California.....knows how to party....

Reached Oakland Airport on Friday afternoon..............i was quite excited about the whole trip for three reasons.....firstly I was meeting my 'school and chaddi' dost Bitta after nearly two years ...secondly I was here in California ( San Francisco) to make my first ever presentation on my research....and thirdly because I was in California and looking forward to great weekend ahead before the presentation on Monday...............


Friday evening was spent in catching up on old times and driving up on the hills behind the University of California, Berkeley.......it was cloudy and the sun was peeping out every once in a while and shining onto some parts of the Bay .......at one point the rays were falling only on this one island called Brook's Island ...and it was soooooooooo awesome......pictures have been taken and will be posted in due time.....once i get back to Ohio.....that night as we were trying to sleep ....Bitta and I in turns would take the name of some random classmate of ours from Loyola High School, Pune and burst out laughing......no incidents were mentioned...its just that all our experiences in school have been common because we were in the same group in school......hence only names were enough....

Saturday morning Bitta gave me a tour of his University ...........also visited Telegraph Street...the hippie quarter of Berkeley......with the vibrant colours and the roadside stalls and the music being played around I was quite sure that if Wonderland exists,this was it...... after a late lunch we decided to go into San Francisco...........San Francisco is very different from the big cities like New York and Los Angeles that i have visited ..........it stands out in terms of its location on the bay and also because of the hilly terrain...among other things its unique because of the tram service that still runs in the city..........after a trip down Lombard Street which is the crookedest street in the world and up Jones' Street which is the steepest street in the city that one can drive up ( 29 degrees incline), we decided to go and spend some time at Fisherman's Wharf or Pier 39 as it is better known........it was like a carnival there on a Saturday afternoon.........shops selling ice creams, pretzels, crepes....and a whole lot of other goodies....did a little bit of shopping there.....things other than memories, that will remind me of this trip.....saw the sea lions who have made pier 39 as their permanent abode.....and headed back to the car since we were parked in two-hour parking and had to move out from there by 6.00 pm........drove around the city for a little more and then decided to head home to Berkeley via the Golden Gate Bridge and the Richmond Bridge .......i should mention about the island Alcatraz here.....the one made famous featured in the movie 'The Rock'........this is visible from practically everywhere in the city...if you can view the ocean then you will see 'The Rock'............

The drive back home was an altogether different experience.........the view from the bridge was great.........on the way we stopped by in this town called Sausalito.....home of the mega rich in the north bay area.....the houses there are on the hills and the hill is right next to the ocean.....feels like you are in the French Riviera...........lovely houses.......view of the bay from practically every room in the house......must be great to live here.....and expensive too.....a short pitstop and we were out of Sausalito.....and soon back home in Berkeley via the Richmond Bridge.....all in all and eventful day.....


and here I am in Bitta's lab........on a nice Sunday afternoon......rejoicing because the L.A. Lakers beat the Minnesota T'wolves to tie the playoff series at 2-2.........go LAKERSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!