Hard Rock Cafe #16

Posted on Tuesday, September 15th 2015, 0:38 by Alexandra

This post used to contain pictures, but due to new storage limitations from WordPress, I had to fix the problem and decided to create a new blog that works as an archive for all the posts from my travels. This full post can be found here.

This day was only half because of this stupid UTI. It started kinda okay, but like yesterday we always had to keep our eyes open for restrooms. It is not fun to be on vacation and the only thing you are looking for are toilettes. We did go to Louvre, but the line to get in was probably 2-3 hours so we decided that we would do that big ass museum on Wednesday instead (it is closed on Tuesdays). We walked to the Latin district, went inside Pantheon where Madam Curie is buried. After that I had enough, broke down and went to a health center. They said there were no appointments today but I could get one tomorrow. I started crying and said that it was an emergency, and they said a doctor would see me in one minute. We talked for a short while and he said to sit down and wait for ten minutes and then he would help me. I am surprised, French people aren’t usually very nice. But that was really good service. After only an hour I had taken the first antibiotic pill out of three, one a day for three days. There was an option to get one shot, but for some reason the doctor thought that I wanted to drag the treatment out. I so wish I had that instead. Because those pills made me feel so bad! I have never experienced any side effects from medicine before, but I got almost all of it. I got dizzy, stabbing pains in the back, pretty bad muscle pain, and hard to breathe. Tomorrow I will take the pill when we get home so I don’t have to waste the day because we have a lot of stuff planned tomorrow. The pain went away as soon as we sat down for lunch right after, but that was the end of that day’s adventure. Jesper and I went home and watched a movie while the side effects wore off.

I was feeling much better after three hours and we were ready to go out. First we went to the Eiffel Tower, it is ridiculously close to here, only 10 minutes of walking. We didn’t go up, the line was long and we needed to eat. We walked through Le Jardin du Trocadéro and took the subway to Hard Rock Café. Number 16. Neither of us were very hungry so a pulled chicken sandwich was definitely enough.

Tomorrow we are going up in the Eiffel Tower, down in the catacombs and then up to Sacre-Coeur, the big church. Maybe some shopping to if there is time. It will be a fun day!

Louvre. Le Jardin du Luxemburg. Saint Sulpice. PANO_20150914_123250 Pantheon. The crypt beneath Panteon. It was surprisingly big. I think I will have spaghetti legs at the top tomorrow! Le Jardin du Tracadéro.

Kelsey in Gothenburg

Posted on Thursday, September 3rd 2015, 13:53 by Alexandra

I just dropped off Kelsey, one of my roommates at Cal Poly, at the airport after she spent a few days here in Gothenburg. We had a great time together and did a lot of things. She got here on Monday while I was at a course to learn how to use the cashier system at my new job (oh, right, I haven’t written anything about that yet, I will get to it), so mom picked her up at the airport and I was home when they got here. The first thing we did was go to the grocery store to buy stuff for dinner. I wanted to make something Swedish for her so I made korv stroganoff. She loved it. In fact, she loved everything she tried. Back in Cali she was kinda picky and didn’t like to try new things, but here she tried everything and liked it all. I am proud!

On Tuesday, we walked around downtown and had a fika in Haga where the big cinnamon buns are. I’ve never had one before and it was so good. I showed her Avenyn, Nordstan (where we of course went to 4-Gott and bought Swedish candy), Haga, Linné and later also Eriksberg. Axel met up with us at Café Husaren and then tagged along when we went out to Eriksberg for Gothenburg’s best pizza at Sannegårdens Pizzeria. It was good, but I have to say that I didn’t like the dough, it didn’t taste anything else than just flour mixed with water. But she liked the kebabpizza as well.

Poseidon at the top of Avenyn. The city library. She was impressed that I was a part of that construction. Bältespännarparken. 4-Gott. Big and delicious cinnamon bun (kanelbulle).Kebabpizza.

After that we picked up Jesper at his place and drove to Andra Långgatan where we hung out at a bar. Her first time legally in a bar and she didn’t even get carded. She also liked Ginger Joe (ginger beer), Axel was proud, Jesper made gagging noises, haha! I actually had a Ginger Joe too, they are really good.

