Downtown

Saturday was all about Downtown, starting with a tour run by a company called Esotouric, who specialise in bus tours that focus on the dark history of LA (other tours include: Raymond Chandler's LA, The Real Black Dahlia, The Birth of Noir: James M Cain's Southern California Nightmare, Hands of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's LA). Apparently at one time James Ellroy himself even took one of the tours.

We were lucky enough to be in town for the tour "Hotel Horrors and Main Street Vice". We were taken to several hotels and told stories of murder and mayhem, then titillated with tales of Main Street, where at one time all tastes were catered to.

It was like walking around the remains of a James Ellroy novel or a Samuel Fuller B movie.

Here is the Hotel Cecil, the one time residence of the serial killer Richard Ramirez (aka The Night Stalker). Weird fact: Ramirez lived on the 14th floor, in a room that was $14 a night, and he killed 14 people.

Here is the ballroom of the Alexandria Hotel, which once was the venue for The Count Dracula Society's awards night, honouring the best of horror and sci-fi cinema.

And finally, look at the fabulous art deco Barclay Hotel. The lobby was once a hangout for the rich, but later was the site of one of the murders committed by the Skid Row Slasher.

It was interesting to note that a lot of people on the tour were locals, many of whom had been on several tours previously. They are a great way to learn about the history of LA (especially the lurid, gory parts).

Nighttime was also spent in DTLA, where we caught up with Jo, an ex-Perthite, now local Angelino. We went to a place called Wurstkuche (German for "Sausage Kitchen") and had some rather special hot dogs (the selection includes sausages made of duck & bacon, rabbit & rattlesnake, buffalo). I chose the rather tame option of turkey & chicken with sundried tomatoes and mozzarella, while Liam had the rabbit & rattlesnake (Liam describes it as a "rich", just to continue the alliteration).

Given that we were staying in Marina del Rey, which is over 20 minutes from DTLA, it has become apparent that if you want to stay in LA then you really have to rent a car. We wanted to avoid driving at night, but research uncovered that if we were to take public transport the trip there and back would take 3 hours, while taxis there and back would cost over $100. Thank God Liam isn't as neurotic as I am and has learnt to drive on the wrong side of the road!