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Published: September 28th 2006
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Hey Hey My My,
Just had the pleasure of spending 4 nights in San Diego, the setting of the film Anchorman (and Top Gun)
So, it seems fitting to quote Ron Burgundy on the meaning of San Diego:"San Diego, nobody knows what it means anymore, scholars maintain the translation was lost hundreds of years ago"
People claim it means Saint Diego, but i think i'll agree to disagree.
Anyhoo, i arrived quite late in the day from Las Vegas on the Greyhound bus. God, the staff at Greyhound are (as a general rule) so useless- they couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery let alone run a bus company. I arrived at 9am at the Vegas terminal, half an hour before my proposed bus, to find the place in chaos-cues a mile long. All i needed was to get my luggage checked, so i asked three different staff members where to get this done only to be told three different things. Next mission, which gate does my bus leave from? I was heading to LA before connecting to San Diego, so surely i should leave from the gate which had LA written above it? Not so! I
was meant to use the gate which said "Phoenix" above the door?!? Only in America!
Right, enough of the ranting/papping! In San D i stayed in the Historic Gaslamp Quarter at the Hostelling Internationmal Hostel- was a really nice hostel, nice and clean for a start, which was an improvement on the place in Vegas.
On my first full day in San diego i caught an open top bus tour throughout the city, got on for free which was a brucey bonus. We passed through the Gaslamp Quarter, Little Italy, The Marina and Balboa Park (home of the world famous San Diego Zoo)- basically we polished off all the big guns. I got off the bus at Balboa Park (Nothing to do with Rocky btw) and hopped back on later. Balboa Park was a great place full of museums, nice architecture, concert halls and a lot of greenery. I didn't fancy the Zoo or for that matter any of the museums so i just wandered around aimlessly soaking up the sun.
That night i met up with this lad Larry who lives here and who i met at my hostel in Hawaii, he was driving so couldn't
Its Trevor Time
At the Padres stadium drink but we still had a good night. We had a few drinks at this pub called Jacks in La Jolla where his friend was celebrating her birthday. After that he took me on a tour of nearby Coronado where a lot of the military in San Diego are based, before heading for the border. Yes we were heading to Mexico at 1.30am no less, you see the city of Tijuana in Mexico is less than half an hour away from San Diego so it would be rude not to check the place out .
The border crossing into Mexico was so strange, didn't have to show anybody my passport, we merely dropped the car off in a car park and walked through some turnstyles and we were in?!?!
Tijuana is by no means "Real Mexico", "Is Tijuana truly Mexico?" (banter)- it caters a lot for the daily influx of people hopping over the border from San Diego. Thats not to say you couldn't notice that you were in a different country straight away, you could. Much like Jonny when we were in the French Cafe in Laos saying "This has got a bit of a French feel
to it" Tijuana had a bit of a Mexican feel to it!! Banter Sprig
It reminded me of Thailand in many ways, it had loads of people on the street hasstling you to come into their strip bars for a start. What was noticeable about Tijuana (TJ) was the number of underaged American drinkers over there, the drinking age in USA is 21 so it seems that many underaged drinkers head over the border for a night of drunken Tom Foolery. We went into a couple of bars before heading back. Needless to say getting back into the US was more difficult than leaving. This is actually the busiest border crossing in the world. There were no problems though, we just had to cue up for 15 or so minutes and show our passports once. got home at 4amc absolutely spent!
On Sunday I went to Penko Park to watch the San Diego Padres play their last home game of the season against the Pittsburg Pirates (Baseball). It was Veterans day so a couple of times War Vets came out and sang the National Anthem or something. I wasn't sure of all of the rules but it didn't
Some old Warship
San diego is a base for members of all the armed forces. They love their maritime history! take long to get the hang of them. By the last innings the Padres were leading 2-1, all of a sudden a Bell tolling sound rang out over the loud speaker system in a Big Ben stylee and the Big Screen popped up with the message "Trevor Time", the crowd went crazy. "Trevor" was Trevor Hoffman, a pitcher for the Padres who specialised in closing out games in the final innnings, aka making sure the opposition didn't score any runs and ensuring the Padres won the game. In fact if he saved this game it not only meant the Padres won but also that he would break the All time Saves Record in Major League Baseball (479 saves in all). Every pitch he had the crowd went mental, especially when he got the last player out and broke the record. Fireworks went off around the stadium and all the players mobbed him, his kids were hugging him, a corny American commentator interviewed him and a montage of his career was shown on the big screen?! Was so American!
On my final day in San Diego I walked by the Marina and checked out all of the old boats, also
Little Italy
The street has pictures all around it paying homage to some great Italian Americans such as Robert De Niro had a look into Little Italy. I got a token photo of the Bar and Grill in Top Gun where Goose sings "Goodness Gracious Great Balls of Fire", you can't miss it cos the place must've been cashing in on the film for over 20 years now, it has banners about the film draped all over it's wall.
So, thats San Diego wrapped up- was a really nice city, Balboa Park is especially top banana. I'm off to santa Barbara next.
Ciao for now, Mike
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Tubs
Dan Holtby
Unbelievible Jeff!
Here's an amazing coincidence. I just watched Anchorman this morning. Oh that Ron Burgandy - what a character. Well just one week left of your travels now Smith then you'll be back here in dull gull England. Unforntuate. On the plus side not long till our big pop tarts/juice/other random night reunion here in Shef. Spoke to Bully the other day and he's on board. Give me a ding-a-ling when you get back and we'll come to some sort of a-range-ment. P.S. Just went up to the Cookemeister's room before and it is the worst I've ever seen it. He's like some sort of animal or beast!!!!