Traveling to Monterey

Today it's the day of the Lord, 30th of April. Our stay in San Francisco has officially come to an end. We have to say goodbye to the dirty carpet and the unfortunate (homeless) souls that appeared to stay indefinitely in the "European Hostel". Roeland, Teun, Sjors and me also have to say goodbye to the two random French dudes in our room that have been sleeping and watching French television shows almost the entire time. I am not going to miss the shower that was robbed of its head, or the people stealing my food. However, we could definitely say we have seen a glimpse of the real SF. The atmosphere was true to the neighborhood, instead of being a touristic safe haven protected from the homeless people. The craziness of the city was definitely encapsulated by the hostel and its guests, and in a way I'm content with that. 

Although we had to gather around at 9:00, we left only at 9:45. But that was OK, today was going to be a slow day. There was a two hour drive on the schedule to Monterey, a touristic beach town on about 1/4th of the way to LA. 

After leaving the skyscrapers of SF behind us, the sea appeared rapidly through the car windows. The combination of the sea at our right and a green, hilly landscape at our left created quite a view. At a viewpoint by the roadside we stopped for a second to enjoy the view a bit more thoroughly. And if all that wasn't nice and dandy enough already, a pod of whales greeted us from a distance. This moment ties in terms of coolness with the bear we spotted in Yosemite. 

Some stomachs began to rumble, and Jeremy, our driver, decided to make a stop in Santa Cruz, most famous for the iconic boardwalk amusement park. We got a pizza and enjoyed the view (beach volleyball makes women beautiful and vice versa). We were not in a hurry, but decided to get in the car anyways in order to arrive at Monterey somewhat on time. 

At about three o' clock we arrived at our hostel. It became immediately clear that this was quite the upgrade from our previous stay. The rooms looked neat and there was also a big common room. The interior was decorated very homely. Because there was a marathon in the neighborhood, a lot of food was prepared. To our surprise we were free to get any food we liked: pasta salad, sausages, green salad and home-made brownies to top it off. We couldn't have asked for a better welcome. Sjors played on the piano in the common room, receiving great applause from us and some other guests.

There was time for a bit of studying (this is a STUDY trip after all..!), other chose to read a book or listen to some music. Around dinner time I gathered with a small group to find a place to eat. We really tried not to, but it was inevitable: we ended up at a touristic place. The live music made it quite nice however. While they played Otis Redding, we finished our burgers and beer. Although some senior women tried to make Godwin stay on the dance floor, we decided to head home to play some poker and eventually go to bed. The seagulls would lullaby me to sleep.

Manu