Day 24/25 – Los Angeles / Vancouver / Whistler

I shared the airport shuttle going to LAX with a fellow hostel guest who as it turned out was Brazilian. After Germany destroyed Brazil in a humiliating 7-1 defeat in the semi-finals the day before I felt bad introducing myself to him as a German but he immediately held out his hand and said congratulations to a great game. I thought that was a very impressive move that I wouldn’t have expected. I flew home to Vancouver and watched the other semi-final game at the airport while waiting for my bus up to Whistler.

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It feels so great to be back in Canada. It always does. The clean, comfortable Vancouver airport has become a welcoming place for me and I cannot wait to go there on Sunday to pick up my brother after 11 months of not seeing each other! Driving up to Whistler on the Sea-to-Sky highway was amazing as always, the sun setting in the background and the beautiful summer in BC at its finest.

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Only one day back in Whistler and I already saw a bear. We drove up to the Callahan Park, about 20 minutes south of Whistler. This spot has proven to be a bear guarantee for us so far, and we weren’t disappointed this time either. By now I am starting to lose count of how many bears I’ve seen this year, which is really cool to say. This one was just a cub, walking around slowly and eating anything in its way. They never really pay attention to cars or people, they just do their thing.

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California was unbelievable. One month filled with adventures, experiences and excitement. I learned so much, met so many amazing people and got to experience Californian lifestyle in some of the nicest places on earth. Thank you to everyone who has been reading this blog and showed interest in my travels. I am looking forward to a great summer 2o14 with friends and family and I will be back!

Day 23 – San Diego / Los Angeles

My last day in San Diego was without a doubt one of the highlights of my trip. I checked out of the hostel after breakfast and shorty after was picked up by Tina, a German born friend of a friend of my family’s, who has lived in San Diego for a great part of her life. I hopped into her red BMW convertible and it was clear early on that we got along perfectly. Tina had great charisma and we started cracking jokes and having a great time from the first minute on.

The beamer was amazing. Just the car you want to drive in a place like this with the sun blazing down on us, a nice breeze and good tunes blasting through the speakers. I was lucky to have such an amazing guide to show me around. Tina really knew where to take me, starting at one of the Navy bases which had a huge cemetery for veterans on it. I have never seen so many graves in one spot, and we were able to drive through the graveyard in the car.

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At the end of the drive we ended up at the top of Point Loma, a spot with a beautiful view of the city and the bay. You could see all the way to Mexico from there. Those are the kind of spots that only locals can show you and I am so happy that Tina took such great care of me and opened my eyes to the beauty of San Diego.

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We cruised around for a little longer and ended up at a seafood market and restaurant right by the water. I ordered fish and chips and Tina went for fish tacos. We ended up sharing both meals since I had never tried fish tacos before and apparently it is a must when you’re in the area. All of the food was delicious and we topped it off with some ice cream and cappuccinos in Little Italy. Tina and I got along so well and like with many people I met on my trip it felt like I had known her forever.

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Next, we drove through downtown San Diego and through the beautiful Balboa Park. Part of the park is the huge San Diego Zoo, which I had heard about from many people but didn’t go due to extraordinarily high entry fees. Luckily Tina had a year pass for the zoo which allows her to take one guest in with her for free! We went in together but she had to leave quite soon in order to get home before rush hour. We parted ways after those awesome few hours we spent together and I continued wandering the zoo by myself for a few hours.

There were all kinds of unique animals in this zoo which was overwhelming in size. I could have easily spent a whole day in there without seeing everything. Along the way I met some really friendly Canadians and joined them for a little while. When I completed a full circle around the zoo I got on to a bus going to the Amtrak station and got onto my train back to Los Angeles.

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Day 22 – San Diego

Today was my second, and last day of diving. Luckily this time our dive started at 2:30 and was only about 20 minutes away from the hostel by bike. After the dive from the day before I was extremely exhausted and got to sleep in, which was very nice.

