Hollywood

Like every other person who drops by California, we felt the urge to visit Hollywood and whilst we would've loved to walk right up to the iconic sign and take a snapshot, this was the best legal shot we had. 

Our best shot, it's even better in it's original sizing

Our best shot through the telescope lens thingy cause we're too lazy to pay to view it properly...

Yeah... I don't know what to say about this cause there's not much to say...

Following this we, to put it delicately, WERE ATTACKED BY THE TWO HUSTLERS OR AT LEAST I THINK THATS WHAT YOU CALL THEM. They were scary and they said things and wouldn't let us leave and it was frightening and things like that don't happen in Australia.

I believe they made the right decision...

HARRY POTTER!

Well who touched where Harry Potter cast touched?

Well Hello Matt Damon ;P

It's IRONMAN!

And yes, in case you were wondering, these hand and foot prints of stars were outside the Chinese Theatre.

The Legendary American Black Friday Sales

A universally acknowledged fact is that shopping sometimes makes a girl go crazy. Doubly so for when there are sales. Then when there are massive sales in a foreign country? Well then that's a whole other matter entirely.

The black mass is actually the line for Michael Kors.

Upon first going to the sales many of which began at 9pm ON Thanksgiving day, my sibling and I were unimpressed. But upon further consideration we realised our folly. The sales were not at a singular location, they were everywhere as opposed to boxing day sales where every citizens with the will to shop is herded towards the CBD.

MAC Lipstick because HOLY SHIT THEY ONLY COST $16 WHICH IS LESS THAN HALF PRICE IN AUSTRALIA

Dior Mascara cause it's the best out there. And the Limited Edition Vintage nail polish.

Samples which may or may not be given out in Australia because we're too poor to buy Designer brands in Australia.

All our bags from the 24 hour shopping period.

Because instead of throwing cash in the air in joy, we throw the receipts of our recent expensive purchases.

And perhaps this post can be amended in the future, cause we're too busy enjoying ourselves right now. We'll alert you.

Thanksgiving

Contrary to the popular opinion of Thanksgiving on American TV, our was much less festive, familial and picturesque.

What we thought Thanksgiving would be like

We had two dinners and both of them weren't quite what we'd hoped for. The first was before Thanksgiving with our mother's friend's family as they were all quite busy the next day. There was of course a turkey which they actually cooked. Unfortunately, we only got a glimpse of it and when next we saw the turkey, it it was already carved out in slices. There was also cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and ham.

The second was truly on Thanksgiving day with our cousins and their family and involved a turkey from a catering company which was then stripped of it's meat and shredded up. Half the meat placed in an Asian stir fry and the other half left to be eaten, accompanied by some sort of salad. This meal was a little less like Thanksgiving than the early Thanksgiving.

Unfortunately, we didn't take any photos of the food. Perhaps we had a chance when we first glimpsed the whole turkey, but what was there to see anyway if we didn't see the great carving of the turkey?

Thanksgiving is however quite the momentous affair for the Americans. Much like an Australian Christmas, everyone takes the day off and all shops are closed... until the sale of the year of course.

2 pieces for $1

On the other hand before thanksgiving we went to collect cake and spontaneously decided to feast on chicken.

Delicious chicken.

Deliciously cheap chicken.

Oh what a wonderful (and probably fat) life it would be if Australia had as much cheap and available food sources. 

The happiest place on Earth

We were pretty excited to visit Disneyland, but we found that we may have outgrown the place. Although we had expected lots of tots around, there were a lot more than we'd expected. 

However, we still got a good nostalgic dose from all the characters we grew up with. Unfortunately we didn't seek out that many characters, but the ones we did see were swarmed with kids who had barely grown past our waist.

Of the rides, every single one of them were safe enough to take our bags with us. The most "dangerous" had a height limit of 102cm (or as they say, 40 inches) and all the little tots were perfectly content on them. 

We'd would recount our entire day, but we've quickly realised our goal to blog our experiences everyday is rather unrealistic, and they say a picture tells a thousand words...

Sleeping Beauty's Castle

People being eaten by the whale in the Peter pan ride

A fake tribe 

Our first corn dogs! They were a little greasy for our liking, but we felt it was a staple "American food" to sample.

Small World - probably one of the most iconic attractions in Disneyland

Holiday themed boat ride inside Small World - Christmas starts in November!

A duck trying to race our boat

The extremely well designed waiting area for the Star Wars ride

Got our license for Autopia!

Disneyland at night

Some other castle we didn't notice until it got dark and everything lit up

Americano.

Departure: Sydney, 3:20pm 18th November 2012

Arrival: Los Angeles, 9:50am 18th November 2012

We got a TARDIS (for the unversed, a Time And Relative Dimension In Space) that works. If we like you, we might give you a ride. 

In other news, we also met a 17 year old kid on the plane with dual citizenship (Australian and American) and is considering relocating to Minnesotta forever with some family (not his parents). Firstly, how cool is a dual citizenship, I want one. And secondly, RELOCATING! Also, at the end of our flight, the captain's goodbye was "we know you have a lot of airplanes you could've flown with today, thank you for choosing the best". Lol.

Anyway, got off the plane, Customs was a bitch. Got fingerprinted, mugshot(ed) (and survived) and are now forever stored in Homeland Security's database. After the intense scrutiny, we were surprised to be waved straight through to baggage collection and out the proverbial front door (quick check of declarations) with no further inspection of what we had in our luggage. What if we had a bomb?! I guess they only care if you have a bomb on the plane... or trusted Australian customs to be thorough?

Citadel Christmas Tree

Headed off to "the Citadel" for some shopping. And then we saw THE BIGGEST FREAKING CHRISTMAS TREE EVER IN THE MIDDLE ON NOVEMBER. And also a whole bunch of Christmas decoration and songs playing everywhere.

Pretty lights on Palm Trees (instead of our Australian street trees)

On the way back, we also passed a maccas with a sign saying "$1 for any size soft drink". I was so surprised, I literally needed Carmen to check and make sure it wasn't my poor eyesight playing tricks on me (we took a picture but we seem to have misplaced it for now).

We had some much needed sleep and experienced an American Day...

We took a newspaper from a typical newspaper stand - lol jokes, they ran out, this is a coupon booklet

Red velvet hot cocoa! With cute little stopper to make sure you don't spill!

Liquid sugar and liquid splenda with alcohol serving bottle caps

Cute coffee seats

98c candy at Walmart

Our first coupon!

Big Jet Plane

Travelling, especially overseas is always a mix of nerves, excitement and exhilaration.

On the plane - 15 minutes to take off

Price of alcohol in the duty free shopping - 2 bottles of 1L 50% Smirnoff for $49. We should travel more often.

$270 worth of alcohol in sexy boxes as well. Exactly our 4.5L limit.

Take off in t-minus 9 minutes!

PS. If the format turns out weird it's because we're posting mobile. Sort of confusing.

PPS. Fixed it!

Ahoy !

A place to gather our thoughts as we traverse the oceans much like Captain Jack Sparrow, the greatest Pirate of the Caribbean.

Our Inspiration

However, much like Captain Jack Sparrow, we often seek dry land. May this blog live well and long escape the clutches of Davy Jones' locker.

Bon Voyage Mon Ami.