Yesterday, Wednesday, Kelsey and I drove out to the northern archipelago. We started on Hönö and then spent more time out on Öckerö. The weather was extremely weird with sun switching to dark clouds and rain and rainbows. Annoying. But we had a great day anyway. I guess rain can be seen as exotic?

Ferry to the islands. Weird-looking house on Hönö. I went here all the time when I was a kid, it was probably ten years ago I was there the last time. I always thought it was called Hönö Röd, but I learned that it is really called Lapposand. It was 17C in the water. If it hadn’t been that windy, it wouldn’t have been too bad with a swim. Hjälvik beach on Öckerö. To this place I still go at least a few times a year with mom. It is a nice and calm place. Hjälvik is a calm bay. Lot’s of cliffs outside of Gothenburg. Not many beaches here. But I love the Gothenburg cliffs. In the summer when they are warm! Mmmm! “Take a picture of me when I am conquering Sweden” Hönö harbor.

We had a late lunch at Max Hamburger restaurant. She really liked that too, so much that she bought Max at the airport today for lunch again, haha! Then we picked up Jesper after his work and we three went to Guldhedstornets Café. They have the best view in the city. It is at the top of an old water tower and is also on top of a mountain. It was beautiful. Gothenburg is really green! And of course, because of the weird weather, there was a rainbow. Pretty Gothenburg! The three of us then walked to Chalmers where I gave a tour of campus. Neither of them had been there before and I think I made it pretty interesting. It is a small campus, but it is always gonna be my school! (Except if I go back to Cal Poly, because after two more years over there I will actually have spent three years there and only two at Chalmers)

New buildings at Chalmers.The A-pond outside of the civil engineer department building. The Swedish king has sailed across this pond, and every year there is a bridge competition where students build bridges across this pond, and also there are events here such as a wake-boarding event last spring.

View from Guldhedstornet (The tower of Guldheden).

Her stay in Gothenburg ended with The Minions and a cup French tea back home. It has been a few really nice days and I can’t wait to see her again. We might meet up in Germany this fall and meet another fellow Cal Poly student or if I find time to come to her in England. We will see.

Chip, “Massive cat”.

And this other job, it is only an extra job on the side of Liseberg since it is not open every day of the week anymore. I am a receptionist at Slottskogsvallen, a track and field /gym arena here in Gothenburg. Last week I had three education days where I learned how to do the job and this Monday I went to that class to learn how their cashier system works. It is a very chill job and they will pretty much just call me a day on advance and sometimes the same day and I will work when I am needed. It seems like e nice and relaxing job.

I have also been accepted to University of Gothenburg. The plan is to take an English class for the whole semester. But with two jobs while applying for a master program and scholarships, I think it will be hard to attend school full time. But I will go to all the classes I can and it doesn’t really matter if I pass or not. The only reason I take this class is so I can keep my student apartment since it is impossible to get a real apartment in this city. I am applying for apartments every single day and I don’t get anything. I have been in the queue for more than 4 years, but still, I don’t get a real contract. Stupid stupid!

Now I am gonna go back to bed until I will pick up Jesper after work. For the past month I’ve been reading a series called Silo by Hugh Howey. I must say that it is probably the best books I’ve ever read! The first one, Wool, I just finished a few days ago and I am now already about 60 pages into the second, Shift. It is a dystopian future, the first book takes place inside silos underground, people live in 150 story buildings underground because the world is destroyed and poisonous. It is not until the second book that the truth about how it all started comes up. I can’t stop reading, it is so fricking good! Read it!!

Dive #7 Les Moyades

Posted on Tuesday, August 11th 2015, 23:38 by Alexandra

Today was the nicest days we have had. Cloudless and so warm we were constantly sticky, and now we are both very red. I did put on sunscreen but I guess I should have done it more often than I did. It is not too bad, but it is definitely red.

Morning in Marseille.

