|
After a short drive down the California coast, we'll introduce you to San Diego with a city tour that
includes downtown, the Gaslamp Quarter, and Balboa Park. We will also drive across the Coronado Bridge
for a great view of the San Diego skyline. We then head south of the border into Tijuana, Mexico allowing
time for lunch and time to shop. Enjoy a group dinner tonight, a great opportunity to meet other travellers.
- Contiki.
|
|
Click on photos to see larger versions
|
Finally after a long flight it was time to start out tour. My friend and I had been to a briefing
the night before and learned that our tour managers name is Brett and there would be 47 people on our
tour, 44 Aussies, 2 South Africans and a Canadian.
It started off pretty quiet on the bus. We
were told that our bus drivers name is Dave and this was to be his last trip with Contiki so we had to
make it a memorable one.
We started off heading south down the coast towards San Diego. Brett
gave us a briefing about some things we should know about the bus and then it was our turn to stand at
the front of the bus with the microphone which broke the ice a little bit.
Brett played our morning
song which was Lump, sung by the Presidents of The United States of America (PUSA), and explained that
this song would be played every morning when we got on the bus. He also mentioned that some of us could
see PUSA perform live in San Francisco if we wanted. I personally couldn't wait for this.
|
|
We did a city tour of San Diego and then headed to the Mexican border as we were doing a trip to
Tijuana, Mexico. Once at the border we had to get off our Contiki bus, walk across the border and then
get on another bus that took us all the way to Tijuana. Once there we followed Leeanne, one of the friends
we had made on tour because she had been to Tijuana before. The shopping there was quite good but the
sreeets were really dirty and they were full of children begging. We shopped in Quicksilver, Guess jeans
and bought some really cheap perfume and then stopped at the Hard Rock Cafe to have some lunch. Before
long it was time to go and we were back on our Contiki bus, heading towards SanDiego, our home for the
next 2 nights.
|
|
We had dinner at the motel tonight then we headed to the Gaslamp Quarter to Moose McGillucuddys for
a drink or 2 (or 3). A few of us then went for a walk around town stopping at Planet Hollywood for a
coffee. When we got home Liz and Graeme (from Sydney) and Nicky and Martin (from Cairns) came into our
room and we sat around talking until about 4-am. It was hard to believe that this was only our first
day because it seemed like we had known everyone for ages.
|
|
