THAT YEAR I LIVED IN UNITED STATES

My USA Photo Album was lost for years, I emptied my house before leaving to Central America and left all boxes in my grandma’s basement. It’s true that I’m in a forever process of simplicity and live with less but there are few things you just can’t get ride – Memories. I saved all my USA Year pictures in 4 Cds, I always found cds safer then usb sticks… countless all college documents and works I lost in floppy disks and usb sticks pffff. I couldn’t find them in all boxes, everytime I’d go get something from the basement I’d look for the damn cds but never sucessful until last month.

These cds are not only my life in USA, also contains my travels in Toronto, Jamaica, Rio de Janeiro and that East Coast Road Trip I will never forget. Since my memory sucks I refuge myself in digital images so you can imagine how over the moon I was when finally found this little huge treasure.

WEBSITES WITH FREE AND CHEAP STUFF TO DO IN SAN FRANCISCO

San Francisco is not a cheap place to live at all, but is on my Ten Cities I'd live for a Year List because I'm into the lifestyle, the atmosphere, a place for artists to express themselves, multicultural, the diversity: beach, bay, wildness and city. You probably need a well paid salary to afford to live in this city but it's so worth it!

For travelers who will spend a long time in San Francisco and want to be part of the city instead of spending 2 weeks visiting touristic spots, this post is for you :) Also for those people who just moved to San Francisco and is a little broke or don't know what to do, this post is for you! Actually this post is for anyone who wants to go to San Francisco or just fancy the city. Ready to write some notes?

GUIDE: TWO DAYS IN SAN DIEGO

What do you think when you hear about San Diego? Sun, beach, surf, palm trees? I can tell you are 100% right, plus, San Diego is a really relaxed and chilled city, far away from the terrible traffic jams of Los Angeles or San Francisco.

I only been two full days in San Diego so I had to make the most of it! Grateful I'm in Couch Surfing and was able to find a great local host who drove us everywhere and told us about this nice city and the sorroundings. He also brought us to the best brownie and pizza in the World (Andy if you are reading this, thanks a lot dude!)

If you don't have much time in San Diego here is my suggestion for an itinerary:

OH SO AMERICAN: HALLOWEEN

If in Europe we consider Halloween the creepy night where we get out with scary costumes like zombies, witches or skeletons, in USA you will find cute rabbits, fairies or mermaids. Their costumes look more the ones we wear for Carnival and it's so fun to play around our characters, being someone we aren't in a daily basis.

Halloween is not only partying with costumes, there are other fun activities like carving pumpkins and knock neighbour's doors playing trick or treat. It's a great economic time of the year for the stores that sell candy and chocolates, the consumism is full on in the end of October. Other fun activities include telling scary stories and watching horror movies.

ALAMANY FLEA MARKET IN SAN FRANCISCO

First thing I search online when arrive a place? Local Flea Markets! Last year when I was visiting San Francisco I attended Berkley Flea Market and this time I was lucky enough for being in SF for the weekend so I got a chance to visit Alamany Flea Market. It's every single Sunday from 8am until 3pm but at 1pm many vendors start packing up so don't arrive too late. It's situated in 100 Alemany Blvd and you can get bus number 9 to get there. If you are driving there's plenty of space to park your car. We walked almost one hour and in the way we found Bernal Peak, a great hill to have a great view to the city and to the bay.

VICTORIAN + ALTERNATIVE NEIGHBORHOOD OF SAN FRANCISCO: HAIGHT ASHBURY

Guys, I owe you ten thousand posts about San Francisco! I've been trying my best to write down all the interesting things you should visit in this awesome city I love more and more. But the truth is that I go with the flow and totally forget about internet and my blog stays a bit behind... here Iam! 

After spending more then a month working and visiting my friends/american heart family, we finally decided to rent a car and explore South of California. Guess what? We couldn't rent a car because we do not have a Visa, Martercard or American Express Card... What a BIG bummer. USA without a car sucks big time, if only transportation was good and organized... not happening. 

OH SO AMERICAN: "HELLO, HOW ARE YOU?"

There are all kinds of stereotypes about americans: they are very patriots or they think their country is the best, they only eat fast food and are over weighted. Obviously this is not true, only a small percentage of americans might be like this, but also in every single country you will find people with these characteristics. This is something humans have to change, we have to stop making absurd generalizations and start thinking a person as unique personality and not an entire nation as a whole. 

