Part 2: California

PART 2: CALIFORNICATION



San Francisco

Trek America ended and James and I headed to San Francisco to meet his brother and friend, really great guys. Together we did all of the avalable sight seeing touristic stuff having a great time but keep getting dissapointed of the weak night life. Apparently everybody have been directing us to the touristic area alone day after day and only later on i discovered the real stuff.



I think that most of the time i was focusing on trying to understand what are they saying with their heavy impossible to me british accent, so i felt a lot of the times out (also i had no chance keeping on with their alcohol drinking). The only times i really understood them is when they were drunk: James yelling at his legs: "Work god damn it, work" and almost every other word is a curse.

A little BG about the city:

The area was discovered by the Spanish who found a gate through the missleading seemingly closed mountain ridge - "The golden gate", where is currently found the Golden gate bridge which is the most known symbol of the city.



To me it is really amazing in many aspects:

- The population is very diverse (a lot of Mexicans and Assians) and there is a huge China town

section in the city, remains of the history when San Francisco was a major immigration gate from Asia. My impression is that traditional white european Americans are a minority in the

city.

- The architecture of the city makes it feel somewhat european.

- The food is absolutely great with all kinds and styles, just licked my fingers every day.

- The city is relatively clean and amazingly 70% of the waist is recycled, they even have city

organic waist collection for compost making.

- The weather is everchanging, with many zones of micro climates inside the city, the global

forecast is not enough.

- Sadly incredible number of homeless people occupying the streets. Ben told me that in Raygen times, a lot of mental institutions were closed and most of the people are actually mentaly ill

people.

Ben & Mala

As James and the guys were going on, i finally went to meet my friends Ben and Mala.

Its pretty funny, cause i met Ben about 4 years ago in a short break from the army to the far east, and we spent some great days together in Thailnd and Laos. After that we kept in touch and met again when Ben visited Israel.



I felt pretty much uncomfortable getting in the middle of the life of a freshly married couple, and busy lawyers and therefore I really have no words to express my gratitide.

Mala & Ben made me feel like home and like family, welcomed and comfortable all the time (Ben even allowed me park on his royal sofa in the living room) intrducing me to friends and family and giving me a laptop si i can write you all. This was exactly what i needed after this crazy marathon month.



I got to meet some wonderfull family and friends when Ben invited me to take part in the his family weddings celebration: Ben and his brother and sister all in one year.

And the best part was that i got to speak some hebrew with other Israelies and have good Humus after long time.

300 yrs old oak at the yard



After the party ended, i thought i was taking a ride home with Ben's cousin Laura.

This evening developed to a really spontaneous one.



We crashed a Macarony and cheese party: a contest for making the best dish (we had this with soup at Amichai and Nedavya fireplace and never fullfilled talks about a Schnitzel contest - promise it when i come back).



And from then i joined Laura for her book club. It was pretty funny cause almost no one read the book and it was basicaly a nice getting together time with cool people (Laura was the coolest).

Apparently the book was about a freak family, so we were all posing to the camera with our freakish abilities.





San Francisco and the bay area is a pretty big metropolis, but it was really nice to know its other sides as well, with the courtesy of Ben's friend J. If you saw movies like "last of the Mohicans" and "the patriot" this is exactly what i was thinking walking inside this enourmous impressive red woods and bush. So a nice trek and a day on the beach, what more can a man ask? Thanks J.

Lost in a bet

Impressive Red Wood



The golden gate bridge

the symbol of SF



It was very interesting to me to get exposed to the Jewish life and community in San Francisco.

First it was really suprising for me to find that most of Ben's friends are Jewish, and it seems this really sepereates and unites them. Also a new opening of a Jewish museum for contemporary art with hundreds if not thousnads of people in a long line exeeded many times the museum capacity was amazing.



It also seems that no matter where i go, i keep buming into Jewish people in all forms and shapes and i'll give some examples.



1. I was sitting in a coffee place and an old black guy with Rasta hair was reading a heavy

philosophy book. He told me that he is a Haredi Jew (the most extreme form) and his mother

is Russion Jew and father from the Carribeans, started talking about a new philosophy book

he is going to write. I seriously doubted this guy and thought he is crazy and playing with me.

But as he was leaving he wore his black Haredi robe and hat, and i was shocked.



2. I was having a night out in a bar and randomly met and danced with a black girl i was sure to

be African American, but to my great surprise she told me she is an Ethiopean jew on a

student exchange program (she has never been to Israel).



3. I had an incident with the security in the air-port and had to give up my knife or loose the

flight, and i was like the last passengers i always hated running on the last moment, making

everybody wait. Ant ask my neighbour to forgive me. He was nodding with his head, and 5

minutes after started talk to me in Hebrew (Jewish American from LA).



and the list goes on...



