SyneRyder - journal

USA Trip 2005 - Part 2

July 2005

The San Francisco Hotel Room

Arriving at the hotel was surreal - all the TVs around the lobby were tuned to CNN, but with the sound off. I could just make out the Breaking News at the bottom of the screen, something about a terrorist attack. Not exactly the first thing I wanted to see on arrival in the US. I was stunned at how blase everyone around me was, but I guess they've been through it all before. Much later, I found out it was an attack on the UK, now known as the 7/7 bombings.

SF Civic Centre?

In San Francisco I stayed at the Holiday Inn. The hotel room was nice, if nothing flash: I managed to get upgraded to an "executive suite" on the 12th floor of the hotel, with a comfy sofa to sit on, a king-size bed, and a television (with cable-tv and wireless keyboard so you could use the internet on the TV).

Looking out from my room I could see the Capitol building and the Civic Centre (with a big round section at the top that appears to be gold plated in parts; it's the most interesting thing in the skyline).

Out to the right I could see more skyscrapers stretching off into the distance - many with US flags on the very top of them, waving in the wind. Such a surreal site - it felt like I was watching a movie or that I'd wandered onto a movie set.

I could see the San Francisco trams running down the street below, and window washers working on the building to my left (the Ramada Hotel).

All that without even leaving my hotel room.

SF Civic Centre?