My photoalbum of the Californian travel in 1994

[dieastra]

20 years ago I took a trip through California which only lasted 7 days. Not much time to see the country but (it was a guided tour) we saw Los Angeles, Las Vegas, the Yosemite Nationalpark, San Francisco and then down through Monterey, Carmel, Santa Barbara back to L.A.

All of this time I had this photoalbum and the photos lying around but only now I finally sat down and put it all together. Since the pictures are original real pictures from that time (and kinda bad) I also added in many nice magazine pictures I have collected over the years. So you can compare my photos and professional ones.

Please click the link to see it and listen to my comments in very bad English! I know it is "of" and not "from" but I keep forgetting, because in German those two words are the same. And I am sure some pronouncations are way off, that's what you get when you learn English only by reading fanfictions and make up own pronouncations in your mind.

If anyone wants to correct me on something, also on some facts that might be wrong (I didn't write down any notes before I did this video) feel free so in the comments! That goes especially for analineblue and anyone else living in the area. And now enjoy! In case the embedded link is not working, here is the URL: http://youtu.be/7G42TEhfbHo

"" (Watch on YouTube)

Comments

[analineblue.livejournal.com]

You did such a good job putting all of that together - really fun to watch :D And seeing your pictures of the Japanese Tea Garden reminded me that I really want to try to go there this spring to see the cherry blossoms! (If they're not already gone. We went to Japantown for their festival this weekend and the blossoms were definitely on their way out...)

That's also really great that you got to see the lone cypress tree! Did you do the whole 17-mile drive from Carmel? I think that drive has some of the most amazing scenery I've ever seen. *__* We almost skipped it, since there was an extra toll charge to take that route, but I'm SO glad we went, because it was totally worth it~

<3

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

I seriously don't remember whether we took that drive or not. I don't remember anything about paying an extra toll. Is this different than highyway number 1? We were going down the coast, Monterey, Carmel, Santa Barbara and before that a little place called Solvang.

I don't even remember whether I actually SAW the cypress in real life or just on pictures ;) It's really all a blur, being so long ago and me having been so young. I'm not even sure whether it was Carmel or Monterey, the pictures where we sit on the beach and have a snack, but I think it was Carmel. We went to a German bakery which obviously was some tourist magnet.

[alumfelga.livejournal.com]

Beautiful album! I like that you put the photos from the magazine next to your own. You keep saying yours aren't as good but this when I can see all those places are real, with people around and everything :) Nice collection of tickets and leaflets!

I see you're a fan of the Golden Gate :)

You mention the space, the never ending roads with no other cars seen for quite some time, and it reminds me that I read somewhere that you need to drive a bit in the USA, to experience the roads yourself to understand mentality of the Americans. It's all there: the individualism, the national pride (the views!), even the big portions of everything - the next town might be miles away. I'm not sure what to think about it but it's an interesting thought.

Your English is very fluent!

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

(as you can see, I am making my way through my inbox, catching up with comments I never had time to reply to - only 767 to go)

Thank you very much, I'm happy you enjoyed it! I am really proud of this album. I had collected everything about America for a long time, but then to put it actually together in a sensible way is difficult and whenever I had tried before, was an overwhelming task. Especially since journal pages usually are printed from both sides, so if you want to keep the Golden Gate bridge from one side, you can't have whatever was on the other side!

But also, looking at all those pictures, one soon realizes how many stock pics there are - always the same one, with the exact same people. So it was easy to throw these out and go with the best of them.

It also was very satisfying, doing it by hand. Nowadays I do digital albums which then get printed, but I love the experience of moving it all around until I like the layout, and then glue it into places.

I see you're a fan of the Golden Gate :)

What gave me away? LOL
I have found in recent years, that I like to photograph buildings and nice architecture much more than nature. And bridges, especially the old steel ones, are always a marvellous sight. Surely it goes with my occupation, drawing such structures once in a while, you have a different view for craftsmanship.

That is interesting what you say about the Americans. I've never thought about it like that but it makes sense.

[hamsterwoman]

Very neat scrap book, thorough and beautifully done! I like the way you incorporated the maps especially, and that you kept some of the hotel room keys and stuff like the chopsticks and the cookie fortune! (I'm also impressed by how well-preserved everything is, after 20 years.)

You were actually in LA/Universal Studies/Disneyland around the same time I was, just a couple of years later (which was my first and only visit so far) :)

And, of course, places like Yosemite, Monterey/Carmel, and SF itself were fun for me to see in your album.

Neat to hear what you sound like, too.

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much, glad you liked it! Must be fun for you seeing your home through the eyes of someone else. Hope I did not make any major mistakes. I also wonder how much has changed since. I hear Las Vegas is looking much differently now. All those neat lights at the strip are gone and replyed by video screens?

