San Diego
Prologue
I had been planning this trip ever since I found out that Johnny had to fly to New York for a conference. The reason being, that my best friend of almost 3 years lives in San Diego. I wish that I could've visited Eddie much earlier, but thanks to COVID, this was impossible. Either way, this was a much needed trip, as our friendship has been very rocky recently, and we needed to reconnect. I was mostly excited, but I was also anxious about meeting him. What if we argued? What if we disappoint each other? What if meeting each other in person somehow makes it worse, and ultimately break our already-fragile friendship? Sounds dramatic, but that's how valuable we feel our friendship is.
Arrival
I had many different scenes/ play-throughs in my head of how we were gna first meet each other in person, and how we were gna be around each other. I didn't expect him to be late and not greet me at the arrivals gate (instead, I got annoyed at him for being late, and barked at him to get outa his car to hug and help me with my luggage xD), but that's ok. We were both really happy to finally meet each other, and even though it was a little awkward at first (as with any first meetings), we quickly fell back into our usual rhythm.
First impression of San Diego
This was my third time in San Diego, although it felt like the first time, since previously I travelled here when I was young with my family. I certainly don't remember how big the highways were. So many lanes, fast erratic cars, and spacious. Actually, that last part reminds me of Perth. It was foggy in some areas (The locals call it the "June Gloom”), but otherwise it was sunny and hot most of the time. Yknow, with the kind of sun that packs a bunch of harmful UV rays into your poor non-suncreened skin.
Korean Food
My plane arrived at noon, but my AirBnB wouldn't let me check in until 4pm, so Eddie and I went straight to "Cross Street Chicken and Beer” to have some Korean fried chicken. This area seriously looks like…. Morley. I felt like I hadn't flown for 30hrs and ended up on the other side of the world. This felt so familiar to me, and so was the taste of the chicken (although our Chimek is still much better). Eddie decided that the 2-star Korean sauce wasn't hot enough, so he ordered the 4-star Thai sauce. The sauce itself was disappointing, but he regretted eating the chilli xD
Click the image below to watch the video.
We then went to "Bing Haus” in the same area for some Asian desserts. They had mochi donuts, rolled icecream, and bingsu/ shaved ice on the menu. Eddie discovered that he loves the taste of Thai Milk Tea.
Don't feed the llamas!
Haku & Gifts
We still had some time to kill before I can check-in, so Eddie showed me his neighbourhood. So apparently, he lives in "the hood” (and so does my AirBnB being only 5min away from his sharehouse), and it can get dangerous esp at night. This area didn't look like Perth at all (actually… maybe Gosnells), and more like Indonesia. Everybody had gates and barking dogs. Pretty intimidating.
I got to meet Haku, the first-ever gift/ doggo I gave Eddie all those years ago. I ended up pulling out all his stuffings and washing him. I also gave him some new stuffings! Haku is definitely a well-loved doggo :)
This is the shawl that I crochetted for Eddie's mum. This is my most complex & longest project so far, and omg I don't even want to describe all the trouble I went through. I just hope that she will like it!
These are the other 2 creations I made for Eddie (doge) and his Abuela (Lady of Guadalupe).
Japanese Izakaya
I made a reservation for "Yokohama Yakitori Koubou” 2 weeks before the trip, and the food as well as experience did not disappoint! Eddie had never been to an Izakaya before, nor travelled to Japan, and this place was staffed by entirely Japanese crew and looked so legit.
I ordered my usual yakitori favourites: Nankotsu (cartilage), Sunagimo (giblet), Torikawa (skin). I also wanted Bonchi (chicken butt) but they were unvailable. I ordered Eddie the Omakase set.
