Road Trip to Solvang, CA: Authentic or Hyperreal?

In his article about Solvang, a local man recalls being stopped by a tourist when he was a little child. The tourist was inquiring about the admission fees and closing hours for Solvang. "What did he think this place was, Disneyland?" the author asks outraged, reflecting on the long-standing fear among locals that the town of Solvang, CA is becoming nothing more than a themed attraction. His concern, unfortunately, has some merit to it, as it has indeed become difficult to tell whether the small Californian town is an authentic hub for Danish traditions or a mere tourist attraction that is a copy of a place and era bygone.

Considering the latter option, the Disneyland comparison isn't even that far-fetched. Walking through Solvang is a lot like walking through Main Street, USA: you pass by full-sized buildings that are "absolutely realistic" but created to take people to a "fantastic past." They are simulations of places that once existed but no longer do, blending the concepts between reality and representation so that there are no clear distinctions between the two.

So here's some food for thought: does Solvang provide an authentic Danish experience? Is it a celebration or an exploitation of Danish culture? At the end of the day, does Danish culture become reduced to a simple kitchen magnet? On your drive home, do you feel like you have learnt something about Denmark? And just to make answering those questions easier, I'll add this interesting piece of info for you: in the past, people had suggested to give the town French theme instead, in order to accommodate for all the wineries nearby (are European cultures really that interchangeable?).

These are all big questions, but they're important questions, so make sure to keep them in mind as I narrate my second day trip undertaken this summer -- this time, to Solvang, CA (aka that Danish village that everyone thinks is Dutch -- more food for thought!).

Solvang is about three hours north of LA, so Emily and I left at around 7 am...only to find that all the ramps to the I-10 were closed. It was a Sunday morning, duh. This made our trip there significantly longer but, after a mandatory stop at Denny's, we arrived at the lavender farms outside Solvang by around 11. Except, it turns out, lavenders aren't exactly in season right now, so after taking a couple of photos, we decided to drive into town instead.

I took some really cute photos of Emily but she disagrees with me on that so here's a picture of my with my eyes closed instead. (PC: Emily)

Now, Solvang, as I said before, is very much a made environment, and it's very tourist-oriented. So much that it's mostly just stores, restaurants and wineries. There are some Danish bakeries, a year-round Christmas shop, and a bunch of other stores selling home décor, leather bags, collectible dolls, gingerbread houses and other useless shit. Fitting into the whole simulation theme, there is a store called Edelweiss, which sells miniature versions of pretty much anything under the sun, so if you're ever looking for inch-long plastic hot dogs, you've found your place. Of course, everything is overpriced, but as I like to say, if you have the funds... 💸💸

This was the only half decent photo of me so this is what you get idk. (PC: Emily)

The central part of Solvang is quite small, so after walking around for a bit, taking photos and trying to hunt down cheap water, Emily and I drove down to the beach -- which was, of course, a major mistake. It turns out that even when it's 32°C/90°F inland, the beach is cold and foggy, meaning that I basically spent $10 on parking just so I could sit shivering on a rock for about an hour, holding onto my blanket as if my life depended on it. Needless to say, we did not end up going for a swim (successful beach visits this summer: so far 0/2). 

Actual photo of me at the beach. (PC: Emily)

With that being a failure, we eventually headed back to Solvang to visit the ostrich farm we had originally intended to see. Now, my knowledge of ostriches is extremely limited (until recently, I kept confusing them with flamingos), so this is the best description I can give of them: they are weird and cool. Or maybe they are weirdly cool. Coolly weird? Anyhow, they are tall af and are very aggressive eaters, unlike their emu counterparts, who are significantly shorter and eat less aggressively. I know this because they also have emus at the farm and you can actually feed both for an extra $, which, y'know, is completely and utterly worth it. 10/10 would recommend.

(PC: Emily)

These are ostriches.

This is an emu.

After leaving the ostriches behind (and the emus, don't forget the emus!), we returned to Solvang to find that apart from a few Danish bakeries, there was basically no Danish food there. Or maybe we shouldn't go by Google suggestions, but anyhow, we ended up at an Italian restaurant, eating pizza, and driving home.

And that was that. Did I learn more about Denmark? Probably not. Is this place an exploitation or celebration of Danish culture? A bit of both, I guess. Did I get more out of it than a kitchen magnet? Well, based on this post, I certainly did.