My day started 6:30 am to get ready to go on two adventures. First, get myself to the dive center with the local buses. I am always nervous about doing that, but it worked out fine and I got there on time. The dive center had two companies working there and I went with Aquadomia and the two main people could speak English really well. It felt so nice to speak English here. I was a bit sceptic about this before. How could it only cost 89 euros and include everything? All the rented equipment, including a dive computer, and a boat dive as well. I am surprised and happy! It was a pretty short dive though, but it was still so worth it. The dive site was called Les Moyades and was in the national park (since two years) Calanques. We pretty much just dove around a rock and I really enjoyed the dive. It was only 31 minutes, and I kinda wished we could have been under longer. But we saw some pretty cool stuff like moray, starfishes, sea urchins, a scorpionfish, and lots of schools of Saloma. We saw some other specific fish too, but I am too lazy to get out of the couch and get my dive log, haha!

The surface temperature was apparently cold today, only 17C, and the bottom temperature 15C. I didn’t think it was cold at all, I was actually really warm when we were done. When I was on the boat, waiting to fall backward into the water I was burning up, sitting there in a 6.5mm wetsuit in that hot sun. I was scared of getting a heat stroke. So the “cold” water was welcome. The maximum depth today was 18 meters, that’s the deepest I’ve ever been before. Because of the great visibility, 20m+ it didn’t feel too scary.

We took a very fast boat out there and it was just so nice with the wind. But I was a bit afraid of falling over board, haha! We were back at the dive center around noon, I cleaned my equipment, filled out my log book and thanked the two guys (one was Vincent, but the other had such a French name I honestly don’t know what it was) and went back. It went smooth going back and I even got a couple of French tourist girls asking me for a specific beach. What’s crazy is that I actually knew where it was and told them how to get there and that they had to change bus on the way, haha!

Scirpionfish. Cool blue stuff. Highlighted scorpionfish. Moray in the crevice. Sea urchins. The rock we dove around. Turtle island to the right.

I met up with Axel in the park behind the building we live in. Sat there for a while and just chilled. Then we went up to the apartment and got ready for the excursion to Calanques National Parc. We went on a tourist boat and it was okay. The tour guide only spoke French which was not very fun, and there were too many people on the boat. But the scenery was pretty amazing! But the only thing I could think about was how badly I wanted to jump in the water. It was so blue and it was so hot under the gazing sun. I got burned, but this might have been my last chance of getting any sun, so why not. It is not too bad, but my shorts gave me a pretty bad new tanline…

The whole boat tour was 3.5 hours and we were back in the harbor at 7pm. Went straight to dinner and I had the best pasta carbonara I have ever had. Then we went to the same park by the building and watched the sunset. It was a very beautiful sunset.

I almost feel bad for taking this selfie in the mirror thing down in old port… The square where we had dinner today.

Then back up and I looked through the videos from the dive. They weren’t as good as I hoped. The blue color is not even close to what it was in real life. And the pictures are kinda blurry. Well well, it’s at least something.

Churches, the ocean, Hard Rock Cafe

Posted on Monday, August 10th 2015, 23:29 by Alexandra

This day was very touristy, we started the day bying a ticket for a “hop on, hop off” bus and it was a great thing to do. We could sit outside in the sun, we could get off wherever we wanted and go in it as many times today as we wanted. So first we went to Basilique (I call it basilisque) Notre Dame de la Garde which is the big church on the mountain in the city. We have a great view over it from the apartment we are staying in. It was really cool! And the view over Marseille from up there was amazing. But it is a rather boring city. All the buildings look exactly the same, a beige color and brick roofs. It looks very boring. Our next stop was Cathedrale de la Major. It was a cool church too, but not as cool inside. Before the church we had dinner at a place right under it and it was really good. I had a meat plate with lots of cold cuts. We then walked to the museum at the end of that pier. But it was 8 euro admission fee so we skipped that and walked around Fort Saint Jean. On the way back we walked through the market that had opened up in the Old Port and bought several nice things. Not gonna write what, since people actually read my blog, haha!

We also bought tickets for the Parc National des Calanques tomorrow afternoon. I am so excited for that trip. 29 euros for 3.5h of boat trip to beautiful nature scenery. In the morning I am actually going there as well, but to dive. I am really really excited for that too! And it will be an adventure going there in the morning. I am gonna take the bus and switch bus one time. Haha, wish me luck everyone!