I had a late breakfast/brunch and started my trip to Mission Bay, where Sea World is located. The Navy is huge here in San Diego and they have large training facilities all over the city. One of the highlights in the so called ‘Wreck Alley’ is the HMCS Yukon, a Canadian destroyer, a 110 x 12 meter ship from WW2, sunk for recreational and Navy diving. It is known worldwide and people travel from far away to be able to see it.

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After a short briefing on land we boarded the ship, the 12 people in my class along with some local divers and a group from Sweden. I definitely prefer diving from a boat to going in from the shore. Scuba equipment is extremely heavy, as you are carrying a steel tank on your back and additional weights to keep you from floating to the surface. Just getting out into the water is so exhausting, you don’t really have that much energy left for the actual dive. When diving from a boat, you just gear up a few minutes before simply hopping off the boat and into the depths of the ocean.

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It took us approximately 20 minutes to get to the location of the wreck and we had 2 dives scheduled for that day. One of them was the Deep Dive, where we went down pretty close to the wreck and spent some time at the bottom, which was at 32 metres depth. Our instructor, Jay, had a padlock and a combination for us to solve underwater. The deeper you get underwater, the harder it is to focus. Some of the people who managed to open the padlock within seconds on the surface before were now struggling with it. I was surprised when the lock popped open on my second try!

Our second dive, about one hour and a few bowls of hot soup later, was the actual Wreck Dive. Swimming along this huge boat, which was sunken in 2000 and therefore covered in corals and mushroom-like looking underwater plants was incredible. The true colours of the coral algae were only visible with the help of our underwater flashlights, turning them from shades of grey into the most amazing pink and blue tones.

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We headed back in after this dive and Jay was complimenting on my great progress throughout the dives. Before we all went home we got together to fill in our logbooks and we all got our Advanced Open Water Certificates! It was a great overall experience diving in a completely new environment with unfamiliar people. I know that this is going to be a hobby that I will want to continue for a long time and it can take you to some of the coolest places in the world.

I biked home, exhausted from another day of nonstop action, grabbed some tacos at Roberto’s Taqueria and sunk into my comfortable bed in San Diego for my last night there.

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Day 21 – San Diego / La Jolla

Once again I was the first one in my room to get up in the early hours of the morning. I made a quick breakfast and started cycling north to La Jolla. The ride was beautiful. Empty roads, the sun rising over the water and a fresh breeze blowing. It took about an hour to get there an I was the first one at the meeting spot of the diving school.

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After everybody arrived, we changed into our diving equipment, did a short briefing and entered the water from the beach. It was crowded, surfers, scuba divers and people on the beach everywhere. When we got into the water I was surprised how warm it was. The surf here is really high and the visibility underwater was not what I was used to from diving in Tenerife. On our first dive, the Underwater Naturalist Dive, we basically just swam around in a circle, pointing out different crabs, lobsters and fish to each other. I saw a few baby manta rays and plenty of Garibaldi, the Californian State fish, a bright orange fish that looks like an XXL goldfish.

The dive experience with this diving company feels very different from the last one, 2 years ago in Tenerife. Here it feels like people are only doing the dives because they need to get the certificate. In Tenerife everyone was on vacation and did the dives for fun. That really influences the way a dive starts. All of the divers in my group are better and more experienced than me and I felt a little weird at first, getting back into it after such a long time without diving.

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After the first dive I felt confident and I shot underwater photos/videos for the first time in my life which was really cool. We had about an hour between our first and second dive, the Navigation Dive. The instructors showed us how to use our compasses and gave us routes to swim underwater. Diving really isn’t just jumping into the water and swimming around for a bit. It’s much more than that and there’s a lot that you have to remember, constantly check and be aware of.

