San Diego

In the morning of day 2 we went en route to San Diego. It would have been a beautiful ride, but the weather was not good, too many grey clouds and you couldn‘t even see the difference between the land and the ocean.

We had our city tour right way. It‘s a great way to get an overview. Our first stop was Coronado Island, so cute. We then grabbed some lunch in downtown and went shopping a little bit. Then it was time for some speed boating. It was two together in a boat. I was a little nervous at first, but it turned out to be so much fun and quite easy. We cruised the bay and got a fab view of the San Siego skyline and the Coronado bridge. We also got to play around and try things. It was quite windy and fresh, but totally worth it.

In the evening we went to the old town first for dinner. Old town is adorable, it reminded me of Key West. Cute old houses, so many details, I loved it. Then we headed into town for a night out. Some bull riding and lots of dancing was involved.

We got to spend another day in San Diego! After a short night some of us headed to the zoo. I‘m happy I got up, cause I want to see things, sleeping in would just mess up the whole day. San Diego has a very pestigious zoo apparently. It‘s big and there is so much to see. So many fabulous animals, my faves were the giraffes. My zoo highlight was the skyfari though. A cable car going over the whole zoo. You don‘t really see the animals, but you get a fantasic view over the city, so pretty.

In the afternoon we headed to Mission Beach. The weather cleared up in the morning already and it was nice and warm. We rented some bikes and just drove along the beach. It‘s so pretty, full of palm trees and some beach vibes. The houses have this Florida touch, I just love it. I also put me feet in the Pacific Ocean, some actually went in properly. It was just too cold for me. It felt good though and I just loved the sand.

We had a chilled evening/night afterwards with some pizza at the hotel. An early night, definitely needed that.

San Diego is awesome! I loved every second of it. The beach, the palm trees, the chilled atmosphere, just fab!

Things You Should Know About… …Dallas …Texas …America

I just got home from Dallas, so I thought I’d put together a little list of things, which are important or good to know when you travel to Dallas, Texas or the United States.

Things You Should Know About Dallas

-       In cities like New York or Chicago you are totally fine with public transport and taxis, not in Dallas. Taxis don’t just stand around everywhere; you have to call one. And yes there are trains and buses in Dallas, but they are barely used. You definitely need a car in this city, it’s much easier to get around.
-    There is not much going on in downtown Dallas, Highland Park Village or Uptown are more popular places. 

-       Hockey is not big in Dallas. The Dallas Stars are not that popular. The Dallas Cowboys, Texas Rangers and the Mavericks are way more popular. Some people don’t even know the logo.

-       Dallas is fab for shopping. So many great shopping malls, outlets and more. I loved shopping there. Great places to shop: North Park, Uptown, Galleria Dallas, Allen Outlet Mall etc.

-       Dallas has a lot of suburbs, which are actually their own town, it spreads pretty far.

-       Traffic is big in Dallas.

-       Arts and culture play an important role in Dallas.
-    There is an actual white cross on the street right where John F. Kennedy got shot and people stop there to get their picture taken.

Things You Should Know About Texas

-       Laws can differ from State to State, so Texans really like to be free. Phones in the car, texting etc. this is allowed in Texas, the same goes for u-turns. Some of their laws are definitely weird.

-       There are a lot of Spanish speaking people in Texas, that’s why you find info letters, menus etc. in English as well as Spanish.

-       It’s always quite warm in Texas. It can snow yes, but not a lot and summers tend to get really hot and nobody wants to go outside.

-       There are a lot of tornadoes and storms happening in Texas.

-       Gun Ranges are quite normal.

-       A soda like sprite or coke is called a “coke” here.

-       “Y’all” etc. Texans use some very interesting expressions.

-       During bluebonnet season people will stop by the field (right next to the street) and get pictures of their kids or their family taken

Things You Should Know About America

-       America is big. It takes you forever to drive to certain places. Even flying from Dallas to Austin is an hour. Europeans have a total different understanding of distances.

