I was complaining, that nothing happens in my life… So I have my adventure now!
It’s very positive situation, but I’m still a little bit shocked, because of how quick the organisation was.
So… I’m in San Francisco now - a thousands of kilometers from home. It’s total spontaneous trip! One day my husband got a phone call from company, which employs him, that he has to coma to main office, and the next day they were buying a tickets! It was crazy! I had to organise visas for me and Maja in 2 days, and after another 2 days we were flying to USA!
Funny, isn’t it? I haven’t even dreamt about flying there in nearest few years. Yes, I was thinking about visiting San Francisco, but to be honest I didn’t believe it would work. During that time the company insisted and that’s how we’re here now. We’re going to spend here the whole month.
The flight wasn’t any pleasure. First we had to get to Munich (1,5 hour flight) - it was quite comfortable flight. Next we had to switch to intercontinental flight (12 hours in the air) directly to SF. It was flight in accompaniment of yells, clamours and grumblings for three voices. There were 3 kids in similar age (Maja and other 2). But surprisingly no one was angry about that. The most of people in the plane were Germans - they were tolerant and friendly. I was afraid, that people wouldn’t like to travel with kids, so I took the whole bag of earplugs. I was going to generously give it to co-passengers if necessary :)
Changing the timezone gave us a hard time. There is 9 hours difference between San Francisco and Poland. So if I have 3 pm in Poland you have the midnight. My daughter was confused, but now she’s getting used to this time. But I can easily wake up at 7 am, but after 7 pm I’m sleepy. I think in few days I’ll feel more comfortable.
We’re here for 3 days. I didn’t have enough time to get known the city, I still have little photos. This week we’re walking around only with my daughter, because my husband has a lot of to do at work. But after this time it’s going to be more leisurely.
What can I say about San Francisco for now?
eople are very nice, friendly and helpful. When I ask someone about something I always get exhaustive answer. Sometimes people start talking to me. They admire of baby, they’re smiling and cooing for her.
When we arrived to the hotel receptionist proposed us to change the room for more quiet, because there was booked room with the windows for street. I didn’t even have to ask for baby travel bed, they just gave me this in several minutes. The maid always asks me if I need some help. Of course when I go somewhere - cafe, shop, shopping mall - people open the door and let me in :) It’s really positive how they treat women with children :)
City centre is really crowded and dirty. I still didn’t have occasion to go to farther districts, I’m walking around city centre. I have to admit that I’m not amazed. The concrete buildings are surrounding me from every side - no plants, no green, no parks… If there is some square signed on the map you’ll see only pavement and few benches… Actually I have no idea where to go for a walk wit Maja. City is just a chequered block.
I met few mums with babies - the most often they’re sitting in Starbucks; this coffee shop you can find on almost all crossings (their Starbucks is in my opinion better than in Poland).
The most often view in San Francisco is hobo. Hobos are everywhere, they’re so popular, that the rest of people don’t pay any attention to them. No one is surprised, that homeless people are sitting or sleeping on the main street in the city. Around them there is a lot of dirt, stench and trash. There are some places, where we can even see tents, under the bridges and viaducts there are hobo estates! Sounds incredible, isn’t it? Already on the first day when we went for a walk we saw a couple of drugged homeless, who were having sex in the middle of the walk. And I couldn’t expect that police or someone else will do something about it...
China Town - very characteristic district. Do you know how the Warsaw National Stadium looked like few years ago? It was a huge market where you could buy everything - food, farm and agricultural animals, Kubota flip-flops, Hogo Boos perfumes and even Hunydey motorbikes. Every filthiness were poured out on the walk, people were crowding in every direction - that’s ow it looked like. And that’s exactly how the China Town looks like. And you should know, that it’s 3 cross streets from the city center...
I don’t know how it looks like in different States, but in California there is local patriotism - almost everyone uses Apple devices (the headquarters is located in Cupertino - nearby San Francisco). In cafes there are people with MacBooks, in taxis drivers uses iPads, everyone listen the music with iPods and most people use iPhones. Even homeless people have iPhones and it’s nothing strange for other people!
