I want to discover more local coffee places, especially on days that I’m not working, like today. A bit of searching on Google Maps shows me a place called Holsem Kitchen in North Park. It’s an area I haven’t really visited yet. I like how I get to know the city better and keep discovering each day. I walk to the bus stop at the waterside and see a huge cruise ship. It’s the Holland America line. It’s not too often that I feel proud of the Netherlands, but at this moment I do. Pretty cool how such an enormous ship crosses the Atlantic ocean to travel between Holland and America. Still I think I’d prefer flying for half a day over being on a boat for several weeks.
In less than an hour I arrive in North Park and the bus stops right in front of Holsem Kitchen. It’s a nice designed coffee place and I’m sitting down for a while to update my blog and to look for rental cars, because I’m still considering a road trip next week. It’s a bit cold inside the coffee place though, so I don’t stay inside too long. Especially since it’s such a beautiful day again. After a week of rain you just appreciate the beautiful California weather even more. I see on the map that there are a lot of local coffee places in this area, so if you’re in San Diego, North Park is a great neighborhood for finding coffee places.
I walk around the neighborhood and discover that I’ve been here before, because I see a familiar bookstore where my friend took me to on one of the first days here in San Diego. There is an elderly man sitting on a bench in front of the bookstore. He starts a conversation with me and I sit down next to him. His name is Marty Fitch and he tells me that he was a pro surfer back in the days. He has a lot of exciting stories about he has traveled all around the world, surfing in Australia and Hawaii among other places and at some point was the number 27 in the world. With a lot of excitement he speaks about surfing waves as high as a house and of all the dangers that come with that. He tells me that all surfers have a healthy fear of the waves. “If you’re saying that you don’t fear the waves, you’re either a fool or a liar” I love listening to his stories and way too soon his bus comes and we have to say goodbye. Talking with random people like this is one of the things I love about traveling. Everyone has a unique story.
I walk to a thrift store and find a nice suitcase for not too much, it’ll help me getting the books and things I bought with me to home when I go back to the Netherlands. After that I get a healthy lunch with a lot of fruit at a place called Pure Press, because I feel my body needs some vitamins again. Then I’ll find another nice coffee place called Young Hickory and create my bullet journal pages for the coming week. I’ve used a bullet journal for a few years now and it’s a great way to plan the weeks, track habits and be creative in the process of making them. The coming days I plan to do quite a lot of work, so I can travel around later in the week. I really love being in San Diego, but think it might also be fun to see a few other places while I’m here.
