JoelNothman.com

Wednesday afternoon the plane finally took off from Las Vegas’ McCarran International Airport. An hour and a half later we landed in Oakland, CA, which is west of Downtown San Francisco, where I’d reserved a hostel room for the night. There it took 3 sets of 50c to call a synagogue in San Francisco where I surprisingly quickly found a place to stay for Shabbat, but I’ve had enough of public phones.

So when I got off the train in downtown San Francisco, I wowed as it reminded me of Melbourne, and wandering up a tram-lined street I stopped into T-Mobile where the attendant didn’t take long to convince me to buy a phone…

I moved into a small dorm room (with two other guys already there) in Adelaide Hostel downtown, which is fairly cheap, but gives me wireless internet, and has a nice lounge room and nice company. Eventually I made it out to town, in search of a kosher restaurant (aided by Shamash.org). So Sabras (just inside Chinatown) served me a pita packed with chicken shawarma pieces. In fact I was surprised at the lack of salad in there (there was, like, one piece of tomato), but I guess it at least explains the price. I may well try a felafel there for dinner tomorrow =) … although the person running the shop didn’t seem to be particularly nice and came with a fairly aggressive Israeli attitude.

I headed on foot towards the bay, because I thought I needed to glimpse the Bay Bridge on my first night in SF. On the way back, I was stopped by a tall young black man (a few years older than me). He started telling me where he was trying to get to, but that he wasn’t asking for directions. As he explained the mishap of a day he had, I noticed his eyes were reddened by crying. After justifying it with a confused story, he eventually said he was short $17.50 for a room at a hostel. After I helped him out a little, we continued talking and started walking back towards downtown, and he explained that some of the hostels he’d tried (when he wasn’t expecting to have to sleep in any) needed a passport, which he didn’t have or wasn’t carrying, being a US citizen. It seems a little strange. Anyway, he seemed like a nice guy and a worthwhile cause, so I hope he sleeps well.

Well that’s one night. Plenty of the next day to come…