Day in San Francisco – 8 September

I took day trip into the city of San Francisco and Alcatraz. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Yep, trams still run here. Probably more of a tourist thing – Strikes in the USA…no ways! – A very cool mesh of roads.

One of the many steep road in town – I couldn’t not smile reading this sign

China-town’s entrance is quite prominent – Building art. Love it. – Could you talk yourself out of this? – Nice view.

 
City suburb – Street art

An interesting story. You will have to zoom in a bit. Times were tough.

 

Next stop: Alcatraz.

 
- Model of the prison

Alcatraz in the distance – The Warden’s garden

What do Indians have to do with Alcatraz? The native population were fighting for equal rights. They took over Alcatraz after the closure of the prison, but didn’t last very long as there is no natural water on the island. Also the reason for closing the prison.

 

 

 

The Cell block

A period representation of an inmate’s cell.

 
You do the tour with a set of earphones. These are the faces of the people narrating. Officers and inmates

The Hole: I’ve always thought that this is over-dramatised by movies, but I went inside. Even though the door was open, there is an eerie silence. Not a nice place to be.

 
The siege of Alcatraz (May 2-4, 1946): 6 inmates escaped their cells. A fire-fight ensued between the inmates and the correctional officers. The last photo shows the remnants of a grenade.

 

 

 

At the end of the day, Shannon met me and she showed me around the city. We ended up finding ways to slide the fastest down a polished concrete slide. Fun, fun, fun.

 

 

 

A thought to end off the day

Berkley – 7 September

A trip to Berkley (University of California) to check out the university that started a couple of movements in the USA. Freedom of speech being only one. The campus is not as green as Stanford, but it has a different charm. I’m getting quite bad at writing interesting stuff about each place. You are probably also getting bored of all this reading :) Think I’ll let the photos do more of the talking.

A entrance to the main administrative building. Notice how there are no handles? This was to stop people tying themselves to the door during protests – The library – Nobel Laureate? Special parking for you – You can see Golden Gate Bridge from campus…on a good day :)

Not all modern architecture is ugly – Posters to make the students proud of studying at Berkley – Open space where the societies were campaigning for members

Smart use of natural lighting in the library – Library from outside with the bell tower in the back. Twice a week a song is played by the bellman. – Inside the library, a more modern section. This library is huge!

Umm…a technicality? Just park your scooter around the corner :) – South America showing up in the North