The Golden State

When my employers started talking about a possible business trip to California I said that I did not want to go to that imperalist country with the paranoid attitudes to foreign visitors. I murmurred  something about having visa problems, just to show that I could not possibly go. But why, you are probably thinking? Well, I guess it is an old habitude from my teen years when I was looking more towards the east than the west. 

As the talk about California continued, I started doing some research on the internet, just to see where exactly the trip would take me, if I were to go, which, of course, I was NOT! To be honest Los Angeles and Hollywood are not exactly the kinds of place that would interest me, even now when I look more at my own bellybotton that to the east or the west.... However, the trip would take me to San Francisco and a couple of hours north of this city. I looked at at video from Alcatraz, which put me off, but then I looked at giant seqoias and coastal redwoods, and suddenly California became something else than film industry and cheap motels.

At the beginning of October I therefore found myself in the relative comfort of a seat in the business class section of a translatlantic flight from Frankfurt to San Francisco. I managed to watch two American romantic comedies of the kind that I would rather not be caught seeing (but what is the risk when you are on business class of meeting any of your friends?) before collapsing on the seat-turned-into-bed asisted by champagne and Californian redwine. 11 1/2 hours later I was in the Golden State of California.

After having checked into the most prestigious hotel of San Francisco (thanks to a computer software conference with 56,000 thousand participants who had booked all the hotel rooms of a more reasonable price) I found myself in Chinatown with my fellow travellers. Dinner took place at The Smelly Rose, a restaurant specialised in garlic. The next morning after a delicious breakfast in the beautiful dining room at the hotel, we rented bicycles, as you do when you are in San Francisco and raced off along the coast towards the Golden Gate Bridge. So distant, so distant, far too distant to reach in the limited time that we had on that Monday morning.

Then the official part of the trip started, and as this is not the place to talk business, I shall skip the meetings, the lunches and the dinners and the sleepless nights (due to the time difference). On Thursday morning I set off in a rented car with my Dutch colleague through the rice fields and the golden hills (from where California takes its name) towards the Muir Woods north of the Golden Gate Bridge. The rain was pouring down as it always does when I am on vacation, but seeing the sequoias was a great experience, even under the rain. By mid afternoon the sun was out and driving across the Golden Gate Bridge (which is red, not golden) was a breathtaking experience, even for an anti-imperalist like me!

After this breathtaking view the last of my travel companions left California, but I stayed on for another two nights to have a closer look at San Francisco and the giant sequoias. It was two very intensive days starting with a visit to the San Francisco MOMA, a day trip to the Yosemite National Park and a guided tour by a very left-wing sociology professor giving me so much information that I am bursting to share. However, it is Sunday night, and tomorrow it is another day in the office.

San Francisco has a very nice, relaxed feel to it. A bit like my home town Aarhus with busy streets and quiet streets, with individual houses and a few skyscrapers. I climbed the steep streets and I raced down the same on the trolley car. I watched the parades in Chinatown for the celebrations of the 100 year anniversary of Taiwan. I had the best cappuchino that I have ever had and delicious sandwiches in trendy cafés. I stayed in a central hostel and met some nice girls with whom I exchanged confidences after having known them for 5 minutes. It was like being 20 again and travelling around Europe with a rucksack. Oh, my feet got itchy after what seemed like a very long break! However, the days are over when you take 4 week holidays. Back in Paris a dog, a job and a new flat were waiting for me.