Santa Barbara

A little Yappi rich people and touristic town, nothing too special, but just a nice place to relax:

Beaches, restaurant and shops of any kind, a lot of festivals throughout the year, and impressive remains of 1-2 flours spanish architecture houses. This and the Spanish names all over (San Francisco, Los angeles, Santa Barbara...) connected me to history. In 1846-8, American and Mexican teritory conflicts evolved into a war won by the US and surrender of Mexico, forced to give up huge teritory (a few states such as California and Texas). In my travels in Baja i found

some remains in the collective memory and resent towards America.

House party and Bear Pong (shot a pingpong ball to

liquer glasses and the other team drinks it).





Protest againts the war in Iraq: every Sunday on the beach,

a cross for every American soldier that died.





mouse on a cat on a dog (funny way to beg for money)



The first 2 days were pretty relaxed and slow with Lina from Trek America and her friend Luise . Met a friend of Ben´s and her husband which was an infantry soldier in Iraq, so i got to hear some fascinating war stories and see the war from another side. And on my last day i was lucky to catch the festival for welcoming the summer.







As i was thinking of heading next, i met Denny and ended up staying more.

Denny, a really nice German guy, good soul and a true physical commedian (a lot of great imitations, i was laughing and peeing my pants most of the time with him) adopted me as best friend, calling me bob - easier than Heylal (cause i look like side show Bob from the simpsons).





Me: Simpsons version



It was also very interesting cuase Denny´s origion was east Germany, unlike all of the Germans i met so far. He only caught up his English in the last few years (second language in school was Russian). Our communication was sometimes a little hard, but we had simillar minds so it worked great.



One night as we were hanging out outside the hostel with some people, Ryan who works in the hostel (apparently has an alcohol problem and history), drank too much.

First he was nice, keep buging everybody to make breakfast in 3AM getting messy all over with souce. The man in charge asked him to go to sleep cause he was too noisy for the neighbours.

10 minutes later this 150kg ogre comes out in a diper underwear, shuving and hitting people and shouting "Fuck you everybody party is over". Terrified the supervisor called the police.

The policeofficer said: "I might have to use force, but i´m willing to do it cause i love my job. All I need is to somone press charges", and went to get him out while we were taking pictures with the police car.







The next night was pretty cool as well, Denny met some German girls and we were celebrating Sophie's 20th birthday on the peer with improvized birthday muffin cake and candles, and a bottle of Rum, which i had to put in the trash and everybody spilled their drinks on the floor whenever a car came in fear of the police. Later, Denny and Sophie continued traveling together and joined me in San-Diego and became some of my best friends so far.

San Diego - Ocean beach



Alone again, i arrived to Ocean beach, the more Hippy relaxed part of San-Diego.

Went to have some food and relax with a beer after a long drive, while an old (50s) sat next to me, complaining abouther awfull day. She was kind of slow and ticky, looked like she had a medical condition. I was friendly and tried to cheer her up. After one glass of wine, this woman couldnt move, barely speak and the waitress and i didnt know what to do (looked wealthy - expensive jewlery, not just a homeless), so i suggested call the police.

A few minutes later i understood what the police meant. All they said is "You have to show us you can walk to the next block or you are going to jail", didnt really care about anything !

Eventually, happy end, she managed to say were she was staying and got a police taxi ride.



The hostel i was staying at was pretty diverse with nationalities, so the next night i ended up drinking with 2 Australiens - Ben & Scot, a Finish guy - Curry and a guy from queebeq Canada who later became a good friend of mine for many days - Shawn.

Curry & Scot

Ben

Shawn



Shawn, at first i thought that his red burned face was from beaching all day, but apparently this guy just came down from Alaska helping in snow research in extreme cold (also a snowboard and sky guide). How can i describe him...? I think he is a real tough, brave, intelligent, humble, calm and positive person. But he was here from a different reason other than vacation, just found out about a good friend funeral not knowing where and when in San-Diego, hoping to be answered by E-mail. What was really shocking was that as we were cruising the beaches with bikes for a pretty long distance, suddenly we bumped into this Guys girlfriend, isnt that amazing ? As is Shawn getting to the funeral was just ment to be !



The next days, Denny and Shophie decided to come for me and all of the gang had some great time. Campfire on the beach, A street festival with amazing Regae show, cruising in Denny´s convertible through the amazing views. Dancing and drinking while Shawn and Shophi who didnt have the proper IDs jumped in through a bar's window for 2 nights in a row and drunk nude swimming in the ocean.









Collest Regae

Denny - born for comedy

Sophie - kind and stunning

Friendship wristbands







Surender and Joshua Tree National Park

After leaving Israel i was sure i'm not going to meet Surender (best friend from India) anymore unless i come to India. But as he was working in Virginia, he decided to surprise me and get a ticket to San-Diego. So i joined him left the hostel for the luxuries of a hotel room.



After relaxing on the beach for a day, we decided to rent a car (convertible of course - Denny thought me that you got to do it with style and enjoy). I was pretty upset cause i didn{t get the chance to say goodbye to everyone, but luckily we manage to at least find Shawn and make him join us.



