California Dreaming

Sometimes I ask myself why I live in NYC. The weather is nice for about 4 weeks out of the year, it's dirty, crowded, smelly, people are not too friendly, it's hard to make lasting connections with anyone. And yet, there is something about it that makes it so exciting, especially for a European city-gal. But there are times, like right now, when I really want to get out of here!

As my flight was landing at JFK last night, I was not the least bit excited. The pilot announced that it was 90F at 9pm and I knew I had a long commute back to my apartment - unless I wanted to pay $50+ for a taxi to Manhattan. The slight hangover I was still carrying from the wedding I went to the previous night didn't help matters much. I was grumpy, annoyed, hot and reading a book that had a rather depressing ending, which I happened to read on the Long Island Railroad as it pulled in to Penn Station. NYC is a dirty place. People are rather unfriendly. The subway is confusing, even after living here for 6 years. How does it make any sense that the local train runs on the express tracks and vice versa? Argh.

But the real reason is, I just spent 3 perfect days in California. Monterey has got to be one of the most beautiful places ever! I haven't been to that many places in the world, but so far, it's on the top of my list. All year around, it's about 60F (hence, hotel even don't have A/C, which was very very upsetting for Kelsey), mostly sunny, scattered with rocky and sandy beaches, miles and miles of golf courses right by the ocean, scenic bike lanes, forests and lovely people. A little about the friendliness of the people in California. We arrive at SFO, check in at the rental car counter. Young guy helping us, immediately starts chatting. Seeing my foreign license, he starts asking about Hungary (he knew that Budapest was in Hungary right away!), about what we are doing in California, where we are driving to, how is the weather in NYC, what do we do; then we learn that he's going to do his MBA at Stanford starting in the fall and that he surfs. Of course, everybody in California surfs. A few hours later, we check in to our hotel in Monterey: the guy at the reception asks us if we think he has an accent, compared to that we are used to from NY. Then we have a whole conversation about accents, the weather in Monterey and about how many weddings the hotel is hosting that weekend. Kelsey and I keep looking at each other with bewilderment: why is everyone so friendly?

The weekend was perfect: a run on the beach, driving a Mustang along the 17-mile drive, attending an ocean-side wedding, seeing my friends being so in love and so happy, a fun reception, dancing until we couldn't stand anymore, champagne and cocktails, lots of pictures, the fanciest (and most expensive) but very delicious seafood dinner I have ever had, eating at In'N'Out Burger, twice. As I said to Kelsey after we were asked at the rental car counter "Would you like to upgrade to the Ford Mustang for just $15/day?", this is going to be a weekend of saying "Yes" to everything, and it was and it was the best!