In San Francisco multiculturalism is popular and trendy. You can meet here everyone - Africans, Asians, Romas, Turkish, Scandinavians, Jehovah's Witnesses (they’re not such brazen as in Poland), homosexuals and even more. It’s mix of all countries and cultures of the world. And what is the most positive? That no one is worse or better than other (of course there are maybe some racists or intolerant people, but this is a minority).
And also not every American is fat. Half of them are extremely fat and another half are very skinny (almost lank). Nothing between.
Food - here are restaurants from each category, but they all have something common: everything is fatty and difficult to digest. For example - we wanted to eat breakfast in restaurant. I decided to order tortilla; what did I get? Huge block of burrito (~30 x 15 cm) with rice, baked potatoes, fried egg, red bean, corn, tomatoes, onion, lettuce and guacamole sauce inside. I got also tomato and chive salad to dish. No, I couldn’t finish it, too big portion for me...
What is typical american breakfast? Well - few pancakes with maple syrup with scrambled eggs and fried bacon. Sometimes (when you ask) they can add fried potatoes or some unspecified bread. Why did I say ‘closer unspecified’? Because they don’t eat bread or rolls here. They choose toast bread instead of normal baked bread.
I tried to find baguette and I did! It was in bigger market in ‘world cuisines’ section in ‘France region”. But this baguette… uh, leaves a lot to be desired. It’s like sole in the shoe - hard and rubbery. You could use it as a weapon and kill someone! :D
But fruits and vegetables are exquisite! There is a large selection of them. Tomatoes are sweet, strawberries are aromatic, I haven’t eaten a better watermelon even in Greece!
What about hot drinks? Well… forget about it. Well.. if you buy a mineral water and boil it in home/hotel it’s ok. But tap water is awful - it’s with added chlorine. It tastes like you would drink swimming pool water. And now try to imagine make a tea or coffee with water like this! Awful! And it’s the same in every restaurants… The safest way is don’t drink hot drinks and order a sparkling water in restaurants, cause if you order the still one it’s possible that you get tap water...
I’ll never complain on tap water in Warsaw again...
I don’t know when I’ll write here again, I think it can take a while. I have very weak internet here, so please be patient ;)
If you want to be up to date, you can follow me on Snapchat. I’m trying to upload some photos and short movies here :)
Here is the QR code which you have to scan.
So… I’m in San Francisco now - a thousands of kilometers from home. It’s total spontaneous trip! One day my husband got a phone call from company, which employs him, that he has to coma to main office, and the next day they were buying a tickets! It was crazy! I had to organise visas for me and Maja in 2 days, and after another 2 days we were flying to USA!
Funny, isn’t it? I haven’t even dreamt about flying there in nearest few years. Yes, I was thinking about visiting San Francisco, but to be honest I didn’t believe it would work. During that time the company insisted and that’s how we’re here now. We’re going to spend here the whole month.
The flight wasn’t any pleasure. First we had to get to Munich (1,5 hour flight) - it was quite comfortable flight. Next we had to switch to intercontinental flight (12 hours in the air) directly to SF. It was flight in accompaniment of yells, clamours and grumblings for three voices. There were 3 kids in similar age (Maja and other 2). But surprisingly no one was angry about that. The most of people in the plane were Germans - they were tolerant and friendly. I was afraid, that people wouldn’t like to travel with kids, so I took the whole bag of earplugs. I was going to generously give it to co-passengers if necessary :)
Changing the timezone gave us a hard time. There is 9 hours difference between San Francisco and Poland. So if I have 3 pm in Poland you have the midnight. My daughter was confused, but now she’s getting used to this time. But I can easily wake up at 7 am, but after 7 pm I’m sleepy. I think in few days I’ll feel more comfortable.
We’re here for 3 days. I didn’t have enough time to get known the city, I still have little photos. This week we’re walking around only with my daughter, because my husband has a lot of to do at work. But after this time it’s going to be more leisurely.
What can I say about San Francisco for now?
eople are very nice, friendly and helpful. When I ask someone about something I always get exhaustive answer. Sometimes people start talking to me. They admire of baby, they’re smiling and cooing for her.
