Travelogue :  "L'auberge espagnole" and California, Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, NYC

Travelogue-Specials:

After saying good bye to Johanna and Sebastian and to our villa in Malibu, we (Panka and me) started our tour through California in our rental car: a nice convertible (Chrysler Sebring)! We could have chosen a Ford Mustang, too, but as we saw the trunk and compared it to our luggage, we had to refuse unfortunately... However, at least we could remove our top often as we had great during the whole trip!

The highlights of our short California-tour were the following:

Yosemite National Park
We saw beautiful amd breathtaking landscapes and many animals, just not a single bear, but maybe it was also better like that...

San Francisco
Beautiful city with a lot of atmosphere, just parking there is really a nightmare, but in the end we solved it pretty intelligent. We were really lucky, too, as we saw the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz on a sunny day!

San Jose/Gilroy
In Gilroy we went shopping in the Outlet-Center and in San Jose we watched a NHL Pre-Season-Game between the San Jose Sharks and the Anaheim Ducks. Although it was just a "friendly match", the players took it really seriously, which can be underlined by the number of fights in the first third: FIVE! Also the atmosphere was great and so we had a fun time!

17-Mile-Drive/Highway No. 1
Breathtaking views after each curve, one more beautiful than the other. We also saw a lot of seals and elephant seals on the way (after we saw sea-lions already in SF).

Santa Barbara
Some kind of "home"-feeling and so we visited my former "playground" Isla Vista and UCSB-campus, but we also had a great time downtown.

Los Angeles
Finally we saw also the "Rodeo Drive", although without buying something... Afterwards we went to Venice Beach again and stayed overnight at Mike's house, so that we met him and his family, had a delicious dinner and refreshed us after the record heat on that day: 46 degrees!! On the next day Mike showed us also some hidden spots on "Palos Verdes Peninsula". Thanks, Mike!

San Diego
Actually we did not plan to spend so much time (nearly three days) in SD, but as Alex (one of my UCSB buddies) and Josh (his roommate) were so great hosts, we decided to postpone our trip to Mexico a little bit. We had a fun time in the city, walked around the Gaslamp Quarter, went bowling, had great food and also had some drinks occasionally...let´s say it that way, we got prepared for Mexico! Thanks buddies for the great time! See you sometime in Europe!

Finally on Friday, October 1st, we started by bus to Mexico...