I had in my mind a 3 hours drive to get to Joshua Tree National park, but we didn't really take the short way, so i ended up driving 11 hours i think, but it was worth it !!!

Besides the crazy temperature (almost 45 c) that prevented us driving with the roof down for most of the day, this park felt like beeing on a different planet.

Desert rabit

Joshua tree



Downtown

After Surender left, we decided to change the atmosphere and have a little taste of Down Town.

The main area is a 3 streets historic district with old street gas lamps.

Nothing too special, but a nice place to hang out.



The USS Midway

I couldn´t ressist the temptation of beeing on the most amazing war machine on earth - an aircraft carrier. Apparently America has 12 of these and they are fully newclear powered.

It is truely amazing how such a complex system and amount of people can be managed.

And also pretty shocking to see the highly luxurious hotel room and private kitchen that the admiral has aboard, compared to the common sailors.



But the most exciting thing for me by far, is seeing all of the dates and plans from 1991 when the Middway was leading the dessert storm attack force. It really brought some memories of me - a 12 years old kid and my family hearing the alarm, running inside a sealed room, wearing gas masks and hope for the best like the rest of the people of Israel.











Nath and the lumberjills

One morning i was accompanied by a new guy - Nathan, live in Washington state (next to Canada) a proffessional Bull rider (in Rodeos) and log climber. This guy was pretty wild and fascinating, had a cowboy look, always beutifully get excited by things like a little kid, and attracting the weman attention on the streets.

After a pretty ordinary night out with expanding our gang with Shawn, Nathan invited us to join him the next day for the 4th of July with his lumber jills friends - i actually had no idea what that ment, but i said ride on.



So...lumber jills is as the slogan on their shirt says: "Chicks with Axes".

They were giving a show in a pretty big fair, preserving and introducing some of the old traditional lumber skills: Axe throwing, Chopping wood, walking on a log and more.

You might expect for some though thick girls, but actually they were very gentle and feminin.

After the nice show ended, we all enjoyed the 4th of July in the fair with fireworks, roller coaster, free fall, music show and dancing later on.





Nathan



The Zoo

Shawn's dream came through, instead of hitch hiking to Canada from San Diego (Crazy dude) he got a ride to almost Canada with the luber Jills and Nath.

So i was alone again, but not for too long as i joined some swiss guys to the San Diego Zoo, one of the best in the world, and got to see some really unusall animals, accompanied by a typical Swiss meal. Dominiqe decided to make us a wonderfull chocolate fondu with fruits.

10cm far

Sexiest Animal

Finnale

So, how do i conclude America, i´m really thankfull for many things that are much better in Israel, but we still a lot is much better here and we can learn so much. Some points came to my mind:



1. The people

To my great surprise Americans almost all over were extremely nice and kind, extremely

helpfull (i tend to think that much more than in Israel).



2. The land of the not so free

I saw people get arrested for 5 times in only 2 months (don{t think ever saw that in Israel).

Alcohol is not allowed in the street and places get closed at 2AM (usually even before

1:15AM). Makes me appreciate sitting with a bear in the middle of the night in the street

under my appartment in Tel-Aviv.



3. Junk food evrywhere

High fat, super industrialized, no vegtables, but suprisingly i didn´t really see

the obesity epidemic everybody is talking about, besides ocaasionaly a huge whale on the

street. Most people look fine (maybe in middle America its different...).



4. Just order small

Everything is huge in the supermarkets and restaurants, small is more than enough.

Even when i was looking for treking cloths i was surprised to find out that my size is small and

they usually don´t have them.



5. Superficial people ?

Well...some, but i met so many great and intelligent Americans, so generalizing is not fair.



6. Clean

I have never seen a single piece of trash in nature, toilets along the way, the beaches and the

cities in general look pretty clean. I think that the situation in Israel is a lot worse by far.



7. Crap Beers ?

Sure they have a lot of crap: Budlight etc, but they also have a lot of micro-brewries which

are really great, so it´s just a legend.



8. Transportation

In some places its great and in some it barely exists.

What really impressed me was the atittude to elderly and handicapped people.

Long distances: Nobody got on a bus or a train before all of the "weak" people took their

places. The low floor in the train is actually reserved for them only !

City buses are equiped with a system to lift people up when necessary.

We are so much behind in Israel...



9. Homeless and non existent national health insurance

San Francisco was amazing but the endless amount of people on the streets really breaks your

heart. Apparently most of them are mentaly ill and are not getting treated.

I met a local israeli guy who got punched in the face and didnt want to go to a hospital cause

his insurance didn´t cover minor things (up to 500$). I´m really thankfull for our health

system in Israel with all of its problems.



10. The vegtables myth

Yes, they are extremely big, probably stuffed with tons of hormons and stuff, but still almost

everythig i had was tasty and i didn´t find much difference comparing to Israel.

You can also find an Organic section in many supermarkets.