Road Trip to Santa Barbara

There are two things I'll never say no to: waffles and road trips. Okay, we all know that's a lie. There are many things I'll never say no to. Like free airplane tickets. Or a job offer after graduation. But anyway, I digress.

Going on a road trip along the coast of California was one of the things I definitely wanted to do during my time at USC, and since I'm here all summer with more free time than I need, I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to fulfill my dreams (lol). My original idea was to drive up to San Francisco or Big Sur and stop at different locations along the way, but my best friend Emily wasn't crazy about the 5 to 7-hour drive, so we settled on the quaint little town of Santa Barbara instead.

After consulting several reputable travel guides a blog post titled "The Top Instagram Spots in Santa Barbara," we compiled a comprehensive and detailed schedule vague list of things to do in my Notes app and off we went, just like that. That is, after stopping by at Starbucks. It was 6 am, people, I needed to get my white chocolate mocha 💁 (Starbucks count: 1).

We ended up taking the scenic route along the Pacific Coast Highway, which allowed for multiple stops along the coast and plenty of occasions for us to irresponsibly run across the highway to take pictures.

Our next stop was IHOP, which, for some reason, I had previously believed was a gas station. My bad. But yeah, IHOP is the classic road trip breakfast place and since I had never been there before, I was excited. Which is exactly why I was so disappointed to find that they served me fake Nutella. I mean, seriously IHOP, did you really think that I wouldn't notice? 

That Nutella does not look right.

After that letdown, we headed directly to a hiking trail called Lizard's Mouth, named after a rock formation that is shaped like -- wait for it -- a lizard's mouth. Or at least that's what they say, since we notably did not find this aforementioned rock, and settled on seeing, y'know actual lizards. The trail also had rattle snakes and was very unfortunately situated next to a gun club, so, to be completely honest, I just wanted to gtfo asap. It was pretty, though. Also, fun story, the beginning of the trail is marked by a half-buried drainage pipe that we obviously missed and drove onto a dirt road instead that -- as it turns out -- was not open to traffic. Awkward.

(PC: Emily)

Not the lizard, but close enough?

Once that riveting adventure was over, we drove down to State St in Santa Barbara and walked around for a bit. And went to Starbucks (Starbucks count: 2). We also stopped by at Stearns Wharf and strolled the beach for a bit, but just as the Yelp reviews said, there's not much to do at either place, there are just some very expensive restaurants and people fishing. That is why we then headed to a place we knew we would love: the mall. Or, more precisely, Paseo Nuevo, an outdoor mall thing with a bunch of stores and food places.

I didn't know which photo to post so I posted all the good ones okay don't judge me bye. (PC: Emily)

After sharing a somewhat mediocre pizza and taking about 10 million photos on the famous Paseo Nuevo steps, we drove to the Chromatic Gate rainbow arch to take even more photos (surprise surprise), because why not? The arch itself was a little smaller than expected and about six more people arrived at the same time as us, with the exact same goal as us, so we stuck around there for a while, waiting for the crowd to dissolve. It took a while, but hey, it was worth it! I got a new Facebook profile picture out of it! (Note: you don't have to take every shallow thing I say at face value. You know that I'm a big fun of sarcasm.)

Success is when you manage to pull off looking effortless in a photo that took two hours to take. (PC: Emily)

 It was at this point, however, standing underneath this gorgeous rainbow-hued geometric metal rectangle, that we realized something. Since, as it turns out, as pretty as it is, there's not much to actually do in Santa Barbara. Especially when you don't really want to pay for anything and it's too cold to go to for a swim. That is why we ended up driving around for a little bit and ultimately going to Butterfly Beach, where we were supposed to watch the sunset. Except it was only 4 pm, it was way too windy to hang out there for four hours, and I desperately needed to use the restroom (tmi), which is how...we ended up at Coffee Bean, for a change (Starbucks count: 2, Coffee Bean count: 1). There, I had an iced lemon pound cake and made the decision to head back home and stop for dinner in Malibu.

I don't see any butterflies but w/e.

So off we went, once again, stopping along the way to take more photos, and eventually ending up at a fancy restaurant in Malibu that seemed a lot cheaper on Yelp. There, we had dinner, Emily mistook sun-dried tomatoes for shrimp, we kinda celebrated my birthday, and I realized that I had gotten really, really sunburned. But that's never really a surprise.

