Eureka California! A Journey Through Silicon Valley

As you know, California is a state located on the West Coast of United States. The most populous state in US, which contains big cities like Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, Sacramento, Oakland and of course San Francisco. This time I’d like to share my experience traveled to Cali. Yeah, Cali ~ it’s a cool name huh? From U2, 2Pac and Phantom Planet wrote a story about Cali in their songs.

I had a conference in San Francisco for couple days, but I decided to visit San Jose first before head up to San Francisco Bay Area. Because at that time, my fave football team (do not call it soccer!) Man Utd had a friendly match in Levi’s Stadium for their America Tour. So after I reached San Jose Airport, drop my bag in Motel 6, then go directly to stadium.  Wondering why I choose Motel instead of Hotel? Simply because it is more challenging, dude! I really want to experience to stay like a Django.  haha..

Well.. I have to admit that one of my personal goal visited Cali (and stopped at San Jose) is because I wanna go to Silicon Valley, the nest of the Geeks. It is home to many of the world’s largest high-tech corporations, as well as thousands of startup companies. You can name it: Adobe, Cisco, eBay, Electronic Arts, Facebook, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Netflix, Nvidia, Oracle, Salesforce, Yahoo!, etc.. all the companies of Binusians’ can dream of. LOL! :))

Oups, almost forgot about these names: Google & YouTube.

Haha.. Yup, I do have personal reason why I should come to this place and wearing my Twitter’s Tee: “A Tweep visiting Googleplex” sounds really cool, like a sweet revenge. Finally, after these years, struggled with so many interviews (and rejections), and they keep say no, I can prove to myself (at least) that I deserved a glory. When I put my first step on the street in Mountain View, suddenly I heard Chris Martin singing “Now My Feet Won’t Touch The Ground”. What an epic-melancholist feeling.

After mission accomplished . We continued the journey to San Francisco Bay Area. And because we still have much time, we decided to take CalTrain from Santa Clara to San Francisco. It only cost you $4.50 traveled within 4 zones in California. All the reviews about Caltrain,  you can find here.

Now we arrived in San Francisco. One of my favourite city in US. Eventhough living cost here way more expensive compared to any other cities, San Francisco definitely will make you fall in love with the West Coast. The weather here (relatively) acceptable for someone who come from tropical country like me, it’s around 10 – 12 celsius in winter, and 15 – 17 celsius in summer, quite stable in overall year. But the wind are strong! Maybe because it is really close to bay, I dunno.

Here are my favourite places in San Francisco, and all of these are “mandatory” if you have chance to go there:

1. Ride the Classic San Francisco Tram (Cable Car).

The best route would be from Powell Station at Market Street to Fisherman’s Wharf (which my 2nd fave place), they call it Powell-Mason Cable Car. The fare ticket is $9 per-ride, slightly more expensive compared to regular tram or bus. (You pay for experience, man. Don’t act like a middle-class bitch). The trip is awesome: from the Downtown, it will take you through the city, Union Square, Chinatown and finally reach Fisherman’s Wharf: one of the busiest and well known tourist attractions in the western United States, which is best known for being the location of Pier 39.

2. Fisherman’s Wharf

I love this place. It is best in San Francisco. Right after get off from tram/cable car, you only need to walk about 10-15 mins to get here. It’s a harbour, many of souvenir shops, attractions and restaurants settled here. Prepare your extra money because it is a tourist place, definitely pricey. But I guess, do not waste your money for something that you can buy in airport, right? But please spend your money on foods & experience! Try the authentic Clam Chowder Soup in the Bowl Bread at Boudin Bakery & Cafe, it is a must! The bread is a lil bit sour, it because of they are made by Lactobacillus Sanfranciscensis, the bacteria that only live in San Francisco.

In this area, you also need to go to Pier 39, and find the locals: Sea Lions. This is amazing. Suddenly you will feel that your life is complete right after you watch they’re barking, shouting each others, dancing (nodding their head, up and down) and jumping into the water! Plus the combination of Seagull flying above them, perfect sunset & ocean breeze, definitely will make you smile.

3. At&T Park

My mission as sport enthusiast is to visit every single stadium as many as possible, every-time I visit their Homebase. So when I was in San Franciso, AT&T Park definitely was on my list. Why this place special? Because two reasons: 1) It is the home of San Francisco Giants, the 2014 World Champion of MLB. 2) A half of the stadium is open space, because the park is facing the bay of ocean. You can imagine how cool is that when someone hit the ball and got it homerun!

So that’s the story. I didn’t put The Golden Bridge because it’s too mainstream. Haha.. No kidding, because I didn’t have time back then, my schedule was too tight. Maybe later, someday.

And please enjoy our California video HERE!

Cheers,

M