heading north in california

dear diary,

our last few days have been fairly insane. first of all, eszter has found out that she has received the scholarship with gsu's women's studies program. it looks like i (laszlo) will move to pennsylvania and she (eszter) will stay in atlanta to start the masters program. we had to process that in the last few days, which was not very easy. but in the long run, it sounds like the best idea after all: lewisburg is still closer to
atlanta, than budapest is. we've already survived worse.

but back to the latest news concerning our trip. san diego really has a lot to offer to everyone: la jolla for the boogie tourists, ocean beach for hippies and stoners, pacific beach for party surfers. we covered much of it, and concluded that if we're gonna both pursue academic careers, we'll have to set up a new university called ocean beach state u. would be ideal. there's a huge contrast between the different parts of the town. that might be related to the fact that we stayed in la jolla in a large mansion.




we left san diego today and headed north along the coast. we decided a long time ago that we're not going to deal with los angeles, but we had to stop at the getty center. the building sitting on top of a mid-size hill close to century city in la is absolutely amazing. built in 1983, it's a spectacular piece of modern architecture. the interesting thing about the entire complex is that it's all based on a grid system. all the buildings look like as if a crazy geometrician had designed it. we tried to listen to an architectural tour at the center, but the guy leading the tour was sooo amazingly boring (once he gestured as if he had arrived to the uncontested highlight to the show, and declared with a slight german accent: "now i'm going to show you a very special stone at the getty center"). at this point, we had to leave, and give ourselves a self-guided tour across the center, which is really amazing. we quickly glanced at their exhibit "women of art and science" that showcased 17th century scientific illustrations drawn and painted by (very surprisingly) women.


later we drove through several central coast canyons and valleys towards paso robles, which is famous for its wineries. we losers arrived too late to the area (around 6.30pm), and all the tasting rooms were already closed. at this point, something had to save the day. and it turned out to be the bridge street inn in cambria. this place is a boutique hostel in a picturesque little town in the coast. we arrived here on time to drop our stuff, and hurry to the beach to catch the sunset, have a beautiful dinner on a beach bench (out of our cooler) listening to the waives, consume a bottle of local wine (yes, from paso robles, but we bought it at a liquor store, not a winery.)







after talking to bob from santa cruz, we might revise our plans, and add one more day to our itinerary on the pacific coast. however, tomorrow we'll hit one of the highlights of the trip: the big sur section of highway one. ok diary, this is it for today. i'll keep you posted.