A Little Bit of So(u)l, And A Whole Lot of Vang

It's currently Spring Break for me, which means a whole lot of sleeping in (not that I don't do that on a regular basis), applying for summer internships, and work. Oh and homework since some professors decided to be completely evil and give us homework-- kind of defeats the purpose of a break doesn't it? Over the weekend I worked 10 hours and from Thursday to Sunday, I will be working something along the lines of 20 hours, which means yesterday, today, and tomorrow are my days to relax and hopefully try to get some stuff done.

Yesterday, my friends and I decided to do a little day trip to Santa Barbara and a little Danish town north of SB called Solvang. If only day trips around here were easier like it is in the UK. I've lived in Los Angeles since I was 6, but I honestly cannot say that I have ever been to Santa Barbara. I know I have been in the areas nearby for soccer, but I don't think I have ever been to Santa Barbara just to hang out. The drive there made me realize that I should explore Southern California more.

Solvang, a Danish town about 20 miles north of Santa Barbara, was the main reason for the day trip. To be completely honest, I was little underwhelmed. Sure, the town was cute with its Danish buildings which just made me miss Europe even more, but there wasn't much to do. It's kind of just a city to stop by if you're making the trip up north to San Francisco or making the trip down to Los Angeles. I wouldn't plan an entire day around it. The idea of it is nice, just like Little Tokyo or Little Italy, but Solvang is in the middle of nowhere and there really isn't much to do. I guess I just have to start planning my trip back to England and the many places in Europe I want to visit to get a real taste of Denmark.

After lunch and popping into all of the pastry shops, we decided to head back down to Santa Barbara. We didn't have a plan once we got there, so we parked near Stearns Wharf and just walked around. Something I have definitely missed about London/European cities is walking around town and exploring. I know that's something that can be done here, but we tend to drive everywhere we want to go, even if it's only 1 mile away, so it was nice to walk around aimlessly near the beach. We even stumbled upon the Amtrak Station (I could be wrong. But some kind of train station.) that just made me want to get on a train or plane and explore some place new. We wanted to go to this ice cream shop near by, because hey, I'm always down for ice cream, but it was impossible to find parking so we gave up and drove back to LA. Yay for no traffic and a wonderful sunset!