california

last day in cali / roadtrip roundup

Di, 2007-02-27 06:01 – hadez

i’m taking a break from packing my bags right now, having some delicious chinese take-out my landlord bought and a beer that helps me cope with the hot sauce.
yes, you read correctly, i’m having problems with a hot sauce.

my landlord was wondering why they didn’t include the hot sauce by default, always forcing you to ask for it.
now he knows.
the sauce has to be almost pure habanero paste, it has the distinctive fruitish smell and flavor and excessive heat of habaneros. and it’s the spiciest hot sauce i’ve ever had.
i’m seriously having problems dealing with it.

in other news, back to topic.
it’s my last day in the states, my flight from SFO is scheduled to take off at 8:40am tomorrow morning.
packing my bags seems to be more difficult than it was when i got here half a year ago.
i blame this partly on the rainy weather, it’s rather depressing, making you feel like going back to bed and spending the whole day sleeping.
people keep telling me it hasn’t been raining like this in california for years.
right now “downpour” is the only word that kind of describes what’s happening outside.

nevertheless i got up at 5:30am today to drive my friends, which whom i spent the last two weeks of roadtripping with, to SFO so they could get their flight back to the netherlands.
on the way back, having no more rental car and thus being forced to use public transportation, i fell asleep on the BART. thank god i have to get off at the final stop of the line and don’t transfer in between.

i had to tie up some loose ends today, too. mostly finishing some paperwork at work (i love the shredder) and closing my checkings account at boa.
surprisingly i still have some money left after the last two weeks that have been kinda heavy, expense-wise.

as i mentioned before, i was on the road, all over california and nevada.
joined by a friends and one of his coworkers, we’ve been driving from san francisco santa barbara, on to los angeles, further down to san diego, back to los angeles and over to las vegas, back to los angeles again and finally to san francisco.
i’ve been driving most of the time putting a rough 2200 miles under my seatbelt.

the part i enjoyed most was definitely highway 1.
i’m not exaggerating when i say it’s one of the most beautiful things i’ve ever seen.
if you ever get the chance of getting driving down hwy 1, DO IT! it’s worth every inch, cent, and gallon.
it just blows you away, the so un-american curvy road, the awesome views especially at sunset, and constant smell of the ocean breeze, ... i could go on for hours.

santa barbara was awesome, too. it’s just beautiful. our motel was almost right at the beach (yes, sand) and it had a very nice inner courtyard.
i could have stayed there for at least one more day, just lying on the pool chair, enjoying the sun on my skin (and the laptop with wireless internet on my lap, of course).

los angeles was kind of a bummer, i didn’t like it at all.
we ended up staying in some dodgy motel in venice beach (let’s call it a quentin-tarantino-moment).
the city just sucks, the traffic is horrible, there’s lots of ghetto, and so on.
one of the nice things i remember is the warner brothers vip studio tour. it might sound like a very touristy thing to do, and it really is, but it’s also very interesting and gives you a good look behind the scenes of the movieindustry.

the next day got us down to san diego where we spent the whole saturday with the guys from “sd shakedown” (they have a live show on jungletrain.net).
rfx even showed me now to beat-match two records. fun!

after a quick drive-by in los angeles we went on to lost wages.
the city kinda sucks, but it’s yet nice in a weird way (even the hotel engineer told us he’s prefers lower pay at the place on the strip over working in downtown and getting killed).

anyways, after yet another stop in El Pueblo de Nuestra SeÃ±ora la Reina de los Ãngeles del RÃo de PorciÃºncula in a better motel with a great view of downtown (yes, we have pictures) we went back to san francisco, the best city ever.

this kind of sums up the last two weeks.
i think i’ll finish up packing and go to bed, tomorrow’s gonna be hell.