Johanna K Photography: Venice & Venice Beach

After Camp Mars my friend and I headed to Venice Beach. Our first 24hrs in Venice turned out to be interesting. The apartment was on Westminster avenue in an old building called Waldorf. Beautiful old art deco styled building but old buildings come with problems. The room was very small but that was ok. The bathroom - a fair size. But in the bathroom laid the problem. We both took shovers and while I was still in the shower, there was a knock on the door. The tenant below us told us the water was coming through his roof... I also started to get itchy throat and allergy-type symptoms. Looking at the bathroom floor and realizing that the water damage issue had been there for awhile I found mold under the tub. The floor of the bathroom was completely tilted so water didn't go where it was supposed to. So after drying up myself and the floor we headed back to Venice Suites offices which where located quite near and in their other apartment building called the Breeze Suites. The guy at the desk was very apologetic and told us to come back first thing in the morning so the manager could help us. We did that and very quickly she offered us a new room, upgraded for no charge, in the Breeze Suites. This new room - heaven. Absolute heaven. So something bad turned into something good. This building I could recommend anytime. Waldorf has its wonderful old feel to it but it's not a very comfy place to stay at.
Venice is its own world. It's a weird place to be honest. Hippies, muscle men, tourists, homeless, mental health patients... all in a weird mix walking down the same streets. Every morning you can hear the Venice police waking up the homeless around six am. "Good morning!! Time to get up and get going!!" What baffles me in this country is that most of the homeless seem to have mental health issues and with most of them those issues probably are the root of the fact why they are homeless in the first place - so the social system and the health care system doesn't take care of the weak. The ones that need help the most. Because they cannot afford insurance. How can this be in a country that is supposed to be the biggest and the wealthiest, leading countries in the world? And considering all this you would still vote for Trump? A guy who doesn't give a shit about the homeless and the sick? Come on. You can do better. You have to. I feel so bad seeing all these people walking the streets, sleeping on the streets, every single day. The city of dreams didn't really turn out that way for them. Which means the percentage of luck in making your dreams a reality is probably bigger than we'd like to admit. We want to believe hard work pays off. I'm sure amongst those homeless people there were people who worked hard and they still ended up on the streets. I know there are homeless in Finland too but I do not think I'd see young kids on the streets or people denied of mental health care because well, in my country healthcare is free... That's why we pay taxes, to get the public sector services...
Ok, enough of my gloom for today. Here are some pics I took :)