California trip: an introduction

What comes to your mind when they say California? Sunny days, surfers, celebrity houses, people driving fast their big cars with looking attractive with blond hair and blue eyes, shortlyan imaginary place in our heads created by Hollywood movies.So when we were in a fast food restaurant in San Francisco on our first night after a 15 hour flight, surrounded by Asians, we were quite surprised; in fact California is one of the places in the world with the highest number of Asian immigrants...

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Sunset over Pacific: California Coasts by Train

If time is not an issue for you you can choose the slower option and explore California by train; there are two wonderful train routes; the Amtrak Starlight Train and the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner Train. We took the first one to travel from San Francisco to Santa Barbara and the secon one to go down to San Diego.We had no intention to travel by train in America. Given the distance between the cities, the rule of cars over the whole country and cheap and frequent flights, we were so prejudiced...

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From Santa Barbara to San Diego

Leaving San Francisco in the morning , after almost eight hours along the Pacific shores the night falls and we arrive in this quiet place which looks like the summer and weekend resort of the upper middle class Americans. It feels like a place where life is always beautiful, with people, devoid of hurry, walking quietly along the shore. And during the entire trip to California we are at our happiest in Santa Barbara. Cycling along the coastline, enjoying the view of town at the terrace of...

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From San Diego to Los Angeles

We are heading north this time: The Pacific Ocean is on our left and the sun is setting. The sunset takes so long that we had a chance to watch every hue of red and orange until satisfied. When we arrive in Los Angeles, it is getting dark. We are there in a huge metropolis, at the main train station called Union Square. We are getting off the train just like everybody else to enter the big city but we have no idea what we are going to do next. Everybody told us that Los Angeles is a city...

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Los Angeles: from Venice Beach to Santa Monica

Los Angeles is always sunny. The surfers who are waiting for waves at the early hours of the morning before anyone wakes up look like tiny penguins in the open waters of Venice Beach. On the way to Santa Monica tattooed street performers, peddlers, skateboarders, cyclists, all people are moving around. We are leaving Venice Beach where subcultures somewhat prevail, and arriving in Santa Monica which is more posh. It reminds me of Rio with its line of apartments along the long shore of the...

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From Trade to Art: Getty Museum

Another collector: the lives of collectors could be as interesting as the lives of artists. The American millionaire, born on April, 15, 1892, was an oil tycoon who exhibited the art collection he brought together throughout his life at his villa on the Malibu beach and at Getty Museum. Important pieces from ancient Greece, and the Roman and Etruscan civilisations at villa with a big garden and a bird’s eye view of the serpentine roads of Los Angeles.Infact there are two Getty Centres in Los...

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A day in San Francisco: cafés, bookstores, hills

One of the features which beautify San Francisco are its hills which are very steep but do not pose a challenge for somebody from Istanbul. The perspective the hills bestow on the city, the joy of looking back, and watching the city from a different point of view… We are staying at the heart of the city, in Union Square which has a great location, it reminds us of Wall Street district of New York, in fact everything seems similar to New York here in San Francisco, in a slower and calmer...

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A day in San Francisco: cafés, bookstores, hills

One of the features which beautify San Francisco are its hills which are very steep but do not pose a challenge for somebody from Istanbul. The perspective the hills bestow on the city, the joy of looking back, and watching the city from a different point of view.We are staying at the heart of the city, in Union Square which has a great location, it reminds us of Wall Street district of New York, in fact everything seems similar to New York here in San Francisco, in a slower and calmer rhythm...

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A day in San Francisco: Haight-Ashbury, Golden Gate park, Sausalito

Long before it was the birth place of the Silicon Valley and tech companies, San Francisco was the place the hippie counter- culture emerged. The influence of ’68 movements, the flower children, the beat culture, today’s modern city still has a bit of bohemian air.You may spend a morning in the Haight-Ashbury area to see the typical two flour Victorian style houses, now converted into boutique stores, record shops, etc. You may then go inside the Golden Gate Park, taking the same with the...

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