San Francisco Internatinal Airport, 07/23/2010

I’m sitting here, waiting for my plane to Seattle and think about my last week in Califronia.

The last day in Venice, last Friday, was really cool, especially the morning and the last few hours at the Arbor headquarters. Around 11 am Bob (the boss and founder of the company) and me went to a coffee shop (not the kind of coffee shop you find in Holland) on the other side of the street where I interviewed him about Arbor. Of course I wanted to know how they developed “The System” of their new rocker-boards and what the advantages compared to other rocker-designs are. He explained it to me in great detail, and as I know about engineering and physics, I have to say that the idea of “The System” is simple but smart. I am convinced those boards will kick ass and I can’t wait to ride one of them next winter, or even better already in fall.

It was around 5 or 5.30 pm and I was still working on some dealer information updates as Bob called me to come upstairs. He gave me his credit card and said that I should get two six-packs of my favourite beer. I didn’t hesitate and went to the liquor store, got the beer, went back and my co-workers Charlie and Derek, Bob and me climbed up two ladders and enjoyed the beers on the rooftop in the sun. Mark joined us 20 minutes later. I went home around 7.30 and was already a little buzzed as I took those painkillers against my toothache.

I relaxed a little bit, packed my suitcase and a few hours later I met my buddy Juho from Finland to have a couple of beers in some bars.

The next day the toothache was finally gone and I got up early, grabbed all my stuff and left Venice after two and a half cool weeks. I took the bus to Hollywood, walked along the Walk Of Fame for one block and was surprised to find the name of my band (www.myspace.com/socialdistrust) on one of the stars. They didn’t tell us we are that famous. I went to the Greyhound Station and took the bus to Santa Barbara respectively Isla Vista, where I wanted to meet some friends and party for one night again. The entire Freeway was one big traffic jam, so I arrived in Santa Barbara one and a half hours late.

I had a good time with my friends, it was a long night, but we woke up at 9 in the morning the next day. We jumped into the pool to get rid of the hangover, had burgers and ice cream for breakfast and at 2.30pm a girl that I found on the internet to share the ride picked me up and we headed towards Oakland.

At that point I didn’t even know where to sleep the next night, I just knew that my buddy Chris(that’s one of the guys I went to the punk rock festival in Vegas with) was living in Oakland on some street in his RV and he had offered me to stay there for a few nights. I tried to call him a couple of times, but he didn’t pick up. I was already in the city when he finally called back and said he can pick me up.

We had a couple of beers that night and a nice guitar session, went to sleep and woke up early the next morning. Some people were yelling at each other right next to the RV, we both woke up because it was so loud and so funny. You couldn’t understand anything except for the f-word, which was used quiet often in this “conversation”. Who did they think they are?

Yelling literally right in front of our bedroom door. A little more privacy please.

But the sun was already shining, so it didn’t bother us too much.

We took his motorcycle and he showed me around Berkeley. We went to Telegraph and the campus of the University. On Telegraph were some cool record stores and cafes, the campus

is beautiful. After that we rode up the hills and had a really nice view over Berkeley, Oakland and actually the entire Bay, but San Francisco was covered in fog, like it was still sleeping under its blanket. It was a breathtaking view. The nature was beautiful.

After lunch we went to a landfill down at the water, where a lot of homeless people used to live in the 90’s and created art by using the trash they found. There was some really cool stuff, like giant animals, people or a samurai. We spent some time there, took pictures and afterwards rode back to his RV, played guitar and chilled for the rest of the day.

Tuesday we got up early again and rode to “Rudy’s Can’t Fail Café”, which was named after a “The Clash” song, to have breakfast. After that we took off to check out downtown Oakland. In the afternoon I packed my suitcase and we took the train to San Francisco to meet up with Vicky, a German friend of mine. We went to a concert (Kevin Seconds) that night.

Next day I skated through the city and explored the area around “Fisherman’s Wharf”. It was my second time in SF, so I wasn’t as excited as I was when I came to the city for the first time. But still…San Francisco is just beautiful and definitely my favourite US-city so far.

So I did some tourist-stuff and took a boat cruise on the Bay. Actually I intended to check out Alcatraz, but the tours were completely booked out for the entire week. So if you wanna see this place, make sure you book the trip a couple of days before you come to SF.

The boat cruised around Alcatraz and to the Golden Gate Bridge, it took an hour and it was windy and cold as in fall. I was surprised it didn’t start to rain.

The next day was a day I was looking forward to for weeks. The Gaslight Anthem, one of my favourite bands, were playing for free in San Jose, one hour south of SF.

But I got bad news in the morning. My host in Seattle wrote me a message that I can’t stay at his place anymore because he’s out of town…that sucked. So I wrote some more requests on couchsurfing.org and was hoping that somebody can provide me with a last minute-couch.

I almost missed my Greyhound at noon, and arrived at 1pm in San Jose. I strolled around, grabbed something to eat and relaxed in the park where the band was supposed to play at 7 pm.

The first band sucked, so I left their show early to get something cheap at a supermarket.

Suddenly some 35-40 year old guy talked to me on the street. He looked a little bit fucked up, so I said that I don’t have any change because I didn’t wanna talk to him.

But he said: “Wait!” And I again: “Sorry dude, I’m in a hurry!” And he said: “Do you hate gay people?” – “No, why should I?” And then the unexpected happened: “Do you wanna meet me tonight?” I said: “Hell, NO!!!” and escaped as fast as I could. What the fuck?

So after I came back from the supermarket I enjoyed the Gaslight Anthem show from the fifth row. I didn’t expect to be able to be so close to the stage. It was not the best concert I’ve ever seen, but still pretty good and I was happy to be there. Chris was also there and he and his friends could give me a ride to SF afterwards. I was really happy about that, as the show ended at 8.45 and my bus was supposed to take off at 11.05…When we arrived in SF, I dropped out of the car and picked up my guitar to give it to Chris. I couldn’t carry it anymore and shipping it to Germany would cost around $300, too much for me. So I had to say good-bye…

In the next morning I was really curious if somebody answered my requests…negative. So I had to book a hostel, which took me some time because the first few hostels I called were booked out. Finally I found a room and packed my stuff to get the train to the airport and had to hurry up because I was late again..

>> first part<<