Far West’s East Bay

Overview

Quote:

San Francisco is one of those cities with an unforgettable sight: the Golden Gate Bridge spans a narrow strait and allows a striking view of the bay with San Francisco, Alcatraz and Oakland in the background. A big Chinatown, an awesome promenade running along the inner bay, a wild beach at the ocean side and an attractive downtown complete the list. Hiding beneath its bigger neighbor shade, Oakland has a beautiful inner lake, a definite relaxed ambience, a friendly Asian town with Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese, Cambodian and Laotian restaurants, a redwoods forest above them all and awesome views of the bay from up the ridge delimiting the city. Berkeley is an intriguing place to visit and ...Read More

San Francisco is one of those cities with an unforgettable sight: the Golden Gate Bridge spans a narrow strait and allows a striking view of the bay with San Francisco, Alcatraz and Oakland in the background. A big Chinatown, an awesome promenade running along the inner bay, a wild beach at the ocean side and an attractive downtown complete the list.

Hiding beneath its bigger neighbor shade, Oakland has a beautiful inner lake, a definite relaxed ambience, a friendly Asian town with Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese, Cambodian and Laotian restaurants, a redwoods forest above them all and awesome views of the bay from up the ridge delimiting the city.

Berkeley is an intriguing place to visit and explore the secrets of scientific output. Greener than the former two, this is the place for an afternoon picnic in one of its extensive parks. Tiny theatres provide affordable shows to close a day with a cultural tone. Enclosed between Berkeley and Oakland, tiny Emeryville resembles a huge shopping mall and has the best views of San Francisco from the East Bay area.

Quick Tips:

Walking the Golden Gate Bridge is an experience unobtainable by any other way of transport. The best way to reach the bridge is by bus; #29 from Fulton Street, next to the Golden Gate Park is a comfortable option if arriving from downtown. The walk is done by the bay side and is free.

After 18:00 there is a well-defined feeling of danger in the streets of San Francisco. Policemen taking a handcuffed couple in Market Street were my first sight of the hour and quickly lead me to safer shores. Except for a water-balloon flying in my direction, Oakland and Berkeley seem much safer.

In the East Bay, the cluster of towns in front of San Francisco and across the bay, can be messy to identify the town you are in without looking at a map. Luckily, there is a color code to the streets’ signs; green for Oakland and Piedmont, blue for Emeryville and brown or violet for Berkeley. Oakland is mainly a labor-class neighborhood, in Piedmont live the richer neighbors, Emeryville hosts the big shopping zones and Berkeley is a university town.

Best Way To Get Around:

To move between the different towns in the San Francisco area, the BART (www.bart.gov/) train offers the best deals. Its pricing depends in the distance traveled and tickets can be conveniently bought from vending machines at the entrance. The only drawback is that each town is covered along a single axis and thus sometimes a second method of transport is needed.

The MUNI (www.sfmuni.com/) is a system of trains and buses serving the city of San Francisco. Tickets cost 1.50 and a free transfer ticket can be obtained and used within 90 minutes. The website offers a comfortable Trip Planner. AC Transit (www.actransit.org/) is a system of buses covering the East Bay towns. Trips cost 1.75 and a 0.25 transfer ticket is valid for 90 minutes; trips can be planned through their website.

Transbay buses cost 3.5 and cross the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge. At San Francisco they conveniently stop at a terminal close to both Market and Mission streets. At www.sparetheair.org, it is possible to check if the current day is a Spare the Air Day; if so, all the options mentioned above are free.

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Roberts Regional Recreation Area

Attraction

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Having spent much of my life in arid and semiarid regions, trees are special for me; they represent exuberant life, fertile land, growth and colour. The first time I saw a real forest was at Versailles; afterwards I impatiently waited until my visit to the Mekong River in Cambodia to see really massive trees. New Mexico provided superb sights of majestic Ponderosa pines and wonderfully blu...Read More

Member Rating 5 out of 5 on April 23, 2008

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Oakland’s Oaks

Attraction

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Oakland has fame for being a workers' enclave in the East Bay, but the first glimpses showed a different picture; spending a day there turned out being an enjoyable adventure.12th Street BART station is at the very center of Oakland's downtown; the exit of the station through the shopping plaza offers a great view of downtown and an opportunity to buy a bottle of cold water before beginning to explore the city. One block to the north is the Ogawa Plaza and a short walking street; at their encounter with Broadway, the main street crossing the area, is a spacious branch of Tully's which serves excellent coffee. Oakland's Chinatown is enclosed between B...Read More

Member Rating 5 out of 5 on April 24, 2008

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Four Buses from Santa Fe to Oakland

Story/Tip

Quote:

Amtrak asked for $184, Greyhound settled for $84 in a weekday or $96 in a weekend trip with a week's advise. Feeling generous with my time and eager for a direct contact with the towns along the way, I chose Greyhound and got in exchange for my money an elaborated collection of vouchers for the four buses in my way. The heavy package in my pocket gave a sense of security and reliability. My assumption was that someone who takes so much care with the tickets must care similarly for the other details.Bus Number OneNext Saturday, I arrived at the humble Santa Fe's Greyhoun...Read More

