On Sunday, September 20, 2009, I returned to the city, again by train (though this time by BART). Though my main goal was a festival in Chinatown, I first stopped off at the city's main public library (by the civic center). I figured, if I can't find the books I want at an independent bookstore, and my local county library system doesn't have them, then at least I can get them from another county. Indeed, the San Francisco public library system seems to have a more extensive collection than San Mateo. At the library, I picked up a library card (yes, California residents outside the city can get a card), and checked out a number of books.
I left the library with my now-heavier backpack and immediately noticed a bunch of stands--I stumbled upon the "Heart of the City" farmers market (by the Civic Center). Though I didn't want anything, I knew I'd regret it if I didn't browse to see what it had. It's a large market, with many vegetable and fruit vendors--certainly more such vendors and with a wider variety than San Mateo's market. For instance, there were more types of apples and eggplants, plus date vendors with many types (San Mateo usually only has one date stand, which sells one type of date), plus many items that don't normally appear at my local market such as Thai chilies. The most interesting aspect of this market is that there were practically no prepared/cooked foods, not even a bakery.
Finally, my curiosity satisfied, I hiked to Chinatown for its Autumn Moon festival. It was a large, typical street festival. As such, it had the usual wide assortment of booths: community groups and government agencies doing outreach to this community, business sponsors (banks, insurance companies, Chinese magazines, etc.), art, crafts, knickknacks and low-end accessories (many Chinese), Chinese home decorations, DVDs, plants, and more. Some booths even sold electronic goods such as rice cookers. Incidentally, Safeway set up a large pavilion to give out free samples of items they carry. You should've seen the line for the ice cream bars.
Also, I was surprised to see a lot pre-packaged food for sale. Sure, I expected many booths selling high-end mooncakes in fancy boxes (tis the season), but there were many more baked goods and other packaged foods (e.g., noodles, tea leaves) and bottled drinks (e.g., green tea, aloe drinks) than I thought there'd be. In contrast, I was disappointed to find only two fresh food stands. (I guess being in Chinatown means there's food everywhere already.)
I counted four stages of entertainment, presenting (as least when I walked by): a solo of a traditional Chinese musical instrument, a Chinese opera, a Chinese orchestra, and something I don't know what was happening (there was talking, but it wasn't in English). There was also a small, decent photography exhibit, displaying photos of China and of California.
I then hiked to the Marina district to see a film at the Iranian film festival. An under-promoted festival, it only attracted members of the expatriate community--as I waited in line, I didn't hear any English. Indeed, judging by when people laughed, most weren't reading the English subtitles. Incidentally, there weren't more than four dozen people in attendance. The screening was held in a lecture hall on the Art Institute of San Francisco's campus. Though the room had a modest screen, it at least had comfortable chairs, and, as I discovered when I left, the campus has great views of San Francisco.
I took pictures of the festival and from the Art Institute.
Autumn Moon Festival and a farmers market
North Beach Festival
After the South Beach festival, I took a bus to the Festa Coloniale Italiana festival in North Beach. I got off the bus a stop early to visit the City Lights Bookstore. (When I have a book in mind, I go out of my way to try to find it at and buy it from a local, independent bookstore whenever possible.)
I took a few pictures at the festival.
At first I was disappointed with the festival, noticing only half a dozen crafts booths and four food booths: olive oil, vinegar, salami, and drinks. No hot food. Then I discovered the inside of the Italian Athletic Club, and found a pretty impressive video, projected in a large screen, showing a close fly-over of Italy (Sicily in particular). Returning outside, I realized the stand labeled salami actually sold hot food. However, the only items it had that weren't sold out didn't interest me (meatball sandwiches, sausage-and-pepper sandwiches, and penne pasta bolognese with tomato sauce). Picking up a festival brochure outside, I realized that there were multiple floors inside the athletic club. Returning again inside, I discovered that a cooking demonstration was just starting. The young chef was entertaining, telling stories of his grandmother's advice and his kitchen misadventures, and the meal he made was easy, healthy, and delicious. The demonstration alone made the visit to the festival worthwhile.
Not in the mood to eat the festival's food for dinner, and because the temperature dropped a bit, and because the park (Washington Square Park) isn't quite a cozy as South Park, and because I was feeling a little tired, I grabbed the bus back to the caltrain station and returned home.
South Beach Festival
On the first Saturday back in California post-London, a typically beautiful California day, after a morning trip to the farmers market, I took the train to San Francisco for the South Beach/Mission Bay/SOMA festival. It was a small festival, with a handful of arts and jewelry booths, a couple community groups, and a good number of food booths (mostly from fancy restaurants located in the neighborhood). Lots of alcohol in various forms was available. The festival was held in South Park, a pretty, narrow park with a good balance of trees, grass, a playground, and picnic tables. (I know that makes it sound rather ordinary but it's heads above any park in San Jose with similar amenities.)
I assembled a tasty lunch from the various stands and hung out for a while sitting on the grass in the sun.