Dive 3 for that day was the Night Dive. We had to wait until the sun set, which was about 5 hours after the second dive, so I had some time to spend in La Jolla. I got some lunch and watched sea lions laying around on the rock formations by the beach. Before the Night Dive I was quite nervous, I had no idea what it would feel like not being able to see underwater at night…

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When we got in, equipped with giant underwater flash lights, it was the coolest experience I’ve had in diving. The 12 of us all went down together and spent about 45 minutes at the bottom of the completely dark Pacific. Underwater life changes a lot at night. Tons of crabs came out, and at one point there was a Californian horn shark only metres away from me, suddenly showing up in the flash of my light and then disappearing back into the darkness. Luckily those sharks aren’t dangerous for humans, but thinking that anything could be right in front of you without you noticing was a truly weird thought.

I biked home after our dive for about an hour and got home pretty late and really tired from 3 hours of extreme biking, 3 very exhausting dives with heavy equipment and being up since 5 in the morning!

Day 20 – San Diego

Today was a perfect vacation day. I got up late and watched Germany beat France and advancing into the semi-finals. There were 7 people in the room, mostly Americans, a Swiss girl, and an old, grumpy Australian lady.

During halftime she made us switch to another channel so she could watch tennis and when the second half started and it got really intense she wanted to switch the channel to check the score at Wimbledon! Everyone in the room was protesting and we all knew she had no chance. You could really feel the power of soccer. Too bad that some people are so ignorant.

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I used the rest of the day to bike around in the area, along the river and ended up at the beach. For lunch I had a delicious Baconator from Wendy’s and returned to the hostel to do my reviews for diving class. There are are 5 dives for me to complete in order to get my advanced diving license. Every dive has its own chapter in the book, and a knowledge review quiz that we had to hand in with the instructors.

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Since it’s the 4th of July, Independence Day in the US, there are flags basically everywhere and I have been seeing and hearing fireworks going off a lot. This is my second Independence Day in the US – The last one was also during a world cup. I was in Boston for 3 months exactly 4 years ago. It feels crazy that it’s so long ago and I can’t wait to go back in August!

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When the sun started setting it painted the sky in beautiful colours and I made my way to the San Diego Harbour, because that’s where they have great fireworks every year on July 4th. They were shooting breathtaking fireworks off of the 4 biggest boats in the harbour, spontaneously! Everybody was sitting around the water on grass fields, BBQing, drinking, and showing off their American flag in every way possible. The fireworks went on for almost 25 minutes and it was amazing to watch. This by far topped every display of fireworks that I have seen in my life. You could feel the force of the explosions in your chest and the noises echoed over the water at an unbelievable volume.

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Day 19 – San Diego

The longer I am staying at the Point Loma hostel in San Diego, the more I like it. Compared to the USA Hostel in Hollywood it just feels more like a home. Hollywood felt like a factory. People were in and out. New faces everyday, stressed people, sightseeing tourists. Here you have families, travellers of all ages, backpackers and people on vacation.

At breakfast I met Monia, a Persian-Canadian from Quebec. I made eggs and bacon and we talked about my upcoming diving class. After sitting outside and chatting to her for a while I met up with my Indian roommate to run some errands and made my way to the dive shop on my bike.

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By now I kind of have the hour-long bike ride figured out without getting completely lost, and I got to really enjoy the areas I was going through. Somehow I have gotten so used to American streets, driveways and houses. It’s going to feel so different to be back in Germany driving through well-known streets on my Vespa…

When I got to the dive shop I got my equipment fitted by a really friendly girl who had the kind of charisma that a lot of people working in diving have. It’s such a cool place to work and you can tell that these people really love their jobs! I am now fully equipped, with a snorkel, mask, fins, a wetsuit with a hood, boots, a flashlight and a compass! Another thing I will be carrying with me is going to be my GoPro on a monopod, to get the most amazing diving videos/photos.

