This is a city that most Europeans must like: Few skyscrapers, many parks, no stress, lots of bicycles. People are jogging everywhere and at any hour. Logically there far less obese people here than in most other US cities, especially those in Florida.

The summer is the bad season here, it is cold and foggy. When I left Lake Tahoe to come here, temperature rose to 38°C, the highest so far. But 1 hour later, in the bay of San Francisco it was only a chilly 16°C!

There is a high percentage of Asian people in SF, and besides Chinatown, there is also a Koreatown and a Tokyotown. The Chinese just celebrated the Autumn Moon Festival, and I felt just like in China, was almost the only non Asian person there.

I had to visit Alcatraz, of course, last and forced residence of some of the most famous American gangsters. I was surprised how small the cells were, just 1.5 x 3 meters. But these guys had at least a bed and a toilet, what I did not have in Syria. When I entered a cell, old memories rose in my mind, I felt very uncomfortable, and I really did not want to joke, like most of the other visitors. But later, when we entered Bloc D, where the terrifying isolation cells are, people suddenly became quiet, and one could hardly hear them whisper..

10th anniversary of 9/11: The American Flag on half mast. In teh backgroung: the San Francisco bay

Alcatraz

The isolation cells

The Golden Gate Bridge, as seen from Alcatraz