East coast, west coast, which coast best coast.

NYC and LA couldn't be more different and the debate which one is better an ongoing one. You see people constantly moving from one side to another, its like a wave that comes and goes.

Truthfully I don’t think that I can say something that haven’t been said before, but I was asked to weigh in and, well I listen to you guys and appreciate you taking time to make requests, so here it goes.

Superbloom at Antelope Valley. Photo by Mark Squires

My first five years or so in NYC, that was It for me. NYC was one big, all consuming love and I didn’t want to even think of something else. It was “my North, my South, my East and West, my working week and my Sunday rest”, leaving it was inconceivable, leaving it to go to LA, well that idea wouldn’t even pop into my mind. I was quite arrogantly “hating on” west coast, even without ever being there. Los Angeles? - no thanks… Looking back at my attitude now, I can only shake my head… so silly to judge something you have never been too…

But years went by and NYC love affair got too intense, the people, the rhythm, the constant chase and people one more time… Things that were firing me up before, started draining me… add long winters, grey days into the mix … I needed to escape, so I turned to the sun. Land of palm trees, beaches and sunshine. Unthinkable became a reality. California, here I come.

Soaking up Sun and Hollywood

When I first came to NYC thing that struck me was that it looks exactly like in a movie. The New York you see in all of the many, many films is exactly the NY in real life. It is my personal believe that you can whip up a camera, start rolling and just end up with a movie. I love to walk around the city with headphones on - city comes to live and I make my own “movie” just for me.

LA was very different. Glitz and Glamour of Hollywood, I looked and I looked but I couldn’t find it… The “Walk of Fame” turned out to be a huge disappointment, dirty and busy, with Spiderman trying to hassle you into taking a photo with him, Oscar’s backdrop turned out to be a place, one must avoid at all cost … My guess would be that it is a Times Square equivalent, only somehow even worse.

Getty Villa, Malibu

LA is not a particularly beautiful city, there are certain areas and certain houses that are (Getty Center and Getty Villa for example), but as a whole it’s not very pretty and it doesn’t feel like a city. I can’t really grasp it as a whole, or think of it as a whole. It’s pretty big and spread out, so much so, that you can spend all day getting from one part of the city to another.

NYC on the other hand, at least to me is beautiful in every way and it’s extremely walkable, walking around in NYC is one of the joys that that city gives you and that is one of the things I miss when I am out here, on a west coast. People look at you funny, when you are walking down the street, they don’t know what to make of it.

LA views and sea of green at Getty Center. Getty Center is one of absolute favorites here in LA

In NYC you can walk outside your door and have an adventure, you might have the most amazing day, running into people you know, going places, meeting new people. Walking outside your door in LA you gotta have a purpose, point A, point B or else you dont go out you door. There’s no exciting drop inns, or “I was just in your neighborhood”, if you want to see people you need to make plans, and double check them or better yet triple check, because people are so flaky… You could be on your way and they would cancel last moment, people make “lose plans” to meet around 2-ish, 3-ish and all other kinds of “ish”… And I really don't think that it comes from a bad place, not at all, it just seems to me that people are generally super relaxed about there plans, time, life.

Hiking is a big thing here and I want to blend in

This relaxed attitude is one of the good things out here - you feel less pressure, you take a breather, much needed one at times. Everyone says that the quality of life in LA is better and I think in many ways it is true. Being here makes you want to be kinder to your body, you find time to go on a hike, to exercise, you slow down and at times that what people need.

Hiking and making my friend's dog super bored at the same time, multitasking at it's finest

Hiking is a very big part of culture here, I think people are trying to squeeze in all the missed walking opportunities. The most popular hike of cause would be Runyon Canyon, due to its close proximity to Hollywood perhaps. also I think it might be the easiest one of all, but there are a number of beautiful hikes in Topanga and Malibu. Remember when I said that LA is not a beautiful city, it is not, but the nature here is. Drive down to Malibu and see for yourself, even the drive itself is pretty.

If you went on a hike and didn't take a picture, did you even go on a hike?