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On my way back from the diving school I decided to take a little bit of a detour and ride along the coast line with frequent stops wherever I though would be worth sitting down for a while and enjoy views, sun and atmosphere of this awesome place! I can really relax here and it’s perfect as the final stop on my trip. This way I get to have a nice stressless ending to a trip full of excitement and adventure. Diving on the weekend is going to be great. After two years of not diving it is now finally coming true for me again!

Day 18 – San Diego

My day started off with a mistake. I thought that I had my diving orientation meeting at 6:30am. Turns out it was 6:30pm. I took a taxi to the dive shop at the early hours of the morning, expecting an early morning class, before regular diving trips that are always early in the morning. When I got to the store I saw that it wasn’t going to open for another 2 hours and I realized the mistake I had made. I didn’t let this stop me from trying to make the day my best yet though, and decided to walk back to the hostel, instead of wasting more money on another 20-minute taxi ride.

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My walk took about 3 hours, not including multiple stops along the way. I made my way south through suburban areas, desert valleys and along the San Diego River. I sat by the water and saw fish constantly jumping out of the water and splashing back into it. This was phenomenal to watch and I got a great tan from the warm Californian sun!

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The ocean is a place that just magically pulls me towards it. In a way the ocean it so relaxing and I can stare at the waves crashing in for hours. Especially because there’s huge waves here at Ocean Beach. And with those huge waves there come a lot of surfers. Every other person is walking down the beach trail in a wetsuit. It gives this place a really great vibe. People seem genuinely happy and really friendly.

The city is so green and environmentally friendly, and when I got back to the hostel my bike had already been delivered. I ordered it with a bike company the night before and got a discount as a guest of the hostel. I biked around for a while and made my way back to the diving school to go to the orientation, for real this time.

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Ocean Enterprises is the name of the diving shop/school that I’m getting my certificate with. When I went entered the store there was a really friendly Mexican girl that helped me get set up for class, my certifications and my 2 boat tickets for the dives. After taking care of that I went upstairs, where the classrooms are located. Besides me there was only a Hawaiian girl that joined the Navy here in San Diego. There’s some kind of big training area for the Navy here and there’s at least 3-4 Navy people in my class. Our instructor (ex-Navy guy) introduced himself and told us more about our upcoming course. In the advanced open water  program you go on a shipwreck dive, a night dive, a deep dive, a underwater naturalist dive and a navigation dive. I can’t wait to start on Saturday!!

The other people in my class are mostly locals or Navys getting their advanced certifications. One of the Navys has a shocking similarity to Ryan Gosling. An all American boy. We should buddy up for diving, I bet he could pull me out of the water faster than anybody else in my class!

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After the meeting was over I biked back to the hostel through the warm winds of San Diego at night. I really enjoyed the ride along the water and there were all kinds of early 4th of July fireworks going off all over the city. This could easily become a home for me. Perfect weather, great people happy life.

 

 

Day 17 – San Diego

I have completely fallen in love with Ocean Beach. It’s paradise. Everybody in the streets is carrying surfboards and skating around, there’s such a great, relaxed atmosphere to this area. My hostel is great too, staff is really friendly and the bed is the most comfortable one I’ve slept in so far on the trip.

I slept in late, prepared a delicious breakfast in the kitchen and walked to OB after. On my way there I picked up some snacks for a picnic and made my way to the beach. The sun feels really nice here, it’s blocked by clouds half of the time and this makes it great to be outside plus I’m not dying of the heat like I did in LA.

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When I got back from the beach I started my research on diving schools because I want to get my advanced open water diver’s license. I spontaneously booked a course starting tomorrow! It’s so great to go diving again. It’s been 2 years since I last went, and I have been waiting for this opportunity for 10 months now. Not often have I felt this comfortable in a place after such a short time. San Diego and especially Ocean Beach are just incredible.

I got some thai food for dinner and went to bed early since I have to be at the diving school for orientation tomorrow at 6:30! Can’t wait to get underwater and hopefully get some great GoPro shots! 5 dives, including a night dive and a shipwreck dive are awaiting me. Finally I get to go into the Pacific and explore its beauty!

