Ένα από τα πιο αναγνωρίσιμα και πιο πολυφωτογραφημένα αξιοθέατα παγκοσμίως αποτελεί το Hollywood Sign. Όπως όλοι οι τουρίστες έτσι κι εμείς θελήσαμε να βρεθούμε όσο πιο κοντά μπορούσαμε στην πινακίδα "Hollywood" ώστε να φωτογραφηθούμε μπροστά της.
Ανεβήκαμε τους λόφους του Hollywood έχοντας ως οδηγό μας τα λευκά γράμματα στο βάθος και παρκάραμε σε ένα άνοιγμα του δρόμου σε μία χωμάτινη πλατεία η οποία υπήρχε ειδικά εκεί γιατί το background ήταν ιδανικό.
H επιγραφή "Hollywood" είναι η short version της παλαιότερης "Hollywoodland" και φυσικά αποτελεί το πλέον χαρακτηριστικό σύμβολο του Los Angeles. Έχει 14 μέτρα ύψος και 110 μέτρα μήκος. Σύμφωνα με τη wikipedia δημιουργήθηκε το 1923 από μία κτηματομεσιτική εταιρία αλλά απέκτησε τέτοια αναγνωρισιμότητα ώστε την άφησαν να κοσμεί τους λόφους του Hollywood. Πολλές φορές έπεσε θύμα βανδαλισμού γιαυτό και σήμερα είναι αδύνατη η πρόσβαση κοντά στα γράμματα ενώ προστατεύεται από την μη κερδοσκοπική εταιρία Hollywood Sign Trust.
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Hollywood Sign is one of the most recognizable and photographed attractions worldwide. Like all the tourists, we also wanted to get as close as possible to the sign and take a picture in front of it.
We drove up to Hollywood Hills having the big white letters as our compass when we found an area and parked the car as the background was perfect.
"Hollywood" is the short version of the older "Hollywoodland" and today the most characteristic symbol of Los Angeles. As stated in wikipedia, "HOLLYWOOD" is spelled out in 45-ft tall (14m) white capital letters, and is 350ft (110m) long. It was originally created in 1923 as an ad for a local real estate but it garnered increasing recognition. The sign became a frequent target of vandalism and after its last restoration, a security system to deter vandalism was installed. Today it is protected and promoted by the Hollywood Sign Trust a non profit organisation.
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The second most recognizable and photographed attraction in Hollywood is the Hollywood Boulevard and specifically Walk of Fame. Stars of famous people cover Hollywood BLVD throughout its length. There, one can find also the Chinese Theatre, Graumans Egyptian Theatre, many shops, many tourists and lots of attractions.
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Another attraction is the metro station Hollywood-Vine as is cinema-decorated having a huge camera in the middle of the room(donated by the Academy) and bobbins around the ceiling.
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(taken 11 July 2011, on our way to Petrovaradin Fortress)
Beer Pong:
Exit festival, one of the best European Festivals begins today!! We were lucky enough to visit EXIT in 2011, when the line up was quite amazing.
We planned to fly to Beograd, rent a car from the airport and drive to Novi Sad. It took us about an hour of exciting driving and of various photos during the roadtrip and laughs and good music. At last, we saw the Fortress.
The festival was very well organised. At first, we stopped to the cashiers to take our tickets and then we found the place where we would park our car. Unfortunately car camping was not allowed, meaning that our car (with all our stuff) was in a different location from our tent. Ok, it was not very far but still we had to visit the car various times per day.
As soon as we parked we entered Exit Village, a big organised area with trees and basic campsite installations: showers, chemical toilets, charging stations and good security (a tent with doctors as well). There we found a spot to build our tent.
In the mornings, we were chilling at Danube river that was passing just outside of the Village but the water was not so clean (for a Greek) and you could see a factory chimney on the other side. That is the reason we did not swim, however we were sunbathing and listening to reggae music and drinking cocktails, warming up for the festival. Food was really nice, there was a foodcourt at the campsite with various kinds of food (we ate noodles, very very tasty) and a huge tent with a big table and chairs to enjoy the shadow while eating. It is also a place to socialize.
In this festival there were many english people, because the last years EXIT is organised by an English company.