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San Francisco

Story/Tip

Quote:

June 22 was a special day; early in the morning, the radio announced that due to the weather, the day was declared a Spare the Air Day and the public transport in San Francisco and its surroundings will be free. In such a way, drivers are tempted to use it and the amount of pollutants in the tired air diminishes.It was the perfect occasion to visit the city and during the short trip from Oakland through the BART train I decided to use the triangular approach to pack as many views as possible in a single day. The idea was simply to draw a straight line across the main commercial district until the Ocean Beach, to reach the Golden Gate Bridge and the Fisherman's Wharf and then to walk all th...Read More

June 22 was a special day; early in the morning, the radio announced that due to the weather, the day was declared a Spare the Air Day and the public transport in San Francisco and its surroundings will be free. In such a way, drivers are tempted to use it and the amount of pollutants in the tired air diminishes.

It was the perfect occasion to visit the city and during the short trip from Oakland through the BART train I decided to use the triangular approach to pack as many views as possible in a single day. The idea was simply to draw a straight line across the main commercial district until the Ocean Beach, to reach the Golden Gate Bridge and the Fisherman's Wharf and then to walk all the way back to the center along the Embarcadero Promenade. The quasi-triangular shape in my mental map promised a good balance between cultural, natural and engineering attractions and touristy kitsch.

The first stop after the train emerged from the underwater tunnel crossing the bay was Embarcadero, and from there I began walking along Market Street. The wonder dissects Eastern San Francisco in two and surrounding it are the main business centers of the city. When I reached the junction with Kearny, I turned north and after crossing California Street, reached Chinatown. Eastern Bakery, at 720 Grant, claims to be the oldest Chinese bakery in the area, dating back to 1924. "We were here before the Great Depression, the bay bridges, World War II, etc...," a sign next to the counter says. A lotus and a melon Chinese cakes cost a dollar each and were excellent; the brewed coffee was bad. Surrounding the shop are many Chinese bazaars, musicians and Chinese-seals' artisans; many of the buildings are pagoda shaped and provide a feeling of being at the real place.

Back to Market Street, I continued west until the junction with Powell St, where the massive San Francisco Shopping Centre is. With at least eight floors of shops, it's a window to the local needs and practices; semicircular mechanical stairs carry shoppers through the several floors in the way to their individual nirvana. The most interesting spot for me was the underground; there, an improvised coffee shop serves excellent Segafredo Italian coffee with a bit too expensive snacks.

Further down the street is the Civic Center, where the main administrative buildings of the town are. Among them is the UN Plaza, resembling more a walking street with columns at the sides; the columns carvings mark the joining date of every country to the organization. The nearby War Memorial building was where the original charter of that organization was signed on June 26, 1945. The Plaza hosts an interesting Antique and Artisan Market; however, the vendors didn't think there was a political message in placing them there.

Bus number 5, traveling along Market Road, advertised Ocean Beach as its final destination; I boarded it and got a close look of Fulton Street, which delimits the northern side of the Golden Gate Park. I left it next to the junction with the 26th avenue and entered the Golden Gate Park. The park was established in 1870 and is bigger than Central Park in New York. Its features are monumental and the trees are in such quantities, size and density that they do resemble a natural forest, next to them, pleasant lakes are irregularly shaped and surrounded by promenades, special areas are fenced for dogs to play unleashed and even there is a special Petanque playground. I left the park next to the 45th avenue and continued by foot to the nearby beach, passing in my way a huge and inactive windmill.

Ocean winds made an effort to temperate the city and the drop of temperatures was evident by the beach; the promenade and the shoreline were almost empty and no shops spoiled the view. The promenade offered glorious views of the coastline; the beach was wide and had dark gray sand, the waves were low and cold. Low houses kept a respectful distance. The few people were a pleasant contrast to downtown, but with a painful determination to maximize the sights in that day, I left the beach.

Reaching the Golden Gate Bridge was a bit tricky since it is off center and few buses reach it. I took bus 5 along Fulton Street back to 25th avenue and from there took bus 29 until the bridge. An advantage of such a landmark is that there are no worries of missing it, and pretty soon I was approaching its southeastern side, where a souvenirs shop and a sample cable are located. A short ramp gave access to the bridge and even from there, awesome views of the bay created a symphony of cameras' clicks. Walking across the bridge is free and easy: it is flat and the winds cooled down the crossing crowds. The first massive column is just five minutes away from the entrance and the second fifteen minutes from the first. The traffic is heavy, pedestrians, cyclists, teams of workers painting the bridge and narrow maintenance vehicles fiercely compete for the limited place, but the views compensate for everything. San Francisco, the East Bay, Marin County and Alcatraz appear behind a graduated mist, which increases with the distance.

