San Luis Obispo – SLO down in Bubblegum Alley

Photo credits: wolffman17 on flickr

This charming inland student town is home to Cal Poly University, which sounds like a paediatric medicine. It is a hugely fun town of 20,000 students, a charming set of avenues with pleasant shops, bars and cafes to provide for the dominant young demographic.

SLO, Slick timing

We carefully timed our visit to land on a friday night the weekend before Cal Poly return for their new semester thinking that there might just be some action. And, there was plenty. Bars were loud and full of students returning, ready to get back into college life and full of summer vacation stories. We spoke to quite a few and whilst they were friendly, we rapidly understood the importance of the Poly part of the university’s title.

Come up for air

That is the town’s motto for some reason, couldn’t find why but I have a nice T-shirt with that printed on it from Moondoggies surf store.

We spent Saturday getting a haircut followed by eating great pizza in Woodstock pizzeria, our hairdresser had recommended Firestone grill but it was heaving full.

We followed with a bit of shopping, I found a nice camera store Jim’s Campus Camera which was good on small accessories such as a spirit level so I can get my horizons straight for a change.

Bubble Gum Alley

Wikipedia description: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubblegum_Alley

The town’s one main tourist attraction is hilarious and truly gives an idea of the vibe of this fun little town. It’s a small alleyway just off Higuera St in which the walls are plastered with bubble gum. Unique and disgusting.

SLO also has the best looking girls yet so far in California

Hearst Castle

Hearst Castle aerial view by bestbuddieschallenge on flickr

Finally, we got our act together and wiped away the SLO vibe to head to Hearst Castle, a disneyland of architecture built by th eccentric William Randolph Hearst following an enlightening trip to Europe in 1919. Apparently inspired by pan-European architecture, he tried to incorporate the best of it all into this magical theme park on a hill in San Simeon.

It’s utterly tasteless and excessive, but I do love it.

We watched the National Geographic documentary in the resident giant cinema on the building of it.

I’m not sure if W.R. Hearst visited the same Europe that I live in… perhaps there is a Europe, Texas or something that confused him?

Photography

As you will appreciate, the photos on this posting are not by me. I’m getting a little fatigued with photography at the moment as we have visited so many places this week and trying to process them on the Asus Eeepc is just tedious.

Tags: cal poly, california, college town, hearst castle, pacific, san luis obispo, san simeon, slo, university, USA