The Sights of Hollwood

We stayed at Orange Hostel right around the corner from all the main attractions in Hollywood. I received no discounts for endorsing them here. I highly recommend this hostel as it was centrally located, connected to bus routes, and most of all, had a real Hollywood history. It was home to such stars as Marilyn Monroe, before she made it big, and before Roosevelt Hotel was built.

The hostel has a small kitchen where free coffee, tea, oatmeal, and pancake batter is set out in the morning. There are dorms and private rooms available.

Orange Drive Hostel

So anyway, on to Hollywood itself. The touristy part, the part of it with the stars and the handprints, is a small stretch of Hollywood Boulevard full of nothing but CRAZY. There are people dressed as TV and movie characters, hoping you’ll give them a few bucks to pose with them, and they stay totally in character. There are street performers, many of them, doing talented and wacky acts. There are tourists from every country of the globe  and souvenir shop hawkers shouting into megaphones. Total chaos, but I found it to be super fun! Every evening I took a walk down this stretch, and just got lost in the pure zaniness of the environment around me.

Had to catch these photos on the sly, or get asked for money! A Marilyn impersonator twirls

Spotted: A Jack Sparrow impersonator

Ripley’s Believe It or Not museum

 

Scenes from Hollywood Blvd

The Chinese Theater

Scenes from Hollywood Blvd

Will Smith’s HUGE footprint

 

We visited the Hollywood Museum, which was originally the Max Factor building, the place where Hollywood Stars went for hair and make-up. They not only had original hair/makeup props, they also had three more floors of exhibits, from original movie props to a whole floor of Marilyn Monroe artifacts.

The Christopher Reeves superman costume

Marilyn Monroe’s original makeup case

The original set from Hannibal

My sister and I had a total blast in Madame Tussaud’s wax museum. They had props so that you could pose with all of your favorite celebrities, such as pink jackets for posing with John Travolta in Greece, or a feather boa to pose with Audrey Hepburn.

My fave pose in the wax museum

A very life-like Betty White

If you’re really into classic movies, or the history of film and film stars, I’m sure you’d find even more to like about Hollywood. I didn’t expect to like it at all, and thought I’d give everything just a passing glance, but it ended up being a lot of fun.

And the Hollywood sign is very hard to spot, by the way!

Tags: Hollywood, Los Angeles