julia trotti | youtube photography tutorials
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I also have some exciting news because I've started sharing more fashion shoot behind the scenes videos + Lightroom & Photoshop Tutorials on my YouTube Channel! Be sure to subscribe as I upload 2 new videos every week x
You can also see all the final photos from this trip in my Yosemite National Park post!
With heavy hearts, Dan and I left Yosemite National Park and drove back to San Francisco with our eyes set on new adventures that were coming our way very soon. We boarded our flight in San Francisco and left the US behind, landing in Frankfurt for a connecting flight to Gdansk.
The first and last time I visited Gdansk, Dan and I had only a few fleeting days to spend there after a work trip. This time we were coming back with a few months to spend exploring and with his family. We couldn’t be more excited about it. When we land in Gdansk and walk out of the arrivals gate, it was the loveliest feeling seeing an old familiar face and a sense of deja vu receiving another big bear hug from Dan’s uncle. He drove us home, making a stop at the local bakery first to buy some blueberry filled pastries. I remember so vividly that drive from the airport to home, my eyes were glued to the car window watching all the spanning fields of wildflowers as we drove past, a permanent smile on my face regardless of the jet lag I felt.
Three years ago, it was the first time I visited Poland and I wrote “we were in poland for three days, and i couldn't thank dan's family enough for making it the most memorable three days ever. dan and i are longing to go to poland again soon, it would be so lovely to be able to spend a longer amount of time with his wonderful family exploring, hanging out and taking pictures.” and we finally got to do just that. These two and a half months we spent in Gdansk and traveling around Europe were one of the most memorable. I will never forget all the new friends I made, all the time I got to spent with family, all the places I explored and all the little moments in between.
Here’s a collection of images and stories from our two and a half months in Poland. If you scroll down to the bottom of the blog post, I have put together my personal travel guide for Gdansk, Poland. If you are every planning on traveling here I hope you find it helpful! I have so many more pictures to share with you from all our travels around Europe which are coming soon!
I also have some exciting news because I've started sharing more fashion shoot behind the scenes videos + Lightroom & Photoshop Tutorials on my YouTube Channel! Be sure to subscribe as I upload 2 new videos every week x
Picking cherries from the garden to eat everyday.
Dan's aunty working in the garden. All of the meals we ate at home, most of the ingredients come from here.
The family cat Kicha & the dog, Enyo.
Visiting Westerplatte, the location of the first battle in the invasion of Poland, marking the start of World War II.
Exploring the local forests.
Driving through Gdansk at night.
Spending the weekend on Dan's cousin's yacht, where we sailed from Gdansk to Hel.
Watching the sunset on one of the beaches in Hel.
Exploring the local forest.
Visiting the Gdansk zoo.
A whole isle in the supermarket filled with vodka. We definitely don't have this much variety and quantity in Australia!
Visiting Malbork Castle, where it was so hot that day we were hit by a storm in the afternoon and spent the rest of day walking around in the rain.
Pawel watching the rain.
Dan's 96 year old grandma knitting me crochet patterns which I now have hanging in my room.
Our day spent in Oliwa Park.
Visiting the sand dunes at Slowinski National Park.
Photos from our last day in Gdansk. We wanted to go back to the city one more time, the day before we flew back to Australia to say goodbye. It was bittersweet seeing the Gdansk Eye being pulled down since it was the last day of summer.
Isaiah, Dan & Karol. The adventure squad (missing Pawel).
The extremely hard task of packing, knowing we were flying back in a few hours.
Driving across the country with Karol and Pawel to Woodstock festival.
The view from the Gdansk Eye.
Here you can find my personal Gdansk travel guide!
What to do
Gdnask old town // If you’re travelling to Poland and decide to venture out of the main cities of Warsaw and Krakow to see something different, Gdansk is a beautiful city by the Baltic Sea. Gdansk, Gdynia and Sopot are the three cities that make up the tri city area. For us, Gdansk was home for two months so we got to explore all the restaurants and bars that make up the main road in the old city. We were in Gdansk during the summer months, where Main street and Long street are busy morning to night with market stalls and the Gdansk Eye was in motion, giving you 360 views of the entire city - which we highly recommend doing at sunset!
Gdynia // Gydnia is the next city in the North of Poland, also by the water and popular for its night life amongst locals. Just like Gdansk, there are countless places to shop and eat as well as markets in the summer which are fun to walk through. One of my most memorable moments in Gdynia was exploring the Orłowski cliffs and visiting the nearby Orłowie pier. To find the cliffs, you walk up Zaciszna, a steep road and past an abandoned building into a beautiful forest which we managed to get to just in time for sunset. From here you continue walking along the path until you get the edge of the cliff for an amazing view from which you can see Gdansk.