While he really liked the food, but he truly enjoyed that night was the Umeshu (plum wine). Our waiter gave us two versions of them. I also ordered a Calpico soju drink. Needless to say, I got pretty drunk since I'm a light-weight, so he had to drive me back to my AirBnB early ;
Brunch/ Lunch
Being the foodie that I am, I knew exactly where to go for brunch: "Snooze, an A.M Eatery”. We both didn't sleep well last night though, so this is what we looked like that morning:
The staff there were nice & thoughtful enough to split our order exactly in half, so that we could try both dishes. They were both delicious, and actually, we were so full from this meal that we didn't anything else today ; Here is our breakfast burrito and French toast:
Have a mentioned how friggin expensive everything is in America??? And how much I hate the tipping culture??? I think we paid over \(60 for this meal, and \)15 for tip. Ugh, ridiculous!
Dave & Buster's Arcade
Our original plan today was to go to the San Diego Zoo, since it's famous and all. Apparently, Eddie's been to the zoo when he was young, but he tripped over and somehow got a concussion that made him forget the entire experience… Which is similar to how I had a short-term amnesia in Bali (thanks to Indonesian doctors prescribing me super-potent antibiotics and sleeping pills), and forgot I went to the zoo there ; Anyway, we managed to walk from the car park to the Zoo entrance before we decided that it was way too hot after all to be walking around under the sun all day.
We contemplated going to the beach to swim, or a waterslide park (unfortunately it was closed), but the end I suggested spending the day at the arcade. $100 worth of credits lasted us about 2 hrs of games. It was really too bad that they didn't have DDR! I've been trying to get Eddie to dance this entire trip, and unfortunately failed in my mission :(
My fave game at Dave & Buster's? Definitely Luigi's Mansion!
Towards the end, we were just trying to use up all our credits, so we played mini games that rack up tickets/ points. We then exchanged those points (1,800) for some prizes. Besides the two little cute squishy animal toys for souvenir, Eddie scored himself a new computer keyboard - Sweet!
Onwards to Mexico (warning: vent ahead)!
Today was honestly the most stressful day in my entire trip (yes, even more than getting extremely lost in the subway maze of NY). Firstly, I only slept for 2hrs the night before. Then in the morning we had to do a bunch of things that caused us to arrive at Tijuana airport only 70min before our departure. When we got there, the long-term parking lot that I was relying on housing Eddie's car for 3 days were full. ADSJFHGAKJSHFDVKAJHVF!!!
Luckily (yea right), we saw a bunch of locals holding up large "PARKING” signs, indicating us to follow them. We were desperate to board our plane so we followed one of their cars to a private parking lot. The entire time Eddie was driving us there, I was panicking and repeatedly saying "I don't trust them. They're gna scam us for sure.” and he replied with "Calm down, we don't have a choice right now. I don't care how much we have to pay.” Also plenty of "I told you we should've just ubered and walked across the border”. Yea yea, I thought we would save money and also store my huge-ass luggage in his car boot this way >___>” Lesson learnt.
Well, I took a sneaky pic of the dude in case I have to report him to the police later (what police, ha!), they took the car keys and off we went in the taxi back to the airport… only to realise halfway that in my panic, I had left my little luggage in his boot (facepalm). One u-turn and crazy Grand-Theft Auto drive later, we finally got there. Disclaimer: If I wasn't so panic-stricken and actually spoke Spanish, I would've handled this much better, but unfortunately I was useless. The scamming motherf%^&*(@ bastard managed to scam $40 USD off us, and we rushed inside the airport.
Thanks to our packing skills, and my organisational skills we didn't have to check-in any luggage, and queued straight for the boarding gates. I could finally breathe again. I swear I had cold sweat running down my back at this point, and Eddie was doing his best to prevent me from exploding. Unfortunately, the stress didn't end here.
We made the mistake of ordering fast food since we were both starving (last meal we had was lunch yesterday!)
Eddie: "How long does it take to cook the food?" (in Spanish)
Server: "10 minutes tops."
