It’s around 4.30am and I’m in the shower at the hostel where I’m staying the coming days. The shower head reaches just over my shoulder, so I have to bend a bit to get water on my head. Just a detail, but it makes me realize again how good things are back home. Simple things like a good shower are easy to take for granted until you’re in a place where you don’t have it.
I chose to stay in a hostel the first days to save a bit on the costs, but I realize quickly that I’m not used to it anymore. The last few years I’ve stayed only at hotels and that comes with a bit more comfort, like quiet rooms and large beds. Fortunately I brought sleep headphones to block out the noises from outside. I also brought melatonine this time and that helps a lot to get more sleep in the first night. Usually the jet lag isn’t too bad going this way, I just wake up early. For me that’s a good thing anyway, because it gives me some time to catch up on work before the sun comes up.
After the shower I walk downstairs to the lobby, open my laptop and am surprised by the few emails there are. Then I realize it’s Easter of course. I email some clients and make my plans for the day. I think that while I’m here I’ll work a few hours early in the morning and then take the rest of the day off. Work from 5am to 9am or so and then enjoy vacation time. The time difference helps a lot with that, because when it’s 9am in California it is 5pm in the Netherlands, so most people are done working then.
As I think about what I’d like today, I laugh to myself. What I really want is just to relax at a coffee place and do some reading and writing. Something I also do regularly back home. I didn’t have to travel around the world for that, but of course the nice California weather will also make that a lot more comfortable. While writing this, I think about how I could also go straight to my favorite coffee place. It’s in a town just outside of San Diego. Normally I drive there, but I will not have a car until Monday so I check how I could get there. If I leave the hostel around 6am I can take a bus and the coastal train to get there. It’ll take about two hours in total, so I could have coffee and breakfast there around 8am. That sounds like a fun plan. Since there is no urgent work, I might as well enjoy this first vacation day a bit early.
The walk to the bus station is very nice. This neighborhood is on some high hills and it gives me a great of the skyline of downtown in the distance. Except from a few people walking their dogs it’s quiet outside. That’s one of the things I like about getting up early, waking up before the rest.
After a few minutes waiting the bus arrives at the bus stop and I’m heading to the train station. Fortunately I still have my Pronto card from last year and apparently I had some money left on it, I’m happy that I could use the bus with it last night and this morning. At the train station I charge my card again. When the train arrives I realize that I’m standing at the wrong track and I run as fast as I can to the other side. I make it just in time. When I’m in the train there is a beeping sound and the doors close right behind me. I’m happy, because the next train would be in an hour or so. I take a seat by the window and not much later the conductor walks by to check tickets. He tells me “That was you sprinting? You’re in good form!” It makes me feel great, apparently not having worked out the past few weeks hasn’t totally put me out of shape. I had already decided to pick up my workout routine again when I’m back home and a comment like this is very encouraging.
The train ride is beautiful, it goes right along the ocean. It’s fun to sit in a train looking outside watching people walking at the beach.
In about twenty minutes I arrive in the town of Encinitas. As I walk at the sidewalk, enjoying the fresh air and sight of palm trees, I’m thinking to myself that I’m so glad I did this.
After about twenty minutes walking I see the big yellow building of Pannikin Coffee appear. It’s my favorite coffee place in the world and I’m happy to be back here. I order their fantastic breakfast burrito and a black coffee and sit down at the terrace.
Sitting here, enjoying the food and fresh ocean air I’m happy I made that long flight again. I read a bit and write in my journal and order a cappuccino and cinnamon roll, that’s my usual order here. At some point there is an older guy sitting down at a table next to me. He talks for a bit with the manager and reads his newspaper while also enjoying a coffee and pastry. We start talking and I soon sit down at his table. He tells me about this place and about how the same people have worked here for decades. We cannot help to also talk about politics and he says he’s concerned about the current state of affairs. Apparently there was money promised to restore and improve the rail line here along the coast, but that’s all pulled back. After politics we talk also about travel and other things. We have a fun time together and keep talking for at least half an hour or so before he has to go. I give him my website and email and he tells me he’d like to have another coffee some day. I love meeting new people like this. It’s one of my favorite things in America. It often feels that people here are more open to meet strangers than back home. A simple “How are you?” can easily lead to meeting new friends.
Just before noon I take the bus to the next town, Carlsbad, and walk around there for a while and have lunch. Then I text with my friend Brittany who lives in San Diego and since she’s free today, we decide to meet in the afternoon. I take the train back south and meet some more friendly people. A couple from a town near LA who are on vacation in San Diego and explain me everything about time-shares, houses and apartments you can buy to use one week per year. That way they go on vacation all over the place. They also tell me that there was an earth quake here last week and that it’s a bummer I missed it. The man shows me a video about how the elephants in a zoo all reacted to it.
We keep talking until we arrive at Old Town, the train ride back feels like it went by a lot quicker. We say goodbye and I stroll around Old Town. Like the name already says, it’s the oldest part of the city. It’s a kind of outdoor museum of the first houses here. After Old Town I hike up the neighboring hill which gives a nice view of a big part of the city. Then my friend Brittany arrives. She has a new car, a nice SUV and besides that it’s great to see her again it’s also fun to ride in that big car. We go to the ocean where she had seen a hiking trail on the map. She hasn’t done this hike before either and it’s a pretty one. It goes through the coastal hills and along the rocky shore. The weather starts to clear up as well. Where it was still cloudy in the morning, blue skies and sunshine appear now. We walk and talk to the end of the trail and back. It’s great to catch up again. Despite that we see each other only about once a year, we always have great conversations with each other.
After the hike we drive back to Ocean Beach where we go to a great Mexican restaurant that we discovered last year. The food is still fantastic and so is the beer. In California they have some of the best IPA’s and of course the sunny weather and day outside make them taste even better. We go for another walk to this hippie neighborhood and then drive back. Brittany lives not far from the hostel where I’m staying, so that’s convenient. It’s only about 7pm, but I’m feeling tired from the long day. It was a fantastic first vacation day, very spontaneous and more fun than I could have imagined this morning. I surely did a lot.
