"Cities are like people, showing their varying personalities to the traveler. Depending on the city and on the traveler, there might begin a mutual love, or dislike, friendship, or enmity. Where one city will rise a certain individual to glory, it will destroy another who is not suited to its personality. Only through travel can we know where we belong or not, where we are loved and where we are rejected."
Greetings Dear Photography Lovers!
Today i have cooked for you a post is going to be very exciting, beautiful and of course like every movie critic reviewing a Hollywood movie - A Mixed Bag.
I always wanted to visit America you know, in fact I don’t think there’s a person who never thought of visiting America in their lifetime at least once and why wouldn’t they when the screen of the TV basically shows a custom made reality. Anyway long story short my girlfriend was thinking of following master degree in US after graduating the Bachelors one and i basically went there with her. This means that our relationship will be difficult to retain, but i guess every story needs to have its start and end and i went there supporting her, cuz every person has its own path.
Anyway shall we begin?
The City of Angels |
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Los Angeles is a very colourful city, it’s somewhat exactly like from all these Instagram and Pinterest and Tumblr aesthetic photos you see on the internet.
The streets are pulsating with creativity, basically offering glimpses of the world entertainment art and culture. From iconic palm-lined streets to embellished boulevards, every corner of this sprawling metropolis revealed a new facet of its character.
You know i probably gotta answer almost every gamer’s question. Is it like in Grand Theft Auto 5?
Well yeah to and extent it is, yeah i had this weird feeling like I’ve been there before, but not exactly, cuz it’s you know way bigger than the game, but don’t you will go there and navigate through the city like you do in the map of the game, not even close. Maybe think of it like you dreamed it or you are experiencing the deja vù effect. That’s the best way i can describe it.
Anyway we went there in January and considering that January is a cold month I could honestly say that the weather was fantastic I really fell in love with it. We went there like the total tourists you know gawking at everything and it’s like out of a movie the vibes this city gives are very movie-ish or should is say Hollywood-ish?
We didn’t go to see all the landmarks, cuz remember we weren’t on a holiday there, but the whole thing felt like a holiday. We went to by the Hollywood Walk of Fame and honestly I don’t have a favourite actor or anything, but i had to snap some photo for the aesthetics you know and who else except…
Well yeah, the first man that landed on the moon apparently, don’t get me wrong, but i still think that we didn’t go to the moon in the 60’s. It just doesn’t make any sense technology wise and it looks a lot like it was shot in a studio - P.S. Stanley Kubrick. 😅
We went by the expensive street there with all the expensive and and polished shops I don’t remember the name of it quite much it was Rodeo Drive or something. It is basically the richest street there and is famous, because it is a shopping district with all the designer label and haute couture fashion full of boutiques.
Honestly I wouldn’t take this photo if it wasn’t for the car. That’s a badass looking Benz. 😅
Where Reality is Just a Suggestion |
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What’s going to the city of Ambition and not going behind the scenes?
Yep we went to one of the most famous filming companies called Paramount Pictures and i was surprised by how big and how small it felt i just can’t explain it. It has so many hangars, but the whole tour felt not rushed in particular, but it was like the whole place was very spacious, but also very stuffed, it felt weird. The vibes in terms of external overview in this place wouldn’t make sense without all the palms and the blue sky. It matches perfectly and it’s perfect for photos.
For those who don’t know what this studio is, this is the Studio that filmed the Transformers franchise and also maybe the best zombie movie in my opinion World War Z which i am still waiting for a sequel. We also visited the Netflix Headquarters, but it was not something very interesting, it felt kinda meh.
The Embodiment of the American Dream |
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So let’s talk about the internal system of this city, yeah we visited enough landmarks and you know famous Hollywood stuff, let’s talk about the common walk around the city. Well it still looks nice i mean even some normal places where people walk by are kinda made for a photoshoot look for the Venice Beach Canals for example.
Well maybe it is not the best example, but it looks like this city has everything you could want. I love places like this, cuz they are not very crowded, cuz don’t get deceived by the photos LA is a very crowded place and also very, very, very dirty. So dirty i was shocked at how dirty it looked, it was like a hurricane ran through it.
As much as beautiful it looks don't expect for the whole city to looks like this. Especially for a guy like me that grew up in big city i felt kinda like i come from some village compared to LA and also noticed the separation and by that i mean you feel like the whole city is separated on districts. Well I don’t think that this is particularly bad, cuz i was kinda worried of running into some lets say to be politically correct “woke” people and that wasn’t the case at all. You know from all the news we see America looked like they only cared and worshipped the rainbow flag and I grew up in a conservative country and me and my girlfriend weren’t so into that kind of stuff.
Anyway I don’t want to get political, let’s talk about the food. Well it’s all so fake. 🤣 I mean I haven’t seen so much junk food i want to buy in one place ever. I can definitely tell you everything is sweeter there, from the chocolate candy to the energy drinks and all sort of other beverages it tastes good, but you know why it tastes good. Too much sugar!
It’s not all bad tho, if you have money you can eat very healthy, we went to some place which is not that expensive for the LA standards, but it is still very expensive. It was called something like 1212 Santa Monica and honestly the food tasted real and the place felt fancy. The surprise was that this place later turned into some nightclub and the whole vibe felt very commercial. I wish i had some videos to share with you.
Anyway in terms of junk food I advise you to definitely try the Mc Donald there. You know everybody tried Mc Donald at least one in their own country, but the difference between the European and the American Mc Donald is kinda noticeable. At least I expect the portion of the menu to be kinda bigger, but I don’t know if it was bigger I haven’t eaten Mc Donalds in a very long time.
So this is our last stop in this post and I’m gonna post some accents from my visit which is the real life GTA 5 view showing a nice overview and beautiful cityscape of LA.
This is a shot taken from the Griffith Observatory and yeah this is and the Rodeo Drive felt the most GTA 5 in real life it’s just 1 by 1 It made me want to replay the game again. Enjoy! 😄
A Mixed Bag |
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So what’s the verdict of this interesting city?
Well I could say it’s definitely something different and it’s beautiful, but it felt very hollow. I mean it’s a mixed bag for me, cuz yeah it has some good external looks, but oh gosh the people. Way different than I expected, i mean you go into downtown LA you see so much homeless people, so much people living in tents i mean i saw some streets full with tents which is something you’d never see in my country. Also the kids oh gosh I didn’t see a single kid walking by itself on the streets which looked ridiculous.
Whenever you see a kid it was with a parent or it was a big group, never alone, which you will never see in my country. This means that it is true US is not longer the best country in the world at least in terms of safety.
I am ending this post with another accent photo which is LA signs saying goodbye to LA. I could say I definitely saw enough of this city and I wouldn’t come back again, neither my girlfriend. 🤣
I told her if she wants to study in US she better pick Flo Rida at least. I don’t know maybe i will visit Miami one day with her. This is the only city i would pay money to visit anyway. Till we meet again guys see you around. 👋🏻😄
Shot on IPhone 12
