Across the border to San Diego

The next stop on our trip was Tijuana, to where we were flying from San Jose. The plan was then to take the air line shuttle bus across the border to San Diego, in the US of A. Unfortunately, things didn’t quite pan out as planned… Our flight into Tijuana was delayed, so we missed our pre-booked shuttle bus. And turns out we’d have had to wait for about 2 and a half hours for the next one. So we decided to cut our losses and take the local bus to the border instead. It was a bit of an off-putting experience, as we were the only gringos in the bus, and the guy who was explaining how to deal with the border crossing only spoke Spanish.

In the end, the crossing was very quick, though (we had heard stories of 2-hour waits, so were expecting the worst). The trick is – cross by foot. The car queues were rather long…

We then took the trolley car down to downtown San Diego, where the youth hostel we were staying the first night at was located. The youth hostel, Lucky D’s, was really cool actually, with a lot of personality. We opted out of the hostel party though, and crashed out, happy to catch a bit of sleep after a long day… Anyway, dear reader, should you ever find yourself in San Diego and require budget accommodation, look no further than Lucky D’s.

The next day, the plan was to explore San Diego downtown, and then meet a couple of friends for lunch. We started our walk by heading to the Gaslamp District, a few blocks of old buildings, which were revamped in the 90’s, and now house mostly bars, restaurants and cafes. It’s a pretty nice place to walk around, although it does have that American “fake historic” feel to it, definitely. After a quick tour of shopping at Horton Plaza (the main shopping mall in downtown), we headed out to Embarcadero, the seaside walk by San Diego harbor. We started our walk by the historic sail ship the Berkeley (which houses the maritime museum), and made our way down to the Midway, a big aircraft carrier which has also been turned into a museum (San Diego has a very strong naval presence – after all, Top Gun was filmed here!). From there we carried on to Seaport village, which is NOT a traditional fishing village. Rather, it’s a collection of tourist shops, some of them vaguely fishing/sea related. But I did manage to acquire a much-needed memory card for my camera there, at least ;-)

Then it was time for lunch –we had rendezvous with two friends of mine, Stephane and Marko, at a nice seaside restaurant by the Midway. Marko is an old Swedish-Finnish colleague of mine from Southwood, and Stephane is also a good friend of ours from our years in the UK (he also used to be one of my most reliable pub companions in the UK, during my numerous work-related trips to the misty isle). They have both taken the decision, like us, to emigrate to warmer climates… They were both accompanied by ladies, whose names I have regretfully forgotten. It was all great fun, great catching up with both Marko and Stephane. And the fish was very decent as well.

For the afternoon, we headed down to Balboa Park with Stephane, Balboa Park being the main touristy attraction of San Diego, arguably. It’s a pretty nice place to stroll around, with its tasteful fake-historic buildings, most of which house museums. Unfortunately the international houses I enjoyed visiting last time around were closed this time around. After our park visit, we picked up our rental car at the airport, and headed back to Stephane’s place, where we were staying the next couple of nights. The evening was pretty relaxed catching up, accompanied by a couple of tasty pizzas, some good wine and a couple of real movie classics (Scott Pilgrim Vs. the world and Machete, and a somewhat more rubbish action movie to finish off – sorry Stephane I know you disagree with me on that one ;-) ).




The next day, the plan was to do a bit of a mini-SoCal road trip. We started off with a “relatively copious” breakfast at La Jolla, and then headed off to explore the Californian coastline. We started off with what was maybe my favorite San Diego spot on my last visit, Torrey Pines Natural reserve (not the golf course, nah…). And it was just as pleasant this time – we really enjoyed hiking around the picturesque ochre colored cliffs. We walked back to the car along the beach, breathing in the fresh sea air and the taking in the scenery… From there we carried on up the coastline, passing through Del Mar and Solona beach, before finally stopping by at Cardiff-by-the-sea for a nice, filling sandwich lunch.

From there we headed westwards, towards the mountains of deserts located just outside San Diego – our destination was Julian. Julian is an “authentic, historic gold mining town”, apparently. Historic it is (I checked Wikipedia), but authentic, hmmm… Basically, it’s a bit of a tourist trap. But somehow the place is so ridiculously, unselfconsciously tacky, that you just gotta love the place. I think in any country other than the US, I would’ve found the place really annoying. Here, I found it quite charming actually. We did find a very nice bookshop there, and also managed to purchase one of the famous Julian apple pies – the original ones, of course!

For the evening, the plan was to reunite with our travelling companions from Mexico, who were just arriving at La Jolla that evening. The plan was to meet up for dinner near their hotel – at a Mexican restaurant (where else!?). Stephane, and another good friend of ours from the UK (and my current colleague), Alex, also managed to join us. The reunion was a very happy one, as we got to hear their stories of whale watching in Magdalena bay (which we’d missed out on since our ways parted at that point). Good to catch up with Alex as well, who still seems to be very much enjoying life in SoCal.

The next day, the main plan was for the teachers in our group to visit the French school at La Jolla, so I drove Mathilde up there, while I took up child-watching duties, making sure Celian and Hector didn’t get up to too much mischief. We started off by checking out the rather impressive views over San Diego and La Jolla from near the school (it’s located on a hill, so the views are great), and then headed down to the beach, to check out some of the local wildlife (La Jolla has a colony of seals). Later we were rejoined by the others… After chilling out at the beach a bit, we decided to head down to Pacific Beach for lunch.

P.B. is THE place for surfers in San Diego. The place has a bit of a ran-down look to it, but we liked the laid-back feel of the place, and of course the beach here is fantastic. Quite a different seaside community than nearby La Jolla. After a pleasant lunch at a proper surfer lunch shack, we headed back to La Jolla, to prepare for our departure from San Diego. We did have time to go and check out the famous seal colony before leaving, though. It was quite an entertainment spectacle (of the best kind – completely natural) as the seals played with each others on the beach, in spite (or because of?) the numerous spectators. I can tell you, I put my telephoto lens to good use…

And then it was time to make our way to the airport, from where we were carrying on to San Francisco…