We took the bus home to the apartment, changed into swimwear and walked to the beach close by to go for a swim. It was so nice, 24C/75F. Amazing! But we didn’t stay in the water too long, we were paranoid over the stuff we left on the beach. It was very cloudy today, still very warm (and it would have been unbearable if it was sunny), so we didn’t stay at the beach but walked back home and took showers. There is a shower in the bedroom. And the toilet is in a small and very tiny room, the sink in another one with another shower. French people are weird. They also refuse to speak English and all the text and information around here is in French. It is an adventure.

Anyway, this afternoon I got an offer on an apartment in Kvillebäcken on Hisingen. I got super excited, called mom and asked if she could go to the viewing of it with Jesper on Wednesday when I am on the airplane on my way back. It is a perfect apartment, 57 square meters, 7115 KR/month, balcony, dishwasher, place for a washing machine and it is very close to downtown. I want it!! I told both mom and Jesper to tell the lady that I want it. I really really hope I get it. If I do, then I think my brother will stop hating me for wanting my student apartment back. The move-in date for this one is September 1^st, so very very soon! And I am so very very excited!!

After we were done with showering we went down to Old Port again to have dinner at Hard Rock Café, but first I bought breakfast and lunch for tomorrow, two bagels. I wasn’t very hungry so I had a salad for dinner, but it was really good. Arugula with grilled chicken, orange, dried cranberries, pecans, feta cheese, and a lemon dressing. I also had a pina colada. I love pina coladas!

Then we walked back home and I should probably go to bed now, the bus leaves at 7:24 tomorrow morning. Tomorrow will be so much fun! I hope the sun is out so I will get a little tanner again, I am honestly getting pale…Ponnykarusellen 2.0 On the bus to Notre Dame. Extremly narrow roads to the church. Basilique Notre Dame de la Garde. It was very pretty inside. The harbor. And the tower by the water to the left of the harbor is where we live. Cathedrale de la Major. Not as fancy as Notre Dame. Yes, he has a pigeon on his head. Palais de Pharo. Modern museum. Fort Saint Nicholas and Notre Dame from Fort Saint-Jean. The market. A narrow street with lots of restaurants.Hard Rock Cafe #15.

Marseille day 1

Posted on Sunday, August 9th 2015, 23:38 by Alexandra

Our first day in Marseille is over and we are already tired and exhausted, haha. At 10:20 this morning the plane to Marseille took off. It was not a comfortable flight, but you get what you pay for (RyanAir). I read some, slept some, and it was over very fast. I was in Marseille and in the apartment before Jesper was back home in Gothenburg after going by train from Söderhamn up north. He didn’t think he did too well in the competition, but I am still proud of him. Not everyone can compete in the Swedish high jump championship.

We were adventurous and took the bus to where we are staying. My brother and his friend flew with us but apparently weren’t gonna stay in Marseille at all but going direct to Cannes instead. Axel and I then tried to find the next bus from the train station. It took a while but at 3pm, two hours after landing we were in the amazing apartment. It is really really nice, on the 17^th floor of a skyscraper, we have oceanview and a nice view over half the city and of course the Basilisque Notre Dame de la Garde. It is really amazing!

First we went on a walk along La Corniche which is a nice walk along the coast. It was super windy but warm. Then we walked back and stayed a little at Palais du Pharo and then to Vieux-Port and had dinner there and then walked back to the apartment. The dinner was fail, haha. We wanted to be adventurous and try something French so I took a tapas plate with seafood and Axel the same but with meat instead. I got a bowl of whole sardines, and cold octopus. Not good. Ugh!

Tonight we have planned for the rest of the days. I booked a scuba dive on Tuesday morning, and we tried to book a tour to Avignon tomorrow, but it was declined because it was too late. Too bad. But we have other things we want to do. Like the Notre Dame.

The way-too-full beach right where we live. La Corniche. Yes, small cars can park like this… The tower we live in. Palais du Pharo. Vieux-Port. The harbor. One of the many forts here. I forgot this ones name. Weird statue. Not my favorite dinner ever… Fort st Nicholas.

Short novel, drive-in, Valencia Peak

Posted on Saturday, May 9th 2015, 23:45 by Alexandra

The weekend is not over yet and it has already been an eventful one. So tomorrow I won’t do anything special except for studying for my midterm. Yay!

