accidental songs: LA - Universal City Walk + Santa Monica Pier

Honestly, none of us liked LA that much - we found it vaguely terrifying. The traffic was awful, the streets weren't particularly safe, even along Hollywood Boulevard, and we ended up not doing much there. Santa Monica was very nice, however, and I wish we'd had time to go in the evening instead of in the day.

We were only in LA for a couple of days, and while we were waiting for our travel buddies to catch up to us (they were only arriving the day after we did) we decided to hop on the subway to Universal City Walk. Universal City Walk is basically right next to the theme park (which we didn't go to, because there is one RIGHT HERE AT HOME) and it has a whole bunch of shops and restaurants etc.

Universal City is actually up quite a steep hill, so it's a good thing there was a shuttle.

Obviously we were very bored. Also, check out my cute socks! I got them in Shibuya last year.

You do not want to know how much time we spent trying to make these shots work.

I kind of love/am secretly amused and baffled by how everything Chinese over there immediately = pandas.

So, seriously. This was everywhere we went in the US. We never actually ate there, but I just want to know - is this place extra delicious or what? Very cute mascot, though.

Obligatory shot of Hollywood Boulevard:

And look whose star we found!

I'd read only about this great pie shop called simplethings, and it really is pretty great, so go if you ever have the chance! It was very cosy and served some pretty great pies, and I LOVE pie, so there you go.

Beef pot pie. VERY good.

And my mini strawberry pie! Man, I miss this place already.

After the pies it was off to Santa Monica:

The weather there was just incredible, and there was a nice sea breeze and lots of sun. I'm very happy with how well all the pictures from the pier turned out.