Sopot // Sopot is a marina-inspired town, once again nestled by the sea. In the middle of the beach stretch, you can find and make your way along the longest wooden pier in Europe at over half a kilometre long. It costs 25zł to get onto the pier and the views are beautiful especially if you go at sunset/dusk.
Oliwa // Oliwa is a quaint town near the Gdnask city centre with plenty to do. Here you can find the Gdansk Zoo which is nestled in the forest and makes for a lovely day of walking around. A short walk from the zoo, you can also find a lookout spot called Pachołek where you can walk up a few flights of stairs to get to the top of a tower higher than the treetops to see a 360 view of your surroundings. Park Oliwski is another must go to place. If you explore the park grounds, you will come across a green house, mini waterfalls, lakes and so many beautiful areas to wander around and take pictures in. A couple of other places you can visit while in this town are the Oliwa church and spending your time wandering the streets in the town and surrounding suburbs.
There are also a few places further out of Gdansk that I included photos of in this blog post that I wanted to mention:
Hel // Be prepared to incidentally make a lot of hell puns when you're on your way to and while you're in Hel! We took a yacht ride into Hel, Dan's cousin owns a sail boat and took us out onto the water. It took us about 5 hours to get there but we had a great time listening to music, talking, having a drink and just looking out into the ocean. It only took us 3 hours to get back to Gdansk as we were traveling with the wind, letting us ride faster. You can also get to Hel via car, it would take about 2 hours to drive there from Gdansk. Hel is quite a touristy town, so be prepared for everything to be a lot more expensive here that in other parts of Poland. Everything has a nautical and pirate theme and it's a gorgeous town. We spent most of our time at the beach. I would recommend to go for a swim at the north side of the beach, where the sand is white and the ocean calm. And as the day comes to an end to go for a walk around the edge of Hel so you are walking at the furthest point in Poland to see the sun setting into the Baltic Sea from the south side.
Malbork Castle // You can make a day trip from Gdansk to visit Malbork Castle, a medieval castle built in the 1400s. It takes just over an hour to make your way to Malbork from the Gdansk city centre either by car or train. Entry into the castle is 40zł per person in the summer. Once you enter the castle, you are free to roam the grounds with markets and a few places to eat in the outside sections and a museum within most of the rooms inside the castle.
Słowinski National Park // This was by far one of the highlights of my trip to Poland. I’ve always wanted to see the forest meet the sand dunes and I finally got the chance to on the second last day before we were heading home. Słowinski National Park, known to the locals as Łeba, is just over a 2 hour drive from Gdansk through forests and fields. When you arrive to the National Park, you need to pay an entry fee of about 5zł per person. From here, you can either walk around 8km to the beach or you can opt to pay to take the ferry, hire a bike or take the electric car straight to the beach. We chose to take the ferry halfway there and walk the rest of the way through the amazing forest to the beach. On our way back it was quickly getting dark so we decided to take the electric car as it was the fastest option. Once you arrive at the beach, you are free to explore as much as you like! The way the forest starts to intertwine with the sand dunes is definitely an incredible sight.
Getting around
Getting around the tri-cities is extremely easy whether you are driving or taking public transport. When we were taking day trips to further away locations such as Malbork Castle or Slowinksi National Park, we decided to drive there for the convenience of having our own car. However public transport is usually just as quick. In fact, on Google maps it mentions it will take an hour and ten minutes to drive from Gdansk to Malbork, however taking the train would only be a 47 minute long trip.
To get around the old city in Gdansk, we normally walked everywhere as most things are a short distance away from each other. If we needed to travel a little bit further or travel between the tri-cities, working out which bus or tram to take was super easy, inexpensive and a new tram or bus usually arrives within a few minutes of each other.
all photos edited with my new Gdansk Lightroom Preset.
lookbook for suzi rose
Editorial for issue 29 of White Magazine.
model blair @ chadwicks
styling carla burrell
styling assistants kate bryce & renee mantle
hair & makeup liv lundelius
florals jardin botanic
videography joel @ la lune cinema
I'm excited because I've started sharing more fashion shoot behind the scenes videos + Lightroom & Photoshop Tutorials on my YouTube Channel! Be sure to subscribe as I upload 2 new videos every week x
all photos edited with my New York Lightroom Preset!
Follow me on my instagram accounts:
main account @julia trotti
personal account @juls.trotti
I also have some exciting news because I've started sharing more fashion shoot behind the scenes videos + Lightroom & Photoshop Tutorials on my YouTube Channel! Be sure to subscribe as I upload 2 new videos every week x
You can also see all the final photos from this trip in my San Francisco blog post!