Yesterday during the day I worked on the group project we are doing now where we are analyzing intersections in downtown. I worked on it until I got picked up. First stop of the evening was at Firestone where I had the amazing pulled pork sandwich. The next stop was the drive-in movie theatre. Tons of people compared to last time I was there. Can be because last night they were showing the new Avengers movie. It was really good like all the other Marvel movies. The second movie was Cinderella and I have to say that that was a good movie too.

The second movie started after 11pm so I didn’t get home until 1:30am and was too tired to continue to write on my short novel I started two days ago. I used to write a lot of short stories when I was younger. I have always had a vivid imagination but I took a 10-year long break from writing because of other things. Two days ago I got a really good idea though and started writing again. I only have a paragraph so far, but it is a pretty good start.

Today I slept until noon. Did some studying and then got picked up and went to Montaña de Oro to hike Valencia Peak. It was a 2-mile hike to the top, it was a “lagom” distance and a very pretty hike. The view from up there was incredible. The peak is about 1300 feet.

We then walked along the cliffs of Montaña de Oro, where I have never been before, but clearly was the most beautiful place in all of the park. The rock formations are so cool and I have no idea how they came to be. The waves were crashing on the rocks, and it was just a beautiful day!

It ended with dinner at Sylvester’s Hamburger place. As good as last time!

Back home and I did get some studying done after the hot shower. But I was so tired tonight that I couldn’t go through more than one powerpoint. Instead I read some of my old stories. They all definitely follow a theme, sadness. But they are still very good. I also realized that I had one story from end of 2013 which I completely had forgotten about. I wrote one part of it and I remember telling myself to finish it when I was in that special state of mind. Which I am now, so I guess I should finish it.

A+

Posted on Thursday, May 7th 2015, 23:39 by Alexandra

It is ”Friday”, 11pm, and I am ready to go to bed. I need to be better at using time during the week so I am not so tired all the time. Since I moved to SLO I haven’t been tired enough to fall asleep, but now I really have to try to stay awake by taking notes until my hand hurts from writing more than I need too.

Today we had a midterm review in Land Use and Transportation Studies (I can’t find a short for that course name) and it actually doesn’t feel like a completely lost cause. I just need to review it myself, write it down at least one time with my own words and then I should be good. I will do that tomorrow. We didn’t get our midterms back in Digital Cities like the professor said, but hopefully through PolyLearn tomorrow. In German we got the results on our midterm after class. We couldn’t get the actual tests back, so when class was done a bunch of us went up to the professor to give us our results. He saw me and just said that I got an A. I was surprised. I mean, it felt great writing the tests, but this week when we went over it, I got insecure in my answers, so I was actually a little bit surprised. When I was back at my seat to put my stuff in my backpack and the professor went through the pile of tests to find the other students’ results he looked at me and said: “Oh, add a plus to that letter!” What? I got an A+?! How does that even work? Shouldn’t A be the highest? I am super happy anyway, he must have seen that I tried a little bit extra on some problems, even if I probably missed a few minor adjective endings and stuff. I am curious to get that test back.

As soon as I got home I baked cookies, just normal cookies but with a click of Nutella in them. They flattened out so much in the oven so they are boring cookies with a little bit of Nutella. Still pretty good.

At 5pm I got picked up by Ralph and Cathy. Ralph is a 60+ guy in my German class, and him and his wife are going to Sweden for a week this summer and wanted some tips on what to do. I gave them a ton after eating a really good tacos dinner at Taco Temple in Morro Bay. It was a very nice dinner and they are really fun and interesting people. I wanna be like them when I grow up, adventurous, still traveling, finding new friends all over the world, just living to the fullest. If I am in Gothenburg when they are there we will probably meet up. I got really inspired by doing this research and I have already plans on being a tourist back home, I might as well do some stuff with them if they would be up to it. I got really excited about coming home and do all of these things. I also wanna go to Öland again. Maybe to camp this time? That will be a well-planned trip though and sometime in the future.

Old me am getting tired, so I think I will head to bed now, maybe watch another episode of iZombie and hopefully get a good night’s sleep so I have energy to deal with midterm studying and the awful homework we have in Land Use. I worked on it forever yesterday (we are analyzing 16 intersections downtown and are eventually gonna determine the future Level of Service for all of them). In the lab I discovered a lot of errors in the data material we got from the teacher so I had to go through it all and correct it and then send it to the teacher. In the afternoon I managed to get 14 out of the 16 correct for the current Level of Service. One of them, just doesn’t make any sense. I did everything correct, but I just don’t get the answer the teacher got. Probably because the data flows didn’t match the intersections directions… And the second intersection I don’t even know what is wrong with it… So annoying! My group is meeting up tomorrow afternoon again to hopefully fix that and work on the next step.

