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I messed up...if you're reading this, read the entry dated 26 September first!
Because it's taken such a long time for us to get internet access it feels like I'm writing about things that happened years ago when it's actually only 6 days! The day after we went to Tijuana we decided to go to the 'world famous' San Diego zoo. We're getting into this economising lark (or at least Em is and I'm trotting obediently behind her) and so decided to take the free shuttle bus. Stevey from Barnet came with us...he's clearly a glutton for punishment...and we trekked off to the bus stop. We hung around for a good 20 minutes before accepting defeat that the bus wasn't coming and then made the decision to walk. Now as most of you know I don't do much walking - I even drive to my mum's house! - but living in the centre of Cardiff as she does, Emily does even less. I hadn't heard the last of it when we walked to Venice Beach a few days earlier, so frankly this was a brave decision. Particularly when it turned out to be about 3 miles. The weather was beautiful though so I comforted myself with the thought that if I had to walk 3 miles at home it'd probably be chucking it down and blowing a gale. So things could've been worse. Anyway, San Diego Zoo is in a big park called Balboa Park, which claims to be the US's largest urban cultural park. We of course debated for some time whether it was actually a tribute to Rocky Balboa, but decided it was unlikely...would be great if it was though, wouldn't it?! So the zoo is nice, in the way that zoos are. One of the things that makes this zoo stand out is that they aim to keep the animals in what they call 'psychological cages' - so the lions aren't behind glass or wire fences, but they are separated by a moat as lions won't swim. Tigers on the other hand will, so they're more segregated. I'd read this before going there and so was kind of expecting to be roaming at one with the wildlife and it doesn't work quite like that, but it was a cool place nonetheless. Something else that makes San Diego Zoo special is that they have successfully bred a giant panda. I have to say I really did get a bit trigger happy with the camera when we got to the panda enclosure as they are so cute, but of course on looking at the photos most of them are of the pandas' ar$es.
The three of us got the local bus back (another rare occurrence I know, but needs must) before heading out in search of food which was a bit more inspirational than TGIs. All the restaurants in the area where we were staying were quite high end with hostesses on the door. You know you don't match their target audience when they don't even try and talk to you though, so we had a half hour or so of fruitless wandering before I suggested going back to the hostel to check out the recommendations in my trusty Rough Guide. While we were hanging around there, a couple of American guys started talking to us. They turned out to be sailors (as many of the blokes in San Diego are what with it being a port) who were ''checking out what a hostel is like'' in case they ever wanted to stay in one whilst in weird and wonderful places with their work (they were able to tell us that they were headed for Abu Dhabi next but admitted they had no clue where it is...fills you with confidence, doesn't it?!) They were hysterical. And they found us hysterical. The one was a little bit more worldly wise than the other, who wanted to know if Wales was in Australia and if the 3 of us spoke English as a first language, but both were fairly clueless...They decided that as we were clearly down on our luck they would take us under their wing and we'd all go together to find somewhere to eat. Not that they'd ever been to San Diego either. But hey, this is the weird stuff that happens when you're travelling, isn't it? The two of them were given expenses each day and so decided that they would pay for our food...so to all intents and purposes the American government paid for us. We had dinner on Bush. So to speak. So they took us to that most American of establishments - Hooters. Have you heard of it, Mum? It's where all the staff are female and wear the smallest uniforms ever. It's a classy place. They do a roaring trade in towns which are ports as the place is heaving with men. I can safely say it was one of the least satisfying meals of my life, but it was funny. Our waitress was really sweet, her name was Tiffiney (yes, that's how it was spelt) and her boyfriend came from Swindon. We also met her mum who was there for some reason who was really proud that her one daughter was a Hooters girl and the other was a waitress in this strange place in San Diego where the wait staff are really rude to you - it's some sort of marketing gimmick apparently. Sounds like a night out at home to me! I found her aspirations for her daughters and her pride kind of morbidly fascinating but sweet at the same time. But then she christened her daughter Tiffiney so that probably says a lot...) Tiffiney found it very amusing that we only remembered after we placed our orders that we hadn't even asked one another our names...Matt was 22, had 2 kids by different women, but had married them both (at separate times) and had the cartoon characters from the Disney film A Land Before Time tattooed on his arm and the name of his (first) wife tattooed on his ar$e. Luke (the fitter of the two) was engaged (although Matt assured me that in the States they're single until they actually get married) and seemed to be there really just to make sure Matt looked both ways before crossing the road. Anyway, we had a fairly mental evening with them. We ended up in a bar called Whiskey Girl which was full of men who looked like they'd just left work, as shoe salesmen. Matt and Luke were drinking something called Jagerbombers, which is a glass of Redbull with a shotglass of Jagermeister dropped into it, as if they were drinking halves of Fosters, whilst trying to perfect their undercover English accents. They told us that there are certain bars in all the ports that they're not meant to go into where there will be government spies looking for mill-i-terry men and trying to trick them into admitting they're somewhere they shouldn't be. They'd decided that in this situation it'd be good to have a cover up...so, to all you government spies out there, if you meet to D!ck Van D!ke soundalikes ''cor blimey guvnoring' all over the place, don't take their words for it...
We got in, fairly well oiled, at about 2.30am and were rudely awakened the following morning at about 7am by our German room mates who were leaving for Fiji. Our first American hangovers! x
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