Still hanging out for pancakes for breakfast I go in search but the closest I could get was a sticky bun and a coffee (in paper cup). A bombolina would have worked but this bun didn't.
I check out and walk, with new suitcase, to the train station where I board an AMTRAK train towards Irvine. What a lovely train and a great trip. We go through seaside towns of San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano. Oh I could live in either - just gorgeous.
And then I get to Irvine and one step closer to seeing my nephew. Through some very barren countryside and past sterile looking homes a cab takes me to the Double Tree Hilton -Spectrum, my hotel for the next two nights, where I confront the first rude person I have faced in my trip - the hotel receptionist. It seemed to be a theme through the place because other than one barman everyone there was the same. The hotel lacked any of the character of the Sofia Hotel and was sterile, marbled and cold. I sit at the bar with a coke for an hour while waiting for my room to be ready and as soon as I get the key go and drop my stuff in the room. Odd, first hotel I have been in for years with no room safe. And yet notices everywhere warning you not to leave anything valuable in the room, to be careful opening the door to strangers etc. So armed with my valuables (passport and phone) I grab a shuttle to the shopping centre I have heard so much about - Irvine Spectrum Centre.
Oh so Pretty - I am impressed when I arrive. Didn't last long as I found a repeat of the plastic chain shops as I had seen in the city. I did find a nail salon where I managed to get my gel nail polish removed and winced as I watched the attendant scrape my nails to get rid of the horrid polish. Ugh. Sitting through the nail torture I watch the goings on in the salon - 14 chairs, all full, 2 attendants per chair, one on nails and one on feet, extra chairs for those just having a mani. And all these people are paying for the privilege of having someone scrape their nails and ply them with chemicals that are likely to destroy their nail health. One treatment and I can already feel the deterioration in mine.
I wandered for a few hours and hungry by this stage go searching for food. Here I struck the same situation as I did in San Diego where many restaurants were also bars and somehow I feel very uncomfortable eating alone in such places but I was desperate for meat and then stumbled across Rubies Diner. Packed to the gunnels I thought that it can't be all bad with this many customers and so I settle in for a burger. WRONG WRONG WRONG. My tasteless burger ended up giving me the worst indigestion of my life, my first experience while travelling of an upset stomach (and I have eaten weird food in all sorts of places). Shit - literally
Glad to be back at the hotel I call it a night and crawl into a lovely comfy enveloping bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment