As a Southern California native, never having been to Venice is quite embarrassing, so I'm glad I finally got the opportunity to go!
Venice is a really interesting place to say the least.
It is filled with such a hodgepodge of people and shops and art and cultures!
You have the extremely health-conscious people running about the sidewalks along the beach or biking around.
Then you have those who don't seem to place so much importance on their health and spend their days smoking and on drugs.
Then there are the artists and salesmen trying to make a buck and sell you stuff!
There were a lot of homeless people, which I expected there to be.
Their lifestyle was quite different from the homeless lifestyle we witnessed at the start of the semester at the Ventura river.
These homeless people carry everything with them and are often times passed out on the beaches and streets. Whereas the homeless in Ventura were semipermanent and had "homes" of sorts to return to.
Venice Beach is not the cleanest nor safest place I have ever been. But I still find it important that I experienced it and opened my eyes to reality.
I enjoyed seeing such different people and broadening my perspective on the culture. I felt as if I was in another world. The people and pace of life were focused more on the here and now, trying to make a living selling you random stuff, just enjoying life, and even just trying to survive another day.
I was somewhat disappointed that we couldn't get our entire group to go to this event and experience this place together, but overall I am still glad I got to experience it.
I'm not sure how often I'm gonna return to Venice, and I'm never going there alone, but I have to say it was one of the most interesting and cool places I've been to!
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