Crazy birthday weekend

Posted on Monday, April 13th 2015, 21:31 by Alexandra

Wow, I haven’t updated my blog in more than a week. I’m sorry blog. So much happening all the time, and mostly homework. The workload is approximately the same as last quarter, maybe even more.

Last week wasn’t very interesting, I spontaneously went downtown on Thursday, on Friday I hung out with some friends and Saturday was my birthday. I started my 24^th birthday with skyping with mom and opening her gift. I got teary-eyed. It was a beautiful silver ring and silver infinity sign bracelet. And in the card she said that the bracelet was the first thing she made in that silver smithy class she is taking. So sweet of her!!

Then I spent the rest of the day with Lauren. First we went for breakfast at Slodoco and then to Pismo Beach. We were only there for 2 minutes, it was so windy. My dad called me while we got there and wished me a happy birthday. That was nice of him to call all the way to California!

So we went to the pool in PCV instead. Not too bad that either. We were there for like an hour before we needed to go back and prepare for dinner and downtown. Rachel, Lauren, Cody, Aiden, Pelle, Ciara, and I went to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner. From Lauren and Rachel I got a tiara to wear so everyone downtown would know it was my birthday, I also got a sweet card and nailpolish. Lately I’ve been very focused on painting my nails. I wonder where that came from? From Cody I got a cute seahorse decoration thing and a princess wand to match my tiara, haha. Also a very sweet card. These guys are the best!!

So, our night started at SLO Brew and then we went to Motav. People kept buying me drinks, even random people who just wished me a happy birthday. People here really like birthdays. I didn’t have to pay any cover fees and the music was good at Motav for once. The first song played was The Nights by Avicii. I wasn’t feeling too drunk until after midnight. It went from nothing to everything very fast. I honestly can’t remember anything from after midnight. That never happened before, it is scary, and I will never ever get that drunk again. Yesterday I only left bed to shower. I was still hungover today. It got pretty okay at like 6pm. And now I can eat normally. I feel kinda done with alcohol now, and besides, I am old, haha!

This morning I skipped the beach volleyball lesson and TRX, because I was still hungover. German class was fine, it was a recap of the last two quarters. Then I went back home to study. So much homework… Free pizza in the courtyard and I don’t feel bad anymore. I would have needed that pizza yesterday, haha!

I did one quiz in Digital Cities today, I finished most of my German homework (but I can’t focus, so I will save the last two assignments for tomorrow). I should do more, but my brain is all mushy and I am tired. I have another day tomorrow too!

The Swedish Easter bunny found its way to SLO. Rachel baked my favorite cookies (oatmeal raisin) and left a chunk of dough on my fridge shelf. Isn’t she the sweetest?! Pismo Beach on Saturday was ridiculously windy. Way way away from where I stood there were a ton of kitesurfers. Maybe you can see them if clicking on the picture to zoom in? I got flowers from the people. The jewelry I got from mom ❤Cody, me, Rachel, Lauren, Ciara, Pelle, and Aiden. Thanks guys for an awesome birthday!!

Ponto Beach/Pacific Beach/La Jolla/sunset surfing

Posted on Sunday, March 29th 2015, 1:11 by Alexandra

Wow, the last two days were so eventful and I am tired out of my mind right now. If you feel like you need a vacation after your vacation, you did the right thing on your vacation! I have had an amazing time in San Diego and I can’t wait to go back, which I will hopefully do at least one more time before I go back to Sweden. I know I didn’t take San Diego for granted a single day when I lived there, but it still feels like I did, because every time I go here I fall more and more in love with it.

The past two days has been full of San Diego adventures. Friday was all about hanging out on Ponto Beach with Pelle (Swedish exchange student at Cal Poly). It was a very nice day, no pelican poop, 86F on land, 62F in the water, not a single cloud during the whole day. No dolphins unfortunately. Later in the afternoon a few people from the beach volleyball group at Ponto came and set up nets and played. I didn’t join because I had to go home and get myself ready for going out in PB with Helena in the evening. I ran into Chad there, first time I saw him since we said goodbye at the SD airport more than a year ago. It was nice to see him again.