Day 15 – Los Angeles

I woke up late and went to have breakfast at IHOP down the street from the hostel. LA makes me really tired somehow. I’m not sure if it’s the weather, the busyness of the city or the constant paranoia of getting robbed… One day in LA feels like 3 days anywhere else. I have to come back to this city with a car, it will be a totally different experience.

After breakfast I went back to the hostel to do some writing and computer stuff, and I wanted to research things to do on my last day in LA. I took the red subway line from Hollywood Blvd. all the way to Union Station to explore downtown Los Angeles. In cities like Vancouver or San Francisco it is so easy to just walk around the downtown area, in LA not so much.

From Union Station I walked past Chinatown and followed the skyscrapers into the heart of downtown. It feels like the city is bilingual, like Quebec or Montreal. Every sign on subways, busses, stores and streets is in English and Spanish. If I didn’t know I was in America, my first guess would have been Mexico.

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I grabbed a sub on my way to Perishing Square, one of the ‘parks’ of LA. I miss nature and being able to step out of my front door and be in the wildernis. There was an ad for Whistler on one of the busses and it felt so weird to see the village centre, covered in snow, while driving through the heat of Los Angeles.

The tiny grass field of Perishing Square was filled with people trying to escape the concrete jungle for a while and homeless people using the shade of the trees as a place to sleep. I sat down on the grass and finally got the chance to continue reading Emerson! I really like the book, it is so inspirational and I can identify so well with Emersons thoughts. Eventhough he is from a completely different time and space there are lots of things we have in common. Love for nature is definitely the biggest one!

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After wandering around downtown a little longer, I headed back to the hostel to pack my things and get ready for my trip to San Diego. My Australian roommates invited me to have a beer with them and I called it a night after that.

Los Angeles was an unforgettable experience for me, but it will not make the list of my favourite cities, as Eddie kept on asking me. For now I’m happy to continue my trip and move on to San Diego. Hopefully I will be able to end my trip on a chill vibe with water sports, beaches and relaxing!

Day 14 – Los Angeles / Malibu

I got up really early to meet up with Eddie again before he started work at 1pm. One thing on my LA-bucket list was going up to the Hollywood sign and getting as close to it as possible. And that’s exactly what we did.

We met up at 8:00am and took the bus up north. At the busstop there was a homeless guy taking a soap bath in one of the big water fountains, it was quite entertaining for everyone waiting! After getting off the bus it took us approximately 1 hour to hike up the hill on very curvy, dusty roads. The views along the way were awesome and the higher we got in elevation, the more we were able see of the city below us.

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It felt so weird to be that close to the sign because I’ve seen it on TV so many times, but actually looking at in in real life was awesome. Unfortunately we had to rush back down so Eddie could make it to work on time and I returned to the hostel, exhausted from the sun and the hike, to take a nap.

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When I got back up about an hour later, I took the bus going to Malibu. A surfer that I met at breakfast earlier had told me that Point Dume on Malibu Beach is a must-see in when you are in the area. It took me probably about 2 hours to get there by bus. I enjoyed the ride, with the Pacific to my left and lots of really interesting people on the busses. The beach itself was really beautiful and I laid down on the beach for a while, listening to music, enjoying the sun, watching surfers and recording the sunset with my GoPro.

While I was watching the reflections of the sunlight glittering on the harsh waves crashing in, I saw three fins popping out of the water. I was shocked. There were three dolphins right in front of me, jumping out of the ocean, spraying water around and looking as free as can be. This was the first time I have ever seen wild dolphins in real life. I had goosebumps everywhere. That moment was just perfect. The sun setting in the background, the last rays warming me as I was watching pacific wildlife only metres away from me. It was magical.

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These are the kind of days that I want to have when I go travelling. It was filled with action, excitement and beauty.