Selma&Louis

In and out of Los Angeles

Written by Selma-n-Louis on April 15th 2007 in On the road

We woke up in Buellton, just north of LA, to nice and sunny weather on Thursday, and checked out of the Days Inn at noon. Upon leaving, we tried to do some research to prepare the trip down to LA, but we didn’t have time for all that much googling.

Days Inn, Buellton

The “Danish” town of Solvang was located just a few miles from where we spent the night, but if we’ve wanted to go visit Denmark we wouldn’t have traveled around the world - so we got on the highway and told Kitty to take us to LA. We looked up a seemingly decent hotel in Hollywood in our Coupon guide, and plotted in the address.

We fueled up right next to our motel and headed towards the city of angels. The trip brought us through the vine country north of Los Angeles, and the lanes on the road just kept piling on, at the most we had 10 lanes. Driving in this traffic machine turned out to be much easier than Louis first feared (And Selma adds: Louis is a really great driver!).

Cool transports indeed

We got to the hotel in Hollywood . . . then DISASTER! As Selma opened the door of our Red beauty of a car, the wind grabbed hold and ripped the door all the way up, and then some. As she shut the door, the car gave away a shrieking sound. It turns out that the damage makes it impossible to open the door. Selma’s mood flipped over to sad (well, she was a bit down in the first place, after a call back home), and no matter how hard Louis tried, he couldn’t cheer her up.

Then, to make matters worse, the lady at the hotel was unwilling to give us the promised rates, saying they didn’t have our preferred kind of room. She could, however, offer us a “king suite” - with a huge kitchen, for “only $119 (+tax)”. Well, we hadn’t planned on spending our day in LA cookin’, so we decided to try out a few other hotels in the area instead. We asked for the rates at the hotels nearby, but most of them were fully booked. Then we drove around the block (with Selma in the back seat), still with no luck. So we went back to the first hotel, the Hollywood Orchid Suites. And now the cranky lady behind the counter was able to offer us the king-kong-kitchen room for $102 (tax included).

Hollywood Orchid Suites

We parked the car, left the bags in our room and walked the 100 meters down to Hollywood Boulevard. The hotel was just one block away from one of Los Angeles’ most famous streets - and right behind the Kodak Theater (where the Oscars are taking place). On the way down we met our first local hero. The first words out of his mouth was; “Are you white?”, talking to Louis. The drug induced local man also held his bloody finger up to Louis’s face, so Selma and Louis picked up speed and kept going. The whole Hollywood Blv. experience turned out to be rather uncomfortable, and after walking around for a short while, we returned to the hotel.

Steven Spielbergs star at the Hollywood Boulevard

After relaxing for a few hours, we went for a drive to Rodeo Drive and a short trip into Beverly Hills. We also tried to drive towards the Hollywood sign to have a look, but as it’s not lit up at night, we turned around. On arriving back at the hotel, we agreed that Los Angeles was not the place for us, unless we were flatass drunk, so we decided to leave the next morning. Louis was ready for trying out the flatass drunk part, but Selma, who does not drink, got in her veto.

Rodeo Drive at night

(For the few pictures we took on our way to- and in Los Angeles, take a look at Flickr)