Strolling

When we're in London, my friend and I usually don't take the tube. We prefer the good old fashion way and walk through the city. It's honestly just an excuse to spend hours taking pictures.

The Shard

I didn't realize before being up there how high I would actually get. Getting to The View takes about ten minutes, three elevators and a few stairs. It actually feels like being on a plane and going up and up and up--- you know that pressure in your ears ? Yeah, that. But once you've arrived, it's absolutely breathtaking. I would recommend going at sunset for a chance to witness the beauty that are the streets lights and the rose/orange sky.

Out of my two hundred something pictures (taking pictures through the glass was a bit tricky as The View area is illuminated) :

London nights

... when the party's out and the fever drives you.

When I went to London last month, my friend and I decided to go against the freezing wind on a photo stroll. It was ice-cold. But some of the photos were definitely worth it.

I had never taken (or seen) such clear pictures of Big Ben's tower before. I'm quite proud of my lens.

A bit of Westminster

Wear it as your crown, crown

My experience in the United States was about 10-day short. I went to Los Angeles and that was in June 2010. My first thoughts were that everyone drives damn fast, everything is so huge, so big, so too much. We spent an awfully long time driving from one point to another. It was almost impossible to do anything by foot - something I'm very not used to.

So, right, it's been three years already and I just finished sorting out the pictures. Not that I had many of them (compared to last summer's amount, that's nothing really) but I got busy and never actually did it. Looking at those pictures, I wish I had had a nicer camera. I was only starting to get into photography and I guess travelling so far piqued my interest.

I'm not going to lie, I spent most of my time there eating in Japanese restaurants and buying Japanese goods. But I guess, that's because I went to LA for a Japanese artist's concert: Jin Akanishi, if that rings a bell. I was with other fans all the time, we spoke almost only about fandom all the time... it was just meant to happen that way.

We still got to experience awesome stuff: driving to Santa Monica beach in the middle of the night, witnessing a gang being arrested, almost being crushed by the police tanks, having fun on Hollywood boulevard when the Lakers won a game... it was very exciting. I really didn't want to leave. You feel extremely free over there, like anything's possible. It's really fun.

I'm not sure I'll go back to California though. Definitely not anytime soon at least. I'm hoping to go to New York as soon as possible. The US are not my favorite thing but they're definitely full of mystery and things to discover. So, yes, I'd like to go again.