People here are generally friendlier and prone to loving hi fives, I have given so many, my hands hurt, friendly chit chat is a must, but sometimes that friendliness gets “aggressive” I remember when I got scolded in my building for not vocalizing my “hello”, I thought that “smile and nod” will do it, after all that was a neighbor from a rental apartment on the other side of my floor, but apparently that wasn’t enough. I feel like it’s kind of a case out here, outdoing it and taking things a bit far, like cafe Gratitude for example, which I am going to every time I am out here, because there food is really good and I am not even vegan, but ordering everything in a form of statement “I am cherished, bountiful, loved, sharing…”is simply too much. Most of the times for me end up being “I am annoyed”. One of the other examples that comes to mind when I think of LA extremes is when I offered a homeless guy at Venice Beach leftover sushi, that I was going to take home and he refused, because he was vegan, which left me confused and slightly ashamed of myself and smelling like weed, my homeless friend was puffing on a huge joint the whole time we talked…

In LA life is what happens while you wait for an Uber/Lyft. By the Love wall at cafe Gratitude

They say NYC can be a very lonely city, it is the sentiment I’ve heard a lot and it's probably true at times, but LA is an isolated city. Think about it, you are at your home, then you get in your car, then you drive in your car, getting somewhere, running errands, working, then back to your can and home, if you live in the same neighborhood you might meet up with friends, if not that might not happen. It is a mystery to me how do people met in LA, most of your day spend in car, probably in traffic, short of rolling down the window and going “hey girl/boy” I don’t know what would people do. May be that’s why there so much catcalling in here … Like from the passing by car kind of catcalling. Side note: if any of the men are reading this, please stop, that is not an effective technique. I have never met a girl, who heard a car honking and thought - “ I must have you now”.

Abbot Kinney walkabouts

Turning back to good things. Despite feeling isolated at times, stuck in traffic, trapped in a banal chit chat with uber/lyft drivers along with endearment of smelly cars, somehow you wake up happy every day. The secret must me in a sun and blue skies and palm trees, those I am convinced are natural antidepressants, something about them, dangling in a skyline just makes me so happy, cue the dancing people from “LA LA land” singing “It’s another day of sun”.

Abbot Kinney at sunset

There are many fun things around LA, like Universal Studios, Disney Land or Six Flags, huge parks that simply not possible to fit in NYC, the tiny hiccup you will need to drive there, it’s really hard to get around here without the car, stating the obvious, the public transportation is seemingly non existent, unlike in NYC, personally for me it is an issue, because I am a silly head, who doesn’t know how to drive. This parks are great tho, they make you feel like a kid again, so if you can make it out there, there’s point for LA right there.

Mullholland Drive Sunset

Another point in LA's favor comes with a story. When I was living in Russia in many movies I watched, that were set in NYC or LA, whenever a take out food was involved, I always saw those white take out containers with a red pagoda on them. It is silly, I know, but in my mind it was engraved that that’s how food looks out there and that what people do, so when I got to NYC, about 8 years ago or so, I really wanted to get that red pagoda thing, I tried Chinese food and Thai and Vietnamese and fusion … the amount of rice I ate trying to “catch” that box… forget about Pokemon Go, that was my big obsession. Eight years in NYC and nothing, I wrote it off as a movie fiction and moved on, when randomly just last week my friend and I were ordering some Thai take out and it showed up, my long awaited red pagoda box! So point LA, it was here all along. These are the kind of trivial things that excite me, my dreams aren’t too big, but I think these tiny details that what makes live and I love to celebrate moments like these.

Behold! I finally got it.

Despite being so different and having almost opposite energies at the end of the day both cities are filled with people chasing there dreams and you can feel it, I think that’s what I love about each of them. I appreciate them both:

LA for giving me time to breathe, for teaching how to slow down, how to take care of myself, for making me feel closer to nature. I am so grateful for the opportunity to spend time here, soaking up the sun, breathing salt water air, escaping cold winter.

and NYC? well NYC is home…

Happy coast to coast

<3 Dinara