Last Updated on June 1, 2013 by Nancie

Today’s guest post photo essay : Los Angeles is from Sofie, who blogs over at Wonderful Wanderings. Thank you, Sofie!

 

Last September I took a friend to Los Angeles. We’d planned twelve days in the country and when those were over, neither of us wanted to return home and we both swore we’d be back. We’d had such an amazing time! During those twelve days we tried to see and do as much as possible, without rushing everything. I think we’ve managed that pretty well, and I’d like to take you along some of the places we’ve visited.

Ready?

Let’s go!

Santa Monica

We spent an entire day in Santa Monica and absolutely loved it: the shopping, the beach, the great pancake restaurant where we had lunch… And of course I also had to get a picture of probably one of the most photographed buildings in Santa Monica:

The Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., known from the movie Forrest Gump with Tom Hanks. It’s now a bar and souvenir shop.

 

 

When we got to Santa Monica in the morning, the peer was almost empty. Not so anymore in the afternoon!

 

 

A view on Santa Monica from the peer.

 

 

Venice

We also went to Santa Monica’s neighbor: Venice beach. Although those two places are right next to each other, they’re totally different. We experienced Venice as a town of contrasts: the pricy shops on Abbot Kinney vs the souvenir stalls by the beach and the (sometimes rather shabby looking) street artists.

Street artist playing the piano.

 

 

 

My friend at the Venice Canals, a peaceful area with luxurious houses.

 

 

Beverly Hills

We didn’t spend all our time in the beach areas, though. One of the real touristy things we did was take a stroll through the Beverly Hills shopping area (Rodeo Drive!). We made it into a game trying to guess who of the people we saw on the streets ‘belonged there’ (as in: regularly went shopping there) and who of them were tourists.

 

A friend of mine who’d been to LA a few weeks before had seen this same Bugatti Veyron parked there as well. Someone showing off?’

 

 

Runyon Canyon

From all-city Beverly Hills to the green and mountainous Runyon Canyon Park. We came here in the morning and it was already blazing hot. We couldn’t believe people were actually running up and down the steep roads. Respect! You do have to have a car to get all the way up to the park, but the views are definitely worth the drive:

View from Runyon Canyon

 

 

Hollywood

And last but not least I want to take you to the area Los Angeles is probably best known for: Hollywood and its Walk of Fame.

 

How many times do you think this star on the Walk of Fame has been photographed already?

 

 

This is the only time during our trip that we had to rush a bit, so we didn’t go into any of the many museums like Madame Tussauds or Ripley’s Believe it or Not.

But hey, no problem because… I’ll be back?

 

Author info…

Sofie is a travel blogger, food fan and dance aficionado. She’s a language lover lusting life, exploring the world and writing about it on her blog http://www.wonderfulwanderings.com. You can also find her on twitter (https://twitter.com/WondWand).