The festival is taking place inside Petrovaradin Fortress and it feels like a magical place. The fortress is so big that the festival hosts over 400 performances (from live bands, dj sets, radio producers etc.) on 20 stages that are connected by cobbled streets and tunnels while the place has something magical, coming from fairy tale. I was really impressed. One thing that I love about EXIT is that you can listen to various kinds of music, from electronica to rock, from dance to lounge, from reggae to latino! Maybe that's why it is nominated as the Best Major European festival.
The distance from the campsite to the fortress is walkable -there are buses, too- being only a 15 minute walk. It is so fun that Novi Sad, a small Serbian village is flooded with young people from all around Europe -mostly- these days.
EXIT has a big support from volunteers, who are everywhere and can be multicultural -there were a few Greeks as well-, who clean the campsite and the fortress and make sure everything is going well.
And here are the live acts:
On Thursday 7 July we saw Beirut, Bad Religion, Pulp and Arcade Fire.
Bad Religion played in the late afternoon so it was the first act we saw that day. Then it was Arcade Fire who presented their album "Suburbs" the best in their career so far, in my opinion. That year "Suburbs" reached #1 in the USA, UK and Canada.
Pulp were the big name of the day and maybe that's why they were late to come up on stage (divas). However their live act was so good that it did not matter the waiting.
After the dancing we chilled that day at the stage where Beirut was performing.
On Friday 8 July, the big name was M.I.A. and there were too many people to watch her so we could barely see her. The truth is we did not like her so much. The big name for my friend was EDITORS. She was waiting for them like crazy and when they came up on stage we danced like crazy. That night finished with Deadmau5 in the dance arena. A big electronic party inside the fortress, it was magical!
On Saturday 10 July, I was amazed with Santigold who had great songs and a velvet-like voice and since then I am a big big fan of her. She was also very beautiful on stage, wearing eccentric costumes. Jamiroquay was better than we thought and we really enjoyed his show. He was wearing feathers on his head and was quite direct to the people. That night we visited the Silent Disco, an amazing place that everybody was wearing his headphones and choosing what kind of music to listen! That night the greek duo Marsheaux performed at Elelctrana stage at 4.00 in the morning.
Packing to EXIT:
As soon as we parked we entered Exit Village, a big organised area with trees and basic campsite installations: showers, chemical toilets, charging stations and good security (a tent with doctors as well). There we found a spot to build our tent.
In this festival there were many english people, because the last years EXIT is organised by an English company.
The distance from the campsite to the fortress is walkable -there are buses, too- being only a 15 minute walk. It is so fun that Novi Sad, a small Serbian village is flooded with young people from all around Europe -mostly- these days.
EXIT has a big support from volunteers, who are everywhere and can be multicultural -there were a few Greeks as well-, who clean the campsite and the fortress and make sure everything is going well.
On Thursday 7 July we saw Beirut, Bad Religion, Pulp and Arcade Fire.
Bad Religion played in the late afternoon so it was the first act we saw that day. Then it was Arcade Fire who presented their album "Suburbs" the best in their career so far, in my opinion. That year "Suburbs" reached #1 in the USA, UK and Canada.
Pulp were the big name of the day and maybe that's why they were late to come up on stage (divas). However their live act was so good that it did not matter the waiting.
After the dancing we chilled that day at the stage where Beirut was performing.
On Saturday 10 July, I was amazed with Santigold who had great songs and a velvet-like voice and since then I am a big big fan of her. She was also very beautiful on stage, wearing eccentric costumes. Jamiroquay was better than we thought and we really enjoyed his show. He was wearing feathers on his head and was quite direct to the people. That night we visited the Silent Disco, an amazing place that everybody was wearing his headphones and choosing what kind of music to listen! That night the greek duo Marsheaux performed at Elelctrana stage at 4.00 in the morning.
Sunday 11 July, I can admit that it was not my favourite day. I don't really like Grinderman, I did not like Portishead. So we did not struggle to be in the front lines, it was the chilliest day of the festival. Sitting on the grass, listening to music, drinking serbian beer (pivo) and watching the performers from videowalls, saying goodbye to this amazing festival and to this captivating venue.
We had fun, we made friends, we listened to good music, we danced like crazy, we sunbathed, we chilled... we did not wanted anything more. Until someday, EXIT, you were a great experience!
Packing to EXIT:
