Winterbreak - Highway No. 1, Los Angeles and San Diego (Week 19 and 20)

On the 2nd of January, we got up early in the morning and started our trip from San Francisco to L.A. We took the Highway No 1 which is a street at the coast of California with a very beautiful landscape. Our stops were Monterey, Pismo Beach and Santa Barbara.

Late at night we finally arrived in Los Angeles - and then we had to search an Inn - which took us another about 2,5 hours (so our trip lasted about 15 hours)! The next day we visited the Universal Studios - and afterwards drove to San Diego (so I did not really see Los Angeles :(, but I heard that it is not that nice anyway).

The first day in San Diego we first slept in and then we went to the Gaslamp Quarter, the harbor and Silver Strand Beach. The Gaslamp Quarter was really nice, there were a lot of shops and resaurants. At the harbor we had a nice view and Silver Strand Beach was just to cold to visit at this time - there was nothing around and we also could not go swimming because it was too cold.

The next day I visited Sea World. I rode a few wild water roller coasters but far the best part of it were the shows. I watched a Shamu whale, a dolphin and a sea lion show. Furthermore, there were a lot of aquariums and I could see penguins, sharks, turtles and many more creatures of the sea. At the night I went again to the Gaslamp Quarter - it was really nice at night.

Winterbreak - New Year in San Francisco (Week 19)

After I met my parents for a few days in Miami, I caught a flight to San Francisco on December, 29th. After I arrived two friends from Austria picked me up from the airport and after a short stop at the hostel we visited China Town.

At the second day we first went to the pier and then rent bikes and drove over the Golden Gate Bridge. Afterwards we went to the palace of fine arts, had some coffee and at the evening we had a few beers at our hostel and met a few new people.

At December 31th, we first went to the Muir Woods, which is a 45 minutes drive from San Francisco. We hiked around and saw the famous huge red wood trees - they can become 100 meters high and can get a diameter of around 7 meters! After that we went to a lookout point and had a nice view over the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco. At New Years Eve we first had a private party at our room and then went to the pier to view the fireworks. Unfortunately, we went to the wrong place and so we missed more than half of the firework. Afterwards we went to a bar, but it closed at about 1:30 :(, so we went home after that. At the hostel there was another small party going on and so the night had a nice ending.

At January 1st we went to Lombard Street, a famous street in San Francisco, but at this time of the year there were no flowers and so it wasn't that great. Afterwards, we went to Fisherman's Wharf - there are a lot of shops and restaurants, that was really nice. We also made a cruise at the San Francisco Bay. We went under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz. After that we went to Pier 39 and watched the sea lions there.