CA Days 8 & 8 1/2 – Back to Berkeley

Yesterday was a day of relaxation and a nice opportunity to take a breath and rest a little after a busy time around the bay area. I got up pretty early, at around 8 I think, made myself some coffee and wanted to organize my trip, but couldn’t due to the couchsurfing webpage was down. Dave and Noriah got up around 9 or sth and we talked a bit. When Dave was in the shower I was talking with Noriah and when I asked for how long she was together with Dave she ended up explaining me their “special relationship”. Basically this is: She sleeps with loads of people, whenever she wants and how often she wants, and he is fine with that.

That’s what she says. Her philosophy is that she’s only doing it with people she knows well, like for at least a couple months, and feels like being friends, and is sure they won’t hurt her. And it’s important they keep telling her that “she’s the best”. “They can lie, it doesn’t matter. They just have to tell me I’m the best!”. She’s claiming that “this is her way of living” and she’s doing this “because she loves to give”. Whatever, I think that’s a load of bullshit. In my opinion this girl is craving for appreciation and putting her situation the way she does gives her an opportunity to think that she’s just a nice person instead of facing the truth: That she’s insecure and anxious. But enough of that.

She had a headache, so Dave & I went out to get some breakfast. We hit a bagel store and I had my official first bagel. Not that bad I have to admit, but Dave & Noriah kept telling me that New York bagels are sooo much better. I wonder if that’s related to the fact they’re from New York. Later Noriah fell asleep again and as we figured out she wouldn’t get up anytime soon Dave and I headed to Berkeley downtown and met up with Dave’s friend Matt, who gave us a short tour around the campus, including the T-Rex skeleton in front of which he got married just recently. He’s a grad student and now teaches psychology classes. His hair is purple, he’s wearing camouflage baggy pants and sneakers, has a chin beard and is a funny guy to hang out with.

I gotta go to universities more often.

Next stop was a thai food place called “Thai Noodle”. I had some good noodle-stuff and spiced it up with loads of hot sauce. Dave had a bloodsugar-raise (he’s diabetic) and so we waited a little before he could eat. In the meantime Noriah made it to the city too and joined us in the restaurant. The other Dave, one of Sally’s housemates, arrived. He’s an old friend of Noriah. So they obviously know each other for at least a couple months. This was when the strange stuff started going on. Noriah was sitting there, one Dave (the introduced boyfriend one) to her left, the other Dave across. Basically what happened was her hand was in left-of-her-Dave’s hair and her feet were on across-her-Dave’s feet. Across-her-Dave didn’t react, he was just talking about his day. He looked really tired and somewhen he also said that. Noriah bent over to him, looked him in the eyes and said “Probably not enough sleep, do you regret anything?”. Please note that left-to-her-Dave was no more than half a meter away and could hear everything.

The situation was too weird. Across-Noriah-Dave obviously was thinking the same, said goodbye and went home. I also picked up my stuff and asked Across-Dave for directions to the next grocery store, since I was about to cook dinner today. I got no idea what Dave & Noriah did, and honestly I don’t want to know :)

Before I headed back home from the grocery shopping thing I stopped by a small Cafe. My advise for everyone travelling in the states: DON’T PAY FOR WIFI INTERNET. There’s ALWAYS a cafe around with free WiFi. I went down Shattuck and passed by like 5 cafe’s, 2 of them with free WiFi, some with paid hotspots, some no WiFi. However, there’s always a cafe with free internet access. Especially in areas towards universities. Couchsurfing was still down, so there wasn’t much of a point staying any longer than it took to finish my coffee. On the way back home I realized that the excessive use of hot sauce wasn’t the best idea digestion-wise and so on the last few hundred meters I got into a serious hurry to get home.

After the urgent bathroom visit I had a shower and fortunately couchsurfing was back in service, so I spent like an hour on organizing my trip and a few more stays in the bay area. The plan is to stay here until 14th and on the 14th go to santa cruz, where I already have a couch arranged. Since couchsurfing is down again by now I got no idea how that will work out, but soon I will know. What I did for dinner was Krautfleckerl. Out of two reasons: It’s typical austrian and it’s cheap. Especially regarding the USD. We ended up being 5 people to eat and there was enough, the cost being less than 4 USD. Party on. Everybody liked it. Talking everybody! Sally, her neighbour Kristin + housemate, Dave and I were the 5 people being. First we had a bottle white wine (funny enough a german one) out of very … uhm … interesting glasses. I made a pic and will upload it soon.

Today was another easy one. Get up, have a coffee, do a little couchsurfing-messaging. Matt, who lent me the phone, was online and gave me a few more tips, one of them being the Pyramid Brewery here in Berkeley. If anyone of you ever happens to be around Berkeley I advise you to go there and taste the Hefeweizen, for this is delicious stuff. Also the brewer’s burger is worth burying your teeth in it.

I then did a little shopping, buying raincovers for my backpacks and failing to find a waterproof hat I liked. I also considered buying shoes. Good hiking shoes are available for about 60-80$, doing the math this is approximately like 40-55 Euros. It’s not nothing, but go to a sports shop in austria and ask for hiking shoes. I bet you have to add a 1 in front of these values. Besides that my shoes at the time are not the waterproof kind of thing, so my feet get soaked easily. That’s not great. I will go buy shoes. Oh, a pair of nike’s or adidas or whatever is about 40$. New. From the brand-store.

Now I go hang out on the couch and relax before I head to Berkeley Downtown again, for Pizza & Beer with Sonya and a friend of her. I love you all.