San Francisco, California - December 20, 2001
Almost Christmas. My traveling companion here in California is away to the Philippines, her home country, for a couple months. I won't see her until February.
Before she left, we took a few other cool trips in California. Made it as far south as Santa Barbara. Very nice town, almost perfectly ideal, almost scarily so. Not my ideal perfect, but ideal perfect for a certain kind of person, if you like perfect weather, a safe place, beautiful ocean, nice houses, etc. I guess its perfect if you have a family and want to live in a paradise and you have lots of money to afford all of that. Also took a drive along the entire coast all the way down there. Santa Cruz was pretty cool, I've been there a couple times now, great boardwalks, alot to do, good activity on the beaches, coastline, piers, seals, volleyballs, restaurants, and good nightlife in the town. Its probably the best place I've been throughout all of the coastline towns from Crescent City to Santa Barbara.. Monterey deserves a mention too.. also found some very close places near to San Francisco like Pacifica and Half Moon Bay which aren't too bad either. Almost anywhere you go along the California Coast is a good place, I've yet to see a 'bad' place.
I really haven't talked much about San Francisco yet. Well, there are many many great things about this city - too many too mention. But overwhelmingly when I think of this city I think of two things - enormous homeless population and severe lack of parking. The city is trying to be anti-automobile in that chic european fashion. Thats good and all, but there really aren't many decent alternatives to driving. Public transportation shuts down early (as opposed to New York's 24 hours). The lack of parking means you have half of the city circling blocks endlessly and when one pedestrian approaches a car door on foot, you have about three or four parking break lights illuminating the streets. Its like that game of rotating chairs, except its rotating parking spaces. The city seems quite proud of the fact that they are discouraging cars as they want the city to be more walkable and pedestrian friendly. Its a nice idea and all, but apartment rents are so astronomical its impossible to live in a 'neighborhood' and with the enormous homeless communities that are also very well taken care of, it makes it a little less enjoyable to walk around. I'm all for supporting the homeless and all, but here there is definete strong communities of homeless knowing each other and just hanging out all the time. Many seem to be very happy with that lifestyle, and kind of 'king of the streets' feel about them. Its kind of a big network and there is alot of just hanging out, begging for money, and living the life. Also alot of hardcore homeless too though who look like they've seen way too much of something or another whatever it may have been. Occassionally, at certain times, I really feel I am back in a third world country with so many really poor and homeless people everywhere. Its about 10 times worst than New York, and more intense than some of the third world countries I've been to. In fact, in certain parts of San Francisco, I actually feel like I am in a third world country with the sights of abandoned blankets, the smell of body odor, and half-filled shopping carts here and there. On the plus side, the diversity of people and restaurants and beauty of the city of San Francisco is really quite amazing.
I should also mention that I've been all over the Bay Area many times over the last two months, as the Filipina girl lives in San Jose. Most everywhere between south of San Francisco all the way down to San Jose is one huge never-ending suburb. All chain stores one after and another with apartment complexes sporting swimming pools and nicely cut lawns. I expected something interesting of San Jose for its enormous size, but it really does lack a soul. I've been to downtown San Jose a half dozen times now, and you can walk around th entire downtown within 15 minutes. Oakland is vastly under-rated for what little I've seen. There is a beautiful lake and park downtown and the parking is bountiful and cheap, as are the apartments. It has its own feel completely. I haven't spent much time over there because of the bridge fees when you come back to San Francisco city. I should add that that greatly makes a chasm between Oakland and San Francisco, it costs several dollars by train or by car, so it really seems to separate the city into two drastically different places. I know its not much money, but just knowing its going to cost a few bucks to cross a bridge when you don't have to cross it is a big discouragment.
Final note, there is a really cool website by StrikingViking. He's a former Hell's Angel who is driving a motorcyle from California down to Argentina and back. He was going along fine until he got to Colombia, got captured by guerilla rebels and disappeared for six weeks. He just resurfaced again with his life and many press conferences. If anyone has caught the back pages of the major newspapers, you might have read about him. Check out his link, I've been following it pretty consistently now.
Next Journal Entry:
January 27, 2002
You can email me at:
Wintermoon2@yahoo.com