01. cascade creek falls | Situated on your way into Yosemite Valley to the left side of the road when you take the 120 or Big Oak Flat Road into the Valley. There are only a couple of car spaces available to pull over to walk to the bridge this waterfall is situated next to, which are quickly filled up in peak seasons like summer. So hopefully as you're driving past there aren't too many people pulled over already!
02. merced river from above | Also situated on Big Oak Flat Road as you head into Yosemite Valley, make a stop on the Pohono Bridge to see this impressive view of the Merced River from above. These two images were taken on a winter morning.
03. half dome | Get your first glimpses of the Half Dome amongst the rest of the landscape of Yosemite National Park. This spot in an unnamed viewpoint just off Big Oak Flat Road before Cascade Creek Falls, with a small space for you to pull over, stretch your legs and see the first of many amazing views to come.
04. tunnel view | This is the spot to get *the* shot of Yosemite. This is not a viewpoint literally in the tunnel right next to the carpark. We saw a lot of people walking on the tiny pathway inside the polluted tunnel to get to a viewpoint that isn't the right one (although you can get a view of the side of mountain from here)! Tunnel View is the view you see just a few steps from the carpark out in the fresh air. To get here, you need to drive to the east end of the Wawona Tunnel along the Wawona Road/Highway 41. From here you can see El Capitan and Bridal Veil Falls as well as Half Dome right in the background. The first image was taken in the summer, so the falls were quite small and were hard to see. The next two images were taken in the winter where the waterfalls were flowing, however there were plenty of low-hanging clouds and fog which made it hard to see the Half Dome at times.
05. valley view | Situated to the left side of the one-way Northside Drive on your way out of Yosemite Valley, just before the last bridge before seeing the signs to the highway. There is a little carpark that fits around 15-20 cars and is a few steps from the road. This is the view of the valley from the Merced River. The first picture is Valley View in the winter, the second image is in the summer.
06. yosemite falls | While Yosemite Valley, pull over and take a walk around Sentinel Meadow where you can see some amazing views and a different perspective of Yosemite Falls. Be sure to listen to the signs and stay on the marked paths to 'give plants a chance' to grow back again!
07. el capitan bridge | Located along the one-way Northside Drive on your way out of Yosemite Valley. There are plenty of spots to pull over by the bridge to see views of El Capitan and Cathedral Rocks.
08. cathedral rocks | Located along one-way Northside Drive and close by to El Capitan Bridge, El Capitan Meadow gives you impressive views of Cathedral Rocks as well as El Capitan itself. In the summer, we saw plenty of deer grazing in the meadows early in the morning and in the winter we caught glimpses of two wolves chasing after each other in the afternoon!
09. half dome sunset | Stop by Sentinel Bridge at sunset to see the last light linger on the Half Dome while being reflected in the Merced River. When the weather conditions are just right only the top of the Half Dome will be lit up in vivid colours.
10. glacier point | Located at the end of Glacier Point Road, about an hours drive out of Yosemite Valley. This is one of my favourite lookouts in Yosemite - you can see the Half Dome as well as many other mountains and you have clear views of Vernal and Nevada falls. If you use the binoculars at the viewpoint you can even see all the people that have hiked to the falls! I would recommend to get to this viewpoint early in the morning during peak seasons. Not only does it look amazing in the morning light, but once there are too many people they close access to Glacier Point Road until people leave to make more room. Access to this road is also closed during the Winter season, however you can make the 10 mile (one way) hike to Glacier Point or spend time at Badger Pass Ski Area (photo below).
While there are some amazing hikes you can do while in Yosemite National Park, I thought it would be a great idea to put together a blog post of all the landmarks and viewpoints you can see along the way that are super easy to get to. Whether you are only visiting for a short length of time or are looking for new perspectives to photograph the park, I hope this blog post has been helpful! What other viewpoints have you been to in Yosemite that you can recommend? I'd love to visit them on my next trip and add them to this list!
I also have some exciting news because I've started sharing more fashion shoot behind the scenes videos, travel vlogs + Lightroom & Photoshop Tutorials on my YouTube Channel! Be sure to subscribe as I upload 2 new videos every week x
In the morning of our last day in Yosemite, we decided to head to Glacier Point.
At the top. This lookout is situated at the end of Glacier Point Road, about an hour out of Yosemite Valley. Be sure to get here as early as possible! Once there are too many people at the lookout, access to Glacier Point Road closes until people start leaving to make room.
