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EN. California dreaming, bae

I've done plenty of evil things in my life, so the time to pay for it came. It happened exactly during my Work&Travel trip. The fact that I wasn't allowed to visit Bermudas and losing my swimsuit in Puerto Rico surely wasn't enough. I had to get my car taken away from me in Hollywood too... This is how California welcomed us.


We decided that the right place to spend our first day in California was Los Angeles. We didn't expect much from this city, so we agreed to visit the “must see” places. For us this meant taking walks in Hollywood, Beverly Hills and having some expectations to see one or two celebrities there.

So the first venue we visited was the Walk of Fame, which you can see in many films. Like in any other major city, finding a place to park one's car was almost an impossible task, so we've discovered the nearest petrol station and left our car there. Then we took a walk to the city center. We did actually find the Walk of Fame, but after that, we were unable to find our car. It wasn't there, in the place where we left it.


So what can you do when your car is gone and you're in a foreign country, without money, passport or identifications and all your other valuables are in that missing car?! I was trying to calm myself down convincing myself that stealing a car is a highly unlikely scenario. Something entirely different should have happened. Suddenly we noticed a warning sign near the petrol station and it filled us with hope that everything is okay with our vehicle. The sign contained text “If your car was towed away, call this number: ...”. So we made a call.


However the dude who answered the call simply told me that he didn't tow away any car during last 30 minutes. After hearing this I've felt like someone pulled a rug under my feet.


On the other hand, stories never end badly. In a moment we've found the phone number of another company and during the call we finally knew the location we could find our car. So – it was a happy ending. We had to call an Uber and to take a ride in order to take back our car and we had to pay $250 for it. The next thing we did after that lesson was to simply drive through Beverly Hills, because we wanted to see it's most beautiful street – Rodeo Drive.


After that, we were wearing smiles on our faces and we visited Griffith observatory. It's a free-of-charge astrology museum where you can see the wonderful panorama of Los Angeles. From the observatory we were able to see the Hollywood sign, but I think there are better places for making photos of it. We visited one more city - Santa Monica, too. It's located on the shore of the ocean just not far away from Los Angeles. Here we paid for parking (!), walked on pier (Santa Monica Pier) and ended our day in Thai restaurant, where I've enjoyed such an enticing soup of curried prawns that I still feel the taste of it up to this day. Following this supper we took a walk to see some shops and amused ourselves watching performances of the street artists in the Third street promenade.

During the following day we went to San Diego. While driving Route 1, we've stopped at almost every beach of the Pacific Ocean. And after getting to San Diego we found ourselves in the almost empty beach in the Torrey Pines park.

I said to myself - “I've finally found the most beautiful place in America”. At last I could take a look around myself and see neither big city, nor tourists. My heart was filled with the most pleasurable emotions possible and I didn't want to leave that place. That's because there you can simply sit by yourself on the edge of the cliff, look at the ocean, look at the people exercising nearby and feel the mild salty wind breezing in my face.

The sun was setting so fast at that moment there, so we had to leave our fabulous venue and get a move on to San Diego. To be honest, San Diego itself doesn't have any huge buildings, canyons or anything especially popular like Time Square, but at least for me personally – it's one of the most beautiful cities in America. You can take a walk in the Old City and feel how Western culture is succeeded by Mexican culture (San Diego borders with Mexico and road signs contain warnings that marijuana even for medicinal purposes is illegal in Mexico). There's more, instead of tiny wooden houses, there you can see colorful houses full of spicy smells. We've found for ourselves cheap, yet good Mexican restaurant “La Pinata”, where I enjoyed delicious Chimichanga meal.


Most likely the greatest impression I got was from the wild seals! On the beach of La Jolla Cove there were plenty of seals that were swimming in the water with people and getting warm on the sand. There you can laugh for yourself like a child and don't see any worries around you. The only worrying you`ll be having was the quick rising of the level of water, which caused less and less dry area on the beach. So we got out there and went to see the sunset on The Sunset Cliffs.


The next day was the last day of our trip. We had to go back to Las Vegas, return the car and wait for the flight back to New York. On the way back we visited very tolerant Palm Spring town in the middle of the dessert. There we've seen plethora of rainbow flags fluttering and waiters in the restaurants were speaking exhibiting strange feminine manners. It was extremely hot there. Of course, I mean the temperature outside. We didn't see that much there, we simply enjoyed seeing the palm trees and eating the tastiest pizza in the world.

There came our last Californian sunset in the desert. The bright moon was quick to appear. You can travel and feel how everything has an end. This way the end of our trip has come. Amazing travelling with unexpected adventures – from the moments in Puerto Rico, to losing our car or accidental meeting with friends in Las Vegas. I've proved to myself again, that it's impractical to expect to plan every detail of the trip, it's better to enjoy the challenges that life brings. I'm still smiling, despite laying on the cold floor in an airport. However, I feel that there's much more to see in America, I haven't seen it all yet. There are Chicago, Alaska and many other places left, that I hadn't had time to visit during these two busy summers.


Goodnight, America, some day I'll be with you again!

The final summer travel video is here.

And more photos below.

 














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