Day Four - Happy New Year

Hi everyone! Happy New Year! It is about 1 pm on the 1st of Jan 2010 for us here in Hollywood. We went to a big party in a Hollywood club last night - Epic NYE 2010 at Vanguard - and had, appropriately, a night of EPIC proportions. This is us 'before' - about as swanky as we could manage with our meager traveling possessions.
After grabbing a massive slice of pizza each from a little place around the corner from the hostel, we headed out to our party at around 9 ish. We had fancy VIP tickets, so we got let in by a separate entrance, and could go to two special VIP areas with open bars and party favours. Here is Gen in one of them:
In true Gen style, she was asked to dance by the one late-middle aged creepy dude there out of over 2000 people.
It was pretty cool, the club was divided into separate sections - an upstairs with a bit of a retro vibe, the main club with a huge dancefloor, and downstairs which had sort of urban/r & b music. We spent a bit of time in each section.

Before midnight, they had Michael Jackson-esque dancers up on stage, and played an MJ medley- ending on Thriller ("Its after miiiiidnight..").
The main countdown happened in the big club bit, with this huge lit-up LED wall with a countdown on it, and a big confetti drop at midnight.
2010! You can see from our slightly elevated vantage point in this photo that we were not down on the D-floor moshing with the plebs but rather hanging with the rich and (potentially) famous in the VIP section adjacent.
Thus, we got sweet glasses.

And nifty headbands!
See? Pretty!

We left the party at around 2 or 3 am, and headed back to our hostel. Hollywood Boulevard had a very festive atmosphere.
When we got back to the hostel, we were pleased to find quite a few other backpackers still awake. We joined in the sing-a-long they were having. Then, at around 5am, we headed out to our favourite little late-night diner place (from the first day) and had a deep-fried poptart tower with icecream and chocolate sauce, and played connect four. It was super.

All in all, a truly fantastic evening. We met a bazillion people, danced, sang and celebrated in style. And got home in one piece!
Happy New Year everyone! We love and miss you all, and send you all our best wishes for 2010.