A Sojourn: Part 2--California continued...

The first full day in California without driving finally began. My initial impressions were weather based, and I must say it was fantastic. It was not too cool or too warm, but seemingly just right: almost too right. Since our friend Stan had a class to attend in the morning, my friend and I opted to walk around and get familiar with Berkeley and the campus. Not far from where we were staying was a place called "People's Park". Apparently it was only for a select group of people because it seemed to be inhabited by a band of transient people. Not just three or four, but about twenty-five. What was unique in my opinion--and perhaps indicative of Berkeley as a whole--was that the homeless in People's Park were all reading literature or philosophy. I had never seen this before and I wasn't sure if it was a good or bad thing. It's good in the fact that they are at least educating themselves to some degree. But do we really want an insurrection of homeless people starting a revolution? It would be an interesting site none-the-less.
The main drag of UC-Berkeley seemed to be Telegraph Avenue. It was littered with unique stores and plenty of street entertainment. What was interesting, and pretty cool, is that in this three of four block stretch, you could run into any walk of life practically. One that particularly irritated me were the emo kids (I may be calling them by the wrong name) with their unbelievably tight pants, uber-obscure rock band shirt, and the just rolled out of bed hair. They were everywhere, like a plague of locusts. I don't dislike them for their style or their music. I dislike what they represent because it's the "thing" to do; It's "cool". One day, they will scrap the look for a business suit and we ALL know it. But I digress. The campus itself was particularly nice. The spectrum of architecural style was interesting to me because it seemed so random, yet it still seemed to work. Ranging from a Victorian-style on one corner to a contemporary-era structure that resembled a booger more than an actual building.
We finally made it back to Stan's place where we found him frantically roaming the halls. Apparently he had forgotten that he had loaned us his keys and left his phone in the locked apartment. Just another day in the life of our dear Stan. Once settled, we all decided to venture into San Francisco to see the famous city by the bay. On the metro ride toward San Fran, we sat next to a guy who can only be described as being a love-child between Johnny Cash and the guy from "Powder". The contrast of his extreme white hair and skin tone with his pitch black suit was striking and I couldn't help but stare. Immediately upon getting out of the metro station, you could feel the breeze coming from the water. For us Midwesterners, this is Heaven compared to the humidity encased environment we inhabit. We did the whole touristy thing and walked on the pier while casually making fun of other tourists, of which there were a million Germans. We encountered a number of odd characters including one man dressed in a glittery silver outfit who can only be described as the Tin Man's gay cousin. Not that that would be any surprise in that city.
In need of some drinks, we stumbled into a bar that had around ninety beers on tap and was actually run by an Irish woman. Both elements proved to be most entertaining. It was the first time that I had ever seen an Irish bartender drunk while on the job (not that it's a big shocker given the genetic nature of her kin). She casually proclaimed that she was hungover from a big party the night before, but we all knew she was drunk. When we were ready to leave, the bill was around twenty dollars, but she only asked for five. Either she was absolutely awesome or we were right. Also, we were discussing our least favorite beers at the bar while the bartender was dealing with a Miller representative which my travel buddy apparently didn't notice. She wildy proclaimed "Miller blows!" to which she got a glare from the rep. Always keeping it classy there Mel. To be continued...