Exploring Los Angeles

Our plan was to find a brunch spot on Stars alley, but after getting there and taking a short walk we decided to look for a new place. The street is pretty filthy and we didn’t want to spend much time there. (Apparently, I have zero photos from it, which says something.)

For ex-USSR kids growing up in the nineties the TV show “Beverly Hills, 90210” was a staple and of course, we had to visit the neighborhood. Understandably, it felt nothing like what we remembered from a show seen 20 years ago. After walking around for a while we found a nice cafe and stopped by for some coffee and croissants.

We wanted to see some of the small coastal towns and drove to Malibu next. Parked at Malibu Lagoon, grabbed drinks at a nearby coffee shop, and went to the beach. There are a beautiful small park and a very nice and secluded Malibu Point beach full of surfers.

After enjoying peaceful scenery we decided to visit Venice Beach next. All I knew about it was based on GTA V and… well, it’s pretty accurate. While we were walking to the beach someone overdosed in a nearby public toilet and police and emergency started arriving.

Right next to the beach is a Venice Canals neighborhood, which is stunningly beautiful. Sadly, we were already in a car and couldn’t find parking to walk around and fully enjoy it. Before coming to LA I expected to spend some time in a car, but not that much time. Traffic is horrible and parking is very hard to find everywhere. That was the first but not last landmark that we visited but weren’t able to experience because of a lack of parking.

On our way to Airbnb we stopped to take mandatory photos with a Hollywood sign. No trip to Los Angeles would be complete without them.