10min my ass, 20min later we were still waiting, and at this point, we heard over the PA system "Final boarding call for flight ___ to Guanajuato”. Fark! I ran to the boarding gate, and queued at the very end while constantly updating Eddie on Discord, how long I estimate it'll take before the end of the line. He sprinted towards the gate just in the nick of time - PHEW! >.<
Oops, I Did it Again
The city centre of Guanajuato (because it is a state as well as a city, just like NY) is about an hour away from the airport, but luckily prices in Mexico are much cheaper than the USA. I was in such a hurry getting out of the car that I left my Calvin Klein cap in there.... Oops. Eddie, the incredibly sweet guy that he is, spent a whole day talking to customer service and our Uber driver trying to get my cap back, even though I told him to leave it. He even went outside at about 11pm at night, dark & thunder storming to retrieve it from her. I swear the Uber driver has a crush on Eddie, coz she wouldn't stop messaging him after that! XD That or I guess she wanted to make more money off us.
Guanajuato
As soon as I stepped out into the open, I fell in love with Mexico. Yes, at first I was only interested in Mexico and its culture because of my Mexican friends, but after being there in person, I now know why so many people love the country. Guanajuato itself was beautiful in a rustic and culturally-enriching way. It has been a UNESCO heritage site since 1989 (the year I was born, damn, I'm so old >__>), and this is the place where Don Quixote was made most famous, and was "buried".
The alleyways in Guanajuato were narrow/ cramped, with steep slopes or stairs, and the ground was paved in cobblestones. This made walking difficult and tiring. A whole day walking in NY vs 20min in Guanajuato? The 20min was more exhausting. Apparently there was a really famous alleyway called "Callejon del Beso", but for obvious reason, Eddie and I didn't go there xD
The colours of each house apparently represent the type of housing it is. Blue = store. But I may have heard that wrong, Either way, here's some pretty colourful houses.
Many people believe that the tunnels that connect the main roads in Guanajuato are remnants of the gold & silver mines. But nope, apparently there used to be a river that ran through the city, and people slowly built over the top of it.
Sad story - This used to be a big river, but people would take a shit from those tiny suspended balconies. Compound that with all the metal wastes from the mines, and you get very toxic water. The locals started falling ill and dying because their source of water was contaminated, and to make it worse... in the 1900's, the city majorly flooded. I'm talking about average of 4m here. Imagine dying by drowning in literal shit water D:
We did some exploring, eating & shopping for a few hours. Eddie gifted me with a cute necklace, and he bought himself a silver chain bracelet that I picked out for him :)
I really really really really wanted to buy and take this home with me, but I had no idea how I was gna do it, so I didn't buy it T____T
My fave spot in Guanajuato is this "Jardin de la Union", full of life, full of restaurants, greenery, and most importantly... mariachis xD
Click on the image below to watch the video
We also did a food tour although it wasn't very good because there was a long wait at each place. The guide also wasn't that interesting.
Here's another video below
Eddie can tell you how obsessed with chicharrón I am.
Onwards to... San Miguel?
This is not going to be the only example of unreliable transportations in Mexico, much to my chagrin. Our 2pm pre-booked ETN bus was delayed to 3pm. Once we arrived in San Miguel, the stingy bums that we are, thought we could do the 15min walk to our next AirBnb. I punched the address into my GPS and off we went along the sidewalk and... eh? Into the dirt road apparently... and huh?? Reeeaaally steep up the dirt road. With our luggages. In the middle of the day, in Mexican sunny weather. We got to the spot on my GPS and couldn't find our AirBnB. We were both exhausted, covered in dirt, and drenched in sweat. Ewww! Have I mentioned how surprisingly useful Eddie is on this trip (don't kill me, Eddie! xD)? Not only did he carry most of our luggage himself, and encouraged me to climb that deathtrap of a hill, he asked a few locals where to go and even got one of them to call a taxi for us. Yea... coz it turns out that there are TWO areas with the same street name (why???), and our AirBnB is the one in the city centre, NOT the one in whoop whoop (duhhhhhhh).
Here is us sitting out on the side of the dirt road, ready for the vultures to pick our bones.
San Miguel de Allende
By the time we showered and briefly rested at our AirBnb (as well as a little panic over Eddie misplacing our keys), it was time for dinner. The restaurant that I wanted to go to, "La Azotea" was impossible to book in advance. I tried 3 weeks prior, then Eddie tried calling etc but nope. So of course when we got there, they told us that the rooftop seating (Azotea literally means terrace) was full. I swear I wanted to rip somebody's head off at that point, but I settled for the indoor seating.
The interior luckily was beautiful, and there were even live musicians playing folk music at the back.
I couldn't decide what to eat so my hungry eyes convinced me to order 2 dishes: Pozole & Almond Trout.
I absolutely loved my pozole (actually, the best dish in this trip, hands down)!
Eddie enjoying his Enmolada
Unfortunately due to my poor stomach, we couldn't stick around and had to head back to our AirBnB. This is one of my biggest regret this trip. I would've loved to experience San Miguel's nightlife. On our way back, a group of mariachis randomly started to sing "El mariachi loco quiere bailar", which translates to "The crazy mariachi wants to dance". To my amazement, people on the street started singing and dancing with them, some yelling "Arriiiiiba" or whatever other Mexican noises I didn't catch (Think of that scene from "Coco"). ME ENCANTA ESTO!!! This is what music is all about; the spirit, the spontaneity, the inclusivity across different cultures. It is a universal language and a pure expression of one's emotions. Ok that sounds a bit wank, but hey, I'm a music teacher. It's sad that in Australia we don't have that kind of music ingrained into our culture and way of socialising.
Chilaquiles, where have you been all my life?
The first authentic Mexican dish (coz Zambreros doesn't count!) that Eddie has ever shown me was the chilaquiles. I remember it very fondly. We had only been friends for a few months at that point, and it was the first time in a long time that he was returning to his hometown, Mexicali. When I asked him what his favourite dish was, he said "chilaquiles", and that he'd show me how to make it... Only I didn't know at the time he would take 2 whole hours to make it! XD He had to cut the tortillas into strips one by one, and then deep fry them all before he could do anything else.
Fast forward to today, luckily the dish only took 10min for the restaurant to prepare. Here is the "salsa verde" version. You can also get the red version. Veeeeeerrryy tasty. Would eat again :3
Food Tour #2
Yes, we did another food tour coz why not? This one was much better than the one in Guanajuato.
We started at a restaurant called "Restaurant del Parque", where we had enchiladas. I can't remember how old this building was but it was ooooooollddd. They also had a nice succulent & cactus garden that I absolutely adored. Eddie took like a million photos, but I'll just post a few here.
Then we went to another restaurant called "La Cocina, cafe del viajero" which by the title, you can tell it's also ooooooooold. We had enmoladas, tortilla soup, and mezcal. Our tour guide Omar was very knowledgeable in the history of Guanajuato/ Mexico as a whole as well as in relation to its food, so it was very interesting to listen to while we ate.
Random photos on the street
So, back to enmoladas... They are essentially enchiladas covered in mole sauce. It can be filled with anything you want, really, but I think ours had chicken and crumbled cheese. What's more interesting is the mole sauce (pronounced "mole-ay", not "mole" >__>). Apparently it was created by accident, and there are as many mole recipes as there are Mexican mothers. It generally has some kind of fruits, nuts, chilli, peppers, spices, and cocoa (yes, chocolate). It's thick, and rich in flavour. I liked it, but wasn't blown away by it. To me, the Indonesian "Rujak" with petis is better, with its similar taste. Eddie loves mole so much though, he ate this dish every day we were in Mexico ;
Tortilla soup is very common in Mexico, but I LOOOOOOVE this dish. I think I'm just obsessed with soup. Here, the locals call it "Sopa Azteca".
Now.... this weird concoction called "Mezcal"... It's an alcoholic beverage similar to sake/ soju i guess? Which I don't care about. What's weird for me was the slice of orange that you have to dip into the "bug powder" (whaaa???), and a side of dried crickets. So the order is:
- Sip the mezcal
- Dip the orange into the bug powder and suck on it
- Bite off a piece of cricket
Yes, I tried it. Did I enjoy it? No. I passed it on to Eddie to finish.
