Somehow Andryusiks and I ended up in Los Angeles and we had a few extra hours. We decided to spend them walking around the city center. It so happens that the most interesting things are usually in the center. But, it seems, not in the City of Angels.
Even before the trip, I heard the popular opinion that there is nothing special to do in LA - it’s boring and it’s not clear what to see, but we couldn’t pass by a city known throughout the world, so we stopped by.
Los Angeles City Hall (City Hall)
Out of the corner of our eye we caught the Los Angeles City Hall building. In general, nothing special either, but due to the lack of any bright and interesting sights, you have to pay attention to at least these.
On the twenty-seventh floor of this building there is an observation deck that anyone can climb to. We didn’t know about this when we were walking.
Los Angeles Plaza Park
By some miracle, our feet led us to a park where little Mexico appeared before our eyes. We just managed to miss the country we’ve been traveling in for the last six months a little, and here it is! A park, a church, a gazebo, dancing people - everything is in the best Mexican traditions.
Church of La Placita
It’s a nice and cozy-looking church, which you can go into if you wish and sit in silence and coolness. In Mexico we were never kicked out or looked at askance in churches, and I don’t think they would have done it here either.
Olvera Street
To the north of the park stretches the bright Mexican street Olvera (so, as soon as something Mexican appeared, the color immediately appeared). Those who have never been to Mexico and do not plan to go there should look here - the atmosphere is right and the souvenirs, sweets, and clothes are the same as those sold in Mexican markets.
Union Station
We also looked at the Union Station passenger train station, surrounded by tall palm trees. These are the ones that are shown in all the films set in Los Angeles.
Streets of Los Angeles
This is where the list of landmarks we saw during our short walk ends, but that’s not all, because they don’t all hang in the air)) That’s right, they are connected by streets, and the streets in downtown Los Angeles are very different.
For those who love art in all its forms and want to take a break from the bustle of the city, we invite you to an art tour to the Paul Getty Center and Villa, the paradise of the Park of the Five Religions and the magical world of the Malibu area.
historical thematic
Full day tour of Los Angeles
Los Angeles, unlike many other cities, is very large (1300 sq. km). And to get to know it, it’s better to take a full-day tour. Enough time will allow you to linger in places where you liked. There will be an opportunity to enjoy a cup of coffee or tea in a beautiful setting.
overview historical
Santa Barbara, Solvang and Hearst Castle Day Tour from Los Angeles
Dear friends, I invite you to an exciting one-day tour along the Pacific coast of Southern California with the opportunity to visit three of the most beautiful places in Southern California: the resort city of Santa Barbara, the colorful Danish village of Solvang, and also take a tour of the majestic Hearst Castle
for children historical
San Diego from Los Angeles - Day Tour
Friends, I invite you to a one-day tour to sunny San Diego - you will receive incomparable pleasure from both the beauty of the beaches, architecture, nature, and the history of this amazing city of Southern California!
historical
Family Vacation: Universal Studios and Malibu Safari with Wine Tasting
Family tours are always very rich in impressions and are remembered for a long time by both adults and children. This exciting one-day tour will have absolutely everything for you and your children. You will visit Universal Studios and a winery in Malibu.
gastronomic tour for children
Los Angeles - sightseeing tour
Welcome to Los Angeles - the City of Angels, the city of the true American Dream! Los Angeles is one of the world's largest cultural, scientific, economic, educational centers, as well as one of the world's largest centers of the entertainment industry.
sightseeing night
Pasadena - parks and museums. Day Tour from Los Angeles
A great opportunity to take a pleasant walk through magnificent parks and museums, and enjoy the beauty of the Spanish-style old town on a day tour from Los Angeles to Pasadena.
historical
Cote d'Azur and the islands of Southern California
Dear friends, I invite you to an exciting one-day walking tour along the brilliant Pacific Coast of Southern California, visiting coastal towns, islands, parks and beaches.
ecotourism
Santa Barbara - Danish village of Solvang
I invite you to visit the American Riviera of the West Coast of the USA - the city of Santa Barbara and the Danish village of Solvang!
