{"@context":{"rdf":"http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#","rdfs":"http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#","owl":"http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#","foaf":"http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/","dc":"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/","dct":"http://purl.org/dc/terms/","sioc":"http://rdfs.org/sioc/types#","blog":"http://vocab.amy.so/blog#","as":"https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams#","mf2":"http://microformats.org/profile/","ldp":"http://www.w3.org/ns/ldp#","solid":"http://www.w3.org/ns/solid#","view":"https://terms.rhiaro.co.uk/view#","asext":"https://terms.rhiaro.co.uk/as#","dbp":"http://dbpedia.org/property/","geo":"http://www.w3.org/2003/01/geo/wgs84_pos#","doap":"http://usefulinc.com/ns/doap#","time":"http://www.w3.org/2006/time#"},"@graph":[{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/2016/05/breaking-news-san","@type":"as:Note","as:content":"
Breaking news: San Diego is awesome. More on this later.
","as:location":{"@id":"geo:32.7315,-117.1502;u=2.5999999046325684"},"as:published":{"@type":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime","@value":"2016-05-20T23:02:33+01:00"},"as:summary":"Amy wrote about travel, ca2016, san, & diego","as:tag":[{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/ca2016"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/diego"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/san"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/travel"}]},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/2016/05/couchsurfing","@type":"as:Note","as:content":"CouchSurfing reminds me that people are SO NICE it warms my heart. And you know me, I don't even like people. Maybe it's just the kind of people who give strangers a key to their home, offer them anything in their fridge and even drive them around. I'm SO glad I didn't hostel San Diego, and cost isn't even on the list of reasons.
","as:published":{"@type":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime","@value":"2016-05-21T07:09:10+01:00"},"as:summary":"Amy wrote about travel, ca2016, couchsurfing, san, & diego","as:tag":[{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/ca2016"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/couchsurfing"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/diego"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/san"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/travel"}]},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/2016/05/san-diego-01","@type":"as:Article","as:content":"I arrived in San Diego on the Greyhound, struggled to figure out how to top up a public transit card with anything other than a $7 day pass, gave up and jumped on an approaching bus because they're infrequent, didn't have the right change so resigned myself to giving up $5, and a nice lady supplied my missing $1 so I could make the correct fare after all. So that was a welcoming start.
\r\nThe bus announcement voices have a kind of lisp... "stop requischtid"
\r\nTurns out San Diego is one of those US cities where I can't get a data connection on my phone.
\r\nMy CouchSurfing host had been held up, so she let me know where to find the spare key, and I let myself into her house, and hung out with her beautiful fluffy cat, Kafka. Kafka wanted all of the cuddles.
\r\nMy host came home and we drank tea and chatted. I went to Sprouts grocery store (very similar to Wholefoods) for a quick instant-noodle dinner, then eventually crashed. I had a mattress on the floor in a private room. The next morning my host left for work before I woke up, and I enjoyed a reasonably productive morning on her couch catching up on life and administrative tasks. Kafka helped with my CHI expense report by sitting on all of my receipts as I tried to sort them out.
\r\nEventually I ventured out. I walked through University Heights and Hillcrest, cool districts with lots of lively restaurants and thrift shops. I found the Spruce Street suspension bridge, which is where a normal neighbourhood is suddenly a canyon full of trees with a massive bridge across. It was stable, but moved just enough underfoot to be unnerving.
\r\nI proceeded to Balboa Park, which I've heard was worth going to, but imagined like a park, not massive canyons and hills. It felt wild and had groundhogs darting around but it's also sliced through by freeways, so had that special USAmerican kind of nature vibe. There were pretty good views of downtown San Diego from some points. By accident I ended up in the central part of the park which is suddenly civilised and full of museums (none of which were free). There's a botanical 'building' that looks like it's made from massive bamboo straws or something. Lots of people around and I walked through the background of at least one wedding and one graduation ceremony. I saw cable cars overhead and looked for them, but figured eventually they must be in the zoo. I wandered more, aiming for where HappyCow told me would be a vegan restaurant. I found the WorldBeat Cultural Center, which it turns out is where the restaurant was, and hung out there for a couple of hours eating Jamaican curry and a big cinnamon roll. Food was good and cheap, and atmosphere was quiet and friendly and hippie. Stuff going on in the background like business meetings and dance classes; was a nice backdrop to get my laptop out for a bit.
\r\nMy legs were aching by that point. Not from the 7 mile walk I'd just done surely... but perhaps from the fact I'd walked about an average of ten miles every day for over a week. My CS host offered to pick me up! Which she did, and then gave me a driving tour of downtown San Diego, and Coronado island. Coronado is an upscale neighbourhood on an island, surrounding a military base, reachable across a massive road bridge. We parked and took a walk along the front; mostly fancy hotels, beaches, posh people..
\r\nWe ate at Muzita Ethiopian restaurant (yum!) and my host dropped me at a transit station where I caught a bus to my next CS destination.