Last stop was supposed to be for desserts, but it started POURING with rain. I'm talking about buckets of rain, and the streets were very quickly flooded. So our poor tour guide had to run to get our churros while we got to comfortably wait inside a building. The churros were good (it was covered in dulce de leche), but certainly not the best I've had.
Getting back to our AirBnB to check out proved really difficult. Luckily, I wore boots so I was able to step on puddles. Eddie wasn't so lucky, and his shoes as well as socks got completely soaked through :/
Here is a video of the flood... Well, it would be here, if Eddie would actually send me the video from his phone as I'd ask for >__>
And the snack called "Tostilocos" that Eddie bought before we hopped into our shuttle bus. Yes, it is as delicious and as unhealthy as it looks.
Here we go again... Airport... Ugh...
Yknow how I complained earlier about our bus getting delayed for 1hr? Yea well... It was 2.5hrs delay this time for our flight. To make matters worse:
- We couldn't check-in online and the counter girl was such a bitch about it.
- We had to pay 45 USD for luggage (daylight robbery!!!)
- My battery pack wasn't working
- Our phones were dying (Eddie's was at 6%!)
- We needed his phone when we get back to TJ to call the scammers so we can get his car back
- We don't have enough pesos to pay them IF they ask for another 40USD (but fuck that, I was going to fight them with tooth and nail coz I was angry af)
- They didn't give us seats next to each other AGAIN
Never have I wanted weed more than that moment, coz I was ready to pummel somebody.
I won't bother writing about the rest of today.
Back to San Diego: La Jolla
So I used to say "La Jola” until I finally fixed my pronunciation after Eddie corrected me about 20x. To all the other gringos out there, say it like "La Hoya” (like the plant), ok? This is the nice, upscale, beachy area of San Diego… "where the rich people live. Puah!”, as Eddie described it. To me, it's like any typical coastal areas like The Foreshore in South Perth or Doubleview in North Perth. Anyway, Eddie wanted to go to the beach while I wanted to eat at "Din Tai Fung”, so it was perfect.
Din Tai Fung is an International restaurant branch that originates from Taiwan. It is a place to eat dim sum as well as noodles, but they are most famous for their "xiao long bao” or "Soup dumplings”. The dumplings are created by wrapping solid meat aspic inside the skin alongside the meat filling. Heat from steaming them melts the gelatin-aspic into soup. There is a special method of eating them, and I had fun teaching Eddie how to eat them (as well as teach him how to use the chopsticks properly).
We ordered 2 types:
Pork with black truffle
Pork with crabs
We also ordered a bunch of stuff, all of which Eddie really enjoyed :3
We walked around the outdoor shopping area but they were all high-end branded stuff, so after we had some Haagen-dazs icecream, we went back.
Yeaaaaaa, the beach was forgotten coz it was too friggin hot -____-
Goodbye for Now, but Not Forever (hopefully T____T)
Nothing good last forever, and Eddie and I had to part ways. It was one of the saddest moments of my life. I know you think I'm being dramatic, but even after a week (and probably much longer), I would still feel really down… Mario taught me a word in Spanish that describes it well. "Estoy achicopalado”…
But I want to end this blog on a positive note, even if at the moment all I can feel is a part of my soul missing (I know, cringey teenage emo stuff but whatever >__>).
I feel extremely lucky that I was able to meet my best friend from the other side of the world. I feel so grateful that I'm healthy enough, that I have the financial means, the time to fly 30hrs, and hang out for almost a week with him. I'm so happy that we were able to get along so well (more than we both thought, since we normally argue so much), and most importantly, be able to be ourselves around each other. Finally, I feel truly blessed to have a friend like him in my life.
I had SO MUCH FUN. Mexico was amazing, and I will do my best to return. Thank you for being your wonderful self, and for showing me your culture, Eddie.
Maybe we can ALL meet in Japan next year? Vamos a ir a Japon!!! __
