USA
USA Week 1 : San Diego is our first stop
First week USA
San Diego
It’s time. We are in the great America ! This is the first time we come here and we try to experience the American Dream with our road trip. San Diego is our first stop in the USA after coming from Mexico. Many say that this city still has many elements of Mexico . You can read here whether that is true. Curious how we experience our first week in the USA? You’ll found out here!
Controls in America
From Puerto Vallarta in Mexico we left for Dallas to transfer to the plane to Los Angeles. In Los Angeles we would rent a car to drive to San Diego. This was the cheapest route. But by no means the easiest!
The flight to Dallas took a few hours. Once there we had three hours to transfer to our next flight to Los Angeles. So our first steps on American soil were in Dallas. We obviously didn’t see much of this city outside the airport. We were a bit concerned about making this switch. Of course we already heard that the controls are very strict when you travel from Mexico to the USA. We therefore took into account that it could take a long time before we were admitted to the USA.
Of course we had arranged our papers for America in advance. This saves a lot of work and stress at the airport itself. If you already have these papers, you can join a kind of self-scan to check your passport and get proof of admission into the country. Afterwards you have to go to a controller with this proof. This person will give you a stamp on your international passport, just like when you arrive in other countries outside Europe.
After this check it was time to have our luggage checked. A police officer with a dog led the queue. The dog may have been there to intercept drugs. It all seems very intimidating, but if you have nothing to hide you can walk right through this.
For both checks we had a lot of nerves beforehand. Simply because many people claim it can be nervewrecking. Actually, there is nothing to it at all and we didn’t have to worry about this. In addition, everything went surprisingly smoothly.
lost in
Los Angeles
After a fairly long journey, we finally landed in Los Angeles. This was not yet our first ‘real’ destination, because we were going to San Diego. We rented a car to drive from the Los Angeles airport to our place to sleep in Los Angeles. It was now 10 o’clock in the evening, we were both exhausted and wanted to go to sleep as soon as possible. But, of course, something had to go wrong.
Without internet we could not download our documents of the rental car on our smartphone. Such a big airport and not even one place where there was free wifi! Not even a single place where you could go on the internet… Frustrated, we immediately bought a phone card at the airport. This cost us 60 euros! Finally internet then? No, not at all. It took another hour before we had internet with this phone card. Quickly on to the car rental company.
Traffic in Los Angeles is anything but fast. If you thought our traffic jams were bad, just don’t come here. Finally arrived at the rental car, we first had to ‘learn’ to drive this car. All cars here are automatic and you need to get used to it. After some exercising in the parking lot of the car rental company we could finally leave for the place to sleep. We have never slept so well.
Big City San Diego
The next day we arrived in San Diego after more than three hours of driving. This is next to Los Angeles one of the largest cities on the west coast of America. We chose to add this city to our road trip because there is so much to see. Most people on a road trip across America probably won’t stop in San Diego right away. Still, this city is really worth a visit.
San Diego ZOO
For example, we went to the San Diego Zoo, which has been awarded the best zoo in the world according to Tripadvisor. And as far as we’re concerned, that’s absolutely true! Although Paira Daiza is also beautiful in Belgium , this zoo is our number one. We make the distinction mainly in the type of animals. At the San Diego Zoo , there are just so many impressive animals that you can almost never find all at the same time in one zoo. But it is possible here. You will also find pandas, polar bears, tigers, leopards, hippos and so much more. Moreover, you can also see them up close without these animals seeming to be bothered by this. We think that is also a huge plus.
San Diego Padres
As we mentioned before, we want to experience the entire American Dream on our road trip and that includes sports of course. When you’re in San Diego, you can’t miss the giant baseball stadium. This stadium is called Petco Park and is home to the San Diego Padres , a well-known team in the USA. The match we watched confirmed what we already knew. The Padres of San Diego are top notch and so was this match and whole experience! It was a beautiful and impressive day. Here you get to know the American culture very well. Completely!
Balboa Park
Beautiful buildings in a Spanish environment is not something you immediately think you will find in America. And yet, to our great surprise, we found this in San Diego. Visiting Balboa Park was therefore quite a discovery and also reminded us a bit of Mexico. You have countless beuatiful buildings that house interesting museums and even a beautiful flower conservatory. This park also has a colorful zone where you can buy handmade works of art from different countries. This park also has the largest open air carillon in the world. Very very impressive!
