San Francisco budget

And here is the budget for my time in San Francisco, without the money spent on the Burning Man adventure. However, the figures here are not representative and comparable to the other cities I have visited. First and foremost, I did not spend anything on accommodation here, thanks to Renato&Dennis’ generosity. I also practically spend […] Read More

Off to Mexico City

On and on and on and on…. I’m off to Mexico City tonight. It’s an overnight flight, I leave just after 11 and arrive at 5.30 in the morning – jumping two hours back in the process. I’ll be picked up at the airport, meet my Airbnb hosts , and then probably sleep in. Here […] Read More

Margarita farewell

As usual, the last days in San Francisco were packed with last drinks and the traditional farewell BBQ in Rento&Dennis’ backyard. I tried to see everyone and have drink, but the whole visa hassle took too much time and I did not manage to see everyone. Friday night though we had drinks with a couple […] Read More

Indian Visa, round two

Just when I thought the visa for India is on track, I get this email from the agency dealing with it, basically saying… well, what exactly? The following Documents are incomplete:- 1)proof of address not acceptable, if not resident of san francisco is not able to apply tourist visa to india. 2) provide legal valid […] Read More

Berkeley

My adventure and love affair with California started a bit over 7 years ago when I did a sabbatical to attend some summer courses in Berkeley. For three months, I lived in San Francisco and took Bart to Berkeley every day to attend my classes in American Politics 101 and Digital Photography. It was basically […] Read More

Visa application

I spent the last two days assembling my visa application for India. Honestly, without Renato’s patience and help, I would not have made it. It’s a cumbersome, bureaucratic, ridiculous process. The embassy has outsourced the check of the documents to a private company, which only forward the complete, correctly filled out applications to the embassy. However, […] Read More

PBS

Vitor left early Saturday morning and I slept in. I did not move from the house all day, mostly sitting on the sofa and going through my pictures, sleeping, eating, and blogging till late night. We could not decide to go out, not even for a movie, and just watched that crappy Airport ’75 movie […] Read More

Sonoma

Even though we danced all night, we got up early in the morning and hit the road north, for a trip to Sonoma. It was Vitor’s last day in San Francisco, but how could a visit be complete without having tasted some California wine? I love the drive up there, over the Golden Gate bride, […] Read More

Dancing the night away

Yesterday Vitor and I went on a little art tour, first visiting the ruins of the once famous Sutro baths on Ocean Beach, then on to the Legion of Honor Museum, where the SF MOMA exhibits a number of its Matisse collection, while their building is being extended. It was a small exhibition, with lots of […] Read More

The great Indian Visa Panic

I always assumed I could enter India without a visa. For months and months, the information given on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that from October 2014 on, German nationals would no longer need a visa. Today I discovered that this had vanished and replaced by the usual visa procedure. Shoot. […] Read More

At home in San Francisco

Since I came to the city for the first time, I feel a special connection to this place, and especially since I spent a whole summer here from 1 June to 29 August 2007. It was a life-changing experience, this first three-month sabbatical that I took, the summer courses at the University of Berkeley (American […] Read More

Unloaded

We left Reno this morning for the final 219 miles back home. As Labor Day was over, the drive was smooth and quick and we arrived at the Bay at around 1 pm. Over at Tim&Tom’s Duboce apartment, we unloaded the U-haul quickly and stashed everything neatly into their garage, waiting for the cleaning on […] Read More