I love Kiwis!

I love the Kiwi sense of humour and laid back attitude.

Where else would the airport departure boards tell you to "Relax" if your flight still has over an hour before its gate lounge is open?

I have to say that I really enjoyed flying with Air New Zealand. The seats are larger and there is more leg room than in Qantas planes. The staff are lovely and friendly. And the air safety video was actually fun to watch! All the characters ie pilot, flight crew and passengers in the video are dressed as characters from the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings films! Very clever and hilarious! I have watched it four times in total over the last month.

I have transited through seven different international airports in the last year and quite a few more in pervious years. For this latest trip I chose to travel via a flight that would NOT need me to transit via LA aiport in Los Angeles after experiencing the confusing, stressful, cattle herding atmosphere of that airport on the way to and from Canada last year. So glad I flew via Auckland in NZ and than direct to San Francisco. San Francisco is a much smaller airport than LA and is calm and relaxed. It is a large airport - 102 gates in the international terminal but it has that lovely calm atmosphere that many international airports have and which I quite enjoy hanging out in. And transiting via Auckland was a breeze! In LA, you have to collect your bags and go through US customs even if you are simply transiting to another flight on your way to another country. And you have to drag said bags out on to the street and walk from one terminal to another in the frantic atmosphere of people being dropped off at the front of the terminals - over 6 on them. And staff are not helpful. I know Auckland is a much smaller airport and that is one reason why it is easier, but I did not have to collect my bags, or go through NZ customs, I just went through one security check point and straight in to the waiting area with the shops and gate lounges. Very efficient, smooth and relaxing.

So - I am tired
 (3 hours of something that approximated sleep in a period of 39 hours is not enough and I won't get home to my own bed for another 5 or 6 hours)

and I am bored
(I've done a lot of reading and watching movies/tv on the plane and in the airports and standing in queues as well)

and I have to wait over 3 hours for my last flight to get home
and there is free wifi in Melbourne airport

so -

I have thoroughly enjoyed my "Grandma visit" to San Francisco. Sometimes it is not the destination that is important, but the people - my family. I now have two beautiful granddaughters!

Living in Berkeley

OK - yes - sorry - more pictures of buildings. This time - the houses of Berkeley. I really like the mix of styles here especially the shingle sided houses, "California" bungalows, story book cottages and Spanish styles. There are a few boring shoebox blocks of flats too but fortunately they stopped building them in the 70s or 80s. Pity it is so so expensive - $525,000 USD for a 2 bedroom renovated bungalow in my son's neighborhood!

Revolving fortunes

It screams like a banshee, blowing a gust of warm air around you as it approaches from the bowels of the ground under the city. It howls to a standstill and within a few minutes has spewed out one lot of passengers and gobbled up another.

It is a 40 minute train ride from my son's home in North Berkeley to the CBD of San Francisco, where he works.  Most of this is underground, including 5.8km under the waters of the bay. I have travelled it twice but not during peak hour and it worked well for me.

San Francisco's central business district is like a larger version of Melbourne. It has an eclectic appealing mix of old and new buildings. (Notice the little touch of Tassie?)

 

And upmarket shops including a Westfield Shopping Mall which reminded me a bit of Chadstone in Melbourne. It is built around a beautiful dome from 1907.

 

 

But as I walked along this main street, within a few blocks the atmosphere changed. Suddenly the buildings were smaller and older, shops were boarded up, homeless people increased, and I was one of very few white people walking along.

 

I was on my way to look at the Civic Square which is a large open space with grass and children's playgrounds and in surrounded by museums and art galleries and the San Francisco Public Library.

 

As you walk in to it, the view is dominated by City Hall.

 

On the left is the Public Library with its two revolving 'L's.



And at various times I walked past homeless people sheltering from the rain in door ways, including side entrances of the Library. One woman was looking at the ground next to a statue of some famous historical figure and having a terrific time swearing away to herself or her reflection in the wet pavement maybe. Two elderly black gents approached me with paper cups, but I had no change left. Two elderly white women, one of whom could barely walk tried to get my attention. Sad....

 

It seems incongruous that there is such a different vibe for a few blocks between the main CBD financial district and the quite beautiful well planned Civic Square. The suburbs are the same in that you can drive just a few streets and feel like you have entered a totally different city in terms of socio-economic conditions and lifestyles. Yet, Americans seem to accept these obvious differences of fortune in people's lives. I guess if you can't change it, you have to accept. However, it does make me, once again, truly appreciate Australia.

'I studied at Berkeley"

The University defines Berkeley as a city. It has always been, and continues to be, progressive and outspoken, ie radical. If you are old enough you will remember seeing it on the television news in the 1960s as students protested against the Vietnam War. Regular protests still occur here.

This is Sproul Plaza where those 1960s protests took place.

 

Sather Gate at the end of Sproul Plaza was the gathering place and main entrance before Sproul Hall was constructed just outside and the university began to sprawl in to the surrounding areas of Berkeley.

 

As I entered the university I could hear melodious music wafting over the campus. It was coming from the 61 bells in the campanile tower which is 93metres high and stands next to the library buildings.

 

Beautiful eucalyptus tree at the eastern entrance. There are a lot of gum trees around Berkeley, especially in the hills. They are introduced from Australia and they like it here!

 

There are a lot of newer 20th century buildings on campus but this is one of the original buildings from 1873.

 

More older buildings. Perhaps trying to capture the ivy league atmosphere of Harvard and Stanford.

 

 The University boasts 22 Nobel prize winners among its faculty over the years. It can claim credit for the atom bomb, nuclear medicine, atom smashing, discovering vitamins E & K, flu vaccines, the wet suit, free speech, no fault divorce, UNIX and open source software, genes for breast cancer etc....

 

It is one of America's prestigious universities. If a graduate is asked where they studied, they simply reply "At Berkeley," My son has been impressed by the quality of the young Berkeley IT graduates he has worked with in his job here.

 

If you remember the saying "Never trust anyone over 30" it came from Berkeley during the Free Speech Movement protests of the 1960s.

For my librarian friends

For my librarian friends - I am still a librarian at heart. Today I was a library tourist.

And he did - the library is indeed located right in the middle of the Berkeley campus of the University of California.
Today I went for walk through the campus. I especially wanted to see the university's library buildings which I had read about in "It came from Berkeley: How Berkeley changed the world" - a history of Berkeley which I am reading at the moment.

 Above  - the Doe Library, construction began in 1907. The upper story of the front wing houses a beautiful reading room.

 

Below - the inside of the main reading room which includes the reference collection shelved around the walls and at the far end.

 



The Reference desk librarians are at a counter half way along this room just off the main reading room.

 

This reading room includes the serials collection.

 

Lunch time poetry reading in the Morrison room.

 

Main entrance hall

 

This is pretty cool! Inter-library loan and book delivery around campus using an electric golf-buggy style vehicle.

 



Homeless in America

First world country - third world problems.

At Fisherman's Wharf - (touristy area near the city centre of San Francisco)

Main street of Downtown Berkeley - (one of the nicer middle to upper class areas) A little 'art installation' called "The Bastards took it all" with a tin bowl for donations.

 Begging outside a Berkeley supermarket

 

 Outside another Berkeley supermarket

We Australians should not complain about our social security system.