What is the most anticipated thing in Los Angeles? It’s Hollywood. I traded a more detailed city tour, the Charmed house, and even Disneyland for a walk along the Walk of Fame, a visit to Universal Studios, and the feeling of being a part of something global and world-class. And I succeeded. First, we rushed to the Walk of Fame, where we saw the stars of stars, pardon the tautology. Shakira, Rihanna, Chuck Norris, Frank Sinatra, and even Mickey Mouse – they are all here! I think it was a brilliant idea to gather them all together on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. But after the Walk, the most exciting, thrilling, and exhilarating part was Universal Studios. We got an entrance pass from the manager of the motel where we stayed, which theoretically could have saved us nearly 100 bucks on admission. But, alas, theory always goes topsy-turvy when it comes to practice, and in practice, we were asked to provide fingerprints, which, naturally, did not match the person who gave us the ticket. We had to pay. Universal Studios is a huge area where you can clearly see the Hollywood Hills, and where a separate attraction or show is made for every famous movie. Oh, where haven't we been: Minions, Shrek, Transformers (we fell off skyscrapers a couple of times, everything is great), Jurassic Park with 5-meter spitting dolphins and an almost vertical slide where you fly down and several liters of water pour over you from above. And the Mummy attraction... it was worth going there just for that. At first, you ride in a cart, it's creepy, but bearable, then you enter a cave and... the strongest wind hits your face, and you just fly down and forward. A sharp turn, you skid, you continue to fly somewhere down at huge speed (!all this in pitch darkness!). Maybe it happened by accident and wasn't planned that way, but as soon as it dawned on me that we were flying God knows where in absolute darkness, the dim light turned on. One could have sighed with relief, but the horror you see ahead makes you scream even louder, until you're hoarse... we were flying into a wall! And literally a meter or two away from it, we stopped abruptly, hitting our backs painfully against the seats. The impressionable female members of our group sighed with relief, while the guys just laughed at us. Suddenly we realize that we are flying backward at the same speed! In short, it's unreal adrenaline, an absolute shake-up physically and emotionally, but it's cool! I will definitely never forget these sensations. It seems to me that even skydiving isn't like this... although... I haven't checked yet! And the next morning I flew from the "entertainment capital" to New York. There I waited for my connecting flight to Moscow and prepared myself, but I wasn't ready to say goodbye to America. And to the Americans... Right there at JFK Airport, I met a wonderful woman who is 70 years old, but you wouldn't call her an old lady. She told me her story about how her husband died of cancer, but nevertheless, she doesn't lose heart, she travels, dances, in short, she lives life to the fullest! And yes, she almost caused a scene at the airport because there was no free Wi-Fi anywhere, not in a single cafe or in the waiting area. America is remembered by me as such a reckless, lively, energetic country with hyper-sociable and cheerful people. This is exactly the kind of country I would like to visit again. If you read to the end, and I was able to awaken in you a desire to go to the States or at least warm memories of a past trip, then it wasn't in vain that I was shaking the air. And now forget everything you've read, because America... everyone has their own. These were my "Out of State" notes. Bye-bye everyone! ;)
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