Four friends. Ten days. Rome, Venice, Paris, Amsterdam, London.

I had been to some of these cities (and a few others) in Europe as a kid. I remembered very little, so I had conjured up these fantastical images of what these places and this trip would be like. To be honest, I was a little scared that it wouldn’t be as beautiful and awe-inspiring and romantic and breathtaking (and delicious) as I had painted in my mind.

But oh, I was so so wrong.

We begin in Italy…

once upon an old daydream
that’s what you gave me
out on the corner of Broadway and 48th street
i don’t know my way through a maze of gray skyscrapers
but i’m willing to learn

you are my Manhattan from the sky
you look so neat and tidy when i’m way up high

—

This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. Get on the LA subway {yes, LA has a subway!} and take it all over, getting off on entirely random stops and emerging to eat & have coffee, to saunter around, to make photos. We went from Union Station to Wilshire in K-town, to Hollywood Blvd, and then back again. One of the rolls I shot came back with these weirdo blue lines which bummed me out, but I enjoyed this adventure & these shots too much to just shuffle them away without sharing :)