Ponto Beach for the first time since January 2014! ❤ It is not a very special beach to most people, but to me this is the most special beach in all of San Diego. This is where I played beach volleyball, and met a lot of fun people, this is the beach where I always spotted dolphins, and it was always empty.Friday’s sunset over Carlsbad! I think everyone following my blog knows by now that I love sunset!

I left the beach at like 5:30pm, back home I showered and packed for the night and today and picked up Helena for dinner at 8. We met up with another German girl at In N Out, first time for both of them. Delicious as always! We then bought drink ingredients at Vons and made a Solero drink at home before taking an Uber to PB (Pacific Beach, the party area of San Diego). We first went to Tavern, a place I really liked because they played good music. We then moved on to Duck Dive which was Helena’s favorite place. The music and people there were weirder. The people might have been because it was later in the night and they were more drunk. But I wasn’t very drunk at all and didn’t enjoy it as much as I probably could have. I can definitely see myself having fun there though, more fun than in downtown SD. The people in PB are young. But on the other hand, I am not much of a party person anymore. I have realized that I would much rather wake up not hungover the day after and do stuff, like surfing. It was still a fun evening and I am glad I finally went out in PB, what everyone kept talking about all the time last year.

We got a ride from some random creepy guys, but we used them and just said goodbye when they dropped us off. But it took a while for them to go away and stop ringing the doorbell. Creepy. But I fell asleep as soon as my head it the pillow. Helena’s house is by the way incredible! It’s humungous and so nicely decorated inside. Helena’s bathroom was ridiculous, she even has radio in her shower, which is also a tub with jets. Only a little bit jealous, haha.

This morning Helena made breakfast for both of us (the third girl didn’t drink and drove home late last night) and that was so sweet of her. Avocado/scrambled eggs bagels. Yummy!

We drove to La Jolla Shores and I am so thankful she knows an old German family right there on the beach so we could park in their driveway. It is a pain in the butt to find parking there. I think you have to go there at like 7-8am to get a pretty decent spot. It’s so stupid. I hate parking here (one of very few bad things about SD). We lay down close to the surf tent and I read a little bit, finished a 100-page cross-over story between Percy Jackson and Carter Kane and then started the second short cross-over story and after that one (which I will probably be done with tonight) I will start reading Artemis Fowl.

Before Johanna came we just lay on the beach, I read some, took some naps, and went in the water with just our feet once. It was cold and with the cloudy sky I would not warm up enough to go all the way in. Fortunately it cleared up later in the day and the day ended in a very beautiful way. Johanna came at 2pm and soon thereafter we put on wetsuits (I had my own with me this time) and went out in the water. It was Helena and Jessica’s (the German girl from last night) first time surfing and they got tired pretty fast and went up after not even an hour. I stayed the longest, more than two hours. It was not the best conditions for surfing today, the current were extreme and it was hard to just be in the water. But I managed to stand up several times and I would say that it went almost as good this time as last time.

The waves got better in the evening and Johanna and I decided to go out one more time, during the sunset. It was so amazing! The waves were better so we both did much better than earlier in the afternoon. And the sunset was sooo pretty! I wish I had had my GoPro with me for that. Watching the sunset from the water was something I had never done before (not that I can remember anyway), and it was incredible. Definitely not the last time I did that, but next time I will bring my GoPro.

Resting between surf sessions.Pre sunset surfing. Post sunset surfing. Johanna and I posing in front of a sunset that was much more beautiful in real life. The person who invents a camera that can capture exactly what we see is gonna be the richest man on Earth! I love sunsets!

On my way home I picked up Panda Express and then watched an episode of Arrow while eating a very late dinner. It was a nice evening. I am so tired I can barely keep my eyes open. Surfing is energy consuming.

I think I will pack everything now, so I can sleep a little bit longer in the morning. Or I can sleep in the car, we have a few hours to kill there, haha!

