San Francisco, CA (city impressions)
On a cloudy afternoon, March 9th 2006, I arraived to San Francisco, it was my first time to the west coast of the US, a place I've wanted to see from some time. I usually like to see the city during landing, specially with big cities as San Francisco, but this time I had to be happy only with a little corner of the window, considering the size of airplane's windows that's not really much, plus I was sitting on the aisle with two people separiting myself from the windows. Anyways, it was kinda cool the little I got to see (no pictures, sorry), the airport is really close to the coast, so when you land there it seems like it is going to touch the water and suddenly there is the airport. I've noticed that they don't inform you anymore where your baggage will be coming out so when I went to the baggage claim area, it turn that everybody was waiting in the wrong carousel, I guess that shows how people around the world will always follow what others are doing. But well, after realizing our stuff was coming out from the next carousel, I got my only bag I had checked and went to find a shuttle that will take me to the hotel.
On the highway I got to see the headquarters (I guess those might have been the hq) of Cannon, Unisys Data, and a few other companies. That was something for what I've been actually interested in visiting on that side of the country, and see the hq of many of the big companies... I know it really is nothing transcendental, or that will change the course of the world, but is one of those meaningless thing we all want to do at some point in our lives. It took probably 45 to 60 minutes to get from the airport to the hotel with all the stops to drop other people. I may say it was a nice ride, I got to get a little look of the city, gorgeous place. A completely different city from all the other large cities I've visited in the US, not that I have visited a lot, but still it had it's particular style. Mostly I was thinking of the differences between SFO and NYC.
Once in the hotel, I checked in and already met with some people that were also there for the seminar but that goes on a different post. We went to find a place to get some food, I was kinda surprised that there were no junk food places near the hotel, we didn't want to go to a restaurant because of the time, but we spend quite some time just looking for a place on Columbus St. we finally found one nice place and went in. On the walk we could see one of the main characteristics of SFO style. As opposed to the many of the cities that I've seen on the east coast and, SFO has slopes everywhere, I like that because it reminds me a little from Quito, actually, there are even mountains surrinding the city, not as big as Pichincha, but it is something :-)
I had a very good impression of the city also on Friday when we went for diner at De Ferrari's house. In the way to their house you could get to see the bay and all the boats there with a very dim light, very nice view.
On Saturday a traffic jam on the Golden Bridge allowed us to have a very good view. The afternoon was fairly clear and a nice shinny sun beutified the view of the bay. From the bus you could also get a clear view of Alcatraz, I guess I was even more interested to see that than the bridge itself, wich is amazing, but it actually looks more magnanimous when you see it from the bellow than being on it. The sun remained shiny for the rest of our day and we had a great view of the bay while in our boat trip, the water like a mirror reflecting the sun.
Even that I had not much time to really look at the city, I was enchanted by what I got to see, as opposed from NYC which is a city I loved when I went, I know that I could easily get used and live in SFO, and just fly to NYC to visit. I can't really say anything about the people, I had no chance to interact with people outside the seminar, but still, looks like a wonderful city, and I really hope I can get a chance to go back sometime with more time to look around.
On the highway I got to see the headquarters (I guess those might have been the hq) of Cannon, Unisys Data, and a few other companies. That was something for what I've been actually interested in visiting on that side of the country, and see the hq of many of the big companies... I know it really is nothing transcendental, or that will change the course of the world, but is one of those meaningless thing we all want to do at some point in our lives. It took probably 45 to 60 minutes to get from the airport to the hotel with all the stops to drop other people. I may say it was a nice ride, I got to get a little look of the city, gorgeous place. A completely different city from all the other large cities I've visited in the US, not that I have visited a lot, but still it had it's particular style. Mostly I was thinking of the differences between SFO and NYC.
Once in the hotel, I checked in and already met with some people that were also there for the seminar but that goes on a different post. We went to find a place to get some food, I was kinda surprised that there were no junk food places near the hotel, we didn't want to go to a restaurant because of the time, but we spend quite some time just looking for a place on Columbus St. we finally found one nice place and went in. On the walk we could see one of the main characteristics of SFO style. As opposed to the many of the cities that I've seen on the east coast and, SFO has slopes everywhere, I like that because it reminds me a little from Quito, actually, there are even mountains surrinding the city, not as big as Pichincha, but it is something :-)
I had a very good impression of the city also on Friday when we went for diner at De Ferrari's house. In the way to their house you could get to see the bay and all the boats there with a very dim light, very nice view.
On Saturday a traffic jam on the Golden Bridge allowed us to have a very good view. The afternoon was fairly clear and a nice shinny sun beutified the view of the bay. From the bus you could also get a clear view of Alcatraz, I guess I was even more interested to see that than the bridge itself, wich is amazing, but it actually looks more magnanimous when you see it from the bellow than being on it. The sun remained shiny for the rest of our day and we had a great view of the bay while in our boat trip, the water like a mirror reflecting the sun.
Even that I had not much time to really look at the city, I was enchanted by what I got to see, as opposed from NYC which is a city I loved when I went, I know that I could easily get used and live in SFO, and just fly to NYC to visit. I can't really say anything about the people, I had no chance to interact with people outside the seminar, but still, looks like a wonderful city, and I really hope I can get a chance to go back sometime with more time to look around.
posted by Fernando Sanchez at 8:52 PM
1 Comments:
Bums Fernando...you forgot about the bums. They are as much a part of the scenery as the Golden Gates. :D
Post a Comment
<< Home