Week 3: The North America Trip: Part 2 - California

The State of Hollywood movies, West coast hip-hop, big technology companies, imported palm trees, dry lands, beaches, sun, topic of many songs and source of “shallow” pop culture that took over the world. A state of many extremes with extremely varied people living in it. With its unofficial capital - Los Angeles, unofficially most livable big city - San Francisco, and lots of immigrants from Mexico in San Diego, but that is factually true for most of California in general.

Having an opportunity to stay in Los Angeles after staying for a longer while in Hawaii I had high expectations, but also expected to experience pretty much similar things. I was surprised to find out that those places are entirely different. They surely share some common traits, such as close proximity to the ocean, beaches and they are both sunny and are known for being the perfect place for people looking for some rest from the rest of the world. At the same time, the experience of going to California will be entirely different than Hawaii.

It is the most obvious when comparing the culture. People in Hawaii are extremely laid-back and positive, they don’t seem to be occupied with daily lives and daily tasks. In California, people care a lot about how they are perceived and the general focus seems to be on becoming rich and famous - which is especially the case in Hollywood. Los Angeles is clearly much closer to the stereotype of American Dream, while Hawaii seems to be “above that”, the values are entirely different.

The sceneries are very different as well. While Los Angeles is fairly close to the beach, most people don’t go there often, unless they live in places like Santa Monica or Venice Beach. Santa Monica is a very scenic place known as a very nice place to live in the Los Angeles county. Venice Beach, while very hyped due to skate boarders and graffiti artists, these days is mostly home to bums, “medical marihuana” stores and skammers pretending to be future rap stars trying to force their CDs upon unsuspecting visitors. 

The palm trees around Los Angeles are imported - the natural flora is more desert-ish, due to generally dry climate. Los Angeles is also as far from the definition of “natural gateway” as possible - the air pollution is bad and the beaches are fairly dirty.

There are some nice scenic views from the Runyon Canyon - famous for the most stylish people pretending to do their work out with girls wearing full make ups in that process.
The Hollywood hills are interesting with the view from the Observatory being probably the best of Los Angeles, since you can see the whole city from there and the views at night are quite stunning.







Los Angeles is not comparable to sunny islands, however. It’s visited for entirely other things. The most important amongst them is probably the wish to be as close as possible to all the “famous” people. Taking a trip through Beverly Hills you will find out that each house is owned by someone you recognize at least by name. The only people walking the streets in the residential areas there are people paid to walk the dogs of all the stars - the stars themselves are either at home or far away, scared by numerous bus tours driving by every few minutes. 

An interesting area, or the worst one, depending on how you look at it, is Compton. The area with the highest crime rate in California that is home almost entirely to Afro-American population. It’s the source of West Coast Gangster Rap artists such as Dr. Dre, The Game or Kendrick Lamar amongst many others. It is renowned for being a dangerous place to go for “white people”, while many people are trying to take advantage of it offering “safe tours” around that place. In reality, while I don’t encourage it, I was able to walk around the place while being and feeling completely safe. Of course crime does happen, but I believe that stories about it being a forbidden place are very exaggerated.

One of the highlights of a trip to Los Angeles is a visit to the Universal Studios. A truly unique place which is the most entertaining amusement park I have ever been to, second to maybe just Hong Kong’s Ocean Park. I don’t want to spoil the visit, but it’s worth every cent and in my opinion would be the number one thing to see there.



In my opinion the whole point of all the “hype” about California is related to more relaxed or less crowded places. Small towns full of middle class houses are where most kids would like to grow up. The sillicon valley is the place where so many technologies were born, while San Francisco is a very livable and interesting city to see or even live, as somehow from my experience people there are much more friendly and ambitious compared to Los Angeles.

While California is a great place to see, I personally came back a little disappointed. That is especially true after coming with high expectations, straight from Hawaii. The general atmosphere of those places, the people, it seemed like it’s the ghost of the great days of “California dreaming”. One thing that you will learn is, that things are often not what they seem, and some things that are made to appear like a fairytale are much more casual and typical. However, I believe some people will find places like Los Angeles or San Francisco perfect for them, depending on what they are looking for in life. Maybe if I was at a different point in life, I’d enjoy them more as well. I don’t want to discourage anyone from checking them out, since I believe any place is worth a visit, as each of us is looking for something a little different in life.

What are the first things that come to your mind when you think of California? Is it on your bucket list? Do you still believe in “The American Dream”?

Best of California : The West Coast sunset.

Sources: Own pictures and experiences