means “the tar” so you’re actually saying “the the tar tar pits”. The more you know. Sadly, I had forgotten to eat enough, so by the time the tour was done I didn’t care about the rows of direwolf skulls I remembered from last time- I just needed food. Pronto.
I still had a half-filled grocery bag from a Trader Joe’s visit on my first day, so I started shoving watermelon slices in my face as my lunch, intending to wash it down with some tea and biscuits- only to nearly have some sort of poisoning as I realised too late the dunked cookies tasted salty because someone hadn’t rinsed the soap out of my mug. I used my what-would-mom-do instinct and bought milk and I must say, I’m not sure how severe it would have been, but I was fine.
Anyways. It was time to get ready.
Other fans had been mentioning hair appointments and make-up appointments and getting dresses from drycleaners, so I was a bit nervous as I got my dress from my trunk. My sister had given me a quick lesson about make-up (I never use it) and I was afraid I’d fuck up. Luckily Lucy was there to help me out a bit, and I turned out alright. I’d taken pains to get a pair of contact lenses so I didn’t have to wear my glasses, and getting them to LA was a bitch, but I only remembered to put them in when it was too late (putting them in can cause tears, which would have fucked my make-up up, and my dress left little hairs on my fingertips which I absolutely did not want to get in my eyes) so I went with glasses.
Walking there was much the same like the day before. I was looking out of place, walking on shabby Hollywood Boulevard. What if my dress wasn’t fancy enough since everyone seemed to be going for gowns? I bet my make-up looked ridiculous. I am going to sprain my ankle getting there in heels. I’m really not fancy- are those two hobbits walking barefoot?
The event itself was, of course, amazing. I met some people from the day before and from earlier that morning, I met some new people who were awesome (“do you like books?” “I work in a library” “I love you already”), I danced without caring, there was a Gandalf who did magic tricks, There was great food, great music, songs were sung that made me cry my eyes out- it was just overwhelmingly amazing. There was this one moment as I was signing a huge copy of Bilbo’s contract; the woman next to me asked me to put the cap back on her pen. I turned around, looked up and recognized her to be someone I had met two months before, all the way in fucking New Zealand, on Mt Sunday where they filmed Edoras. We gasped and screamed at each other, and then we squealed, she waved her husband over, we squealed and hugged some more- and I felt like this was my Cinderella night.
Bliss. That’s what it was. Sometimes, if you’re dancing the Locomotion with one of your favourite dwarves or getting hugged by Royd Tolkien, you feel like you are invincible and you just want to stay in those moments forever.
Waking up early doesn’t even bother me anymore- I just go to the couch around the corner with my phone and message my two chicken aunts.
On my schedule this morning is a meet-up with Veronica and Kristie to go to the La Brea Tar Pits. A repeat from two years ago, but this time I did a guided tour around the pits; that’s how I learnt it’s not actually tar but asphalt, and that “la brea” means “the tar” so you’re actually saying “the the tar tar pits”. The more you know. Sadly, I had forgotten to eat enough, so by the time the tour was done I didn’t care about the rows of direwolf skulls I remembered from last time- I just needed food. Pronto.
I still had a half-filled grocery bag from a Trader Joe’s visit on my first day, so I started shoving watermelon slices in my face as my lunch, intending to wash it down with some tea and biscuits- only to nearly have some sort of poisoning as I realised too late the dunked cookies tasted salty because someone hadn’t rinsed the soap out of my mug. I used my what-would-mom-do instinct and bought milk and I must say, I’m not sure how severe it would have been, but I was fine.
Anyways. It was time to get ready.
Other fans had been mentioning hair appointments and make-up appointments and getting dresses from drycleaners, so I was a bit nervous as I got my dress from my trunk. My sister had given me a quick lesson about make-up (I never use it) and I was afraid I’d fuck up. Luckily Lucy was there to help me out a bit, and I turned out alright. I’d taken pains to get a pair of contact lenses so I didn’t have to wear my glasses, and getting them to LA was a bitch, but I only remembered to put them in when it was too late (putting them in can cause tears, which would have fucked my make-up up, and my dress left little hairs on my fingertips which I absolutely did not want to get in my eyes) so I went with glasses.
