I thought I'd post a Belfastian's impression of San Francisco. One of his biker forum friends asked about San Fran upon return:
What do you have to do to stay over there? Marry/have pre-planned work, what? Looks a lovely part of the world. Is it expensive?Below is Craig's response:
Yes you can marry and move there on a fiancee visa but that requires proof of an ongoing relationship. Phone records, photographs, emails and and an affidavit of support from an American citizen most likely your partner. Not sure how the work thing works. You need skills that are considered in demand in the country. Think it's based on a points system.
San Francisco is an expensive city to live in but there are plenty of cheaper surrounding areas like Oakland, Berkeley and El Cerrito that are across the bay. Getting into the city from these surrounding parts is quite easy as the public transport in the Bay Area is fantastic and fairly cheap. A Muni ticket is $1.50 (£1 currently). That usually lasts for 3 hours so you can jump on as many buses and street cars as you like within that time and get to pretty much any part of the city easily. They also have BART. Bay Area Rapid Transit. It's the system the DART was copied from in Dublin. The price of that is distance dependant but it's still fairly cheap. min ticket price is $1.75 i think and that'll get you 5 or 6 stops. It's mostly under the city but it also goes under the bay and comes out in Oakland and serves the East Bay like Berkeley and further.
It's a beautiful city. There are so many different areas to it. Belfast has the city center and that's about it, but SF has lots of distinct areas all with their own look and feel. Downtown where Union Sq is, is very touristy and also has the big stores like Macys and Tiffanys and so on. A few blocks north is China Town. Beyond that is Northbeach which is Italian and Marina District, Pacific Heights, Russian Hill, The Presidio. In the middle is The Mission which is Spanish. To the west you have The Sunset which is Irish/Chinese, The Richmond which is Chinese/Russian and above that is Golden Gate park which is pretty big. That's where the California Academy of Sciences is and lots of other stuff like the Conservatory of Flowers, and the De Young Museum.
I've been there 3 or 4 times now and I've still got lots to see. Madlyne was born and grew up in SF so I am getting around a lot more than a tourist would and usually places that tourists wouldn't go. Places locals hang out.
It's an amazing place. There's a vibe in the streets. A real atmosphere. It's the kind of place you go to, and when you come back to Belfast you realize how truly backward this place is. I hate putting Belfast and Northern Ireland down and I know I do it all the time which I'm sure people are tired of hearing, but we're not living here, merely existing.
I used to have a pretty bad opinion of Americans based on what I see on the news or seen in movies and little else. I made the mistake of equating the American people in with their Politicians and was always very cynical of the over the top 'have a nice day' crap. You get the impression they're running around shooting each other on the streets constantly (unless you're in Oakland), but in all the time I've been there I haven't seen so much as an argument between 2 people. Even the homeless are polite to you on the street.
My opinion of Americans, or at least Californians is that they are the most friendly and approachable people I have ever met even more so than Toronto when I lived there a few years back. Strangers will just randomly start having a completely friendly conversation with you.
Every store you walk into, the first thing you hear as you enter is, hey guys how are you, or welcome. Sure they're being paid to be nice and they want your custom, but it makes you feel good and generally spreads a friendly atmosphere. Nothing wrong with that. Their customer service is first class. Not like here. You walk into a shop or cafe here and you're generally ignored for the first 5 minutes. I've been in cafes here and been made to feel like I'm being a pain in the ass if I call the waitress for something and interrupt her chat with the other waitress about her recent holiday to Tenerife.
Sure it has it's problems like anywhere else, but people are generally nice and just do their own thing. No one stares at you or shouts stupid remarks if you wear something that's not the 'norm' or whatever. A lot of people in NI seem to think you're interested in their opinion of what you're wearing or doing and take great pleasure in sharing it with you.
It's easy to forget when you live here that this isn't a normal society we live in. No society that has the kind of segregation and 30 odd years of the kind of violence we've had here can be normal. That shit affects people and places.
I've only ever had a problem with one person in San Francisco and guess what, he was from Dundalk. Madlyne and I met him in an Irish bar where some traditional music was being played that Maddy wanted to hear. He came over to us and was nice as pie telling us he'd been out there since 1990 and owned his own construction business and so on. Then after a few drinks he totally changed, became a nasty bitter bastard and started arguing with me over nothing. He followed me into the toilets and grabbed my shoulder so I punched him and left the bar. Totally ruined our night.
The main difference between here and somewhere like San Francisco is that the culture doesn't revolve around drink. In fact, if you get drunk there, people treat you like you're stupid. To go out on a Friday and saturday night and drink until you can't stand and fall down in the street and start fights and throw up all over the place isn't acceptable behaviour like it is here. If you do that over there, you have a drink problem. Here, that's just another weekend for most people.
So aye back to rainy Belfast. Went off on a rant there. LOL!
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