The other side of the World

San Francisco, twelve and a half hours away from home in India. It truly is the other side of the world. A point emphasized to clear any doubts by the ridiculously long time it takes to get here. In my case, Mumbai-Singapore-Seoul-San Francisco. Almost 36 hours on the road and air at different times from Nasik to here in San Francisco. But then the on demand in flight entertainment was a welcome change from the usual time bound movie times on other airlines. That meant I could read the book I shouldn't have got, The Godfathers Revenge, and watch American sitcoms and some movies or just slept whenever I wanted.

One really has to fly to America at some point to realise just how far they are from a lot of the world. No wonder they seem to be oblivious and ignorant about a lot of other stuff in the world. Or probably there media just feeds them what they feel should be fed. And that on Fox and CNN is along the lines of 'War on terror' & 'Freedom under threat from Iraq'. But that could probably just me being judgmental.

And then theres the jetlag. The bodyclock turned upside down on its head. I had to sleep from 3 pm on a Tuesday to 8 am next day! The last time I slept for so long was when we celebrated the end of our 2nd year engineering exams with a drinking binge on a warm English afternoon. Thats the day I realised that sunlight and alcohol don't go along too well.

My impressions on San Francisco, its a beautiful city. It seems to combine the small town feel along with a metropolis feel depending on the areas you are in. Some really steep roads will have you pedalling to the metal a lot. I cannot imagine a city so well laid out and designed with the amount of, what one can only call, hills in the city. And they are all developed!

This is the second water bound American city I have visited over the last year. First, Chicago which was next to a lake and now SF which is next to a bay. Both cities can be terribly windy even on a sunny day. So obviously the temperature will be lower than inland.

Also amongst the other waterside cities I have visited, Brighton, Blackpool, Newcastle, Liverpool. Now this cities also are very very windy along the shoreside. But if I compare this with Mumbai, the wind on the shoreside is non-existent. Also the high humidity, but that could be the tropical climate. The atmosphere is a lot more heavier and the climates are cooler inland, Nasik I know, as against the warmer climes inland over here in California. I am sure theres a geographical answer for that.