When we arrived to the hotel receptionist proposed us to change the room for more quiet, because there was booked room with the windows for street. I didn’t even have to ask for baby travel bed, they just gave me this in several minutes. The maid always asks me if I need some help. Of course when I go somewhere - cafe, shop, shopping mall - people open the door and let me in :) It’s really positive how they treat women with children :)
City centre is really crowded and dirty. I still didn’t have occasion to go to farther districts, I’m walking around city centre. I have to admit that I’m not amazed. The concrete buildings are surrounding me from every side - no plants, no green, no parks… If there is some square signed on the map you’ll see only pavement and few benches… Actually I have no idea where to go for a walk wit Maja. City is just a chequered block.
I met few mums with babies - the most often they’re sitting in Starbucks; this coffee shop you can find on almost all crossings (their Starbucks is in my opinion better than in Poland).
The most often view in San Francisco is hobo. Hobos are everywhere, they’re so popular, that the rest of people don’t pay any attention to them. No one is surprised, that homeless people are sitting or sleeping on the main street in the city. Around them there is a lot of dirt, stench and trash. There are some places, where we can even see tents, under the bridges and viaducts there are hobo estates! Sounds incredible, isn’t it? Already on the first day when we went for a walk we saw a couple of drugged homeless, who were having sex in the middle of the walk. And I couldn’t expect that police or someone else will do something about it...
China Town - very characteristic district. Do you know how the Warsaw National Stadium looked like few years ago? It was a huge market where you could buy everything - food, farm and agricultural animals, Kubota flip-flops, Hogo Boos perfumes and even Hunydey motorbikes. Every filthiness were poured out on the walk, people were crowding in every direction - that’s ow it looked like. And that’s exactly how the China Town looks like. And you should know, that it’s 3 cross streets from the city center...
I don’t know how it looks like in different States, but in California there is local patriotism - almost everyone uses Apple devices (the headquarters is located in Cupertino - nearby San Francisco). In cafes there are people with MacBooks, in taxis drivers uses iPads, everyone listen the music with iPods and most people use iPhones. Even homeless people have iPhones and it’s nothing strange for other people!
In San Francisco multiculturalism is popular and trendy. You can meet here everyone - Africans, Asians, Romas, Turkish, Scandinavians, Jehovah's Witnesses (they’re not such brazen as in Poland), homosexuals and even more. It’s mix of all countries and cultures of the world. And what is the most positive? That no one is worse or better than other (of course there are maybe some racists or intolerant people, but this is a minority).
And also not every American is fat. Half of them are extremely fat and another half are very skinny (almost lank). Nothing between.
Food - here are restaurants from each category, but they all have something common: everything is fatty and difficult to digest. For example - we wanted to eat breakfast in restaurant. I decided to order tortilla; what did I get? Huge block of burrito (~30 x 15 cm) with rice, baked potatoes, fried egg, red bean, corn, tomatoes, onion, lettuce and guacamole sauce inside. I got also tomato and chive salad to dish. No, I couldn’t finish it, too big portion for me...
What is typical american breakfast? Well - few pancakes with maple syrup with scrambled eggs and fried bacon. Sometimes (when you ask) they can add fried potatoes or some unspecified bread. Why did I say ‘closer unspecified’? Because they don’t eat bread or rolls here. They choose toast bread instead of normal baked bread.
I tried to find baguette and I did! It was in bigger market in ‘world cuisines’ section in ‘France region”. But this baguette… uh, leaves a lot to be desired. It’s like sole in the shoe - hard and rubbery. You could use it as a weapon and kill someone! :D
But fruits and vegetables are exquisite! There is a large selection of them. Tomatoes are sweet, strawberries are aromatic, I haven’t eaten a better watermelon even in Greece!
What about hot drinks? Well… forget about it. Well.. if you buy a mineral water and boil it in home/hotel it’s ok. But tap water is awful - it’s with added chlorine. It tastes like you would drink swimming pool water. And now try to imagine make a tea or coffee with water like this! Awful! And it’s the same in every restaurants… The safest way is don’t drink hot drinks and order a sparkling water in restaurants, cause if you order the still one it’s possible that you get tap water...
I’ll never complain on tap water in Warsaw again...
I don’t know when I’ll write here again, I think it can take a while. I have very weak internet here, so please be patient ;)
If you want to be up to date, you can follow me on Snapchat. I’m trying to upload some photos and short movies here :)
Here is the QR code which you have to scan.
And below I’m sharing with you a few photos. I know they’re not good quality, but I made it quickly with phone ;)
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