California

Here is a bit of a throwback from spring earlier this year when me and my husband were in California for a couple of weeks. My camera is always a welcome travel companion, although for my next trip I’m considering getting a slightly more compact setup. I haven’t done enough research just yet but I have realised that there are other fantastic alternatives to DSRLs when you are out and about. I love documenting my trips but lugging this thing around can get a bit heavy at the end of a long day of exploring.

During these two weeks we got to visit San Francisco, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Malibu, San Diego, Carlsbad, San Marcos, Mission Viejo, Irvine, La Jolla etc. We stayed in the Financial District during our first week in San Francisco, and had our base in Hollywood during the second week when visiting Los Angeles. Maybe it’s a European thing but America made me realise how great the public transport system is over here. We were completely dependent on our rental car during our second week, there was pretty much no other way to get around (in San Francisco on the other hand we walked a lot, rode tour buses and relied on Uber to get places – what an amazing app by the way!).

I guess I had this preconceived idea about the States and Americans in general, both of which proved to be completely incorrect. Everyone was a lot friendlier than I had anticipated, the food was actually really good (I must have eaten my bodyweight in pancakes), and I didn’t see any criminals waving their guns out on the streets. Although we were offered to buy drugs two seconds after stepping out of an Uber car in the Haight/Ashbury district of San Francisco…

America, it was a pleasure. Hope to see you again soon!