Moving to the Bay Area: Short Pre-Move Visit

 This weekend I got a chance to visit the Bay Area to meet the people that I will be working with, as well as the University campus. It was an extremely short and busy trip, but it got me very excited about finally moving there. I only had my Iphone, so all my pictures were taken with it. So here it is:

Redwoods in the middle of the UC-Berkeley campus

The UC-Berkeley Campus is incredibly gorgeous. The picture above was taken as I was walking to my department's building. This is a tiny area with a creek, and some redwoods. The amazing thing is that it is in the very middle of campus, which is in the middle of Berkeley, a very urban town. These giant trees were also found in random places within the neighboring areas. I would be walking around looking at random apartments and somebody would have a huge redwood tree on their back yard!

Northside Cafe in Berkeley

The first day my host took me to have lunch at this cafe. It was a very nice place, with giant windows and a great atmosphere. However, what impressed me the most was the price of the food. I ate lunch for less than 6 dollars! this may not sound cheap for some people, but in New Mexico it is almost impossible to have a meal for less than $10 (this excludes fast food of course). I thought that California would be expensive in every sense (housing prices are out of this world), but then I was told by several people that food is very very cheap. This means, in the worst case scenario I can be homeless (its warm enough!) and eat well every day. But I'll do my best to try to find a home.

San Francisco

On my last day I took the BART to downtown San Francisco. I don't know the city, so I just walked around and got lost a lot. My legs are still throbbing. I walked from Embarcadero to Chinatown to the Little Italian Neighborhood, and then to this huge shopping area with a cute plaza in the middle. Maybe I walked in a circle, but since I didn't bother looking at maps too much it just feels like I walked across everything!

Chinatown, SF

Chinatown was very similar to the other Chinatowns I've been to (NY, and Chicago), except it had an air of openness that was probably caused by the fact that it was on a downhill, and you could see the ocean from it. The photo above was taken in a little Alley. I just loved the minty green building.

Having lunch by the window at L'Osteria del Forno

My day ended with food. I walked to the little italian area, and asked yelp where to eat. They recommended L'Osteria del Forno, so I went in and ate. The food was OK, but it was definitely far from being the best Italian I've had (Later on I found out that it has french owners). After a huge amount of food came Rose and Vanilla Icecream at Gelateria Naia! It tasted very strange, but good! it was super flowery.

Finally, I went to that big place with a giant Macy's and a bunch of stores, because the Bart station was right there and I had to get to the airport at some point. There was a large plaza in the middle, and there were some steps with grass where people were sitting. I sat there, and accidentally fell asleep. I woke up an hour later and had to run to the airport. My plane landed in Albuquerque at almost 11pm. I made it home after over an hour of driving. And I was dead. This was a great trip. 

Note: These pictures were all taken with Instagram (@orazzamarual)