Spring Break

Finally, a reprieve from stupidity (and work)! After 4 long months, we - at last - received a hiatus from work and were able to escape New York (briefly). Anna and I seized upon the opportunity to escape and booked tickets to California, a destination to which neither of us had ever been before.

Throughout all my years living in the US I had never visited California, so I was excited to go. As stupid as it may sound, it was almost like visiting a different country for me, and to a certain extent, I was a bit afraid of going out there. Travelling in America has always been an issue for me. I have no problem ending up empty-pocketed in Poland, Bulgaria, Georgia, etc. (indeed the thought tickles me), but the idea of ending up in a New Mexico motel with a flat tire and twenty bucks in my wallet scares the balls off me. Truthfully, America scares me, and this fear was solidified within me as we flew to California. Flying over Kansas, Anna suddenly woke up, looked out the window and exclaimed, "Holy shit! Look how flat it is! Let's never go there." True, America is better seen from the ground, but seeing it from the air is frightening. How many miles of flat nothingness are there? What did the people who lived down there actually do? Only God knows, but the flight really hammered home how fucking big America is, which I apparently hadn't grasped before.

As one flies into LA, the folds of the mountains and the bright sunshine envelop you: Welcome to the Golden State. On the ground, however, things didn't look so golden. Yet another thing I hadn't grasped before going to LA was the hundreds of miles of urban sprawl. It seemed endless. For those who haven't been there before, there is no public transportation (none that goes anywhere meaningful, anyway) and it takes forever to go anywhere. If you don't have a car, you are castrated. True, in most places in America you need a car to get anywhere, but the frustration with this fact was pronounced in LA. Maybe it was because of the traffic. The oddest thing was that those in LA didn't seem to mind it. Indeed, they seemed complacently resigned to it. "I hated it at first, but it's OK now. I call Europe a lot, and I get a lot of calls done on the morning drive," my cousin's husband Andy confessed. For someone whose morning commute is seven minutes, this thought of spending 2+ hours in the car everyday sounded dreadful. Why would anyone do that to themselves? There must be something appealing about LA if so many people do it though.

Welcome to Hollywood.

Admittedly, the climate and natural surroundings of LA are beautiful. Of course my experience was jaded as my cousin lives in "the Valley" and we spent most of our time cruising around the Hollywood Hills in her Audi and shopping at Trader Joe's like two fucking yuppies. The weather was perfect and it was nice to go to Santa Monica and cruise down the beach on fat-tired bicycles. We did what we could based on Kiliaen's daily schedule and our ability to hijack her car for an afternoon. We went to the Museum of Natural History one morning so Bodhi could see the dinosaurs, and another afternoon we visited the Getty (which is one of the most beautiful museums I have ever been to). Of course, we spent a day wandering up and down Hollywood Boulevard, which is little more than a taco and souvenir shop runway. The "Star Walk" we found to be similarly depressing -- miles of sidewalk named after dead film and music celebrities of the 40's and 50's. And in the end, aren't you just having your photo taken with a slab of sidewalk? For myself in the end, the most exciting part of LA was going to In-N-Out Burger. I had heard tales of this legendary California fast-food establishment, so I was excited when we stumbled upon one on Sunset Boulevard. And it did not disappoint. Unfortunately, it wasn't until afterwards that I discovered their "(not-so) secret menu".

The Thai of her life. 

Finally. 

On the last night in LA, Kiliaen and Andy invited us to dinner. A friend was in town from London, and they wanted to catch up. We drove deep into the Hollywood Hills to a hacienda-like house. Apparently it was the residence of a Law and Order star ("Don't I see you every afternoon at 6 on the treadmill?", I thought) who had let his house to Kiliaen and Andy's friends via AirBNB. He was nice, and the dinner was good, but this heady mix of self-proclaimed British fashionistas fawning over the plastic dinnerware, primetime American TV celebrities, and toddlers running around poolside unattended became a bit surreal in an overwhelming and sour way, so by the next morning we were ready to leave.

Anna pacifica. 

Day at the Getty. 

In the end, I was glad to have visited LA in order to cross it off my bucket list. However, I failed to see its appeal. The weather? Perhaps. We were thankful to Kiliaen and Andy for putting us up, but we looked forward to our next destination where we would be a little more independent: San Francisco.

Hello, San Francisco

San Francisco was everything and nothing what I expected. I had always had it in my mind that San Francisco was clean, chic, and trendy, posh even. That is true to a certain extent; however, this preconception was shattered when we got off the bus. I was unprepared for the amount of homeless people in San Francisco, and hence the smell. For the first few days, I didn't really like SF -- there were lots of homeless people who stunk to high heaven and bothered you on public transit, the smell of weed was inescapable, and to be frank I found the city dirty. However, after a while I began to see its charm. The panorama from - and of - the city is wonderful, and the entire Bay Area itself is spectacular. There was lots to do and see as well, along with plenty of history. Despite a glut of Mexican restaurants, there were endless culinary possibilities, and infinitely more bars and music clubs. Like New York, it is a cosmopolitan city, yet unlike New York the people were unhurried and friendly. "If it weren't for the sinister eternal expectation of a devastating earthquake," I thought, "I could live here."

We did all of the touristy things in San Francisco because, well, it's kind of obligatory for anyone visiting SF, isn't it? We stayed in the Mission in San Mino's apartment, and that was probably the best place to stay because we were close to downtown and there were a lot of neat bars and trendy restaurants in the surrounding blocks (the Mission is a bit like Williamsburg with a West Coast flair -- it reeked of hipster, but was still a nice place to go out nonetheless). We did Alcatraz, had dim sum in Chinatown, queued for an hour to ride the cable car, and biked the bridge (a hairy experience for an acrophobe like myself). I loved that San Francisco still had old streetcars running through the streets, and we rode them everyday not only because I am a railfan, but it was actually a handy way of getting around.

I also got a chance to catch up with Patrick, a former colleague of ours from Istanbul. He is a native San Franciscan, and he took us to a great martini bar and later, for excellent Filipino cuisine. When we explained that we wanted to go to the Muir Woods with its great trees but could not find public transport to take us there, he generously loaned us his car for the day (thanks again, Patrick). In the end, we were happy: Anna got to see the big trees, I got to go to Alcatraz, and most of all, we got to see Mino (we miss you!).

Muir Woods. 

Crimes and Misdemeanors. 

Taco night!!