Successfully surviving a long haul flight is down to three things; putting yourself in a state of zen calm, booking an aisle seat, and flying with an airline which provides free booze in economy.
I find the latter most certainly helps with the former.
Exploring Berkeley
I was met at SFO by my good buddy and work colleague Ben Werdmuller, and after a short break to re-caffeinate my tired brain, we headed to the BART and Berkeley and a lovely dinner.
The next day, after a fantastic breakfast, we headed downtown for a walk around the marina and to scope out a few cool things to do. We met up with Ben’s sister, who also lives in Berkeley, and headed to get some food and then a drink or two at The Albatross (well worth a visit).
It was at this point I may have slipped and bought an iPad.
Berkeley is a quirky place, not as busy as San Francisco, but still very laid back. The town very much gives the impression of being the place where the hippies who made it into money moved in order to have a family.
Also, the food is excellent.
One of the things on my list of course was to visit The Capoeira Arts Foundation with hopes of training with Mestre Acordeon, of whom I’ve heard much.
So, the next day I attended a class. Man, what a workout, and my thanks go out to all the capoeristas there for letting me train and for putting up with my jet lag induced clumsiness!
When you go to San-Francisco
Next day after some breakfast and some unexpected server administration we headed down to San Francisco’s mission district for a spot of breakfast. The brother of Ben’s girlfriend was in town so we met up with him for a spot Mexican food and a wander.
Stopping briefly off at San Francisco’s only independent pirate supply store we made our way, via the park, to Zeitgeist for a few beers.
That evening, we went out into Berkeley looking for a Halloween party. At least 33.33% of us was dressed like a Darlek.
Next day was a work day, but I wasn’t about to sit in an office after flying 7K miles!
It was a glorious day in San Francisco as I got off the BART at Embarcadero and wandered down to the bay for brunch.
I sat in the sunshine for a bit and headed up through china town and little Italy. It was good to be back in SF after all these years.
Heading back to Berkeley and it was the walk back from North Berkeley BART that made me realise that I’d done something fairly substantial to my ankle playing Capoeira.
The day of the dead
The next few days I spent alternately with my foot up on an ice pack and hobbling around Berkeley. Luckily, the weather took a turn for the worst so I didn’t feel too bad doing a bit of work to pay for the trip (and my newly acquired technology).
It was Mexican Day of the Dead, and with my foot feeling a bit better we headed back into SF’s Mission district for the festivities.
Many people had got dressed up in various ghoulish outfits, and I felt decidedly under-dressed in my jeans and University of Gallifrey t-shirt. Nevermind.
We rendezvoused with a few other members of our party at the start of the precession and watched as they got ready. Shortly, with much drumming and dancing the precession got under way and everyone began following. Many holding candles and pictures of loved ones they were remembering that night.
We followed the precession for a few blocks, and with my foot starting we fired up Yelp and selected one of the local dive bars. We sat at the bar, drinking beer, listening to 1980s rock and watching the Karate kid marathon on TV and chatted about life.
On the road
Ben’s mum came to visit over the next few days so we all took a drive up to the California coast. The weather was less than fantastic, so the view was … limited … but the drive and the company was good.
We stopped in a little town on the way which, hidden away, had a large Cowgirl Creamery. This is an artisan cheese store, but sounds enough like a porn site to cause Bank of America to block Ben’s card, much to our amusement.
Anywho, after coffee we drove until we essentially ran out of America.
Next day, the weather was much better so we took a drive around the local hills in search of a good view. Ben bounding along, while the two invalids – myself and Ben’s mum – hobbled behind.
Tip, if you’re ever in Berkeley, drive up to the science museum – you get an awesome view of the bay from there.
Later, myself and Ben set ourselves down in a bar and were introduced to the cost savings of the American Pitcher-o-beer.
Top Deck
My hangover wasn’t all that bad as my plane flew out of SFO.
I had checked in to the plane last night and realised that the booking service would let me have an aisle seat on the top deck of the 747. Never having done this before I jumped at the chance.
Pro tip to travellers: do this. Its quieter, you get a better attendant to passenger ratio and – at least according to the charming Iraqi women on the seat next to me (who turns out to have been a compiler designer at SGI) – they don’t allow children.
I drank my wine while eating some traditional Iraqi nibbles I was offered, while writing down some thoughts on my shiny new iPad as they frantically tried to reboot the plane’s entertainment system.
Ahh, technology…