Back at the bridge’s base, I took bus number 29 to the end of its line and from there walked through Lombard Street and others to the Fisherman's Wharf; the walk was gave a good sight of the residential areas of the town. The wharf is one of the main attractions for tourists here; along the piers are endless restaurants and shops catering for all their needs and next to them, loud sea lions await visitors at Pier 39. Tours of the city and the bridge are offered using open deck buses, bikes, Segways (a two-wheel electric vehicle balanced with a gyroscope) and low motorized tricycles.

The promenades continues east under the name of Embarcadero and is the perfect way to reach back downtown and end a busy day. Turning right at the prominent Ferry Building, I returned to Market Street by the sunset. Sitting over a coffee in a corner coffee shop, I watched with interest how the police was speaking with a handcuffed couple. After a while, the police reached the man's pocket, took money from there and gave it to one woman waiting nearby; the couple was subsequently taken away in a police car. Apparently the many cameras in every corner and shop of the town failed to fulfill their purpose, and I decided to take the BART to other shores before night would ease certain crimes.
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Berkeley

Story/Tip

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With enough scientific articles published from here to fill an average university library, the town of Berkeley is an intriguing place to visit and find the secrets of scientific output. Early in the morning I took a BART train and a few minutes later landed in Central Berkeley.Traffic lights with different warning sounds according to the direction of the cross were an early sign that something is different here. A friendly local claimed that this was a Berkeley innovation, their gift to the world. However, the next day, in neighboring Oakland, I heard an equally passionate claim about it being a wonderful contribution of Oakland to humanity. A peaceful person by nature, I kept away of the...Read More

With enough scientific articles published from here to fill an average university library, the town of Berkeley is an intriguing place to visit and find the secrets of scientific output. Early in the morning I took a BART train and a few minutes later landed in Central Berkeley.

Traffic lights with different warning sounds according to the direction of the cross were an early sign that something is different here. A friendly local claimed that this was a Berkeley innovation, their gift to the world. However, the next day, in neighboring Oakland, I heard an equally passionate claim about it being a wonderful contribution of Oakland to humanity. A peaceful person by nature, I kept away of the topic for the rest of my visit to the area.

I began my visit approaching the top end of Bancroft Street, where the prominent International House is; it provided misty sights of the bay and a good coffee. The university campus was green and agreeable and beyond the Piedmont Avenue it grew wild, the slopes became significant and the buildings scarce. The greenery was enough to give a sense of being in a field trip; the buildings were unobtrusively placed and allowed Nature to give its message. A perfect place for a picnic.

To get a sense of the town, I wandered a bit along the main streets. Bancroft delimits the southern side of the university, Telegraph runs perpendicular to it from the main entrance and seems to have the biggest concentration of restaurants, Shattuck is the main commercial artery and University Avenue connects the campus with the Berkeley Yacht Harbor. Pretty soon a pattern became evident. After spending a few years traveling around Asia, I should have been able to anticipate the answer; Thai, Lao, Vietnamese and Chinese restaurants occupied every possible spot and obviously were the engine providing the energy needed to create scientific advance. It wasn't just the food; most of the people walking across town had definite and pleasant Asian features, contributing to my growing feeling that the BART train had taken me across the Pacific Ocean.

Healthy Heavenly Food at the university's food plaza, next to the Bancroft's entrance has excellent Vietnamese food. Bahn Mi sandwiches cost here $2.75 and a heavenly Pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) costs $4.95 or $5.95, depending on the size. Next to it are a Taqueria, a salad bar and a coffee shop.

A couple of hours later, in my way to the shoreline, I reached the Mittaphab Restaurant at 1923 University Road. This is a Lao-Thai restaurant, a combination avoided in Thailand and in Laos, where a tendency to emphasize the little differences between the styles exists; however the distance from its roots made he combination acceptable. The place offers excellent dishes which resemble very much the originals; Nua Yang, a sliced beef marinated in Lao-Thai herbs costs $7.25, a superb desert of sweet sticky rice with mango, called kow nee-o ma-mooang, costs $4.50 and beers from there (Singha from Thailand and Beer Lao) cost $3.25 for a small bottle each. The service was excellent and succeeded to awake the will to travel across the ocean, back to the Country of the Smiles.

A not so long walk took me to 1111 Adison Street, where the Freight & Salvage Coffee House is located since 1968. The place offers nightly shows of traditional music and the day I visited, The Bobs were giving a live performance. The entrance was difficult, because most tickets have been sold in advance, only a few were available for $20.50. The show began at 20:00 in the crowded theater and continued until 22:30. The show was part theater, part comedy and overall a quite unique performance of a cappella music, in which all the instruments are mimicked by human voices and body percussion. Appealingly, it was obvious that the laughing performers were having a good time themselves. That night they featured a guest appearance by a former Bob, Lori Bob Rivera and an opening set by the pianist and singer Robert Bob Malone and provided the perfect end for a long day exploring a cultural town.
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San Francisco Journals

Far West’s East Bay