"Welcome to San Francisco" or "How to enter the United States"
Finally, we arrived in San Francisco. After 28 hours of travelling, leaving thousands of miles behind us and not getting any sleep, we found ourselves standing in line with many other people waiting to be allowed to step out of the airport. But wait - sounds easy? It isn't. It's not like leaving a fingerprint of every single finger, making a nice photo and getting the stamp into the passport.
We want to stay three months and that's a long and expensive time, judged the man of the border control.
We were asked to wait in the secretary office, where "they will finish what we started here". The border control man took our passes and we had to wait in a small room with around 20 people in it, every kind of nationality, sourrounded by officials. We gave our passports and flight tickets to a secretary. We waited for about one hour in this special office. Finally, another man from the border control came to us - he wanted us to explain why we are staying in America for three months and how we finance it. We thought there were some problems with our passports - but he was a nice guy who understood why we are staying in this country for such a long time.
After the conversation with the man from the border control and the permission to enter the United States, another problem came up. The problem was brought by a young, dark-haired lady from "Air France": "We are so sorry - but Ms. Bauerkaemper's luggage is still in France or Germany, you can pick up the luggage tomorrow at three o'clock." "Air France" allowed us to shop on their own costs for about $150. Great Deal!
We went outside the airport. It was 3 pm. All the other passengers who were on our airplane were already gone. The weather was hot and beautiful - we left rainy Europe and arrived in the "Sunshine State" - or was it Florida? - whatever: A dream came true.
We took a taxi to Millbrae - there was a rental car waiting for us at Rollins Road. We picked up a PT Cruiser - beige color, looks like a taxi. It's strange for a European to drive an automatic car. Almost every driver in Germany has three pedals to control. Now there are just two. But it's much easier - you can concentrate more on other things: great looking cars, good music on the radio...
The cars are a way bigger than in Germany - and so are the roads. In Germany you barely see streets with more than two lanes. Two lanes are the highest feeling you can get as a German driver. The big difference: A speedlimit of 65 mph on American freeways and no speedlimits on German freeways, so called "Autobahn".
We rent a room in a hotel one week before we arrived in the United States. It's a hotel in Chinatown and is called the "Royal Pacific Motor Inn". The beds are for people in the upper 80s - matresses almost as high as our waiste. Better have a easy sleep, otherwise you will fall deep.
Good for us: The hotel is only a stonethrow away from the big building, which looks like a long pyramid. Wherever we are in the city, we can orientate on that thing.
First evening we went to bed early, but not before we had found a typical American diner, where we ate cut steak in bread (in Europe this is a Turkey or Greek meal, served with onions, salad and spicy sour cream and it's called "Doener" or "Pita") and fries and the obligate coke with the obligate ice, which makes the drink tastes like a new chlored swimming pool.
Finally, we arrived in San Francisco. After 28 hours of travelling, leaving thousands of miles behind us and not getting any sleep, we found ourselves standing in line with many other people waiting to be allowed to step out of the airport. But wait - sounds easy? It isn't. It's not like leaving a fingerprint of every single finger, making a nice photo and getting the stamp into the passport.
We want to stay three months and that's a long and expensive time, judged the man of the border control.
We were asked to wait in the secretary office, where "they will finish what we started here". The border control man took our passes and we had to wait in a small room with around 20 people in it, every kind of nationality, sourrounded by officials. We gave our passports and flight tickets to a secretary. We waited for about one hour in this special office. Finally, another man from the border control came to us - he wanted us to explain why we are staying in America for three months and how we finance it. We thought there were some problems with our passports - but he was a nice guy who understood why we are staying in this country for such a long time.
After the conversation with the man from the border control and the permission to enter the United States, another problem came up. The problem was brought by a young, dark-haired lady from "Air France": "We are so sorry - but Ms. Bauerkaemper's luggage is still in France or Germany, you can pick up the luggage tomorrow at three o'clock." "Air France" allowed us to shop on their own costs for about $150. Great Deal!
We went outside the airport. It was 3 pm. All the other passengers who were on our airplane were already gone. The weather was hot and beautiful - we left rainy Europe and arrived in the "Sunshine State" - or was it Florida? - whatever: A dream came true.
We took a taxi to Millbrae - there was a rental car waiting for us at Rollins Road. We picked up a PT Cruiser - beige color, looks like a taxi. It's strange for a European to drive an automatic car. Almost every driver in Germany has three pedals to control. Now there are just two. But it's much easier - you can concentrate more on other things: great looking cars, good music on the radio...
The cars are a way bigger than in Germany - and so are the roads. In Germany you barely see streets with more than two lanes. Two lanes are the highest feeling you can get as a German driver. The big difference: A speedlimit of 65 mph on American freeways and no speedlimits on German freeways, so called "Autobahn".
We rent a room in a hotel one week before we arrived in the United States. It's a hotel in Chinatown and is called the "Royal Pacific Motor Inn". The beds are for people in the upper 80s - matresses almost as high as our waiste. Better have a easy sleep, otherwise you will fall deep.
Good for us: The hotel is only a stonethrow away from the big building, which looks like a long pyramid. Wherever we are in the city, we can orientate on that thing.
First evening we went to bed early, but not before we had found a typical American diner, where we ate cut steak in bread (in Europe this is a Turkey or Greek meal, served with onions, salad and spicy sour cream and it's called "Doener" or "Pita") and fries and the obligate coke with the obligate ice, which makes the drink tastes like a new chlored swimming pool.
The first day we went to see the Golden Gate Bridge
We are happy to be here. The trip can begin. During our first two days we saw a lot of the city of San Francisco. We drove over the Golden Gate Bridge a hundered times - and of course paid the toll of 6 Dollars.
Now we are sitting on a benge in the San Francisco mountains, having a great view on to the Golden Gate Bridge and the skyline. The sun lets the city look snow white and the Bridge shines bright in its "internatinal orange" color.
But - we're leaving the city tomorrow or latest at sunday. Plans for today: Finding a Taco Bell to get rid of our wish for Mexican food and a nice bar, where we can spend the evening. Plans for tomorrow: Visiting Alcatraz and finding H&M.
The best place in the world to write an article
1 comment:
Have a nice time in America! I will visit your blog from time to time. Actually, I never knew that you are intrested in 60s rock. If you stay in SF for the next weeks I can recommend you a lot of places...
A couple of years ago I used to live in Berkeley ....
Cheers,
Manfred Leisenberg
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