Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
I think that at the end of my last entry we were heading, in a bit of a hurry, out of San Luis Obispo and the lecherous advances of Buster...we'd decided to head up the coast to a place called Monterey as this would give us an opportunity to visit Hearst Castle and, from there, drive up the Big Sur, one of the most famous roads in America, if not the world. The coastal highway to Hearst Castle is beautiful, I really enjoyed the drive and we arrived at the castle at about lunchtime. It was really busy so we had to hang around for a while to wait for out 'orientation film' to start. We decided to buy a bottle of water from one of the fast food places they had there as it was so hot. It was priced at $2.50 which is the most expensive water we'd seen so far, but it was really hot, so we started to get all our change together to pay the hairy guy behind the counter. He looked at us scrambling to get all the coins out of our purses and handed us the bottle wordlessly along with a receipt which read 'Employee food $0.00' - we're not sure if he was overwhelmed by our stunning good looks and was trying to get on the right side of us or if we looked genuinely so poor that he couldn't bring himself to charge us! Anyway, buoyed on (and also slightly mystified) by the kindness of this stranger, we made our way into the film theatre. The film was really interesting, and we were able to head up to the castle on a coach (on the narrowest windiest cliff road I have ever been on) shortly after it had finished. I'd read in my trusty Rough Guide about the castle being something like a testament to what you can so with endless funds and limitless bad taste, so I was expecting to be completely underwhelmed by it, but I couldn't have been more wrong. Our guide was a little old lady who was so passionate about the place and skilled at making you feel like you were transported back in time that you couldn't fail to enjoy it. The place has the most beautiful outdoor and indoor swimming pools, a private cinema and amazing gardens. There must have been millions of pounds worth of art there, from the 12th or 13th century onwards. The guy whose place it was, who designed it and funded it was a newspaper boss and got into Hollywood, so the castle wouild always be filled with guests like Clark Gable and Katherine Hepburn. I found it fascinating! We both agreed that we were really pleased we'd made the effort to go there (whatever my Rough Guide thinks!) and I was excited to get back on the road so that I could experience the Big Sur, the road I'd read so much about. As we headed north we were drawn by the signs for sea lions or seals (why can I never remember which ones they are?!) at the side of the road, so stopped and found a vista point, where you could see about 20 of them sat on the rocks at the edge of the ocean. It's weird...I kind of always work myself up to be disappointed in these situations, because when you see a sign like that at home there's invariably nothing but rocks to look at when you get there, but California has been endlessly better than I expected. So, sea lions/seals photographed, we moved on. The road runs right along the coast, mostly at the edge of cliffs, but we'd been reassured that driving north is much less terrifying than driving south as you are on the inside of the road and so by the cliffs, as opposed to on the edge of one...I'll take these people's word for it, though I have to say that a few sharp intakes of breath could be heard from the passenger (me) as Emily hurtled along. And no one can call me the slowest driver!It was quite difficult to get photos although we did have the roof down, so there are a good few attempts taken as I hung out the back of the car. I did get a really good one when we did stop at a vista point, but other than that, you'll have to just believe me that it's an amazing road.
We hit Monterey in the early evening and were booked into the hostel for 2 nights. It was probably one of the nicest hostels we'd stayed in so far. In the spirit of saving money we decided to go to the supermarket (the snigger-inducing 'Nob Hill') to buy some food to eat in the hostel rather than going out again. The following morning we visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium. reputedly one of the best in the world. And as aquariums go, it was great. Again that night we ate in the hostel. The following day we realised that having done the aquarium, and not being a big John Steinbeck fan (I think he must have lived there), Monterey was pretty much 'done' (we're such tourists) so we decided to go and sit on the beach. It was a relatively hot day and we thought we'd take advantage, so the bikinis came out. We'd been lying there a while when a local man who must have been observing us for some time (from behind a bush or something!) came over to enquire what we were doing. My natural sarcastic streak fully tamed after having been here for 10 days, I looked up and explained that we were doing what is commonly known as sunbathing. He seemed to find this quite amusing as in his words it was a 'bit chilly'. Admittedly there was a bit of a (cold) breeze in the air, but I don't just get my bikini out willy nilly so we'd been braving it out! I explained that being from the UK, we considered this positively subtropical. After chuckling and inviting us to join him and his (possibly homeless down and out) mates for a beer, he wandered off. Feeling a little bit stupid, we headed back to the hostel shortly afterwards.
A place called Santa Cruz a bit further up the coast had been recommended to us as an obvious place to stop before getting to San Francisco and, having gained a day in our schedule, as I'd misread my diary and givwn us one less day than expected in San Diego, it seemed like a good idea. I'd read that Santa Cruz is a hippy town with a beach and boardwalk and stuff. A guy from the UK we'd met in Monterey had told us it was a bit like Blackpool, before reconsidering and saying it was more like Skegness. Having not been to either of these places that didn't mean much to me, but there didn't seem to be much to 'do' there, so we'd decided in advance that we would lie on the beach and have another go at getting a bit of a tan. What everyone we'd talked to had failed to mention was the fact that the weather deteriorates the more north you go in California and it was grey!! Probably not dissimilar to Skegness in September. We found a cafe and settled ourselves in for the foreseeable future. The hostel weirdly was closed during the day, so we couldn't check in. And...wait for it...it had an 11 o'clock curfew!! What's all that about?!? So we sat in this sad little cafe for as long as was politely possible and then headed out to'explore'. After having encountered a man we now know to be a local celeb called Slow Bob, who is a middle aged man dressed in a bright pink dress carrying a pink parasol with his face painted as a clown, walking down the street, as his name would suggest, very slowly, and a man wearing a full length cape with a cat on his shoulder, we ended up in the cinema. I know it seems ridiculous, but it was cold! We saw the Last Kiss with that guy out of Scrubs it. It was quite good. We eventually headed over to the hostel, which was in a residential neighbourhood. They'd had to impose the curfew in order to get planning permission or something. We headed out early, on the premise that we had to be back early so we needed all the time could get. We had eaten and wandered up and down the street in Santa Cruz a few times by 7.45pm!! Deciding to head back to the hostel thinking there may be a common room or something, we found there was nothing...so we headed back to our room, where we met our room mate for the night (and thankfully no longer) - a middle aged woman who smelt of BO and antiseptic cream. She told us she had oiled the bedroom door as it had kept her awake the night before, and went to bed. By 8.30pm she was snoring and we were creeping around like pillocks. By 9pm we were tucked up in bed with our books (crazy times!) By 11pm we admitted defeat and turned the light off. At 1am our room mate got up, stumbled round the room a bit and went and had a very noisy shower! At 1.30am we managed to get back to sleep (after she'd come back and got back into bed.) At 7am she was up again. And in the shower again. She returned to the room shortly afterwards, got dressed and went out. We again admitted defeat and got up. Emily tells me that while I was in the shower, she came back and got changed again before once again leaving. We weren't sad to be leaving Santa Cruz. x
- comments