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FILE - In this Aug. 30 2000, file photo, commuters walk into a tunnel at Los Angeles's Amtrack-Metrolink Union Station under the mural "City of Dreams/River of History" by artist Richard Wyatt, showing the diversity of California's population. Union Station is renowned for both its beauty and distinctive fusion of Spanish Colonial and Art Deco architecture when it opened in 1939. With its huge waiting room and landscaped gardens, the place, still a working train station, offers a perfect venue for reading, resting, people watching or taking a lunch break.
LOS ANGELES—It's been called, sometimes derisively, a collection of 72 suburbs in search of a city.

Still, there's a lot of stuff to see and do inside those 72 suburbs that are said to comprise Los Angeles, a place that at 469 square miles (2,214 square kilometers) is big enough to hold all of New York's five boroughs with enough room left over for San Francisco.

Much of what's here is ridiculously expensive, of course. Think the fancy eateries along La Cienega Boulevard or the trendy bottle-service clubs in Hollywood and elsewhere. But at the same time, there is an impressive array of just really cool things to see and do for absolutely nothing, from Hollywood to the beach.

Here is a modest list of just five:

This Oct. 20, 2003 file photo shows early morning sun illuminating the new Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. Downtown has undergone a revival in recent years, adding upscale condos, chichi bars and the iconic, Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall. ((AP Photo/Nick Ut, file))

HOLLYWOOD

The intersection of Hollywood and Highland is the crossroads for the Hollywood Walk of Fame, where more than 2,400 terrazzo-and-brass stars containing the biggest names in the entertainment business can be viewed by just walking down the sidewalk. You'll find everyone from Clark Gable to Johnny Depp, Marilyn Monroe to Meryl Streep. You can also gaze upon a lot of people in that neighborhood who are dressed up to look just like some of the stars, especially Marilyn. But if you take their pictures they'll want money, so stop by instead at the courtyard to the famous Chinese Theatre. There you'll find the stars' names, and their hand and footprints, immortalized in concrete. There's everyone from Mary Pickford, who left her prints in 1927, to Robert De Niro, who put his there Feb. 4.

Last stop, appropriately enough, should be the Hollywood Forever cemetery. While some burial grounds frown on tourists wandering around looking for stars' graves, this one, featured in the 2010 film "Valentine's Day," does not. It even has a map on its website telling you just where to find the final resting places for punk-rocker Johnny Ramone, director John Huston and dozens of others. For details, check out

In this July 13, 2011 photo, tourists photograph each other on a hill with a view of the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles. With more than 50 miles of free hiking trails, many of them winding through chaparral-covered canyons and over hillsides, Griffith Park bills itself as the largest urban wilderness in the United States. ((AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File))