This is the story of my 6 months of studying in Arizona in 2010 and subsequent travels in Mexico, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua. Enjoy!

Friday, January 14, 2011

Day 12 - Arrival in San Diego; Balboa Park and the Gaslamp Quater

We left Los Angeles after breakfast, yet again with an extra passenger; Korean Seil, with whom we had shared a room in Hollywood. So with the car tightly packed, we went south once again, happy to have a GPS to guide us on the intricate network of LA highways.

The trip was rather eventless and took just over 2 hours. It took us a while to figure out where to drop off Seil, and also to find our own motel, which turned out to be in the outskirts of the city. However not a big problem. After settling in to our motel room, enjoying to have our own space after the hostel-experiences, we followed suggestions from several people and went to Balboa park in the nice weather. We walked around there and enjoyed the weather and warm atmosphere, with a lot of people using the park. It even had "free thrills" in the shape of a botanical garden and a small art museum. We only went into the garden because a guy outside informed us that it was gonna close in 2,5 minutes, and we figured that would be the perfect amount of time to spend in the garden. After visiting the Getty's center the night before, we weren't to much into the art either, but of course - you cannot let a free opportunity be! :)


We left the park in the sunset, driving towards the Gaslamp quarter, parked the car in a surprisingly free spot, and went to find dinner. We ended up in a nice Italian place, enjoyed our pasta, and went home to rest in the motel. Unfortunately our neighbors had arrived. A Spanish-speaking family with a swarm of children. I went to their room after hours of noise, just to let them know that we could hear every single word they said, and was surprised to see 10+ children standing in there. How they all found a spot to sleep is beyond my imagination, but it must have been an impressive sight! :D At least they calmed down a little later, and gave us silence to sleep.

2 comments:

  1. This was halarious, but wait tll u are in Mexico.LOL

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  2. How you found free parking in downtown SD is beyond me. What's your secret?

    ReplyDelete