-       America has 50 states and they can have their own laws and rules. While something might be allowed in one state, it’s not allowed in the next one.

-       Everything is open 24/7.

-       Meals/Portions are big.

-       Everything is to go, take out or drive through.

-       Their president. Not saying more here... Most people don’t like him though.

-       They are crazy with their gun laws.

-       They don’t separate their trash. Only some things get recycled.

-       You have to think about a lot before booking a trip: ESTA, Visa etc.

-       America is great for shopping, so pack light.

-       All you need is a credit card.

-       They have great department stores!

-       Petite sections in clothing stores are fabulous for tiny girl like me!

-       Don’t forget to tip.

I would recommend America to everyone when it comes to traveling, it’s great! 

America vs Switzerland

Whenever I’m in America I see so many differences to my country. I actually wanted to write a post about them last year, but it’s much easier when I’m actually in the States.

I have put together some categories and will talk you through them:

-       Opening times: Shops in Switzerland are closed on a Sunday and during the week they close at 7pm, there is one evening where they’ll close at 9pm. Saturdays stores close at 5pm. On Sundays you can only go shopping the most important stuff at a gas station. Most restaurants have one day in the week, where they’ll be closed. It’s mostly a Sunday, Monday or sometimes a Tuesday. I like how in the States every thing is open almost 24/7 and also on Sundays!

-       Drive Throughs: We only have Mc Donald’s drive through in Switzerland. In the States there are drive throughs for everything: Starbucks, pharmacy, dry cleaner etc. That’s so crazy.

-       Ice Tea: Our ice teas are always sweet, wherever you go, in the States you usually get them plain. I love my sweet ice tea, so being in the States is always a bit weird.

-       Ice: Ice in the drinks is normal in the States. Well, not in Switzerland, you have to ask for it.

-       Streets/Driving: Streets are more narrow in Switzerland and on the freeway we get two lanes, maybe three going into one direction. We have a lot of just one lane for each direction street, we have lots of roundabouts and our rules are a bit different. Now the cars are also different, we have manuals and automatic ones and ours tend to be smaller, we see a lot of VW golfs or poos and there is a big variety of car brands, not so much in the US.

-       Downtown: Our biggest city is Zurich with a population of 400000, there is a centre, an old town, but no downtown. There are skyscrapers, but not that many of them and they are not high. So seeing a real downtown is great for me. I love all these big cities in the States.

-       Parking: Going to the grocery store, shopping mall, …, you name it. In Switzerland we have to pay for parking and it’s pretty expensive. I love how in the States you can just go somewhere, park your car and that’s it.  We pretty much pay for parking everywhere, except for at home and at work (if you’re lucky).

-       Lakes/Mountains: In Switzerland everything is so close to each other. You can drive from one lake to the other in 5 minutes, there are mountains everywhere and you can get from place to place in no time. In the States that takes a really long time. Of course the country is much bigger, everything is so wide.

-       Prizes: Yes, in most places you have the taxes on top of the prize, but things are still cheaper for us in the States. I get Nike, Coach or other brands in the States, because the prizes are much better.

-       Choices: The choices in supermarkets in the States are amazing, there are so many. The stores are much bigger and there is so much choice. Of course there are also things we can’t get in Switzerland, like Fruit Roll Ups, I love them!

-       Food: There is a big variety of foods in the States, you can get pretty much anything, in Switzerland, you have to look for certain places, they are just opening up now. Now, there is one thing: Americans might think they can get OUR chocolate in the States and it even says “Lindt” in the package, but it’s just not the same, you have to actually buy the chocolate in Switzerland.

-       TV: There are a lot of great channels in America like Homegate TV, DIY Network or Food Network. They are all so great, we don’t really have that. Also they way they show commercials is different: ours tend to be really long commercial breaks, whereas in the States they come more often, but they are shorter. There are some weird commercials out there in America though: the weirdest ones are these medicine ones, where they have to read all the side effects.

I think I could go on here, but these are the ones that really struck out. Any differences to your countries?!