Californication

First of all, I have to admit that I was greatly prejudiced regarding the USA. I just don’t like their ‘God Bless America’ mentality I guess. After hearing Simon P. stories about Boston though I changed my opinion slightly.. But only in favour of the East coast of the USA.. The East coast with its distinct European feel over it. (Disclaimer: I have never visited the USA before, so take all of my ramblings with a bit of salt.)

And now here I am on the West coast, on a business trip for BT. And you know what? I love it over here I have put up some pictures of my first two days in San Francisco on Picasaweb.

San Francisco

Today started with me putting on my suit for the Liberty 2.0 workshop.. I do still feel a bit out of place though as a young boy amongst all these ‘big guys’. These people know each other for a long time as Liberty Alliance started some 5 odd years ago.. I am sure though that I will feel a bit more comfortable over the next couple of days.. Still a lot of meeting new people to do! After the workshop today I decided to go out and explore the area around the hotel. I really like these little adventure trips, because you get to see a lot more of everyday USA life than when just staying in the hotel lobby for the evening. (Duh) Some observations:

• Every american has a huuuge car. They all look like bloody Canyoneros

• Every road has a minimum of 5 lanes it seems.. Wow, wish we could afford this luxury in Holland, but sadly enough, we don’t have enough land to do that! Hmmm, we can always dig up some more ocean..

• I have become a fan of the Starbucks culture. Even in Ipswich I have ditched Cafe Nero and Costa in favour of Starbucks.. The coffees and frappucinos are nice and I just like the overall atmosphere over there. There’s a Starbucks here at the corner of every street. Cool.

• I have finally seen a lot of the candies, drinks and cookies from Seinfeld.. The Junior Mints and Snapples! They really do exist! I love seeing those things you know, being a big Seinfeld fan.

• I had dinner in a pizzaria called Amici.. Everything looked quite Italian, but Marcello would definitely tell me it had nothing at all to do with Italy! The pancetta was just… wrong The thing that I really liked though was the fact that they ‘boxed up’ my leftovers. So cool. I just finished the ‘doggie bag’ a couple of minutes ago in my hotel room. It’s really good and again: seen it on Seinfeld and now in real life. Perhaps something to consider in Europe? As the waiter told me: “you pay for it so it’s only fair to be able to take it home with you!”.

• What is up with giving all those tips all the time. I have no clue how much I should tip these people. I am currently giving between 10 and 15 %. Any good?

So here I am now typing up this whole story from my comfy sofa in my hotel room. I think I like this travelling on my own.. You can just see so much and get so many great impressions when wandering around the streets of California. Oh and yes, it does indeed help a lot that it is warm and sunny over here. It’s January and 18 degrees, woooooo! All in all, I am enjoying San Francisco and can thus far only agree: God Bless America.

More from me at a later stage.. Ciaaao