A journey from the Northwest to Southern California required at least one break - and Santa Cruz served this purpose well.The Amtrak journey to this seaside town, via San Jose, was a pleasure, including a long sleep in the spacious chairs. On board there was an observation lounge and even a games arcade. Definitel the way to travel, especially with the views offered by Southern Oregon.
Once in Santa Cruz, I was pretty soon greeted by 20 to 30 locals. A gang of huge sealions lying around and warming their flippers in the winter sun, only metres from the end of the pier. An absolute treat and certainly something I've never seen before. Coupled with a visit to the Henry Cowell state park, and a big hike through the redwoods, this stopover was a refreshing natural sojourn.
Otherwise, Santa Cruz was a sleepy Californian town - with a nice vibe, but not much happening. The famous boardwalk funfair certainly looked a bit depressing at this time of the year. For evening entertainment, after a rare visit to a great vego restaurant, I visited a free comedy night. Just how poor this was, is hard to describe. Perhaps an example joke does it best. Why waste all this time on formulas to enlarge the size of men's bits.... can't they do something about shrinking women's?
The hostel in this town is the polar opposite of the fun packed Portland offering, with an 11pm curfew and a total alcohol ban. B-o-r-i-n-g. Though sometimes you need someone else to enforce an alcohol free day or two.
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