The two waterfalls we didn't have a chance to hike to this time, but we will see them the next.
On our flight from San Francisco to Gdansk, Poland.
Yosemite was a sweet ending to an amazing trip. Well, not so much an ending but a good way to say we'll see you next time, America!
all photos edited with my Disposable Film Lightroom Preset
campaign for candice lee
models olivia arezzolo & natalie jameson
makeup makeup by megan
hair candice lee
Behind the scenes shooting LadyLuna's winter campaign. You can see the final images here!
Abbey Love on hair and makeup.
Wrapping our full day campaign + lookbook shoot.
Amelia going through all the polaroids we took that day.
Hanging out with Megan and Lisa before Dan and I headed overseas for four months.
Behind the scenes on an editorial shoot for White Magazine. I will be blogging these final photos very soon!
A friendly goat on set.
Liv doing makeup touch-ups.
Jardin arranging bouquets.
Changing up the hair and makeup.
And a big team photo at the end of the day once we wrapped!
Taking pictures for Ruusk.
A little peek into a campaign I shot for Age of Intimacy, full blog post of this coming soon!
A little peek into the behind the scenes of my month of Winter.
Our tree house in the morning light.
First stop of the day was the Tunnel View lookout. This is the perfect place to get *that* Yosemite shot.
We stopped at a river while on the Cook's Meadow Trail to get some photos and noticed some deer grazing in the grass.
We couldn't get over the views you could see from pretty much anywhere in the park. I've never seen mountain/cliff formations like this before, and they would tower around you wherever you were.
This is THE spot that Sam and I wanted to go to more than anything. Yosemite Valley is a gorgeous lookout from the bottom of a river and all the shots that made us want to come to Yosemite National Park were taken from here.
Needless to say, we stuck around for quite a while taking a million photos.
Onwards we went to Yosemite Lower Falls. I've included more information about the hike at the bottom of this blog post!
Reading about these falls online and visiting them in person was a completely different experience to what I was expecting. I loved them, but I didn't realise there wasn't a hike involved at all to get there, so naturally it was (in my opinion) what looked like the most popular place for everyone to hang out. There were lots of people trying to escape the summer heat by swimming in the water! If I ever go in non-peak time I would love to hike to Upper Yosemite Falls!
We had fun scaling the unsuspecting slippery rocks to get as close as we could to the waterfall. We didn't get too close but enough to feel the cool mist on our hot skin. It was bliss!
A very friendly squirrel who came up to Dan and sniffed his camera.
Extra information on some of the trails we did:
Lower Yosemite Fall Trail
hike length: 1 miles
hike time: 20 minutes
difficulty: easy, the entire hike is a paved footpath
Cook's Meadow Loop
hike length: 1 mile
hike time: 30 minutes - there are quite a few spots to stop and take photos along the way!
difficulty: easy
other posts about hikes: Mirror Lake // Bridal Veil Falls
Since we were only in Yosemite National Park for a short couple of days, we wanted to see as much as possible so we picked the easier trails that took less time. I can't wait to come back next time and be able to spend time hiking to Vernal & Nevada Falls, as well as the Half Dome one day!
all photos edited with my lightroom preset Disposable Film | black and white photos edited with my lightroom preset Ghosts
After our last hike of the day, we had just enough time to go and see something else again. Of course Sam and I chose to go to our favourite spot in the park, Valley View to see it in the setting sun, and it was glorious.
Valley View is an easy viewpoint to get to, it's right next to the road with a little carpark when you're on your way out of Yosemite Valley. I don't know if we were just lucky, but we found it was quite empty (only a couple of other people there) while we were visiting in the morning and again in the afternoon.
This is one of those afternoons that I will remember forever. We each took turns scaling the rocks in the river to get to this tree log for a photo each. No one fell in the water, though we all had moments where it looked like we were about to!
Tunnel View was on the way back to our accommodation so we stopped here one more time, just before it got dark. We were the only ones there and it felt like we had the world to ourselves.
all photos edited with my Disposable Film Lightroom Preset
Shooting in abandoned places for issue twenty eight of White Magazine.
model cassie @ the agency
hair + makeup abbey love
florals two wild hands
time of year: summer
hike length: 1.2 miles one way
total time: about 3 hours there and back, but we stopped a lot to take pictures
Mirror Lake was a great hike that I would do again in a heartbeat. You can either walk on the one mile paved trail that takes you straight to mirror lake or you can take the unpaved trail loop that we did. If you take the trail loop, you hike through so many different landscapes starting with hiking through a forest of giant sequoia trees, walking past many rivers with rushing water, giant stones that create caves and finally the lake itself that is surrounded by a huge meadow with the most beautiful mountain views and sprouting wildflowers. I love hiking in natural places, so taking the unpaved trail loop was a very easy decision for us.
