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Published: October 15th 2009
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I heard a lot of good things about San Diego coming down the coast and after spending 5 nights here I would have to agree. San Diego is a great city with something for everyone. The bars in the Gaslamp Quarter are a guaranteed good time any day of the week, Balboa park is a beautiful spot for just relaxing in the Californian sun, and the city itself is full of architectural delights that offer everything one could possibly desire.
Due to the fact that it is now out of Summer (although it is still blazing sunlight and hitting 25 degrees some days) I got my accommodation for only $15 a night which is fantastic. The hostel also offers free breakfasts everyday and a dinner 3 nights a week so an absolute bargain to stay there. On arrival at the hostel I started chatting to a Welsh chap in my room and ended up going to an absolutely awesome duelling piano bar with him and a couple of others from the hostel. Two grand pianos were placed back to back in front of a drum kit and a bass guitar. The atmosphere was absolutely electric with the idea being to
head up to the guys on the piano and give them some money and a request for them to play. The group of four all took turns in playing all the instruments and switched round occasionally as the night progressed. There was some hilarious banter between the musicians and the crowd, and a very large amount of crowd participation which was great fun. A particular highlight was a battle of talents between two of the pianists who would play a short piece to try and out do the other. This back and forth continued with a combination of jazz, blues and classical music being played, all very impressive and most enjoyable to listen to. It was a perfect introduction to San Diego.
On my first day here I took a stroll up to Balboa Park and stumbled across a great little area within the park that housed a huge amount of different museums ranging from art to history to space. A couple of them were free which was great so I had a wander around an art gallery and also a botanical garden. I spent my lunch sitting on the grass in the sun listening to a busker playing
a saxophone which as I’m sure you can imagine was absolutely fantastic.
I had a quick look on the internet to see what was going on in San Diego during my second day and came across a festival that was in the ‘Little Italy’ section of the city. I headed up there for a couple of hours to watch a variety of performers and wander through the numerous stalls lining the 3 blocks that had been closed off (On the way there i also stumbled across a car convention of some sort that was spread over about 3 blocks aswell, and as you can see from the photos there were some stunning cars). At the one end was a street art competition and entrants had been assigned about a square metre of pavement and some chalk. Some of the pictures were fantastic, as you can see from the photos. I headed to San Diego bay for a stroll along the promenade after I had had my Italian fix for the day. There were some ridiculously nice (and equally expensive) boats in the harbour and some absolutely beautiful restaurants along the bay. There was also a few street performers along
the way to help keep me entertained on walk. There was a great little collection of shops to look in including a very tasty fudge shop which I left with a huge chunk of choc-chip fudge.
Day three in San Diego saw me heading to the famous San Diego Zoo, which was very enjoyable. I spent a good 7 hours taking in all the different animals and watched a couple of shows which were good fun. I saw a polar bear there too and I don’t think I’ve ever seen one before. It felt a little odd walking around the zoo and noticing how many of the animals I could say that I have seen out in the wild.
On my return from the zoo I had a couple of new room mates from Michigan who seemed like a great laugh so I headed out to a bar with them. I have been off the booze for a couple of weeks and was intending to stay off but I cracked and ended up shotting tequila and downing beers all night but it was fantastic. The next day we all had a slow painful start but dragged ourselves out of
the hostel and to the tram station to head to Tijuana, Mexico. It was a very strange place, with people in their shops shouting at you to come in a buy things you really didn’t want to buy. We stopped off for a couple of coronas (at $1 a beer it would have been rude not to), before heading back to the tram, as we had been warned not to be there when the sun went down. After getting back to the hostel we were informed there was a special on at one of the nearby bars doing margaritas for $3 so we changed and headed back out. It was another great night full of margaritas a push up competition (winning me a free drink), and some ridiculous dancing as always.
Today I am writing this sat in a park in ‘Old Town’ a very quaint little part of San Diego. This was the place where San Diego really began, so there are some interesting information points about its history. Tonight I will probably be heading out to the piano bar again for a night with some other hostellers.
Tomorrow will see me heading back to Santa Monica in
preparation to fly out on 17th October to New Zealand. It has been an absolutely awesome 8 weeks which have completely flown by. I think it is fair to say I have managed to experience a good variety of what America is all about, and met some great people. I would definitely say that Yosemite was the highlight, which I am sure is no surprise to anyone, but it has all been amazing. I am looking forward now to getting to New Zealand and setting up camp somewhere for a while to work. So, here it is, the last blog from the States, next stop Christchurch New Zealand.
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Dad
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Goodby USA.
Well son you certainly have experienced all the varity of the good old USA. However the East coast is different again. Hope you are downloading all the Photos to your computer so that when we meet up again we can relive all your experiences. Will be thinking of you Saturday quite a long flight are you going Via Fiji? Jans son is flying to Bangkok to day guess the far east is your next trip. The Thai Islands and Bangkok ( in small doses) are fantastic and flights to Cambodia, Vietnam etc are really cheap. Safe flight send a mail when you arrive.