\r\nMy new host picked me up from the bus stop! (Americans and cars! Not complaining..). I met her kitties and we talked about pets and breakfast and plans for the weekend. Then I went to sleep in a lovely room of my own with a real bed in it.
","as:name":"San Diego 01","as:published":{"@type":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime","@value":"2016-05-20T11:59:16-07:00"},"as:tag":[{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/balboa"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/ca2016"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/california"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/couchsurfing"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/diego"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/san"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/travel"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/usa"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/vegan"}]},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/2016/05/san-diego-02","@type":"as:Article","as:content":"Sitting on the sofa in my host's lovely home after a fun evening with her family. Fiona, the timid cat, was eyeing me up like she wants to be on the sofa but is too shy to ask. She eventually elected for the top of a big cat toy across the room, from where she continues to watch me resentfully. Yoshi, the less timid cat, is content in a little basket.
\r\nI got up lateish this morning and after coffee and breakfast and talking about pets, my host and I drove to La Jolla, an upscale seaside neighbourhood in the north of San Diego. We walked along the coast, enjoying the sun, watching the waves crash and baby seals play in the surf.
\r\nWe drove back to pick up supplies and make lentil and black bean chilli, cilantro and almond pesto (who knew pesto goes with chilli) in time for her nieces and their families to arrive for dinner. A nice evening talking about travel, tech, and life in general. A four year old instructed me on stirring the chilli, ate copious amounts of my homemade coconut oil+cocoa+coconut sugar chocolate, and made me draw snowflakes and build a helicopter from blocks. Once I was on the floor amongst the child chaos it was hard to get up again.
","as:name":"San Diego 02","as:published":{"@type":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime","@value":"2016-05-21T23:11:08-07:00"},"as:tag":[{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/ca2016"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/california"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/couchsurfing"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/diego"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/lajolla"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/san"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/travel"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/usa"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/vegan"}]},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/2016/05/san-diego-03","@type":"as:Article","as:content":"We took a scenic drive through the desert, through Ramona, St Ysabel, Julian, and a bit of the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. The desert here is piles of rocks, lots of scrub and occasional cacti. The roads twisted between foothills or cut straight through the sides. We walked a little away from the road and had lunch in the sun with some stunning views; then stopped in quaint Julian - famous for apples - on the way back for apple pie (their traditional apple and all suga-rfree varieties are vegan). I chose boysenberry and apple.
\r\nWe're both exhausted, despite having been sitting in a car for most of the day. I guess watching miles of foothills roll by took it's toll.
\r\nWe had dinner at Sipz, a mostly vegan Asian fusion restaurant in Clairmont. Miso soup, edamame, BBQ 'pork' bun, dragon roll (very saucy), spicy basil with not-chicken and brown rice. Most of that is for breakfast. The had some great desserts I wanted to try, but no space.
","as:name":"San Diego 03","as:published":{"@type":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime","@value":"2016-05-23T21:03:17-07:00"},"as:tag":[{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/ca2016"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/couchsurfing"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/desert"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/diego"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/san"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/vegan"}]},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/2016/05/san-jose","@type":"as:Article","as:content":"I didn't have high expectations for San Jose, so it was fine. The weather was good all week and vegan food was easy to come by. The middle of Downtown is nice enough, and the university campus is pretty and green, but otherwise kind of... not desolate, but industrial I guess. Contrived. Everything was closed or not serving food by 9 or 10pm, which was inconvenient. The Martin Luther King Jr Library is a good place to work; quite, plenty of desk space, and nice views of the city from the higher floors.
\r\nI ate... a vegan hotdog at Original Gravity; various Asian food at Vegetarian House (twice, friendly, taro smoothie!); rice and beans burrito at Iguanas Burritozilla (twice); bubble tea from Boba Bar (soy milk options) and ThirsTea (all made with non-diairy creamer, bonus points for punning); fresh watermelon juice from the place next to Boba Bar; delicious healthful hearty meals and amazing Mayan chocolate pie from Good Karma (twice); sushi from Fuji Sushi; coffee from Social Policy.
\r\nI ran the length of Guadalupe Park, and wandered around the rose garden. It was sometimes isolated, and sometimes the highway was audible or visible.
\r\nCHI post later..
","as:name":"San Jose","as:published":{"@type":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime","@value":"2016-05-13T21:00Z-0700"},"as:tag":[{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/ca2016"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/jose"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/san"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/travel"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/usa"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/vegan"}]},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/san","@type":"as:Collection","as:totalItems":{"@type":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#nonNegativeInteger","@value":"6"}},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/san?before=https://rhiaro.co.uk/2016/05/san-diego-03&limit=16","@type":"as:CollectionPage","as:items":[{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/2016/05/san-diego-03"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/2016/05/san-diego-02"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/2016/05/couchsurfing"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/2016/05/breaking-news-san"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/2016/05/san-diego-01"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/2016/05/san-jose"}],"as:name":"san","as:partOf":{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/san"}}]}