The hike itself is fairly easy, moderate if you're not a regular adventurer. I would recommend to wear sturdy boots that you don't care too much to get dirty as there is no paved walkway and it was very muddy at times. We spent a lot of time walking on the rocks right next to the track instead of the muddy tracks that we could have slipped on!
Next time I would love to visit Mirror Lake in spring after the winter snow has melted and the lake is filled up. We went during the middle of summer while there were many hot days in a row and the lake was mostly dried up. That didn't get our hopes down though, with a little bit of camera trickery (hanging my arms over whatever water was left while I was taking a photo) I still got some photos I was super happy with of Mirror Lake reflecting the surrounding mountains. Here are the photos from our afternoon adventure.
We set off on the 1.2 mile hike to Mirror Lake.
My first photo stop was this river - I am obsessed with fresh water and natural rivers! I did get a big mosquito bite on my forehead while I was shooting around this river, so next time I might not want to forget the insect repellent..
A crystal clear blue lake.
Our first glimpses of the mountains surrounding Mirror Lake.
A friendly squirrel who came up to us for enough time to snap a few photos.
When we got to our destination we realised the lake was a bit uhhhh.. dry!
Taking a break from the summer heat in the soft grass.
Me ruining dan's hipster photos!
As we sat down for a few minutes, there was a little squirrel we were watching run up and down the metal grate. I caught him in this picture, can you find him?
Taking photos of wildflowers then noticing my friends in the distance waiting and watching me haha.
What was left of the lake - at least the whole thing didn't evaporate!
I found the furthest dry point near the lake to take this photo, my feet dangerously near the edge and me leaning over as far as I could to get a shot with just water.
A deer walking on the hiking path.
There was a storm predicted during our hike, but we were lucky to just get a few storm clouds roll over us and no storm.
The sun came back out to play eventually as we finished and headed back to go to our next hike.
all photos edited with my Disposable Film Lightroom Preset!
We only had a couple of days in Yosemite National Park so we didn't want to waste a single second. After our long drive there and a day of sight seeing, we caught a glimpse of the sunset through our window and we all jumped up and headed out the door to a cliff edge right by our house. We spent the rest of that time until dark sitting on the edge watching the sun go by, being in awe at how many beautiful trees we were surrounded by, pinching ourselves to know that we were really here.
all photos edited with my Disposable Film Lightroom Preset!
Yosemite National Park is a place that holds a special place in my heart. It was the last leg of our USA trip and probably the most beautiful.
We left our San Francisco Airbnb early in the morning and Dan & I took turns driving down the highway towards the National Park. The views along the way were wonderful, apple tree farms, endless country hills, winding roads up and down mountains. The moment we arrived at Yosemite National Park we were all in awe. We paid our entry ticket and as we started driving, we were surrounded by more and more Sequoia Trees until that’s all we could see. We all fell silent and stared out the window. I think in that moment it really sunk in where we were.
We made so many stops on the way to our accommodation, any viewpoint or waterfall that we drove past we stopped and eagerly jumped out of the car to take photos. We pulled over at Bridal Veil Falls and did the quick hike to see them. When we arrived at our accommodation just at sunset, one of Hayden’s friends arrived minutes after us and they went back on their way to Los Angeles. Dan, Sam and I spent the rest of the night figuring out what we’re going to do in the park over the next couple of days and taking pictures of the stars from our balcony.
We set off in the morning from San Francisco to Yosemite National Park.
The scary winding road leading into the park.
Pit stop for lunch where Hayden took my camera and snapped some photos.
We were already in awe at the sights before we even got into the National Park.
Our second stop, a lookout just underneath some loudly buzzing electric powerlines.
We're officially here! As soon as we saw the sign, we pulled over and took about a million photos and selfies with it. This is Sam holding up a polaroid I took while Dan filmed it developing.
We were all sitting in silence for the first 10 minutes of driving through the park. Being from Australia, we've never seen so many beautiful and tall Sequoia trees together before. Again, we were in absolute awe of our surroundings.
There is no phone reception in the National Park, so you only have a map to guide you. Though we found out pretty quickly that it's very easy to get around & hard to get lost with most of the roads doing a big loop around once you're in the park.
Bear proof bins & storage containers.
Our first glimpse at the ever amazing Half Dome.
Sam's face of disbelief/awe/amazement at the waterfall that was casually on the side of the road. By this time we've pulled over a million times, but every time the sights were beautiful!