With stunning views along the California coast, exploring the coastal cities, history, culture and art of these places - this one-day tour will remain in your memory for a long time.
for children
Universal Studios: an exciting tour into the world of cinema and entertainment
Friends, I invite you to the most famous film studio in the world - Universal Studios - this is a world famous amusement park and one of the best film studio parks!
for children
Sequoia National Park - Day Tour from Los Angeles
Friends, I invite you on a one-day tour from Los Angeles to Sequoia National Park. A walk along the paths of this beautiful forest among giant trees, breathing in the crystal clear pine air, will allow you to see them with your own eyes and touch the thousand-year-old grandiose sequoia trees.
ecotourism
Santa Barbara - Malibu - Park of the Five Religions
Dear friends, I invite you to visit the American Riviera of the West Coast of the USA - the resort city of Santa Barbara and the famous Malibu area! You will relax and get an unforgettable experience!
historical eco-tourism
Sunny Los Angeles excites the hearts of tourists not only as a cinematic Mecca, a legendary dream factory and the world capital for the production of illusions. Los Angeles is also the embodiment of the American dream, a symbol of luxurious life on the ocean, a phenomenon of prosperity and success. This is how tourists see it, but this is only one side of the City of Angels. Tours of Los Angeles will reveal other facts about the city, for example, that at the dawn of its existence the settlement was not considered particularly promising, and just two centuries ago only 600 people lived in the town. Considering that Los Angeles is now the second most populous city in the country after New York, the progress is impressive. In general, in terms of information, the most complete is a sightseeing tour, during which you will see all the iconic tourist places and get an idea not only of the city, but also a little about the country as a whole.
Los Angeles is also the embodiment of the American dream, a symbol of luxurious life on the ocean, a phenomenon of prosperity and success.
Sightseeing tour of Los Angeles
It only takes a short drive through the streets of Los Angeles to understand the hopelessness of walking tours, because this city is a contemporary of the automobile age. There is no historical center here; all areas of the metropolis are formed by former satellite cities. Therefore, the best option is to choose a combined tour of Los Angeles (bus + walking). The traditional program includes walks along colorful Olvera Street and the legendary Walk of Fame, as well as along the Sunset Strip (a section of the grand Sunset Boulevard), strewn with the best rock bars, nightclubs and restaurants in the city. Los Angeles guides will show you the glamorous Beverly Hills, take you to the Griffith Observatory, and discover the beauty of the Highland entertainment center and the Santa Monica area with its luxurious beach and promenade.
Don't want to waste your time on trifles? Spend 8-10 hours exploring the Hollywood Hills with a visit to Griffith Park and a stroll through Glendale.
By the way, to get to know Los Angeles you don’t have to limit yourself to a car or a bus. You can admire the city from a bird's eye view by booking a helicopter tour, or enjoy its views from aboard a luxury liner.
Cinematic Los Angeles
A series of tours around Los Angeles highlight the achievements of the local film industry. For example, as part of the “Journey to Universal Studios” you will visit the park of the legendary film company, ride on exciting rides, watch animal shows and, of course, watch a movie in 5D format. In addition, you will get a chance to be in the “kitchen” of the creative process, visiting the sets of famous films and TV series on the “Studio Tour” attraction (excursion duration - from five hours).
Other excursions
But the children will thank you very much if you send them to visit their favorite fairy-tale characters, namely, on an excursion to Disneyland. And if you join them, you yourself will forget about how old you are, plunging headlong into the happy world of childhood.
Tours of Los Angeles can easily be combined with visits to neighboring cities. From the City of Angels it is convenient, for example, to go to the resort town of San Diego. As part of this trip, you will walk through the historical center, see the amazing Star of India museum ship, the aircraft carrier USS Midway, stroll through the Gaslamp Quarter, and visit the SeaWorld Aquarium. You will also find the Point Loma Peninsula and a walk through Balboa Park, the largest park in the United States. Duration of the trip - 10 hours.
We will visit some of the sights of Los Angeles (LA, Los Angeles), some famous, some not so much.
– Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, California, USA
A little bit of Los Angeles (LA, Los Angeles) and around
Attractions
Walking around Los Angeles
We had a free day and decided to devote it to exploring Los Angeles. This was planned, i.e. We booked the car from Sydney.
From the diary – May 24
7:00 – We got up. It took a long time and slowly to get ready to wake up.
8:00 – Buffet breakfast for $25 per person, today for me, i.e. Ilya decided to order some special omelette for $14.
9:00 – We took the car. Fortunately, it’s not far to go to a nearby hotel. The HERTZ office is located in the Mariot Hotel.
I wanted to visit Japantown and small Japanese gardens in it, stroll through the center with skyscrapers and planned sunset on Mulholand Dr.
is the name of one of the ethnic neighborhoods of downtown Los Angeles. Little Tokyo of Los Angeles is one of only three official Japantowns (Japantown or J-Town) located in the United States. The other two are located in San Jose and San Francisco. And we really liked him.
– Sign in Little Tokyo area
Little Tokyo has a fate similar to that of San Francisco's Japantown. It also appeared at the beginning of the last century, was also deserted due to the internment of the Japanese population during the Second World War, and also managed to be revived after its end. In 1995, Little Tokyo was designated a US National Historic Landmark.
