Advertisement
Published: March 14th 2006
San Diego Seaside by Night
oooh it looks good and it's so damn cold, too.. seriously "sunny california" is a myth !!!Hi again... I must cover a few things that might not make any sense. One of those things is the "+#" thing, which pretty much means X how many nights into the holiday we are... so when I get to europe it'll be like +60etc whatever... so just incase you dont know what I mean heh. As I type this, it's our 17th night here... Ill write "this" journal in a week or so. I can't remember dates at this point, so Ill have to actually use a pen and jot down some of those more boring details (for your viewing pleasure exclusively) now let us begin ....
Wednesday Morning we awoke from our slumber in the Santa Monica hostel at about 9am (quite early for us) and did the usual morning stuff like shower and whatever, packed our bags and head off toward "the big blue" bus stop ... (big blue bus is what the santa monica busses are called because they're painted blue) where we waited and waited for the number 10 bus. After about 25 mins it finally arrived, turns out this bus runs only every 30 mins, unlike 90% of the rest of public transport in LA which runs every 10 mins or something extreme like that. We eventually arrived at Union Station in LA, the main interstate trainstation in LA and had a 45 min wait for the next train to San Diego ... not too bad. Gave me a chance to buy a coffee and take some pics. My dad asked me why we chose to goto San Diego next after LA and well... I don't know, I think I just picked up some pamphlets in Santa Monica about San Diego and it's attractions and it looked so fantasticaly cool that we just couldn't resist. For those of you who have know idea where San Diego is, it's about 250km south of LA, right on the Mexican border. So pretty much "it's near LA and looks cool, let's go" but for me it was more about "get me out of LA before my head explodes" ...
We got on the train, platform 11 to be precise and had no idea which way it was "pulling out" of the station and we chose seats facing the wrong way of course, so we spent 3 hours facing backwards hehe ... The Journey was quickly becoming the highlight of my holiday for a number of reasons, one of which being "we're leaving LA yeeeah" and the other was the awesome scenery. The first hour between Union Station and Santa Ana (santa ana is a satelite city like santa monica just not as glitzy and touristy) it was all urban sprawl and if you remember me mentioning how LA looked from above, well we were now crusing through it in a fully sick train and seeing it from ground level.. the housing areas and the "ghetto's" that Horse wanted to see sooo bad and I guess he kinda got his wish, which was important to me too (awww). Argh LA is so massive and so industrial and so bland but enough about LA!!!
We journied (a word?) the rest of the way through some splendid scenery, like surf beaches and airforce bases aswell as the OC (Orange County,where the television show "the OC" is set) and then we encountered the "cafe car" and it's eccentric "vendor man", he advertised the tasty Amtrak (interstate train company) snack car's tasty treats by Singing the theme songs, one in particular was Haagen'Dass Icecream (sp?) and yeah.. I guess you had to be there but it was funny, please trust me. Eventually we hit the "urban sprawl" of San Diego but I could just feel the cosy feeling of a smallish city. Roughly the same size as Homebase Adelaide, at 1.2mil. Soon we hit the Santa Fe depot <--San Diego's Interstate Train Station(another beautiful train station! but I forgot to get any pics !!!!!). Got off the train and had the usual task of locating our hostel, which was a breeze. We hopped on one of their cool "trolley cars" which are kinda like trains that ride on the road with cars, like trams in Melbourne but more like trains .... crazy! and they're red, too... confusing because there's only three lines and they're coded "blue line" "orange line" and "green line" but all the trolley cars are painted red ... Hey im a public transport nerd, sue me. After being in 4 cities now with all diff systems of travel, my brain is in a bit of a mess but im doing okay 😊