FORT BRAGG AND THE OCEAN

Hello! Hola! Olá! I've been a month in California and no photos of my travels for you yet. I've been mostly in the country side working as housekeeping and gardening so I don't have excellent pictures that deserve a blog post.

Since we don't have any more work and about 3 more weeks until our flight we decided to explore the area we are right now. We started with the weekend in Fort Bragg, a pretty colorful little town in the coast of North California.

It's windy out there but just the feeling of smelling and watching the ocean, I didn't care for being cold or not. If you are around for a while you know I born and grew up in the ocean so I miss it a lot when I don't get to see it for few days. I definitly need to buy a house in front of the beach! :)

OH SO AMERICAN: THRIFT STORES

I thought that would be fun to share with you guys american lifestyle thru my eyes. In these series I’ll post about what I've seen only in USA that I’ve never seen in other countries in the World.

I decided to start with Thrift Stores because they are one of my favorite things about USA and you can find these kind of stores in every state you go.

Thrift Stores are places where you can score great clothing, kitchen ware, books, decoration items and mostly everything you can think of for a very cheap price. You get to buy a book for 0.50 cents or 1 dolar, a jacket for 3 bucks, an amazing painting for 5 bucks. How does it work? People clean their closets and find things they don’t want anymore so they donate to thrift stores. Mostly of the thrift stores I’ve been are non-profit, all the profit goes to community projects and to help people in need and all the staff is volunteering, usually retired people. (this is a great way to spend your time doing something useful for the community!)

SAN FRANCISCO (PART II) ALCATRAZ + HAIGHT ASHBURY

I left San Francisco with the feeling I could easily spend 2 more weeks there. I missed many places (Golden Gate Park, Museum of Modern Art, Asian Art Museum and on) I would love to visit but I rather choose quality time then quantity.

Jenn and Bruno wanted to go very hard to Alcatraz - served before the army as fortress and military prison; and later the Department of Justice as a maximum-security federal penitentiary - I had no idea what was that but in the end, it was one of the best touristic spots I ever been.

First we got a cable car (old school cars used hundred years ago in the city to go up the hills/$6) to the Fisherman's Wharp and find the Pier 33, where Alcatraz is situated. You pay $30 (first thought: WHAT???? Last thought: VERY WORTH IT!!!) ticket that includes: boat trip to Alcatraz (it's an island), admission to the island, remain buildings and visit to the cells (in good conditions), audio tour free very interesting with testimonials from inmates, correctional officers and residents as they reminisce about life on Alcatraz (available in the cellhouse).

ROAD TRIP THRU ROUTE 1 (CALIFORNIA): WHERE MAGIC HAPPENS

Seriously? This was the best way to say "See you California". One of the best trips ever. If you ever come to San Francisco, San Diego or Los Angeles make sure you allow yourself to go at least to Big Sur. Highway 1 is not just a highway, it's THE highway. From Cambria until Monterey you drive along the Pacific Coast with extraordinary landscape. You make a bunch of stops along the way: to take pictures, to watch the beauty, to close your eyes and listen the waves and smell the ocean, to visit elephant seals in wildlife, to explore National Parks and on and on and on. WARNING: GET READY FOR A BUNCH OF OCEAN PICS!!

SAN FRANCISCO (PART 1)

OMG! OMG! OMG! 2 weeks and I'm in Portugal, after 6 months in Europe and California. And... my first Winter in 2 years... will I survive? I was doing good chasing the Winter but I felt like celebrating Christmas with my adorable family.

In the meanwhile I arrived San Francisco safe and happy! Since I'm a young girl, San Francisco is on my travel list, many songs from the 60's and 70's are about this place, also the hippie movement had big impact here and I'm sooooo into this time of History. I wasn't wrong: I can say San Francisco is one of my fave cities, I'm not a city person but common it's situated in a BAY, do I need to say anything else? We are sorounded by water, everybody smiles at you in the street, international food available in every corner.

IT'S FALL IN CALIFORNIA

I wish it was Summer though :) Sunny days and damn cold nights around here. No, I'm not in the very South of California which is hot every single day in the year. And now that we are done with work we started planning our final trip before heading back to Portugal for Christmas and guess what? Seqoia and Yosimite National Parks are gonna be closed due to bad weather!! This means we gotta find a Plan B and perhaps Plan C and D. We thought about San Francisco, LA and San Diego, but cities only? Doesn't sound much fun. So we came out with the idea of renting a car and drive the highway 1 and stop in Santa Cruz, Monterey, Cambria, Santa Barbara and Venice Beach.

