Hello, America! The California spring, of 2

Evgeny tell you more about cycling in San Francisco, the price of food and share his impressions from meetings in sunny California spring days. About the local nature, story, as it is brought back, about homeless and dirt read here.

Sleeping areas of Peter and San Francisco are radically different, they are difficult to compare, here it is probably a matter of habit, and perhaps the standard of living. We assumed, что спальный район это куча громоздящихся друг на друге высоких домов, sometimes under the floors 30, bordered by endless carpets closely parked cars. В Сан-Франциско такое сложно увидеть – спальный район это целые улицы уходящих вдаль малоэтажных домов на одну и иногда две семьи. As for me, so it looks nicer, although it resembles a huge village.

And of course it is no secret, that civilized life in Russia ends below the major cities. Then only directions, poverty and destruction. In California, the, leaving the city, nothing falls into the general gloom, but continues decent road, decent homes, neat appearance and looks much cleaner and even more cultured than in the San Francisco.

Being out of town is definitely nice, равно как и гулять по красивым пейзажным местам национальных парков.

Transportation

Public transport is very well developed – Metro, buses, trams, паромы и даже некоторые экзотические виды транспорта, ориентированные по большей части на туристов. Generally, problems to get from point A to point B within the city limits and the surrounding area there is practically no. Мне очень понравились некоторые из местных трамваев – очень напоминают наши, Khabarovsk =)

Здесь же хочется немного рассказать об отношении к любителям вело-транспорта. Overall, certainly, the situation is many times better than in Russia – велосипедисты рассматриваются здесь как реально существующие участники движения и для них делаются велодорожки, размечаются полосы вело-движения на автомобильных дорогах:

И всё же, these bands is not everywhere, and cycle paths are made clearly not so readily as the, say, in the Netherlands. Обычно всё и ограничивается отметкой вело-полосы на автодороге вместо реального строительства выделенной велодорожки. Naturally this led to the band, в большинстве случаев, are free to call in cars, tk. эта часть дороги может быть предназначена и для них тоже.

Overall, the number of cyclists is not quite significant, and as I understood, much more popular here enjoy country-led tourism, than everyday use of bicycle transport. By the way, walking around the city, можно обнаружить общественные пункты проката городских велосипедов, but not very friendly prices, starting from 13$:

В итоге, giving an opinion on the 10-point led-friendly scale, я бы дал Сан-Франциско и окрестностям не больше 6-ти баллов.

Prices

And now the fun. How much is a tourist stay in San Francisco? say briefly – дорого. Prepare to leave with a very decent amount of money, especially if you are traveling family.

Accommodation for the budget traveler, e.g. through airbnb, You can find very different. If you fit a common room, you can get away and 15$ в сутки, if you need its own personal room that can find something and of 25$ в сутки, in which something is not very close to the city district. Well, if you want to live, что называется, more American – in their home as a family, and in more or less good area, it hardly is cheaper than 200$ в сутки.

Дальше – a little about the supermarkets and their contents. Первое, what surprised me even more costs – there is a clear classification of products “Organics” and “not organik”. For me, and it did not become clear until the end – whether it is a marketing ploy, to sell their products in more, то ли и правда “Organics” such raschudesnye, that the cost of their 2, and it in 3 раза выше, than “not organik”…

As a little experiment I bought “not organik” and “Organics” milk and eggs. Milk taste really different, and the, that “Organics” $ 5 / liter, was very similar to our “Piskarevskoe” for 50p. / liter. “No organik” also I had a taste of something very strange. But the difference in the taste of the eggs I have not found. Apparently I swallowed millions tasteless “not ogranik” nitrates, and should still take “Organics”… Cheese “not organik” I have the impression, if I chew plasticine, but unfortunately, to “Organics” I did not fork out – decided that the cheese in Russia, всё-таки, do best.

А вот ещё небольшая подборка цен из ближайшего крупного гипермаркета:

Noteworthy, all prices in supermarkets are exclusive of taxes, and what the price will be final – это сюрприз на кассе. For different kinds of goods may be different tax. to count “the worst” – can be safely added to the price list 10%, tk. выше этой цифры налог на итоговую цену точно не будет.

By the way, for car rental lovers will certainly be an interesting price of gasoline (указана за галлон = 3,8 литра). Probably this is the only, на что цены сравнимы с российскими:

instead of Epilogue

Despite its strangeness, differences, some local features – California left a very good impression. Of course, not everything is so right, clean and ideal as in the Nordic countries, здесь совсем нет захватывающего духа истории, как в старой Европе, and not so warm, both would have to be in the tropics.. Но в целом, with this, still develop properly, not too flashy uhozhennostju, not particularly rich appearance and discreet affability – I suddenly got a certain feeling of home comfort, which I, как правило, lacking in travels. For some reason, for themselves these places were beat out in leaders of my personal ranking places, пригодных для комфортной жизни…

И всё же, on the map many more countries, which require my discoveries. And at the first good opportunity, I once again go on a journey!

Explore and discover,!