– An interesting feature of Little Tokyo is the Yagura Tower (櫓, 矢倉) at the Village Plaza, which is a replica of a traditional Japanese rural observation tower.
In the past in the area Little Tokyo Up to 30 thousand ethnic Japanese lived there, but their numbers have since declined. According to guidebooks, many Japanese Americans have chosen the suburbs of Los Angeles as their place of residence; in particular, large communities of ethnic Japanese are concentrated in Monterey Park, Torrance, and Gardena.
Rauon is easy to find, and we parked not far away. After a short walk, we had a snack in one of the cafes and went to look for Japanese gardens. I’ll say right away that they are far away. The first garden is located at the Japanese American Cultural Center and is called the James Irvine Japanese Garden - “Seiryu-en”, the other is at the Doubletree By Hilton Hotel Los Angeles and is called Kyoto Gardens.
– James Irvine Japanese Garden – “Seiryu-en”
James Irvine Japanese Garden – “Seiryu-en”244 S. San Pedro Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
http://www.jaccc.org/garden.php
Kyoto Gardens at Doubletree By Hilton Hotel Los Angeles
120 S Los Angeles St, Los Angeles, CA 90012
http://www.doubletreeladowntown.com/our-hotel/kyoto-gardens
– Weller Court Shopping Centre. In the center there are several restaurants, a karaoke club and a Bubble Tea cafe. The center has several boutiques of expensive clothes. On the territory of the center there is a large bookstore Kinokuniya.
So, walking around Little Tokyo we were approaching the business center Los Angeles.
– Los Angeles City Hall
Los Angeles City Hall located in the city center in the Civic Center area. This 32-story building, 138 meters high, was erected in 1928. On the 27th floor of the building there is an observation deck open to the public.
Apparently, the prototype of the building was Mausoleum of Mausolus- an ancient wonder of the world that stood for almost 2 millennia. Los Angeles is known for its earthquakes, and the architects took this into account during construction. Los Angeles City Hall built with a huge margin of safety and is able to withstand an earthquake of magnitude 8.
- Downtown Los Angeles
Further our path lay through Grand Park To Walt Disney Concert Hall, which is considered the pearl of downtown. The idea of building a concert hall was proposed by Walt Disenay's widow Lillian, who donated about $50 million for construction in 1987. It was completed in 2003. As a result, Los Angeles received a masterpiece of architecture and design, as well as a concert hall that surpasses the acoustic qualities of the most famous venues in the world. The architect of this masterpiece was Frank Gehry.
– Walt Disney Concert Hall
The building's exterior walls are formed by a series of undulating, curved stainless steel surfaces. The sun reflects off the building and further emphasizes its amazing shape.
Admission to the Walt Disney Concert Hall is free, but the guide highly recommends attending a live concert to experience the atmosphere inside, or taking advantage of the free audio tour that details the history of the concert hall. Walt Disney Concert Hall is home to the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.
– MOCA Museum, Omni Hotel, Angels Flight & Water court at California Plaza
And now just a photo of downtown Los Angeles.
– Water Court at California Plaza – You can stroll among the skyscrapers, in their shadows and relax by the fountains. I was content with taking a picture of the buildings reaching into the sky, but we didn’t go for a walk to the cafes and restaurants on California Plaza, because... It was lunch time 13:30 and there were a lot of people.
– View of 5th Street (W 5th St)
– Pyramid of the Sun – Roof of the Central Library tower
Central Library also known as the Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL). This architectural treasure, built in 1926, is decorated with bas-reliefs of great thinkers, writers and scientists. It is one of the largest libraries in the world. In 2001, the building was renamed, and now it bears the name of Richard Riordan, the former mayor of the city.
Architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue made this building unique. He drew on Mediterranean and Egyptian Renaissance architecture. The central tower is decorated with tiled mosaics and the Pyramid of the Sun.
– Tower in the center of the frame – AT&T Tower or “Pacific Bell Tower”, height 137 meters – AT&T Switching Center building
– Corner of W 5th St and S Broadway
Walking along 5th Street (W 5th St), we realized that we were leaving the beautiful, prosperous center (or as they like to say “downtown”) and approaching an area that should be bypassed or passed as quickly as possible.
We checked the map and decided to return to Little Tokyo, have a snack and move on. The car is parked nearby.
To get to know Los Angeles better, it is worth taking a short walk through the historical center of the city, possibly with travel by public transport. I offer my route, which will take about 4 hours, comfortable shoes, a camera, a bottle of water (if in summer) - everything you need for this walk.
