Gringo Tour 08/09 Part 8

Ant had booked our hotel (Sheraton) through Hotwire - a US internet company where you get discounted accommodation rates but you don't know where you are booking into until you have paid for the room via a credit card. The hotwire "area" was quite big (for the San Diego harbor) but we ended up booking the Sheraton which was right next door to the airport (!).

We had thought about a plan to try and catch a bus from the Amtrak station at San Diego to the airport and then get a free Sheraton shuttle from the airport - but it was absolutely pisshing down and we didn't really know where to go to catch the bus (also Ant seems to have a morbid fear of umbrellas because he didn't bring one with him on the trip).... so we hailed a taxi right next to the station.

The taxi ride was fairly quick and cheapish (a bit over $10USD). Upon arrival at the Sheraton - it seemed like one of the classiest (not spelt with a K) hotels we have stayed at for some while. Even though the building is a bit 80s - the interior has been completely renovated (recently by the looks of it). Our room was pretty awesome - a big bed, a big flat screen TV, a recycling bin (! - a first for hotels), a water saving shower head (! - a first for hotels in the states - the LA hotel had two non-saving shower heads!) and a balcony facing the pool and nearby marina...

We headed out to the concierge desk to find out how exactly do we get to town. The woman replied saying "Do you have a car? If not - just catch a taxi!". (a somewhat typical American response - with no suggestion of catching public transport). We asked whether we could get a bus - and she said that we should take the Sheraton Shuttle to the airport and catch the local bus from there.

The biblical showers had eased and it wasn't raining anymore (just really overcast). We decided to walk (!) into town along the marina and harbor. The hotel was just about 500m away from the Terminal 1 (how convenient!). The walk into town only took about 45 minutes. The footpath was in quite good nick and Ant had spent most of the time plane spotting at the nearby airport.

Along the main touristica part of the harbor - we got touted (first tout for our trip). There was some manic woman who was riding a bicycle cart thing who said we could get a lift to the Gaslamp Quarter of San Diego. We said no. But she must of interrupted that "no" means "keep bugging us for another 5 minutes". After we ditched the tout manic woman - our stomachs were hungry (it was about 2 or 3pm and we hadn't had anything substantial since our 7am IHOPs) and we wandered downtown to the vicinity of "Horton Plaza" - San Diego's big downtown shopping mall.

Upon arrival to the aforementioned plaza - it was a "Westfield shopping centre"... joy (cough cough). Horton Plaza was one o those weird "outdoor multi-level malls" where everything was pretty much exposed to the elements (including the OH&S slippery stairs everywhere). We were really getting close to Xmas (it was going to be in a couple of days time) - and the San Diego mall felt a little bit busier than LA malls - but you know - a normal day in the Canberra Centre still felt busier than here.

We made our way to the top level where there was a kinda food court (more like a food balcony) which had Cinnabon (which made sugary donut stuff), a pretzel shop (these pretzels are indeed making me thirsty), a Ben and Jerrys (an American ice cream chain - nutritious) and a Panda Express (think fast food franchise version of those dodgy chinese lemon chicken RSL deals). We settled on a Mediterranean Grill - which had really yummy kebabs which were much more delicious than the Australian varieties.

We had a bit of browse around the mall. We bought some dilly/toiletry bags at Macys which had mis-scanned at the checkout ($10 cheaper than already discounted price). I could finally say goodbye to my krusty old dilly bag which was over 10 years old and had been harboring new strains of e-coli or something. I also bought a t-shirt at Nordstrom (a big jewish-sounding department store which is all over the states). I had also bought a couple of DVDs at Sam Goodys (a sort of Virgin/HMV megastore which had a pretty good collection of new and used stuff). Ant checked out the Abercrombie and Fitch shop (sort of a really popular gay-esque store selling "frat-house" clothes). They had a big vaporizer machine out the front blowing out the scent of the new A&F cologne. But Ant and I thought it stunk like essence de $2-man whore. Ant was a bit underwhelmed by the selection and prices (some of this stuff is cheaper in Australia). Plus he thinks that the A&F brand isn't as exclusive as it once was because they are beginning to sell the stuff at crappy DFOs in Australia.

It was beginning to get dark (gets dark around here about 5ish) and we checked out the Gaslamp Quarter. It felt a little touristy (heaps of bars, restuarants and upper-end hotels) but was quaint enough - with gaslamp-esque lamps aligning the street (although I'm sure they were powered by electricity). We stumbled across a big old theatre in the Quarter where there was a 6:45pm session of "Australia" showing. I had this perverse desire to watch Australia in the states and was a bit surprised that it was still showing (thought it had tanked in the states). We bought some tickets (which were about the same as non-discounted cinema tickets back home in Australia). The theatre was quite quiet - and we were thinking - we might be the only ones here! But alas - there were a couple of guys sitting down the front (so a total of 4 people watching Australia...). I was trying to work out if the guys in front were gay. San Diego is a big military town (Marines and Navy are based here - obviously because it is right at the border between the US and Mexico) and there are a town of gay bars in town (obviously). The guys looked like marines or something and were sitting a couple of seats apart - but they were together.... but they were watching Australia... I couldn't tell. The trailers were running overtime - the movie was supposed to start at 6:45pm but it was closer to 7:10pm by the time the movie started. There were some weird propaganda army ads with "3 Doors Down" signing a song about a "Citizen Patriotic Solider" or something - which reminded me of Starship Troopers (want to be a citizen??).

I actually enjoyed Australia - I wasn't really expecting to given the dodgy reviews and the type of movie that it was. Perhaps the first hour or so felt a little jumbled (maybe if they re-edited with more - it could have been a much better film) but overall I liked it. Ant thought they could have separated it into two movies (the droving first half as one movie then the Darwin/WWII as a second film).

Because the film is almost 3 hours - we didn't leave till almost 10:45pm. We found a little pizza shop and ordered a Medium Pepperoni pizza to share between us for dinner (latino time baby). We hoped on a local metro bus to the airport (only $2.25 for a one way ride, $5 for an all day pass... cheap as) and got off at Terminal 1 (the closet terminal to our hotel) - and crashed for the night (after a bad sleep at KBF Resort with that little 5 year old s### that woke us up... Till next time..