We arrived at the hostel about 5pm I think and were greeted by an Aussie guy behind the counter who was kinda cool, much better than the Senorita in Santa Monica anyway and we were given our keycard and "rules list" and sent upstairs to find the dorm and our beds for the next 5 nights (initially 3 but then extended after discussions with Horse). The beds weren't made and they were shakey and loud and the ladder hurt my feet when I climbed uptop 😞 but it was a warm bed so it's all good. There was 8 beds in this dorm again like last time but this room was no-where near as comfy as the last apart from the ensuite restroom and bath/shower which was great. Oh and this was a mixed dorm, too which meant there might be some girls around, which there was for 2 nights but she didnt talk much and I think we only saw her like twice. Dorm mates here weren't talkative at all. Two of them were "living" in the hostel and working doing a "taxi-bike" service at night time (which involves peddling drunken retards all over San Diego at 1am at about $15 p/h) They were brazilian or something, Horse and I decided to call them Paco and Alverez but they never introduced themselves and I didnt like them anyway. Hmm... 2 american dudes called Chris, one was okay, he actually works at the Las Vegas hostel and was staying in SD ... never worked out why. Only time we saw him was when he was standing outside smoking or sitting in the Common Room watching TV ... oh well. The other Chris was "one of those" ... the kind of person I cannot stand. Obnoxious, arrogant and he was epitome of frat-boy american. I remember him "talking" on the phone at about 3am and when I say "talking" I mean yelling into the phone asif he was talking to his deaf grandma or something... oh at least he was kind enough to leave the room and talk in the hall (except he left the door open) ... I hated him (and the hatred still beats deep within my heart) That's about it, apart from these 2 aussie guys who were "cool" but really they just had attitude issues and flatulance issues too. Overall the people we met at this hostel sucked apart from one but she wasn't a guest 😊
Our nightlife in San Diego kinda looked like that pic I put at the top ... that was taken near "seaport village" a little area near the docks that has lots of Touristy shops and looks all quaint and cute and stuff. Lame but pretty hehe. The thing about this hostel was the whole "staff input", like all the people who worked there had put their favourite things to do, places to drink and places to eat for cheap and stuff. They also put massive notice boards listing all the events happening in SD that week. Really really great but a huge information overload but let me tell you this... you would never get bored in San Diego. It's one hell of a pumping town. We decided to check out "the star bar" on the first night and boy was it awesome haha... a dive place, filled with lots of weird characters... a tranny for one and also a weird black guy trying to sell watches. Horse should have bought one because he left his at home! but the EVERYTHING was cheap... a corona was like $1.50us over the bar and a Wild Turkey (101 proof, not the cheap stuff we get back at home) was $2.50us !!! in ALL other places it's at least $6.50 ... so go figure. Anyway, we got pretty drunk there and moved on to the House of Blues (famous venue chain accross the states) where we met a really nice bartender, a lovely young lady whose name I have no idea but she was an awesome help to 2 drunk aussies. We started talking because she had some crazy tattoos of anime characters but kinda "alternative" ones so that made her cooler. Turns out she's from boston and because she looked kinda punky I asked her if she knew who Cave In were (one of my fav bands, thanks to Matt for the heads up on a great band) and she was like "ooh one of my friends is dating the drummer" and yeah it was a cool conversation I think hehehe but we pumped her for information and by the end of the night she had wrote down at least 10 cool clubs for us to check out on a Reciept (which I lost before the sun rose) due to intoxication.
After the first night (dont worry, the details will begin to thin for the next few nights ;P) we went back to the hostel to find someone new behind the counter... this new person's name was Mindy and I remember her list upstairs as being the most creative and interesting, so I figured she must be an interesting person. So Horse and I talked to her for 1 or 2 hours asking for places to hang out and meet locals and stuff and Im sure we sounded like drunken dumb apes talking about utter rubbish, but she didn't seem to mind hehe ... So the next night I returned less drunk and talked to her solo (while horse dealt with some "stomach issues" upstairs 😉) about stuff, so happens she was into cool music, well one band in Particular... Subarachnoid Space... (such an awesome band) but she only had one album so I went upstairs and got my usb cable and uploaded her a whole heap of new music to check out on the work computer, including 3 new SA albums... I hope she likes the stuff because well, my collection of music is pretty cult and I hope people get something out of it too. Yeah that night chatting to her was pretty cool ... I kinda thrive on interesting conversations and being overseas I wanted to meet new people and have these sorts of talks with new unique people about the good things in life, such as music and dru.. and yeah she fullfilled my quest and I was pretty happy for the next few days hehe.
