San Diego, USA

Guess what? That’s right, we traveled further south to visit even more of Teddies friends and more free accommodation in San Diego (I knew I invited her to join me for a reason). This time it was a friend of hers, Helen, who she knew when she was doing an exchange program in South Africa (I cant keep track of it all either). So again it was a big old Swedish fest with me trying to pick out words I understood, like “I” and “a” and “Today”. As you can imagine, my limited Swedish vocabulary meant I understood sweet fanny adams but they did all speak English most of the time for my benefit.

The one thing I did not think Id be doing is boarding a submarine on my travels so imagine my luck when our hosts invited us to jump on board for a nose around! Tobias (Helens boyfriend) is a Submarine Commander in the Swedish navy and they’re currently helping Americans to be not so shit at driving submarines around. Hence being based in San Diego, the main naval hub on the west coast of America. So we actually got to go on board the Swedish sub and get a guided tour which was very interesting. The best point for me is that the Swedish have an engine that although has pistons, does not use combustion to drive it and hence allows them to be a lot quieter underwater. This is an engine only the Swedish government know about which makes they’re subs and they’re crew some of the best in the world. Was allowed a few snaps inside too:


“Feel free to look around just don’t touch anyth…….”


“A fine vessel. The subs not to bad either. Arf!”

And yes, that is my homemade Anchorman T-shirt which I found rather appropriate as I was actually in San Diego at the time (although I did look like quite the tourist prat). I also watched the film whilst their too, how cool am I? Although I later discovered most of it was filmed in LA. Knights of Columbus!

Also popped into the bar where they played the piano in a scene from Top Gun:


“I know exactly the scene your talking about...eh?”

Didnt stay though as it was a bit of a dump. Instead, it was about time for drunken shenanigans with the Swedes so here we go:



“Hello Sailor. Sorry, commander”

“You get as good as you give”



“A deformed Justin Timberlake look-a-like demonstrating how to bring ‘sexy back’”

And yes, that is a bit of sick on my right shoulder after very nearly winning a bet to eat half an apple in one bite. It went well until I realized I couldn’t really chew and it was getting stuck in my throat and making me gag. So I had to spew a bit to get it out and it got kind messy.

And that was the end of the west coast and Calafornia. Its now just me, Teddie and the Green Danger to high tail it across the states in the mother of all road trips. Heeeyaaaaaa!!


“Ah San Diego. Drink it in, always goes down smooth.”