FOOD.

And that was that.

Summer in California | Adulting 101

Also known as the electrifying and impassioned sequel to Winter in California. Just kidding, I hate sequels.

I'm trying this new thing called adding memes to my posts. Thoughts?

But anyway, the summer of 2017 is the summer of adulting. It's the summer of living in a subleased apartment, providing food for myself (and failing so far), doing my own laundry, paying my own bills, depositing my own checks, working a part-time job, having a 10-6 internship, commuting to said internship, and many, many more fun activities. I use fun sarcastically, if you couldn't tell. Because yes, real life is tough.

According to the impeccably accurate Urban Dictionary, "adulting" is a term used exclusively by "immature 20-somethings" who are "proud of themselves for paying a bill" and "adult less than 50% of the time." Not gonna lie, this is accurate. You see, I will be 21 years old in less than two weeks, and I don't feel like an adult. I'm not an adult. I can't cook anything besides pasta and I can't iron my own clothes. I don't even own an iron. I own a steamer, and the last time I used that, I melted my closet door . And yes, I know that is nothing to be proud of.

And you know what else I know? That from now on, this is my reality. My reality is the process of shifting from adulting to becoming, you know, an actual adult. And it's terrifying in every sense of the word. And I would love to stop this process somehow, but I can't. It's normal, everyone goes through it, and since this is just how life is, I might as well go with the flow.

And step number one is recognizing that summer is no longer about freedom. It's no longer about frolicking on the beach without a care in the world and dancing around at music festivals wearing standard white girl flower crowns. I mean, yes, there's time for that, too. But there's also the w-word. No, not waffles. Work. But waffles do sound great right now.

This summer, I've started working. Three days a week, I work a 4-hour phone shift at the University Events front desk. It's not too bad, as I spend most of it reading books on Kindle and writing blog posts such as this one right now. I've also been cart trained, meaning that I get to drive around campus in a golf cart and feel very important. Oh, and did I mention that I get paid for it?

The other two days I spend interning at a small production company in West Hollywood. My commute is about an hour and I take two metro lines and a bus, which is no fun, but at least it makes me nostalgic of the good old days when I used public transportation every day and Uber was just a Twitter app for BlackBerries. Also, I get to work on a fancy production lot in a really nice area, and the company produces exactly the type of content I'm interested in: character-driven independent films.  The job itself, well... It's the typical intern job of book and script coverage, answering phones, and coloring in the scratches on old desks.

But you know, there are two ways to look at everything. Yes, I'm an unpaid intern in a tiny office an hour away from where I live, and yes, my job is boring to say the least. But, at the same time, as I was drinking my coffee at Starbucks before work the other day, I looked out the window and saw the Hollywood sign stretch out in front of me. I saw all the palm trees lining the streets. And as I confidently walked over to the production lot, with my coffee in one hand and laptop in the other, looking just like the professional I am not, I realized something. I've made it. I've made it. I'm working in the film industry. I'm working in Hollywood (OK to be fair, West Hollywood. And half of the Hollywood sign was hidden behind a palm tree, but minor details). I persevered against the odds, I've proven that I could make it, I've accomplished what I wanted, I did it all on my own, and now here I am.

And as shitty as adulting is, it's great.

***

I just thought that would be a prosaic end to the adulting chapter, but if you're curious as to what else I have planned for this summer, here's a brief list:

1) Going on a road trip to Big Sur with my best friend Emily!
2) Going to California Adventure for my 21st birthday!
3) Going to a rooftop/Cinespia film screening!
4) Visiting the ucla (SUCKS) campus, just for fun.
5) Getting a California driving license (I've really been putting this off, haven't I?)

So yeah, it's not a long list, but it is what it is. I'll also be summer RAing for high school kids, which I'm beyond excited for! I already miss being an RA like crazy. Plus, I'll get to live in a dorm for six weeks, which I believe will just be enough to have the dorm experience but also survive without major trauma.

I'm Alive and Such

You guys might have noted that I've been quite lax about posting recently, so I'm here to let you all know: DON'T WORRY. I'M ALIVE. I'M NOT IN JAIL. YET. Now, I don't exactly know who I'm addressing here, since my blog has approximately zero readers (at least none that I'm aware of) but if you happen to be lurking this site once in a while, and if you've started wondering about my whereabouts, well, I'm here. I'm here, it's just that most of the time I usually post when something significant happens and, let's face it, nothing has happened in the past few weeks. At least nothing blog-worthy.

