30-VII-2007.
Arrived at San Francisco airport as scheduled, just early afternoon local. Didn't take the nearest airport but the next one (across the bay, twice the distance) as I found a better fare there, and leaving the car should cost just 5$ a day instead of 7$, trying to save Firriver some cash. Going through Atlanta mess again, at least know the place and didn't have to find what's where. Didn't even try to find a smokers' lounge, knowing how they shut the AC in it and it had no ventilation.
David appeared before I had time for a full smoke. We didn't wait for Jan as his plane would arrive a couple of hours later. The cabbie drove us past that zigzag street which I saw in all those movies (Piter Bogdanović's "What's up, doc?" the last). The hotel is dozen floors high, all japanese, it being in Japantown part. Even got those framed paper doors in the room to accompany the curtains, and the two-part bathroom, with the shower in the anteroom, where you wash yourself and then proceed to the tub to just soak (which we never had the time to, just showered). No smoking in the room, but we had a terrace so I took a water bottle to be my ashtray and smoked there. Froze my ass off. Can't say nobody told me, I simply forgot that it may be all sunny there, but the cold breeze from the ocean keeps the temperatures at around 16C. Luckily he got me three Firriver t-shirts, which I wore under my new linnen shirts.
Went down into the mall, which is also all japanese, had a beer. Sapporo - with the exact same taste as what our beer back home used to be ten and thirty years ago.
I guess the non-japanese natives pronounce this me-fewn.
When Jan came, we went (on foot - I managed bravely in my clogs) to some asian restaurant a few blocks away. Pakistani, Thai, Vietnamese - I don't remember. It looked like a factory mess hall, with all the old tiles, metal chairs and echo, but the food was just great. My right shirt sleeve was all the way up my shoulder, while the left one covered the t-shirt's sleeve. They both giggled but I didn't quite get it why, until much later when I saw the photos. Ah, ok.
They shared the big bed. I got the cot, and liked it. Actually more comfortable than the standard hotel bed, specially when not having to fight the steep pillow.
Mentions: 15-VII-2007., David Berton, Firriver Fertility (Firriver), Jan Brenkelen, in serbian