This first and last spring break of mine has been the best! Especially the last part. San Diego will always be my second home ❤

Last couple of days in SF

Posted on Wednesday, March 25th 2015, 23:53 by Alexandra

It was harder than I anticipated to update my blog while couchsurfing, even with a good wifi. I will try to remember what we did all the days.

MONDAY

Monday started in a very good way with breakfast in the sun with a view over the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a perfect start of the day. Right after that we took an uber to the Cable Car museum and I was surprised at what I learned there. It is not just a museum, but the place which runs the whole cable car system. I don’t know why I thought it was called a “cable car”, but clearly the logic didn’t hit me. So under the city there are cables pulling the cable cars and they are being powered in this cable car museum. Pretty cool!

The rest of the day we went shopping at Union Square. I didn’t buy much, but necessary thing. We went to Nordstrom Rack for the first time ever and I bought two pair of underwear and a bra. I also bought a pair of jeans at Gap. They fit like a glove and I didn’t even need to think about it. They were perfect!

In the evening Julianne and three other girls from SLO came into the city from north and we had dinner together close to where Helena and I was staying. We had crepes and it was so good. I have been so unhealthy in San Francisco and that needs to stop now! My stomach’s been hurting real bad.

We saw the bridge every single day! There was a big group of surfers in the bay, but no waves so they just paddled back and forth. Here are the cables that run the whole SF cable car system. We walked through Chinatown.

TUESDAY

Yesterday morning Helena, Patrick and I went for brunch and then to Sutro Baths. In the late 19^th century it was the world’s biggest private indoor swimming pool but it was too expensive to run, it was closed and while being demolished in 1966 an arsonist burned it to the ground. Now there are only some concrete walls left. It was a cool spot.

Then we drove (luxury not to be limited to ubers, but have a driver) to Castro District and walked around there for a bit. Went through Mission Dolores Park and sat down for a fika. Oh, right, the Castro is the gay district in San Francisco.

Patrick then dropped us off at Jacob’s place and we said goodbye. Helena and I were craving sushi and found a place with good ratings on Yelp called Akiko. We went there and it was the tiniest place ever, but we came before everyone else and managed to get a spot by the “bar”. We ordered so much sushi and it was so delicious! I love sushi.

It was still early when we got out, so we found a bar and sat there until midnight. I had four drinks and I haven’t had that much to drink since beginning of January. I was pretty buzzed, haha! We went to a bar called Sugar Café and I really liked it. The bartenders didn’t check our ID’s and we had tabs and I felt so like a grown up!

On our way home we stopped for pizza slices and then took an uberpool back. I think the driver and the guy with us thought we were crazy Europeans for getting drunk on a Tuesday, haha! They were laughing the whole ride. It was the most fun uber ride I have had so far.

Castro District. Limited edition gay Absolut Vodka. Mission Dolores Park was full of hippies of all kinds. It was a weird place. Pretty view over SF.Helena at Sugar Cafe.

WEDNESDAY

Today we didn’t do much more than getting breakfast and then started the long traveling down to San Diego. First we took an uber to the closest BART station, then took the BART to the airport where we missed the first train going around the terminals and I almost got cut in half by the doors, then flew down to San Diego, and then I had a long uber ride up to SLO.

I was excited to ride the BART for the first time. It is the subway-whatever system they have in SF and we have talked about it a lot in my classes at Cal Poly. It was okay, but very loud…

The flight was 1.5 hour long but very nice. The flight attendants were friendly and the pilot was funny sometimes. I saw SLO when we flew over it, that was cool.

It was hard finding an uber at the airport, but I finally got one, and he drove me to SDSU where I looked at an amazing apartment if I get an internship here in San Diego. It was a big room in an apartment and in the complex was a pool, a gym, a movie theatre and close to trolleys. It was the perfect place. Everything was included in the rent and it was only $840. Too good to be true! Let’s just hope I get the internship now :).

The uber driver waited for me and then drove me all the way up to San Diego. All of this for only $67. Super awesome!!

I got to the house at 8pm, hung out with the kids a little bit, but not too much since they still had homework to do.

I should really go to bed now if I am to get up at 5:30 so I will be down in Mission Beach at 7am for beach volleyball practice! What will one don’t do for love?! (love for beach volleyball)

Bemm

Aspiring author

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Last couple of days in SF

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