Hey hey!
So I'm here to show you the last blog post with photos from our trip to the States.
A few days in pictures. Here we go!

Before we went to USA I googled a lot to find good fleamarkets in the LA area. One of them was the weekly event Melrose Trading Post. So on our last sunday David and I went there.

We were early.

But the place was soon a thriving market place with lots of stuff!

Why, hello there lady!

David found some camera lenses and we tried them out on my camera. It was not a perfect fit but I kind of like the effect. They were good for David's camera though so he bought them. I might have to borrow them sometime in the future...

Putting Josh Ritter in place.

(Can you spot us?)

Sneaky view of the Hollywood sign behind dumpsters, houses and wires. We lived right behind these houses.
When we went to LA I told myself that I wasn't going to take the "typical Hollywood sign tourist photo". This photo and the one under this one is more my style. Sneaking up in the backround, sort of.

Cactus in between houses.

Wires and palm trees against the sky.

And lowering my camera to look straight ahead. Hollywood is all things crammed together.

Our street.

On our last day in LA we found Souplantation. Why oh why didn't we know about this place earlier?! I would have eaten there at least two more times. This place has a gigantic sallad buffet and lots of different soups, breads, cookies and frozen yoghurt. Buffet style. I almost died.
I WANT THIS IN SWEDEN! BRING IT HERE NOW!

(And they gave us free cookies that I ate on the plane home.)

In the evening we walked past The Scientology Celebrity Centre. LA sure loves their Scientologists. They're everywhere. And they got a large castle.

This was our destination. The theatre Upright Citizens brigade. On tuesdays they tape the podcast Doug Loves Movies that David is a big fan of. I listen to it sometimes too and we actually went there the week before too and it was so funny we had to go the last day as well. I think I laughed non stop for an hour.

But first we stood in line for about an hour. Lotta standing in line with a camera. Pointing it everywhere around her shooting pictures. Yeah.
So of course there was a photo of David's hand.

After the podcast taping we went to the sushi place next door. I believe this is some kind of sushi chain but we really really loved it. We ate there three times during the week in LA and it was so tasty and also very affordable.
And Mena Suvari was hanging out there one evening. I was only a bit star struck.

So, back to Sweden again. I'm working all weekend and tomorrow we're going to a large fleamarket with my job so that's great. Might bring my camera.
See you soon again!

Hello hello!
Hope you've had a nice easter weekend. David and I visited our families in Jönköping and now we're back in Gothenburg again.

Here comes some photos from when David and I went to Santa Monica Main street to have a look around.
Fell in love with this place. So many pretty houses and lots of fluffy green trees. The world needs more fluffy green trees. If I ever get a big garden I'm going to fill it with trees. Fluffy ones.

A garden in the middle of the city.

Thanks!

(And look! Fluffy green tree!)

Very cute library.

The world also needs more chandeliers in trees.

Love love love!

Oh! A Barcycle!

Yes, it's a bar and a cycle.
Genius.

AAAAAHHHH!! FLUFFY GREEN AMAZINGNESS!!!!!

I love the branches of this type of trees. So pretty!

Like this old Liquor sign.

This photo was such a lucky coincidence. I wanted to take a photo of the cute laundromat and when I did this man cycled into the picture with an entire art gallery on his bicycle. I love that he's talking on the phone as he's riding the bike. It's always great when a photo turns out to be something different than what I wanted in the first place. Different and better.

We spent a few hours walking around, shopping in some vintage boutiques and eating at a nice italian place. I really loved Santa Monica and hope to be able to see it again someday.

Today the weather here in gothenburg is absolutely amazing! Spring might actually arrive! It almost looked like it was going to be winter all year round.
Well, well, now I'm off to rehearse with Teater Esther.
See you all soon!
Tjingenling!

Hi everybody!
I'm back in Sweden again, all jetlagged and with a post flight cold to top it all off.
I wanted to share some photos from when we went to Venice Beach over the day. It was really touristy and not as fun as we'd expected but we definitely found some nice spots. And I think I actually took some really great photos this day. Hope you think so too.

