I so love this city! Seriously: San Francisco is gorgeous! It's got cool cafes and restaurants, a nice number of parks and places to hang out and quite simply a really nice architecture. And even though it's a big city it does not have this claustrophobic feel to it.

Yesterday I went on a Bay Cruise (20 $) to the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz and saw seals, pelicans and even a small group of dolphins that swam next to the boat! And that's in the middle of the city! I think that's pretty cool. In the evening I went out with Tamar and her room mates and had a really good night. We went to a restaurant and a bar and I got to play some pool (american pool-rules are weird, btw). I know, that might not sound too exciting but I simply had a really good night with some really nice people. And they were locals and not just other backpackers. And they all made me feel really welcome. Over all, I'm really positively surprised by how nice people are here. The only other big city where I've ever been in the States was New York and I think it's fair to say that they did not invent politeness there. But SF is nice - I could live here.

Virtual becomes real

Tomorrow I'm gonna meet my "old" email-pal Katie. That's gonna be quite interesting. You see, I've never met Katie in person before, even though we have been emailing each other for six or seven years. We "met" through an email that a girl I had met in Ireland send to both of us. And we have been in email-contact ever since. So, virtually I have been with her when she broke up with her first proper boyfriend, when she met the man she later married, when she got her baby etc.. So in a way it feels like I know a lot about her, maybe even some things that she normally doesn't tell people. But, as I said, we never met face to face. I'm really excited about this!

My jetlag is pretty good, btw. That is, I hardly have any. Maybe those "No Jetlag" pills I took on the plane actually do help.