Christmas in Balboa Park, San Diego


Tijuana, Mexico

The last episode

Last night my mum called for dinner. As an automatism I answered 'I'm coming', literally in English. What 5 months immersion in the States can do with a person? I know one thing: too complicated for words. Plus: how to be objective if you're talking about yourself? So, I won't discuss all the other outer and inner effects. But I could tell more about my last 14 days in the West of course!

The facts:
Thursday 7 December I took the plane to Long Beach Airport Los Angeles, where Alathea and Shawn picked me up. After a foodstop, we drove further to Shawn's app where I crashed on the sofa. It felt like all the fatigue of the last 4 months had eventually captured my body. As a result I missed the Christmas tree consecratory ceremony in the centre of Hermosa Beach.. what I regretted afterwards of course. The next day I rent a bike and drove all the way up to Venice Beach and back. A new 'mussles from Brussels' was born that day..:-). That fridaynight we drove to the centre of LA where Ali lives, so that I could spend the rest of the weekend closeby the big 'places-to-be'. That same night we went to The Grove (www.thegrovela.com): a big, beautifully designed outside shopping area. (see pics on previous post) They said the actual biggest Christmas tree was not the one at the Rockefeller Centre in NY, but at The Grove. I might be true, I was impressed...but maybe the singing 'Jingle Bell'ers' were the real reason. The Hollywood Hills and Mulholland Drive were the next and final stop that night. On Saturday there was a Christmas breakfast(buffet, mjummie) at the house of one of Alathea's neighbours, on Olympic Blvd. Afterwards, we drove to Beverly Hills. Not very different from the Avenue Louise area in Brussels really. That evening I decided to go shopping on Melrose Avenue on my own. One advice: don't ever depend on the public bus network in LA, trust me. On Sunday we visited the Getty Centre, a real architectural tour de force built on a hill, and excellent exhibition centre.

Fortunately, there was a car waiting for me on Monday. I almost had a heart attack when I saw the price (over $500!!). The price of freedom, what can you say... At that moment my real adventure alone to the South started. As I drove on the I-5 towards the Big Unknown, in 'my' KIA, I felt like the luckiest girl in the whole world. The next 8 days would be one of the best periods of my life.
I stayed in the IH Point Loma, a neat little hostel in a residential neigbourhood, near the beach. Highly recommended! The next days I visited Ocean Beach (cool alternative clothing stores, antique shops, cosy cafees,...), San Diego Old Town (Mexic-ii-coo!), San Diego National city centre, Hillcrest, Balboa Park (Big and Beautiful), San Diego Zoo,... I met a certain Jan Van Dijk (yeah right), nice waiters in Mexican cafes, the coolest pizza-man, friendly people on parkinglots giving compliments about my 'fuck-me-botjes'(thanks Peter Van De Veire for this fantastic punky word) - the ones with the coloured studs, amazing pandas in the zoo, donkeys in Tijuana@Mexico a.o...

Before flying back home to Belgium I made a stop in New York city, where I stayed with aunt Helen for 4 days (mon-thu). On Thursday I flew back home,surprise surprise for my parents because they thought I would arrive on Friday the 23rd! It was close though, for my flight was delayed for 8 hours. Aaa well, I saw it as an extra free adventure (with an old Albanian guy on my back, but what the heck, holidays for everybody, right?)!

It was the last cross through the Big Apple, totally into 'Christmas', and I enjoyed every second of it...I'll be back!