It was an easy hour flight to San Diego. I took an Uber and arrived around 8pm to my hostel, ITH Zoo Hostel. It is by far the biggest hostel I've stayed at and it's because this specific one was home to a lot of volunteers, students (mainly), and travelers. It reminded me a lot of college dorms and there were probably more than 100 beds. After tiptoeing into my room (a girl was sleeping) I dropped my backpack down and walked to the nearest open dessert place. I had a creme brulee cheesecake and pineapple upside down cake.
The next morning I walked to Balboa Park and failed to realize that museums don't open that early. I think I was there around 7am but I continued to stroll around and came to appreciate the quietness of it. I was here before when there was a lot of traffic and had to dodge a few strollers.
The good thing about this hostel is that everyday there is a tour/event so I went on the tour and it became a really great highlight of this trip. We stopped at La Jolla and the veteran's memorial. I can't explain the joy I felt seeing so many sea lions and seals up close. I've never been so close so it was an incredible experience for me. I had a funny moment when I was trying to get closer to this baby seal but there were also baby birds and a mama seagull nearby. I think she felt threatened so she kept swooping circles around me.
I had lunch with 2 guys, one from Switzerland and another from Rome. We talked a lot about our cultural differences and tipping etiquette was one of them. The guy from Rome asked me if it was mandatory to tip here and the guy from Switzerland was quick to reply, "yes or it's very rude!" He was very adamant on this so he's been leaving tips everywhere including tables at fast food joints. And it's something I never thought about before, how do other countries feel about tips? I know tipping for me in which he is right, feels mandatory. Through bad or good service, it feels like if there's a space for tip then I feel like I must despite how I felt about the service. It's more so out of courtesy because it's ingrained in our culture that our tips make up for most of the workers' salary as well. In other cultures their salaries as servers may be higher to compensate for such things as tips. I believe this was what the guy from Rome was trying to say. In his culture, servers can live off their regular salary.
Back at the hostel, I asked a girl to play pool with me since there was a table. It was my first time! I was awful and kept knocking the cue ball in. She was on her 8ball when someone decided to show me how to properly hold the pool stick and out of some magical pure luck, I managed to win. I was invited out to taco tuesday and we went in a large group of 15 to this very crowded restaurant. After 15 minutes of endlessly waiting in line, I felt bad but decided to skip out and went for ramen instead. Definitely worth it.
I will definitely revisit San Diego someday just to go to the zoo. I wanted to hold off on it so I can experience it with my boyfriend. But this trip was very California so it didn't exactly wow me but it was nice. I did have an amazing dozen oysters to myself though. Ok all of the food here is pretty amazing. I would come back just for the food.
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