Walking there was much the same like the day before. I was looking out of place, walking on shabby Hollywood Boulevard. What if my dress wasn’t fancy enough since everyone seemed to be going for gowns? I bet my make-up looked ridiculous. I am going to sprain my ankle getting there in heels. I’m really not fancy- are those two hobbits walking barefoot?
The event itself was, of course, amazing. I met some people from the day before and from earlier that morning, I met some new people who were awesome (“do you like books?” “I work in a library” “I love you already”), I danced without caring, there was a Gandalf who did magic tricks, There was great food, great music, songs were sung that made me cry my eyes out- it was just overwhelmingly amazing. There was this one moment as I was signing a huge copy of Bilbo’s contract; the woman next to me asked me to put the cap back on her pen. I turned around, looked up and recognized her to be someone I had met two months before, all the way in fucking New Zealand, on Mt Sunday where they filmed Edoras. We gasped and screamed at each other, and then we squealed, she waved her husband over, we squealed and hugged some more- and I felt like this was my Cinderella night.
Bliss. That’s what it was. Sometimes, if you’re dancing the Locomotion with one of your favourite dwarves or getting hugged by Royd Tolkien, you feel like you are invincible and you just want to stay in those moments forever.
 |
| William Kircher. part dwarf, part rockstar. |
 |
| look at me, beaming away. |
Sunday- OMG NPH
Oscar day.
The day had a bit of a rough start as Lucy was a bit hung over and I hadn’t slept so well, so we just stayed in our pyjamas as long as possible and then got some pizza- I really wanted to visit this one pizza place again, and I took Lucy along because I knew the greasy food would soak up some of the alcohol in her system. By then it was already past noon and I was expected at the Roosevelt hotel around 3:30, so I changed into something more fancy and left.
It was drizzling, and it was apparently nearly impossible to be on Hollywood Boulevard if you needed to be within a mile radius of the Dolby theatre (and the Roosevelt being smack in front of it), but I managed to get in through the back door. I immediately felt too plain again. The Roosevelt hotel is where they originally held the Oscars, and they were filming there and the dining area was filled with models and VIPs. It didn’t help that my purse’s (bought for the occasion, I don’t really do purses) shoulder strap got caught on a button on the shoulder of my dress and tore it off. But then I met who I was going to hang out with for the duration of the evening, and one was even wearing jeans, and they had such good stories to tell and were just so much fun to watch the Oscars with- we were sitting on a table a bit further from the other guests, and we had our own TV so we could make all the comments we wanted.
I won’t bother you with too many details about the Oscars. Cumberbatch didn’t get the Oscar he deserved, Gaga sang a beautiful tribute to Julie Andrews, Oprah was too enthusiastic with her lego Oscar, Neil Patrick Harris lost his trousers. It’s probably all on youtube.
Monday. Sadness Smothers us.
My last day of LA.
I said goodbye to Lucy, as she left for San Diego that day. I was sad about her leaving- we’d clicked, and it had been surprisingly easy to talk with her.
Then I went to the library downtown, and I loved it. It’s huge, like, European-cathedral-huge, with murals and mahogany and respectful silence. It had a chandelier with a globe in it. Just the children’s section alone was about as big as the library I work in. It even had a little shop near the exit.
(It was only later that I made the connection with the Doctor Who episode Silence at the Library. I didn’t get eaten by the shadows though- hurray!)
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| big library is big. |
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| there was this one quote welded in the gate at the library. It said "The more that you read, the more things you will know. the more that you learn, the more places you'll go" (Dr. Seuss) |
After that visit (and mentally cataloguing the differences with the library at home) I went back to the Universal Walk to go to the cinema, to see Battle of the Five Armies one last time. I can now say I’ve seen this movie in New Zealand, Belgium, and Los Angeles, and I’m sure that sounds a bit nerdy, but I’m proud of it anyway. The thing is that this movie makes me cry like a baby (Tauriel’s voice breaking gets me every time), and the weather reflected my mood when I came out of the theatre, and it was the last day of my trip, and all the fans had left LA already- I just felt a bit sad.
At least until someone tapped my shoulder and it was Liisa from Finland! We had crêpes together and visited Peter Jackson's star, and I said my last goodbye- a bit cheered up by the coincidence.
So that was my trip. I got home okay and now I’m so jetlagged it’s not even funny anymore.
Until next time!
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