Fuck this is turning into a long entry, I doubt anyone's still reading but for those who are, I am grateful 😊 San Diego daylife, we went to San Diego zoo which was very impressive, saw some animals and stuff yay uhhh... what else ... hmm ... *strains* ooh yeah Balboa Park ... which is a huge park (duh) with heaps of cool stuff like an Aerospace Museum, which was fun and lots of art galleries and plenty of cool architecture. I took like 100 pics in that visit alone, so ask if you're curious and Ill send some. This was a solo trip, so horse and I went our seperate ways, therefore music time!!
- Dozer - Call it Conspiracy (I love this band so much and I love this album too... listened to it about 100 times in my life... great walking music)
- Pharaoh Overlord - #3 (PO is a Circle sideproject and doesnt sound that different to circle but It's easier to get into ... more great walking music 😉)
- Ramesses - We Will Lead you to Glorious Times (if you have never heard Ramesses then you cannot comprehend how good they are, crunching sludge metal ... great for a sunny afternoon of sightseeing)
San Diego is a pretty city, a modern city but once again cut into 2 parts... the glitz of downtown and a few other places, like Ocean Beach and Pacific Beach (which we never got to... oh well) but apart from that it's just suburbia and all that junk. If you're happy with an awesome nightlife and expensive restaurants and cafe's then this is the place for you. Quiet retreat maybe not but this place is a whole lot nicer than LA. That's about all I have to say about SD mainly because im sick of typing and can't remember much else (it was over a week ago now) but I think I hit the main nails on the head. Next stop was my dream american city San Francisco ... well we had to break the trip in 2 parts because 10 hours on the train was too much (hahahaha but nothing compared to what awaits us this coming Monday!) ... we decided to stop off in Santa Barbara because it looked like this:
and yeah it was a Beautiful small town, just boring and we used it as a 2 night stop over before San Fran ... spent 2 nights talking to some strange people in the hostel and getting drunk and then I spent the middle day on a Mountain bike I hired peddling about the town like I owned the place and I had a pretty awesome day. Clear country air!!! about 2.5 hours NORTH of LA... so yeah from SD we had to cruise through LA again... *sigh* ... oh well at least we didn't have to get out and walk around hehe...
Okay folks, that's it for now. I'll probably do a 3rd journal this time next week, covering our 10 days in San Francisco... hope you got some insight on how it's all going down here. Next update ill fill in some more personal details about nice/horrible people we have met and also the price of booze over the counter (not bars) ... enthralling stuff for all, rejoice.
Take it easy, until next time, ciao 😊
Advertisement
Tot: 0.242s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 11; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0416s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Sulphuric Lamb Cutlet
non-member comment
What a lovely dirge
Oh Paul, when will you learn. What a giggle I had as I read your exploits, it seems to me that you're drinking and wandering as always, full of good humour and listening to your favourite music. Sorry if I seem cranky when we talk and i'm at work while you're drunk on cheap american booze, not working and having a great time. Hehe, its hard to put into perspective I'm sure but I'm glad you're having a lovely time. Emma said something interesting to me today, about no longer 'being into changing or influencing peoples musical tastes", and I think she's right. Maybe 5 months of being bombarded by the worst pop music ever, has somehow softened my resolve and helped me understand that some people are happy to just listen to the worst garbage the world has to offer and we are somehow "active" music listeners who LIVE bands, the bands ideals ideas and imagery, their place in the scene, their timing and criticality of their evolution, lyrical matter or whatnot. While other people will sing along to the Rouge Traders like its actually legitimate music. What does scare me is that you have not yet seen any concerts!?!?? Why is this? Are you insane? We are seeing Talvin Singh on Friday, really looking forward to it. Other than that, have a lovely time. Hope you're throwing in some good dark ambient there, I felt a bit of pride when you got into Sephiroth, Arcana and Desiderii Marginis (I felt this moment again when Emma asked me to copy her Arcana for her collection!!!!). Looking forward to having you back and jealous of my great new amp!