San Francisco and Tiburon 10/16/2011
Even though a few years back we walked the Golden Gate Bridge with Mitch and Frank (for the first time ever), we only walked about 1/4 of it as it was too windy, cold and foggy that day.
So Tobia and I returned there determined to walk the rest of the bridge. It just felt long overdue.
We got into SF right around noon and took about an hour to walk to the end and back. The weather was nice, visibility was great and the wind was gentle. I came across some stats/facts about the bridge in the parking lot after our walk. The most interesting to me was that the total amount of wire used for the bridge is roughly 80,000 miles.
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Following our walk, we did another first- we drove to Tiburon just north of the bridge. I thought Tiburon was quite beautiful: just far enough away from the Bay Area to be quiet and slow, and yet had great views of almost all of SF, views of Mount Tamalpais, and in and of itself nice with bay waters coming right into it. We got some views of Angel Island as well but decided not to head there.
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Instead we headed back to SF, had dinner at Plant Cafe and returned home after walking quite a large chunk of the wharf past pier 39 for some caramel apples.
Natural Bridges, Santa Cruz
On a recent weekend, Tobia and I headed to Natural Bridges in Santa Cruz. Interestingly enough, we had been to the Santa Cruz Lighthouse just east of this place in fairly recent years and I had never heard of it.
We got there on a an early Saturday afternoon, pulled up the car in the short parking area and went to explore. I thought it was quite nice and it reminded me of Twin Rocks at Rockaway Beach in Oregon. There were some surfers and quite a few beach-goers, but the water was too cold for me to fully enter.
We spent a little while there, then continued to Pink Godzilla, a nearby Japanese restaurant we’ve enjoyed over the years.
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Tallinn, Estonia, September 18 – 23
Back in August I started a new job. About a month in, I was asked to travel to Tallinn, Estonia, to pick up some technical knowledge for a project I was going to work on.
I left SF Saturday, September 17th and returned the following Saturday.
I arrived in the tiny Tallinn airport Sunday evening, took a cab and got into my spectacular Swissotel room in the heart of Tallinn. The view from my room was really beautiful. I could see Sadam Harbor; basically the southern part of the Gulf of Finland, part of the Baltic Sea. This was as far north latitude as I had ever traveled.
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 My beautiful room |
 The view from my room |
 Tallinn |
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 Old Town from my room |
My coworker KC had left me a message to hook up with him. So I showered and we headed downstairs to the lobby to meet him. He had been to Tallinn before (on biz) and graciously and patiently showed me around the joint. We walked into Old Town while there was still a bit of daylight remaining. Instantly, I was reminded of Poland- Krakow in particular- in the layout and architecture of things.
 Old Town. Reminded me very much of the streets leading to Old Town Krakow |
 Old Town main square |
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We pulled into a pub called Hell Hunt. The European Basketball Championships were about to show on the big screen and prior to that we watched some English Premier League highlights, which was great with me. We each got a dish, but KC ordered what seemed to me to be weird looking black bread with a yogurt sauce on the side and a garlic bulb. I hesitated to try it, but once I did, I could not stop, it was amazing to me!
Midway through the basketball game I was starting to crash so tried making my way back to the hotel. As I got lost about 3/4 of the way there, I was thankfully fortunate enough to find a parked taxi car and asked the driver for walking directions. It was pretty easy to find my way back after that. I went to sleep and woke up fairly normally the next morning.
After an early breakfast and a miscommunication with KC, I ended up getting to the office too early Monday morning. I did appreciate the 80s music videos playing at the front reception area, though, at the office while waiting for KC. KC and I met up and got me all set up and good to go. Eventually, Thierry (with whom I would spend much time during the week) showed up and I learned a lot from him.
In the evening KC and I went to a recommended French restaurant which was quite good. Afterwards KC showed me around Old Town some more as we walked for a good while.
 There seemed to be some party going on in Old Town square Tuesday night |
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 Parliament building |
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 Harju Gate below our feet |
On Tuesday, Richard showed up from the UK office and spiced up our level of excitement for the next 3 days. There was good food, good fun and lots of drinking (well, I was watching as opposed to partaking…) through Thursday night with various local coworkers.
 KC |
 Heading to dinner with the gang. They found it weird that I took this random picture. Can’t explain why I like it… |
 KC, Richard, Aleks, Avo and Thierry |
 KC, Marco and Richard |
Friday morning both Richard and KC took off back to their respective destinations, so I was on my own. I ended up leaving the office a bit earlier in the afternoon to go explore more of Tallinn.
I ended up walking to Kadrioru Park, followed by Sadam Harbor, and just kinda got intentionally lost in downtown walking for miles and miles. Eventually, I settled into a small, nice Turkish restaurant and had dinner. From there went to the local market next door to my hotel for some dessert and checked in for the night.
 This seemed very European to me |
 Kadrioru Park |
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 Office of the President |
 Couldn’t figure if this fat bird (Which I saw so many times, all over) was a crow or not |
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 At Sadam Harbor looking towards Old Town |
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I woke up really early Saturday morning, headed to the airport, and arrived back in SF Saturday late evening.
It was a good trip both personally and professionally. I’m really glad I had a chance to see this part of Europe. Two things I wish would have been different- (1) Tobia coming with me, and (2) taking the ship that goes to Helsinki (2 hours each way; there was simply no time).