Our first mini hike was to Bridal Veil Falls. This was still just on our way in and through the park to our accommodation.
Spotting the huge pine cones hanging from the ends of the tree branches from our balcony.
We arrived at our treehouse where we were staying for the next few days. It was here that we said goodbye to our travel companion Hayden as he was picked up by a friend and they drove back to Los Angeles.
Our first sunset in Yosemite & the view from our balcony in the photo below.
Bridal Veil Falls hike information
hike length: 0.5 miles
hike time: it took us about 15 minutes there and back
difficulty: easy, the entire hike is a paved footpath
all photos edited with my Disposable Film Lightroom Preset!
Behind the scenes of our shoot for White magazine issue 26. We photographed in a beautiful cactus garden where half the plants could poison you, create horrible rashes on your skin and even blind you. It was safe to say that we were all very careful throughout the day! You can see the final photos from this day here!
Our lovely team! From left to right: Bonnie, Choe, our model Alison @ the Agency, Abbey Love on hair and makeup, Carla the creator and founder of White magazine, myself and Dan taking the picture!
Madeline Rae Mason and I shooting in abandoned places. The ground was covered in a thick layer of leaves and rubbish all stuck together.. we didn't dare touch anything! While Maddy was modeling against the broken windows and half cracked doors, she kept getting freaked out that a hand would come out of the darkness and grab her.
On one of our drives home, Dan and I stopped and sat in the car to watch the thunderstorm roll past.
Shoot locations.
Behind the scenes on LadyLuna's first campaign. You can have a look at the final photos here!
Shooting for Her Fashion Box.
Me by Dan, while sipping on tea in the afternoon sunlight and long days of shooting.
On location in the stunning sand dunes of Port Stephens for a full day photo + video campaign for Sarah. The entire team drove for three hours from Sydney to meet up at this beautiful place. We four-wheel drive-d over the dunes to our location for shooting.
Me shooting with Steph and Jye - the final photos are coming soon!
Photographing in a grandma's home.
This was our last shoot with Jessie for a while (she is moving to live in Canada for a year!) so we wanted to do something special. We spent the day photographing this editorial which will be released soon.
Lidija working her makeup magic.
Jessie's film camera.
Prepping props.
My work in print for White Magazine. You can see all the photos from that day in this blog post.
Behind the scenes on Alexandra Redmon's campaign shoot - all the photos can be found here!
More of my work in print for Her Fashion Box.
Our last afternoon hanging out with Jessie before she left on her overseas adventure, sorting through all the polaroids we took that day.
As the first weeks of winter truly settle in in Sydney and I am off enjoying the Californian warmth, I thought it would finally be time to share a season blog post to show you guys what I had been up to. These are little snippets and behind the scenes from shoots from as far back as late 2014 until last autumn, enjoy!
We checked out of our Venice Beach home in Los Angeles and said our goodbyes to Jess and Nat who were heading home that night. Now we were left with myself, Sam, Dan and Hayden - who was going to go his own way as well but last minute decided to come with us on our road trip to San Francisco. We piled into the car that morning, suitcases and bags packed to the inside roof of the car, blasted music and made our way down the highway to another city.
On our journey there, we made a few pit stops along the way and while were driving along the extremely windy highway a giant tumbleweed flew/rolled out of nowhere and aimed straight for our car. We were all screaming as if we were in a cartoon as it hit the front of our car, rolled across the side and rolled off again into the distance. Luckily we were all fine and were able to continue driving while we were laughing saying that we had no idea that tumbleweeds would be that huge and tough. It felt and sounded like we hit into a tree rather than what we all thought was a tumbleweed - a soft ball of leaves and grass! Five hours later, we park in front of our Airbnb apartment and Dan runs out of the car to see if it made any damage. His face after a few hours of stressing and finally seeing that the tumbleweed left nothing but one stick lodged in the front of the car was priceless.
As we were heading into San Francisco we crossed the Oakland Bay Bridge where I caught my first glimpse of the city - the lights twinkling brightly moments after the sun had set. The tightly packed city lingering over the water. It was beautiful and it was a sight I would never forget.
My time in San Francisco can be summed up nothing short of wonderful. My favourite moments include waking up on my first morning to see the city covered in a thick layer of fog, the bright flowers growing in the smallest crevices and creeping along the pastel houses, feeling almost panicked at times driving through the tight roads lined with parked cars, using all my leg muscles to hike up the massive hills in the suburbs and spending the afternoon at the Golden Gate Bridge, feeling like we had it all to ourselves.
We set off down the highway from Los Angeles to San Francisco.
