Roumen's Weblog

Day Zero - They Say I Look Like Some US Singer

I have arrived to San Francisco today, around midnight of central European time. Although I was quite tired from the flight, I could not resist going out to see the city.

The first real contact with a San Francisco citizen was with a homeless guy. He was shouting on me: "Hey man! I saw you on television! I know you! You are famous!". I told him he was wrong, but he kept saying it. Then I remembered one visit to a club in Prague where I met Americans. They were like "Oh my god you are xxx" where xxx is the name of some famous US singer.

So I told the SF beggar politely that I'm just a normal person, but he didn't want to believe me. He tried to get some money from me, but he had no chance, I had no change. Anyway it was such a welcome to the city that I would perhaps give him some coins if I had.

If you know the name of the singer I look similar to, please write me who that is, I'm very curious.

Here are my first pictures:

Trams on a rope in hills

The bridge next to SF port

These street trams are so nice. It's amazing they are pulled just by a rope. People are holding themselves so that they do not fell out of the tram. And those hills, it's exactly like from all those movies I've seen with cars jumping down the hill.

I went to try US beer to compare it with Czech beer. I've tried it in a pub next to the port and asked the waiter to give me the best US beer they have. He chose a local brand (something with steam). It was not bad, but it was different. Much sweeter than Czech beer, well... Czech beer is Czech beer. They had Pilsen as well, btw.

As a dinner I chose one of the hamburgers to taste typical US food. To my surprise, it was delicious! It was so rich of ingrediences, like bacon, various types of cheese... and together it just tasted so great! Obviously, it was done from really good meat, not like those we have in Prague. So it's 1:1 Czechs vs. US concerning food and drinks.

I was pleasantly surprised by how nice all people were here to me. Whoever I met, independent if it was in the elevator or in the pub or on the street. This is almost a shock change, because in Czech republic people are rather closed and if they have to serve you, they're almost angry they have a customer. Here, people seem to value their work much more, even if it means selling hamburgers.

Well, this is what I've heard from the others, but it's the first time I really experience it. Interesting. I wonder when will I start to get sick of this "everyone being nice to everyone". After all, it is not completely honest, is it?