I'm really proud of how the album came out. For years I had this wonderful album lying around and it was always planned for this, but you know how it is, you gotta find the courage to start! Another reason why I never started was that the original album only had like 20 pages or so and I thought no way I am gonna fit everything in, I would have had to leave too much out and I hate not being complete and thorough. And of course once I got occupied with the internet and Stargate and conventions and fanfictions, all time was sucked from me there for years.

So after mulling it over for a few years (LOL) the solution was quite easy: Just buy more extra inserts! From then on, it was fun. Even though not always easy to decide which journal clipping to use, when they had nice pictures on both sides but you can only keep one, while cutting the other, obviously...

The maps also come from stuff collected in America, free flyers in the hotels I believe. Stuff that is there for tourists. Our travel guide said that we could keep the room key and so I did but then for years was afraid I might get imprisioned if I ever come to the US again LOL

That was really my first Chinese meal, that's why I was so impressed. We did not order individually, they just gave us different dishes in the middle of the table, and then you could take whatever you wanted.

Have you been to the Fairmont? I think I remember a glass elevator at the outside... And when sitting in the restaurant, there was a water bassin in the middle, with a boat, and people on it making music. We sat around that bassin under little straw roofs (but it was all inside the hotel room, so fake) and suddenly it started "raining" in the bassin! America really knows how to impress ;) Especially if you are coming out of your little country behind a wall for the very first time. And all those posh hotels! We paid a fixed price for the trip and so everything was included, even the meals were paid by our travel guide.

I still think it was too early, my friend was organizing all this, I probably would have waited a bit till I was older and more fluent in English.

Even in the last days of the GDR, we already had some Chinese or probably rather Vietnam restaurant where we lived and I always wanted to go but my mother refused to go there. But after coming back from SF I took them to a Chinese restaurant and now they love it and go fairly regularly.

I also bought lots of souvenirs! From the Universal Studios, I have a movie clapboard (of course) and a little Oscar statue fridge magnet, from San Francisco I have a little cable car that makes music even (I left my heart in San Francisco), and I also got several of those Viewmaster slides with nice pictures of the places I visited. That is a great memory actually. I did have similar things as a child but those were fairytales, this was the first time that I saw them with real pictures. Much better than taking your own photographs.

In Las Vegas you could buy the White tigers as plushies and also figures, maybe you saw the picture of the Tenth Doctor feeding them that I recently did?

I also was mostly impressed when in the middle of Yosemite Park, in the tourist shop, the assistant asked me "Wollen Sie 'ne Tüte" (if I want a bag) in German. Especially the way she said "'ne" which is short for "eine". So she spoke even slang ;)

1994 was when we still watched Baywatch so seeing those rescue towers in the sunset at the beach for real was quite a sight!

My voice sounds odd to my own ears in this video but I believe it is always like that, that you sound differently when you listen to yourself from a recording.

[hamsterwoman]

I've actually never been to Vegas, so can't comment on that at all, sorry :P

We did not order individually, they just gave us different dishes in the middle of the table, and then you could take whatever you wanted.

This is called "family style", and it's my favorite way to do Chinese food, so long as everyone has mostly compatible tastes :)

I've been to the Fairmont, yes :) When we first moved here, a relative took us there to show us the glass elevators.

That's very cool that there was a fluent(?) German speaker you found in Yosemite! I guess people who want to live in Yosemite come from all walks of life and stay there...

My voice sounds odd to my own ears in this video but I believe it is always like that, that you sound differently when you listen to yourself from a recording.

Yep, that's my experience, too, and I don't really like listening to my recorded voice for this reason.

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

I'm waiting for John Barrowman to get his own Las Vegas show so I have a reason to come back to the city ;) One afternoon/evening definitely was not enough to see everything. I'd like to see some more shows and all those great hotels. Gambling, not so much.

Although I must say, as much as I had looked forward to the Siegfried & Roy show, I was a bit disappointed afterwards. You could see that it was routine for them, doing it for 30 years. Their faces were masks, probably from all the lifting ;) It was technically perfect, but lacked a little heart for me.

I don't think she was a native German speaker, it sounded like it was a foreign language for her. But somehow she had heard us talk in German and so adjusted.
I had the same at a train station in London. Of course by now I have no trouble getting around but when I bought a ticket and asked from which platform the train was going, the elderly man was happy to try out his German with me, and it was definitely more than just "Guten Tag" and "Dankeschön". I love such stuff. Made us smile for the rest of the day!

Even in Birmingham, going to a Japanese restaurant, the owner wished us good-bye by saying "Tschüss!"

But the best was in London in an Indian restaurant. We talked English with the waiter and in the middle he said we can also talk German if you prefer that. Turned out he was born in Dusseldorf and spoke German without any accent.

Then again, they even did it when I just ordered Fish & Chips at Tower Bridge. I have no idea how you can pronounce that wrong but apparently I did ;) Maybe the "please" afterwards gave me away LOL