I spent two weekends and a few days exploring San Francisco (since it was where my apartment was), but during the week I was mostly in Mountain View.

Coming from London, the first thing you realise is how lacking the public transportation is. Sure, buses cover a fair portion of the city, but with the traffic the way it is, its not a very practical way to commute. The high-occupancy lanes are good and well, but they snarl up too when the highway onramps are clogged, especially at big intersections. I sat in a bus one evening during rush hour for probably an hour, when the journey really should’ve taken 20 minutes. The light rail metro is better, especially on Market Street where the trams run underground and automated — much more like the Tube. But other than that, the BART and Caltrain has such limited coverage that it wasn’t convenient for me to use for a daily commute. So I did end up walking. A lot.

Most of the time it rained, which was disappointing. I came to California to escape the less-than-optimal weather of Dear Old Blighty, but instead had some more of the same. Luckily, my first weekend was gloriously sunny, so I got a few photos in!

I met up with my brother and his wife, who are settled there. We did a small trip up into Napa Valley, and sampled some excellent wines. The stupid new traveling rules would’ve prevented me from taking a few bottles as hand luggage, so I didn’t bring anything home, unfortunately

Ultimately, I was quite surprised by how pleasant the experience was.  Reading in the news about the paranoia that America has with regards to terrorism and immigration, I expected the border controls to be a lot more stressful than it ultimately turned out to be.  People generally seem friendly and laid back, and the quality of life, at least in Northern California seems very good.  I was astounded by the amount of homeless people on the streets of the city, though, and that’s apparently what you get for not having socialised healthcare.