Here I am in San Francisco!!! AND I LOVE IT SO FAR!!!!
After an 11 hour flight from London and no sleep at all I finally set foot in California!
I was very much looking forward beginning my trip as I got all stressed up on my last days in London!
I got very conscious with quite many people warning me to be careful. Yes I know it is usually because said people care about me but I worried more than it should have. After all I am used to travel to countries where I have less of clue about the language than those I will be visiting.
The first sights of San Francisco I experienced were not very glamorous, actually totally on the opposite side. But I was prepared for it.
I chose to spend my first two nights at a hotel on 7th Street on the corner of Mission Street. When I started reading my guidebook I saw that the area was indeed described for being a little 'rough'.
Well I am glad I got to see this first and step into a part of the 'real' San Francisco, which is full of homeless people. It is heartbreaking to see so many people wander around with massive supermarket carts full of junk (I seriously don't understand what they keep in it, they have a lot more stuff than me! except the most valuable item I possess I guess: the plastic cards!). Anyway homeless people in San Francisco are many, I think I have never seen that many in one place. And today I learned that actually the situation is supposed to have improved in recent years...so it means that it was worse before. What is stunning is that the homeless community does not spare anyone: age or gender... well it is one downside of the American dream, maybe more specifically to California?
Anyway enough of the depressing stuff...because the other side of San Francisco is full of sunny thoughts.
I arrived on Friday and on Saturday I had already planned to meet some locals through the couchsurfing website. I had sent a couple of request to find a host and I found Nitin. So we actually met on Saturday when I was still staying at the hotel but it was a good way to meet and see if we would interact well. So off we went to Dolores Park to watch Indiana Jones on a massive screen outdoors. It was really nice! I got to sit amongts locals and get my first impressions of people who live in this city! And I wasn't disappointed.
People here are really welcoming, they smile a lot and their first concern is to make sure that they are happy. How refreshing???
Also of course, everybody looks healthy because of a few things to take into consideration: 1) it is sunny here so people are reasonabl tanned, 2) the hills are making you work out whether you like it or not, 3) people here are crazy about organic/healthy food.
So I know that I might have a biased opinion because I am on holiday as well, but I have not experienced such optimism in a long time.
I also noticed that after staying in London for 5 years, I thought "we/French people" are opinionated...I think it is true to a certain extent, but actually British people are "too" polite as well... Or at least this is my understanding, because here in America people do not hesitate to shout whatever they have on their mind, specifically when you don't want to hear about it!!I have witnessed several encounters when people in the streets were arguing about something, and quite loud with that but it was always verbal.
I hope all this doesn't sound like I am trying to figure out the world, I might just be writing a lot of stereotypes and I don't mean to be offending anyone, these are only observations after 4-5 days out here so I could be totally wrong! It's always important to keep room for self criticism!
Now a few words about my host: Nitin. He is Indian, about the same age and has lived in San Francisco for 2 years. He has been hosting a lot of people and to this day is receiving a lot of requests. Nitin is a really nice guy, very interesting to talk to and showing me interesting stuff!Yesterday he introduced me to a few other people he also met through Couchsurfing and we all went together to a free comedy club. The evening was full of laughter! I cannot belive how good these stand-up comedians were and it was all for free and in excellent company!
Today I experienced another free event, a tour of The Castro. I loved it. The Castro is "the" gay district. For those who like me have watched "Milk" then you will be familiar with the story. It was nice to see the area for real, and in the meantime learn about architecture in San Francisco! It is another positive thing about the city. Houses are absolutely beautiful and there are many different styles.
Anyway I have written a lot already and I still a few days here until Friday. So I hope it was ok to read up until now. For more pictures it is better to check out facebook because the uploading tool on this blog is not great.
Also one last note: I would like to apologize for any spelling mistake or missing/repeated words. I am usually extremely conscious about these tigns when I write but with limited time on the internet I am not necessarily in a position to correct everything.
Thank you for reading... very obvsiouly...to be continued...