This is Highway 1 or Big Sur that I'm talking about. Please God of Weather, if I ever go to this place I'd love to have a sunny and warm day like this picture above. Thanks for that.

HENRY COWELL REDWOODS STATE PARK

First time I heard about RedWoods was 3 months ago, when we got in California and literally everyone said "You have to go, the trees are giant and spectacular rain forest". Whenever we got free time from work we headed to the Avenue of Giants, where you see this dense forest full of redwoods (See the post here) It's kinda sad to think that many years ago, the Ranch I was working in, was surrounded by Redwoods, but now a days they were all killed.

While hiking this magical State Park I secretly picked up a good amount of seeds to plant in Portugal ^___^ It will take ages to grow as an adult redwood but I'm so into this trees that I want to spread them in the World. Planting trees is creating life.

HALLOWEEN 2013

Back in Portugal, I don't think I ever celebrated this day, it's not really an european holiday. We have Carnival which is similar in the costumes part, but lasts 3 days and it's all about brazilian music and having fun!

Being in California means you have to celebrate Halloween right?

SHELTER COVE BEACH

Traveling and working at the same time is appreciated because you get to be involved with the locals in a deeper level, you get to live the real thing, you go to places that neither internet or travel guides can ever tell you about. But at the same time you don't have so much free time than when you are just traveling. That's the reason why I'm not posting often in the blog.

All my life I lived nearby the beach so I started being a bit homesick and think how amazing are the waves sound and the ocean breeze so we went to see the sunset in the beach!! Not those South California beaches we are used to see on TV but I had a great time. I'm so grateful K and S came across to my life, they been real brother and sister and we feel we were adopted by them and the other family members I will post about in the near future.

Cars are allowed inside the beach! 

REDWOOD GIANT PINE TREES (NORTH CALIFORNIA)

I couldn't wait to post about yesterday and our adventorous Road Trip to the RedWoods.

RedWoods are basically one of the most amazing things I ever seen with my eyes. It's an area in North California where you find giant pine trees, but when I say giant I'm not even being fair! They can grow more then 360 feet tall (or about 110 metres) and have trunks up to 24 feet (7 metres) near the ground. Can live more then 2000 years and I believe there are many from the Dinosaurs Era!!! Can you imagine how ancient this special trees can be? I hugged around 100 of them, but probably you'll need around 15 people to hold the whole tree :)

HIKING IN MT KONOCTI

Heya yooo my friends!

Did I tell you how much I'm enjoying to stay in North California? It's not that is this beautiful part of USA only, there's some magic in the air. The life style is so peaceful, no one complains about the system, the crisis, the government, everybody helps eachother either with material stuff or trading the veggies and fruits from their farm. The fauna is different, we had seen squirls and deers nearby the houses or just on the mountains when we go for a hike. Hopefully one day I can pet a deer, they like to run away from us.

I wish we had a car though, it would be so easier to move... To go a-n-y-w-h-e-r-e you need to drive, everything is far. 

Last week we have been in Mt Konocti, around 1300 metres altitude, it took us 4 hours to hike up and down. In the top of the mountain you can watch the whole lake that defines Lake County. The view is stunning. I'm gonna share some pictures of the day but I can say that alive is much much much breath taking. 

WORKING IN THE FARM

For a long time I wanted to get knowledge about gardening and animals. When Jess and Paul told us, one year ago back in Mexico, there was a lot of Farm Work in their area (North California) I didn't think twice, because this is the time that it becomes almost impossible to find a job in Portugal. Jess and Paul Wedding plus working in a farm plus visiting California equals YES PLEASE.

Currently I'm in Ancient Farm located in the Lake County of North California but soon I will move to another Farm where I will have more work to do. Right now we are feeding the chickens, check if there are any eggs, watering the garden and feed the momma cat (and cuddle with the 4 kittens). Since Matt is building a house we also helped and I'm very excited because we are learning how to build a house by ourselves. Geezzz is so difficult but at the same time so interesting, can you imagine you building your own house? All the effort and love given? I found a new passion, I want to build my own Eco House :)

This is the trailler where the chickens live. Lucky them!  

JESS AND PAUL (AMERICAN) WEDDING

It was a lovely Sunday, blue sky, birds singing and everyone busy in the house getting ready for the big day! Such a pleasure to meet up a wonderful family of 4 sons (including Paul) and 1 daughter plus 2 daughters in law. The father Carlos is from El Salvador and the mother Wendy the most adorable lady. We were ready !