But if you've actually read up to this point, I might be able to gather some minor happenings for you. Such as:

1) I attended my grandma's 80th birthday and, though I'm not too keen on family gatherings, it went very well! Everyone was super nice and my cousin from Paris was there and I absolutely love her and I hadn't seen her in ages so yep, that was fun. Plus, delicious cake as always.

2) I drove on my own in the middle of a STORM!!! Yes, this happened about an hour ago and if you can't tell, I'm very proud.

3) I met up with a friend of a friend who is now a friend, and I bought a pink glittery skirt. Now, you should know that I don't wear pink, I don't wear skirts, and I rarely wear glitter. So I'm quite concerned, as it is, most probably as I don't know whether this is a perfectly normal style evolution, or whether I'm subconsciously transforming into one of my friends, which would, if you know the circumstances, make perfect sense. So I might call a style psychologist and consult with her on the issue. Style psychologists exist, right?*

4) I watched a documentary on Nat Geo about a cannibalistic serial killer and proceeded to have a really morbid nightmare about murdering someone and have a dog eat his head. Then I read this article written by a Penn Criminology professor and found it really intriguing (is this word even used nowadays?) and did I tell you yet that I want to double major in Film AND Criminology? BTW, I have morbid dreams on a daily basis, no need to worry. I'm just a bit paranoid and think way too much into certain things.

5) I wrote my Common App essay, and have a very good feeling about it. I've actually written three, and each one started out of the other, and each one morphed into an answer to a different prompt but yeah. My advice to Common App essay writers: don't stick with one prompt and consider the deal sealed. I've also worked on a couple of supplements and the Penn one is giving me nightmares. You know when you've got all the content, but just can't form it into a coherent text? Welp, that's happening.

6) I've studied some A-Level Sociology and have done some ACT prep, but clearly not enough. In fact, that's what I should be doing now.

So, that is all I can think of right now, and erm, I don't know. I'll let you all (I still don't know who I'm talking to) know when something less mundane happens. I've got two tickets for this big music festival next month, so I'll definitely write about that. Yep. I think I should get back to ACT Math.

Take care and such.

*I was hoping style psychology would be something I just made up, but no. It actually exists.

Arctic Monkeys Concert

Prior to attending this concert, I had the privilege of seeing one Arctic Monkeys T-shirt in person - mine. Now I don't know whether I can ever wear that shirt again without sacrificing the last shreds of my individuality. Especially since, thinking it would be completely original to wear a flower crown, I had to face the fact that about 80% of the girls present had the same marvelous idea. So. Many. Flower crowns. So. Many. Arctic Monkeys T-shirts. I mean, where did they even get them from? I had to order mine from Etsy, and for some mysterious reason it shipped from Bulgaria.

Anyway, the concert being discussed here took place at the Volt Festival, which is an annual music festival in Sopron, Hungary. I'm not much of a festival person myself (don't mind the festival, do mind the all drunk people), but, I mean, I'd been longing to see the Arctic Monkeys since SEVEN years, so I had to be there without question. I bought my ticket the first day it was available, and within the first hour. And so began this epic journey...

...which continued at 11 AM at the train station. Now, I was a bit worried about getting there, since I knew absolutely no directions or transfer options whatsoever, but all my worries evaporated when three kids about my age sat down next to me. From then on, the three hours spent on the train were a blast. We talked about the concert, about traveling to London, about not exactly liking our capital city, about how the Russians have a separate word for three-day sleep deprivation and so on... I didn't even get to continue reading my copy of On the Road, which I've been struggling with for a year precisely.

By the time I got to the venue, it was 4 PM and by the time I found my friends, it was 4:30 PM, since during the time I took the bus there, they were walking down to the station. What a perfectly coordinated meeting, right?

We still had a couple of hours to kill until the concert started, so we left the venue and were walking around town and, well, this is the part of the day that is better left censored... Erm, so, long story short, while the friends of my friends were eating shrooms and going psycho with seven other people in a one person tent, my friend and I went to see the opening act, which was The Strypes. And they were surprisingly good, really! I spent my time staring at the lead singer, who happens to be gorgeous, but it turned out that he's younger than me, so I transferred my affections to this random guy standing next to me. So it was perfect. Well, except for the tiny detail that I urgently needed to use the bathroom - which is a total mood killer. Oh, and that I couldn't change my camera's settings from B&W to color. And I couldn't find the flash either...

The first color photo I took - of The Strypes

By the time I got back from the bathroom, a huge crowd had gathered in front of the main stage and I couldn't find my friend. Nice. But after a couple of phone calls, raised hats and aggressive elbowing from my part, I did manage to find her, she dragged me into the great sea of Arctic Monkeys T-shirts, and before I noticed, we were already in the front rows. And we were pushed and kicked and jumped upon, but there we remained.

AND THEN IT WAS 9 PM AND THE CONCERT STARTED. And...they were there!! The four of them, they were there, in front of me, and suddenly I couldn't see because everyone was raising their hands and I couldn't hear because everyone was screaming and then they started playing Do I Wanna Know? and we were all singing along and my gosh, it was good! I mean, it wasn't 2007 Glastonbury good, but it was as good as it gets! Here's a video of it that I did not film (mine turned out to be OK, I just don't upload videos that much) but it's the best you can get!

So the concert lasted about one and half hours, and it was a blast. Really, all the reviews I've read since unanimously agree that it was boring and that they played lifelessly, but I couldn't disagree more. It was a decent concert. Apart from the ones in the UK, it was like every other Arctic Monkeys concert. I don't know what everyone was expecting and I'm sorry they didn't get what they hoped for, but personally, it was everything I wanted to see and hear and experience. The only thing I disliked was the setlist, which - apart from a few classics - was mainly from AM. Now, AM is my least favorite album of theirs, and not hearing much of their previous songs, especially When the Sun Goes Down, kind of broke my heart. I mean, they performed 505 which partly mended it, but still... Anyway, despite that, this was absolutely the best concert of my life. It was also my first proper concert (bad Hungarian bands and that arcane Patti Smith concert don't count), but it was the best.

Here are some photos:

Following the concert, we roamed the streets again, bought/stole posters, packed up, went dancing and before 3 AM, I was on the bus taking me to the station. 

The train was full of sleeping people, and I joined in.

First Weekend of Summer

Friday night, to celebrate the end of the succession of disasters that this school year was, a couple of friends and I decided to go to a night party at a water park! Which, well, really was an apposite idea! For those of you who didn't know, I'm basically an amphibian. For real. I find it nice and happy on land, but take me near water, and I plunge in like a desiccated mermaid. Or maybe less gracefully than that, but that's not the point.
So one of my friends turned up in a huge, leather-seated SUV, and we sped off into the night. We also stopped by at the largest Auchan I'd ever seen.

Anyway, after three security checks and two trips back to the parking lot, we were finally disarmed enough to be able to enter the water park - which happened to be the very definition of paradise, for me! There were steep slides! There were bowl slides (which we got stuck in)! There was a wave pool! There was music! There were flashing lights! There were hot tubs! People were dancing everywhere! Yep, I think I'm going to stop raving about it now. We were there until about 2 AM, and then concluded the night by holding a cherry seed spitting contest in the parking lot - a rather common activity for adults driving expensive cars.

The day following the water park was rather uneventful, especially since I got up from bed at 2 PM, but on Sunday, we held my birthday party at a restaurant! And I got a new camera!!

It's so great, because people are tricked into thinking it shoots on film!

The place was real fancy, the food was good, and the cake was outright delicious. Out of courtesy, though, I'd rather not go into details. That cake was crunchy heaven.

The last slices I managed to salvage.

Following lunch, we decided to go to the book fair that's in the city every summer, but that proved less successful though. Mainly because there were so many people. So. Many. Total tuna effect. I also found the three books I just ordered online the other day for quarter the price. These are the moments when I'm all like "WHY...WHY...WHY??" Oh well. Also, beside my two film history books and the autobiography of Jean Renoir, the rest of the books were either

a) Game of Thrones

b) The Fault in Our Stars (read it before the hype call me a hipster, not John Green's best)

c) discussing medieval weapons in Central Europe

or

d) Game of Thrones

It goes without saying that I didn't buy anything.

This picture is absolutely necessary because look at the

book fair in the background!