Megan Ballman, teacher
Minnesota
Richard Thompson, U.S. Army
North Carolina
Megan: "I expected lots of homeless and trash. It’s not as bad as I thought it would be. When I think of large cities, I expect that. It’s cool to see stuff like the Walk of Fame and the Hollywood sign."
Richard: "I’ve never been here before, so we just came over to be able to say we saw it."
Megan: "I like to be able to see people I consider strange. We saw a guy with . . . instead of a goatee, he had a purple-and-blue tattoo. I just wish L.A. was more user-friendly. If you don’t have someone to show you around, then you really don’t know where to go."
Sulen Kramer, architect
Sweden
"I expected Hollywood to be just like this, just what we see: people, films. I have read much about Hollywood in magazines, tour books. We are going to Tahiti, and this is our layover for three days. Otherwise we would never come just to see Hollywood. Itclean, that’s what it is. You wouldn’t see that anyplace else [pointing to a billboard forBabe across the street]. Hollywood is not like the tastes in Europe — it’s more show."