So San Diego was cool and lots of fun, I will upload the pictures to Flickr tomorrow if I have a chance. It was nice to have a week of lazing at the beach and sightseeing, and Southern California is definitely much more the image of California that most people think of.

But, I’ve moved on from there. I’m writing this from my hostel in Chicago right now. I just checked in, totally exhausted from hauling all my stuff around but not too tired which is good. I had just the right amount of change to buy a drink from the machine but it’s sold out of everything. Great.

I arrived at Chicago’s O’Hare airport, which like the one in Atlanta which was my first port of call on arrival in the USA, is huge. I’m travelling with two sizable bags, containing my entire life from this past year. I also have my guitar which adds to the burden. I was stupid enough to have bags without wheels so I have to haul everything I own on my back which is both tiring and a pain in the arse for everyone who gets in my way.

I took the subway from the airport, which remarkably took 45 minutes to reach downtown despite travelling at a fairly rapid pace. My hostel is huuuuuge…I’m sure it’s got near 150 dorms, and 7 floors which seems to fit in well into Chicago’s high-rise atmosphere. I’m quite worried that I’ll get horribly sunburned, as the temperatures are mid to high 80’s and this Irish skin doesn’t take to kindly to that. I survived San Diego…barely so this is a new challenge.

The hostel is full on English people, as is every flippin’ hostel I’ve ever been to.

Got a full day lined up for tomorrow, but it’s not the nicest feeling being alone in a big city. I miss my city, San Francisco, I miss Valerie already. She’s the best travel buddy ever, complete tourist everywhere she goes!

Battery almost dead on this lapton, so watch out for more!

It’s been quite a while since I last put something up here, so it’s about time for an update.

Right now I’m sitting in a very nice, if a little too warm, hostel room in downtown San Diego in Southern California. I’m just 25 miles from the international border to Tijuana, Mexico. It’s warm and has been sunny the past few days, and although it’s still California it feels like a completely different place.

On Sunday morning Valerie and I flew here from SF (with Virgin, who are actually very good and cheap). When we arrived we took a cab to our accommodation. We had it planned out to spend 3 nights at one place then 3 at another, as it would give us some variety and because the first place only offered dorm beds, which isn’t the best way for two people to spend their entire holiday.

The cab dropped us off at our hostel - Banana Bungalow. It’s right on Pacific Beach, literally 5 steps away from the sand. Unfortunately, that’s about all that it has going for it. I’ve stayed in some dodgy hostels before in Europe but this place was an absolute dive. It’s falling apart and full of the type of people that normally ruin your holiday. Their basic rules were: find a bed in the dorm, we’ll try and find some clean sheets and drink yourself stupid all night long. It’s run by an English family as far as I could tell, and the people staying there are all either English or Irish and spend all day in bed and drink all night (which was encouraged by the management - they even have a ‘hangover’ room). The shower was filthy and the toilet handle was broken, so you had to get your hand into the cistern to get it to flush properly. And it was noisy…all the time. Free breakfast consisted of free bread and the free wi-fi turned out to be someone else’s network. The only plus point I got out of the whole experience was they had surfboard rental for $10/day which I managed to get away with not paying because their management skills were zero. I hope I took some photos of this place, because it was an absolute dump. They sold Valerie’s bed to someone else because she packed her stuff away in a locker. My duvet was ripped and had all the stuffing coming out of it. And my bed was full of sand. I slept every night with earplugs, it was terrible.

Thankfully today we’ve just checked into Hostelling International SD where our private room is nice and peaceful, and the hostel is just great.

So what have we been up to? Well, first day we spend relaxing at the beach because we had a very early morning. The sun is very hot and strong so I’ve ended up with some burning, despite my factor 50 suncream. I borrowed a surfboard to practise what I’d learned in Hawai’i. Surprise surprise, I’m still totally crap at surfing but I love it and am too stubborn and stupid to give up. I’ve paid for it somewhat though, I have some big scratches and burns all over from both the salty water and getting hit by the board, but I’m still in good spirits. The nice thing is that compared to Hawai’i, the water is sandy to stand on and not razor-sharp coral which cut me up before. The waves are bigger though so I’m taking more a beating with every wave.

Monday we spent at Seaworld, and I mean the whole day. 9am-9pm. We saw every show there was - sealions, Shamu, dogs, dolphins…all good but the star of the show was a little sea otter that they had trained to bring out a can of Pepsi during the show. Awww man, that little guy was the best!

Yesterday we went to La Jolla (that’s pronounced La HOY-a) to do a kayaking trip to the mythical 7 caves of La Jolla Cove. Our guide was a bit of a loser, he went too fast and we missed alot of his information. Plus, of course, our kayak was the only to one to flip both at the start of the trip and coming back in. Thanks, Valerie…

The seven caves are a bit of a tourist trap. In all honesty, they’re a bit crap. The highlight of the trip was swimming with a sealion, which was right below us. That was cool.

In the evening we went to the Wavehouse bar where they have a surfing pool that creates a constant pipe to surf in. It was interesting, but not a lot of people for some reason.

Today we went to Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach and Long Beach, all with the famous OC - Orange County. It’s a pretty short 1.5 hour drive from San Diego. Huntington was definitely the best one, Surf City USA. Went for a swim and bought a t-shirt.

Well, that’s about it for now. Adios.

Last weekend I spent a few days in Santa Cruz with some friends. It was fun, but I was expecting it to be just Saturday and we ended up sleeping over in a motel which meant spending the whole weekend in the same clothes.

I also didn’t bet on the weather being warm, so I neglected to take decent sunscreen, flip flops and shorts. I managed to borrow most of what I needed, but smelled quite a lot.

Us at Santa Cruz

Spot the two Irish guys (clue: look for the sun tan)

The guy on the left on this photo is the craziest driver I’ve ever sat with. On the highway he crossed 3 or 4 lanes in a row without hesitation and kept doing it every few minutes. We visited a state park and he played chicken with a driver coming the opposite direction.

On Tuesday, we had a going away party of me at Jillian’s, a pool bar downtown. We had fun, and there was free food so that made the whole experience better. I’m a little sad now that a little over one month I will be home.

Sad, yes, but I have one heck of a trip planned before that and a lot of sightseeing to do. Without doubt I will be back in the US and I would love to see all 50 states in my lifetime.

This weekend I’m rather stuck. I’m going to the San Mateo County Fair later, mainly to see Weird Al Yankovich, but also because it sounds like fun and one of those typical American ‘win a stuffed toy for you girlfriend’ type of places. Tomorrow, I have the option of either going to the Renaissance Fair in the GG Park, with jousting and all that kinda stuff (free of course), or else spending the day at a Wordpress Conference learning some stuff that could come in useful ($20). Haven’t decided which yet.