Hollywood

It was surprisingly easy to get into the US. Everyone we met had told us how strict the regulations are, how annoying it is and how long it takes to get through all of the different controls. The immigration officer did ask a few strange questions but he does that, how we found out later, to watch and read your reaction. It's still a bit weird but a lot better than to be pulled aside and being forced to open and ransack your bag which we thought would be the way they welcome the people who they think aren't criminal.
Once we were through the controls the next problem came up. A rather big problem. "Where now?" was the big question we hadn't really thought about properly. We wanted to try to CouchSurf through America but hadn't successfully contacted a host and we had no internet to check if somebody had responded to our last minute request. We had checked out some hostels but hadn't bothered to write down the address so we had no idea where to go. We wandered around the airport for a while searching for a competent information and found a place with expensive but fast internet. We checked our e-mails and our CouchSurfing profile in only five minutes and to our great surprise and relief had received an answer to our last minute couch request. To guys had replied and said we could stay with them. We were very relieved and followed their directions out of the airport which was a lifesaver for itself...
We had to take a bus and then a Metro, they lived all the way up in North Hollywood, and we needed to find a mobile store to buy an American prepaid card so we stopped at Union Station, the central bus and train station, sent a package with stuff home, had a coffee and organized our contacts from there through the internet and a coin phone, which was exiting because I don't think that I've ever used one of those by my self before. It was getting dark when we finally arrived at North Hollywood station, where an interested and friendly stranger led us to the next T-Mobile store. We had a working cellphone at last which meant that we could contact our hosts directly who picked us up a few minutes later.
Their apartment was quite small and full with all sorts of stuff but very cool and Wade and Sunny, our hosts, welcomed us warmly into their home. We were a bit nervous because it was our first CouchSurfing experience and didn't really know what to do but they were so nice and made us feel very comfortable that we quickly forgot our worries.
We had a nice evening talking about LA and the whole showbiz thing, America and Couchsurfing. After dinner they drove us around the area and showed us places like the Warner Brothers building, the Disney Studios and Universal city before they took us to the Griffith Observatory, near the famous Hollywood sign, from where we could see over most of LA. It was a very clear night and I don't remember having seen anything like that before. LA is a very spread out city and it looks incredible with all the lights, all the way to the ocean, the different areas of the city and the planes soaring above all.

In the middle you see the relatively small downtown area, the ocean is at the far back and the rest is part of the huge LA county

Later that night when we lay in bed all the impressions of the day came back and for the first time we actually had the chance and the leisure to review our first day in America. It had been a great day. Very exhausting for sure and also a bit lucky but all in all very positive and rewarding. I think the biggest mistake I had made imagining California was to think it would be in any way European. It was just different to anything I had experienced before. People you met on the streets were very strange, everyone in his/her own way, but mostly friendly and interested in the young couple wandering around with far too many bags and a Surfboard in the middle of such a big city. Something that Wade had said before turned out to be very true as well: In America and especially in LA, everything is BIG. The roads, the cars, the servings in restaurants etc. It seems to be very important to have something bigger than the others and even if you aren't wealthy you pretend that you are.
The next morning Wade took us to a coffee place where apparently a lot of celebrities go to but we didn't see any :( We spent the day in Hollywood, doing a lot of tourist things like the Walk of Fame, the Kodak- and the Chinese Theater which we hadn't intended to do but it was kind of cool to see all those places you see on TV so often. We also went Downtown where we had lunch but there wasn't much to see except you are really into tall business buildings. In the afternoon we went back to pack our stuff together and Wade drove us to the next Metro station from where we would get to our next host. It was sad to leave these great guys so soon after we met them and we are very thankful that they accommodated us on such short notice with so much warmth but we had already arranged our next stay to which we were looking forward as well.

The staircase to the Oscars...

There was no red carpet for us though