We will be coming back for you next time, Six Flags!
Driving over the Oakland Bay Bridge into San Francisco for the first time.
Dan's face as he gets out to check what damage the tumbleweed left on our rental car. It left one stick behind!
Our first morning exploring.
Walking to the top of Bernal Heights hill. When we got to the top we realised the entire city was swallowed in fog and I couldn't have been more excited!
One second you're driving past houses stuck one against another, the next second you're driving past beautiful forests.
Driving over the Golden Gate Bridge.
Dan, Hayden & our hire car.
One second we were driving on a clear road, the next second the fog had enveloped us and we couldn't see more than a few metres of white in front of us. Of course we pulled over for safety but mostly to take pictures!
Wandering in the fog.
The start of the Golden Gate Bridge.
We were pretty sure this was an eagle flying above us. Which is a pretty amazing sight for us Australians to see in the wild!
Thank you to my best friend Sam for my favourite picture of Dan and I ever <3
Alcatraz Island. We were sooo disappointed to have missed out on going here. We had NO idea that you had to purchase tickets months in advance to be able to go on the island, so we were pretty depressed when we got to the ticket booth and the only tickets available to purchase were almost a month and a half in advance. Please keep this in mind if you are traveling to San Francisco for a short period of time and really want to go to the island!
Exploring the Marina District. This area was a little touristy for our liking, but we were already here since we wanted to go to Alcatraz so we figured we'd have a look around anyway.
Eating my first corn dog.
Piano stairs!! Hayden, Sam and myself ran up and down the stairs recording it on snapchat while Dan filmed us laughing at how silly we all looked.
Serious face when I have coffee in front of me.
The rain only made San Francisco look ever more beautiful.
Every time we walked past this sign we all kept thinking it said 'handsome chestnut'.
I am in love with the buildings and the colours of San Francisco!
Walking around after visiting a way too busy Lombard Street.
We came to the conclusion that you would have really strong legs if you lived in San Francisco!
On our last morning, we walked up the road from our Airbnb to have a big breakfast before heading off to Yosemite National Park.
Driving through downtown San Francisco.
We went for dinner in the rain, eating at a new age Korean restaurant recommended by our host.
Twin Peaks, in the rain and fog.
all photos edited with my new san francisco lightroom preset! photos in front of the golden gate bridge were edited with my new york lightroom preset.
Follow me on my instagram accounts:
main account @julia trotti
personal account @juls.trotti
I also have some exciting news because I've started sharing more fashion shoot behind the scenes videos + Lightroom & Photoshop Tutorials on my YouTube Channel! Be sure to subscribe as I upload 2 new videos every week x
You can also see all the final photos from this trip in my Joshua Tree blog post!
1. Instagram
Instagram is my go to app to find interesting places I should visit when I'm traveling. There are a couple of ways that I find locations I should go to. The first is dependant on where I'm going, I'll go to a personal Instagram profile of someone who I know lives there or has traveled there before and go through their pictures.
Another way is available now thanks to instagrams update where you can search for specific places in the search page. For instance I can type in Kraków in the search and flick through photos people have uploaded. I found an amazing church to visit in krakow that I otherwise wouldn't have known about if it wasn't for Instagram! I also found a lovely blog run by a traveller who was exploring Europe in 90 days who uploads a new post every day with pictures of where he went.
Here are some photos from my personal instagram account @julia.trotti I have been posting images as I travel and writing where and what each place is in the hopes that someone else finds it helpful!
2. Google
This seems like the most obvious option, but I need to mention it as I use this the most! One way you can use Google is to type in your destination and all the main attractions will pop up in your search with pictures and information of each one. This is a great way to familiarise yourself with all the main landmarks of a city you are visiting so you can keep an eye out for them while you are exploring.
While I love visiting popular landmarks I also love to go to lesser known places. To find these I google more specific terms. Instead of googling a city name, I could search for "secluded beaches malibu" or "secret beaches sydney" or "flower fields poland" to find something a little different. These are the more secluded type of things I love seeing when I travel:
- forests
- waterfalls
- lakes
- secluded beaches
- flower fields
- abandoned buildings
- lookouts
- country towns
- parks
The list could go on forever!
Also under the same category, TripAdvisor is another great place to search for your destinations. On Trip Advisor you can look up the location you want to go to a see reviews and pictures taken by people who have travelled there. I would sometimes take the reviews made by travellers with a grain of salt though, as a place that was a drag to one person, could be the highlight of your trip for you!
