backpackers. no, real backpackers.

when you live in a city, it can be hard to remember or understand that there are tourists.  okay, maybe if you live in waikiki or las vegas, it's not so hard, but in l.a., people forget that modernist architecture (eg capitol records, theme building), the entertainment industry (eg sony pictures, grauman's chinese theater) and, yes, even the shopping (eg melrose, robertson) can be an attraction; and even easier to forget is that griffith park is the largest city park in the country, almost five times the size of the famed central park in manhattan.

i can assure you though, europeans are drawn here every summer.  being european, they tend to count on the trains to get around, so you see a lot of people like those pictured below, especially near downtown.

who knows if they're camping in griffith park or not, but they look like they could if they wanted to.  hell, it looks like they could camp anywhere if they wanted, maybe crawl into the backpacks themselves.

the eclipsed guy in the white cap
has his own eclipse-inducing backpack

for the most part, when i hear the big-backpackers talk, it sounds like german, but a couple of british accents greet my ear as well. someone once said to me, "in l.a., you can ski in the morning and surf in the afternoon."  i guess the european version is you can hike to a campsite from downtown (no, the pictures were not actually taken downtown, but take my word that these folks went there).