So, we parked in a paid parking lot on Alameda St for about $15 a day. You can cheat and park in some shopping center for free, but with Validation, i.e. you need to buy something in this shopping center and ask the seller to stamp your parking ticket. You can even buy coffee at Starbucks and get a stamp. By the way, I recommend this method of parking throughout Los Angeles.
Here is a map of the city center where we walked:
We started our walk by visiting the famous transport station in a beautiful Spanish style at 800 N Alameda St, Union Station, which was built back in 1939. By the way, the film “Catch Me If You Can” with DiCaprio was filmed at this station.
After exiting Union Station, go to Alameda str. Olvera Street, where there is a small Mexican market, where you can buy various souvenirs, clothes, beautiful leather bags, Mexican sweets and other things. By the way, the prices there are not particularly high. You can just walk through the market and feel the Mexican flavor.
This market has the oldest residential building in Los Angeles that has survived to this day, it is a house museum. You can go there for free. This is a Mexican house consisting of a courtyard, an outdoor oven and the house itself: all this forms a square with a courtyard in the center. There you can watch a video with the history of the house and the area, talk to a woman worker, read various inscriptions, walk around the house itself and see how they used to live. By the way, nothing in the situation surprised me, since something similar can still be found in our villages, but my American friend was at a loss as to how one could use a wooden sofa and bathe in a basin)))
If you're hungry by this point, everyone recommends going to the famous cafe near the market at 1001 N. Alameda St, which has been open since 1908, where you can try some of the most delicious French Dip Sandwiches, but unfortunately we didn't go there. didn’t make it, but there are about 4000 reviews about this place on http://www.yelp.com/biz/philippe-the-original-los-angeles
After the market we went to Little Tokio, you can go along Main or Alameda st. This is the Japanese district of Los Angeles, where there are many shops with their goods, there is even a large shopping center, many restaurants.
We met a Japanese Buddhist monastery along the way and decided that if we didn’t go there, the walk wouldn’t be complete. We rang the doorbell, a monk opened it for us and politely invited us inside. There was no service at that time, so the hall was empty. Inside, everything is bright, in candles, Buddha sits in the middle, as in any monastery, but in the hall itself there are benches in the American style. Of course, the monk understood that we were just tourists, but he was very kind and told us about the monastery itself, about their services, and how everything happens.
Little Tokio itself is not very large, but you can buy almost all goods there.
After Little Tokio, we returned to our parking lot along Main St and took photographs of the city and the buildings of government administration services.
There you can see a sign with the names of all the sisters of the city of Los Angeles
By the way, you can still find a lot of homeless people there who just sleep on the street
We crossed the bridge over the highway and returned to the market.
We were lucky, just at that time there was a performance of Indians in a small square near the market, which gathered a large crowd of onlookers, including us.
Near that square there is a museum of the first Chinese in Los Angeles, admission there is about 3 dollars and there are also constantly changing art exhibitions.
The oldest Catholic church in Los Angeles is also located next to the square (near the market).
After the historical Downtown of Los Angeles and Little Tokio have already been explored, you can go to one very extravagant place -
Speaking of Los Angeles, there is no point in looking for a capacious film image - this is a city that, if it disappears, can be reconstructed from hundreds of kilometers of film filmed here. Coming here, you will simply piece it together, like a mosaic, from the many films you have watched. Paradoxically, you will be surprised to note that you have already been on a tour of Los Angeles more than once. The traveler will also see the city itself in many ways through flickering film frames: on an excursion in Los Angeles, and simply when moving around it, you often cannot do without a car.
They used to say about Los Angeles that it was thirty suburbs in search of a center, and although it is now dominated by the skyscrapers of Downtown, each city district retains its own identity. A walk through Los Angeles can lead you not only to Beverly Hills with its palm trees and sky-high prices or to the HOLLYWOOD sign on the hills, but also to a whole street of vintage shops, to one of the first movie theaters in the USA, to a farmers market, to an unsafe Mexican quarter and to authentic Chinese. Don't be afraid to see the old, dirty one-story Los Angeles - here you will come closer to unraveling the phenomenon of this place, where three centuries ago there were not even fifty inhabitants.
Tours of Los Angeles in Russian are by no means uncommon, because almost the largest Russian community in the United States lives here. Local residents are ready to show you everything, from the oldest building in the city to the shops where stars buy clothes, from the hall where the mayor meets with townspeople, to the giant observatory-museum - in a word, immerse you in the cycle of fashion, cinema, art, fame - eternal lures that bring dreamers and entrepreneurs to Los Angeles. The guide may even offer to make a short video about your walk (have you forgotten where you are?).
Los Angeles is a city where your route will be determined, if not by your cinematic taste, then by your ambitions, because only on the spot you will fully feel where the demons of the City of Angels live.