3. Blogs
Blogs - travel blogs especially - are a great place to learn about some interesting places to visit while you're traveling. I have a few go-to blogs that I love visiting when I'm traveling such as Tuula Vintage, but you can find so many by heading over to Bloglovin and having a flick through their travel blog section. That's the easiest way I find them!
Tumblr is another great tool, where you can search what city you are going to and browse through all the images and jot down anything that you would love to see yourself.
4. Ask a local + information centres
When traveling, I usually like to stay at accommodation via airbnb. Not only can it be really cheap, but you have so many beautiful home-like accommodation options rather than staying at a hotel. With airbnb accommodation usually being someone's home (which you can either rent their entire home or a private room in their home), it means that you get to meet and talk to the people who own the place and have usually lived there their whole life. We got to have a chat to the person who lived in our Venice Beach accommodation as well as San Francisco and got to learn about so many wonderful non-tourist things to do and places to eat that we would have otherwise no idea about. The lovely lady whose place we stayed at wrote out an amazing list of things to do in San Francisco that I kept pressed inside my journal:
Sourdough + clam chowder
[Boudin Bakery]
Brunch Places on Cortland Ave:
- Moonlight Cafe
- B Star
Places to eat:
- Piquenos Peruvian Tapas
- Namu Gaji [new style Korean]
- Right next door: Bi-Rite Creamery (where there is always a line)
Must try salted caramel with balsamic vinegar ice cream
Mission & Valencia are hipster hangouts +
anything on that street is worth trying
Craftsmen + Wolves on Valencia @ 18th
Try Rebel Within savoury muffin and half boiled egg
More on Valencia:
- Ritual coffee
- Blue Bottle
- Sightglass coffee
- Samovar tea lounge
With us only being there for two days we tried to cross off as much of it off as we could but didn't quite make it through the whole list. I guess it just means we have to go there again one day!
While I was in Poland with Dan, we were very lucky to be able to stay with his family is Gdansk, where Dan's cousins Karol & Pawel and Dan's uncle would take us around to show us their city. In Krakow we were able to stay with Dan's family friends who also took us around to show us everything! It was really great being able to walk around with locals who knew what places to go to, what time is best to visit them and knew all the history about all the places! It was especially helpful for me in Gdansk where not many things are translated to English like in Krakow. So if I didn't have Karol or Dan around I would have no idea what it was I was looking at/visiting!!
Information centres
When my friends and I headed to Joshua Tree for the weekend, we really didn't have anything in particular in mind to do aside from randomly exploring the National Park. On our first day there, we went to get lunch and had a lovely helpful lady let us know that she recommends us to go to the information centre to pick up a free map of the park. We did just that and on the map was a list of locations and hikes you can do in Joshua Tree National Park.
Since we ended up going in the middle of summer, it was ridiculously hot during the day so we left all our hiking for the afternoon. In this case we didn't have time to do everything, so with the help of the information on the map we picked a few things we did have time for that sounded the best for us!
5. Get lost
Don't be afraid to throw the map away, don't have a plan for yourself for a day and just wander around. I mentioned in a previous blog post how the first thing I like to do when I arrive in a new city is to get out there and walk even if I don't know where I'm going. You can find the most interesting things by accident when you do this. Serendipity!
Below we were driving in San Francisco in the mountains and there was fog in the distance but the road was clear. We park the car and start taking some photos of the view before we realise that the cold wind was pushing the fog towards us. Before we knew it everything around us was a white wonderland and you couldn't see more than a few metres in front of you. It was magical.
The picture underneath that, my friends and I hopped into an Uber to take us to the markets in Brooklyn. The Uber driver was so nice and really excited that the four of us from Australia wanted to go and explore in Brooklyn, where he grew up and still lives. He goes on to tell us about the history of Brooklyn and how it's an up and coming city developing so fast with a plethora of new places; restaurants, bars, places to hang out - popping up now because of the youth culture in the area. We started our ride in Manhattan and he took a detour to show us his favourite place to sit on his time off where he can watch the sun disappear and the lights of New York start to glimmer through the Brooklyn Bridge. This park is where he dropped us off after our ride and I had to snap a photo to remember what a lovely experience it was hearing how passionate he was about his hometown and showing us around.
I hope you found this helpful! I think next I'm going to blog a travel guide of sorts from my personal experiences from particular cities such as places to eat and things to see and do. j x
How do you find interesting places to visit when you are traveling?
campaign & lookbook for www.ladyluna.com.au
model amelia @ chic
hair + makeup abbey love
I'm excited because I've started sharing more fashion shoot behind the scenes videos + Lightroom & Photoshop Tutorials on my YouTube Channel! Be sure to subscribe as I upload 2 new videos every week x
