I took my first trip on the BART system today, which stands for Bay Area Rapid Transit. It goes
across the water to the Bay Area so I decided to go to Berkeley, home of the University of California. Despite long hours of sleep today was bit abortive as I was knackered. No explanation really, maybe I am getting too much sleep! The BART is very clean and rapid and once it gets over the water it runs above the road on a high rail. I was looking out of the window and saw a postal truck go through the intersection below me; for a split second I thought that it wasn’t going to stop and we were going to crash into it. It didn’t brake at all and it was only once it had passed underneath us that I realised we
were way above it. It really gave me a fright, it’s amazing how the adrenaline starts going after just a fraction of a second of fear.
It was a bit sunnier in Berkeley but it's still not far enough away from the water to be roasting. I had lunch and then tried to walk to the water but realised after a while that it was much further than I thought so I did a loop through the residential streets instead. Berkeley has its regulation number of crazies in accordance with its size. I was waiting for the lights to change and a woman walked up to me saying “It’s great when you get rid of the itchy ones isn’t it?” Then she put her arms round me, gave me a hug and said, “Thanks for being nice, it was easy wasn’t it?” Hopefully I didn’t catch one of her itchy things.
The houses here are very pretty, lots of colourful flowers and porches. They are all one or two stories, nothing higher, made of wood generally and painted in fresh colours. The streets are very quiet though, it is the school holidays so maybe people are away or at camp, the child gulag. I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on the campus’ well manicured lawn, reading the newspapers looking for inspiration. Then after not having done much, consoling myself that there is not much to do in Berkeley, I went back over the bridge and to the cinema. I saw Woody Allen’s ‘To Rome With Love’ for an injection of Europe. It reminded me of how much I love the city and how lucky we are to live in Europe, home to such diversity. I had read in the paper that most Americans holiday in America and most Texans just holiday in Texas, which in a country this big is understandable, but they miss out on so much. The excitement of not speaking the language, a totally different culture, cuisine and attitude to life, the history. The other thing that the film made me miss was the heavy warmth of a summer’s evening when you can go out without an extra layer. Not that we have that very often in London but I don’t think that it ever happens in SF. The evenings are often cold and foggy even if the day has been hot.
I have downloaded the first series of Sherlock which was dangerous as it makes staying in seem very appealing. Although that is not necessarily a bad thing when you’re not inundated with invites on a Friday night.
No comments:
Post a Comment