Who buys this stuff? I don't get it.

Muscle dad on Muscle beach.

It was a really foggy day at first. You could hardly even see the beach.

Oh, and if you like stupid, sexist t-shirts Venice Beach is the place for you!

I really liked this wall painting!

Hehe. See the sign? It says "Lazy dog" and the owner points it in the direction of the dog. We walked past them a while later and then the dog sat on the other side but the sign still pointed towards him.
Brilliant.

David looking all cool.

We left the beach to have a look at the streets further up. I liked this alley. So close to the beach but still secluded and silent.

The Super Mario Bros were up at the roof fixing something.

Don't really know why, but I really love this house. Think it's the colours and shapes. Yeah.

And this colourful house is nice too!

Saw this old man and his dog and took a gazillion photos of them. Looks so nice and peaceful.

Walked closer.

And found out that he was the owner of a vintage shop! It was very small and narrow and most of it actually took place in the staircase. Loved it!

Hej hej!

Before we said good bye I had to take some more photos of the little dog, now parked in the chair.

Walked back towards the beach again. This mural is amazing!

These last two photos are my favourites from this day. I couldn't decide which of them to choose so you'll get to see both of them. I like the lazy seagulls on the roof next to the painter. They look so incredibly rude and self absorbed.

So that was all from Venice Beach.
I will be back soon with a post about Santa Monica Main Street. I LOVE that street!

Until then: Tjingeling!

Last sunday we left San José and made the five hour journey to Los Angeles.
This is photos from our trip and the first day in Hollywood where we were going to stay for a while.

Sad bridge in San José. Rest in peace Tommy.

Bye Bye San José! Maybe we'll meet again sometime.

It wasn't long before we ended up among hills that made us feel like we were part of a Windows XP wallpaper. Or that Sonic the Hedgehog would roll past us any second.

Kind of breathtaking.
I mean, Brösarps backar in Skåne: Get lost (or "Släng dig i väggen", as we would say in Sweden).

Aaaaah. *sigh*

Ooooooh. *another sigh*

Okay, end of pictures taken through the car window.
Time for roadside diner food!

We made it to a diner that looked exactly like a diner should.

The backlit water glass was the most interesting thing of that meal. The water in the glass tasted horrible, the food was disgusting and the coffee was seethrough. Like, you could see the bottom of the cup.

Kitchen chairs made into bar stools.

We found a machine that promised to tell us our true selves.
Claes was eager to try.

He was not happy to find out that he is both Jealous and Nasty.

So, new day! Monday in Hollywood!
David and I went for a walk to check out the neighbourhood.

Apparently we lived right next to Hollywood Boulevard! That was a nice surprise; we really had no clue.

Love that there's so many bright green trees lining the sidewalks.

Typical Hollywood corner.

Everywhere there's empty lots squeezed in between houses. It's seems so weird that they can remain empty in the middle of such a big city.

Trees hang low over the sidewalks. I really love the many trees everywhere!

All of a sudden a big garden pops up between buildings.

This is a typical Los Angeles sidewalk. I'm not joking. Every sidewalk or road looks more or less like this.
It must be horrible to be a blind person in this country.
Not only are the sidewalks like wobbly patchworks, their bills are exactly the same size so it's impossible to tell the difference of the value.
This is one of the things that's been really apparent during this trip. The roads and buildings are so very worn down and dirty and among this some really fancy houses stand proud and clean and well looked after.
Along every road there's big signs telling people to "Adopt a highway". If the highway has been adopted the sign tells the name of the person giving the money to support the maintenance of that particular road.
For a tax paying swede this seems so wrong.
I really love paying taxes because I know that the roads needs to be clear of pot holes and all the people in the city should be able to walk around freely.
Okay, sorry for ranting but this really makes me upset.

After a few hours of walking around we went home again. This construction site was right next to our street. I love how the cranes stand tall over the large buildings in the backround.

So this was just the start of our LA visit. We had many more days to discover this interesting and exciting town. It really is a mix of all things, good and bad. I'll show you more soon, I promise.