Here are pictures from this excursion.
London: Sep 13: Going Home
I returned to the bay area on an early morning flight on Sunday, September 13, 2009. It was wonderfully easy to go through all the airport lines when at the airport at dawn. The cross-Atlantic flight was cold, making it hard to sleep, but otherwise fine and unremarkable.
I transferred in Houston and was interested to see they're now using a surface scan (something like light x-rays) in security to look for concealed weapons. They have you strike a pose (no, not any pose), they take a scan, and then they have you stand aside for a minute until the remote room that examines the scan radios back to say it's clean.
London: Sep 12: Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Street, and more
On my last full day in London, I took only a few pictures. This blog entry describes the day much more than the pictures do. Di Yin also took some pictures, though hers don't cover the day any better. That link goes to her first picture from this day. The rest of the album is from this day. If you're in slideshow mode and see pictures of Oxford, you've cycled back to the beginning of the album and are seeing pictures I already linked to.
After a lazy morning, Di Yin and I took the bus to Putney Bridge, then took a long ride on a double-decker bus to Piccadilly Circus. We sat on the second level in the front and enjoyed the great panoramic views.
Once in Piccadilly Circus, we stopped by the Japan Centre supermarket. It has wide selection of Japanese products, including a huge amount of pre-packed sushi.
Piccadilly Circus is a crowded shopping area. After walking around, I guessed I was wrong when I said Oxford Street was London's main shopping street. But, however, we walked the dozen blocks to Oxford Street and, upon arrival, I decided that, nope, I wasn't wrong: Oxford Street is bigger, denser, and more crowded.
Incidentally, we stopped by Piccadilly Market, an outdoor street market, where I almost bought a hat. I ended up buying one in a department store later the same day.
On Oxford Street, we stopped by an ultra-hip ice cream shop in the basement of one of London's famous department stores, Selfridges. (Note: it has since moved.) The ice cream shop was painted black and had lighting like a nightclub. It even had a loud, live rock band and two black-shirted bouncers at the door. Though it may still be in its promotional period (it opened two days prior), I can't imagine how it would make a profit.
After a bit more shopping, we left the beaten path. Because we were in the vicinity of one of the guidebook's walking tours that I hadn't yet done, we did part of it before taking the tube to dinner. The neighborhood we walked around was just east of Edgeware Road. Once off Oxford Street and into this residential neighborhood, the area was fairly nice. We saw a number of cute mews and green squares.
On a tip, we had dinner at a Persian restaurant, Mohsen, in Kensington. (Wow, a Persian place that's not on Edgeware Road.) It was decent. We then took the slow route home, riding a double-decker once again.
In the evening we listened to parts of the BBC Proms' Last Night. I'm amused that my last night in England aligned with the last night of the proms. The BBC Proms is a summer concert series known for, on its last night, playing nationalistic music and getting a bit rowdy. This year's last night was as off-beat as in past years (which I watched earlier on video).
London: Sep 11: St. James
On my last Friday in the city, September 11, 2009, I left work at noon. I'd intended to efficiently do a walk, grab lunch, and do another walk before returning to work. But plans change. My first walk brought me through the expensive neighborhood called St. James and its neighboring park, St. James's Park, which I'd visited previously. It was just as beautiful on this visit. Because I was enjoying my stroll through the park and the attractive, elaborate buildings in the neighborhood, dodging well-dressed people much of the way, I walked leisurely. By the time I finished my walk, it was later than I expected and I was famished. I also felt fulfilled, not feeling the need to cram in more sightseeing after lunch. After all, it was such a pleasant stroll, why should I stress myself by trying to run around a lot more before returning to work?
For lunch, I took the tube up to Selfridges, an enormous high-end department store, for a taste of a salt beef sandwich, Britain's version of the American-Jewish corned beef sandwich. On the way, I had to walk (fortunately briefly) down Oxford Street, which, judging by the crowds, the shopping bags, and the storefronts, is London's main shopping street. (It made me think of Singapore's Orchard Road.)
Here are the pictures from my walk and lunch.
London: Sep 10: Shakespeare, Southwark, and more
On Thursday, September 10, 2009, Di Yin and I had tickets for the afternoon performance of As You Like It at the reconstructed Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. Leaving work before lunch, I decided to spend two hours walking around this neighborhood (Southwark), a neighborhood I'd visited previously for Borough Market. Indeed, this was the main reason I decided to do a walk in an area I've already somewhat explored--as an excuse to be in the area for lunch at Borough Market. (I was elated when I realized the market is open on Thursdays.)
I took pictures along this outing.
Southwark is definitely an area that, when most of the buildings were built, was not inhabited by the wealthy. Indeed, centuries ago, it used to be tenements. It has the feel of a place that used to house the down and out.
Within Southwark, I visited the Southwark Cathedral, which is rightly called a cathedral. It's fairly impressive. It has monuments and stained glass that are as nice as the ones at St. Paul's. It has lots of memorials, somewhere between the density of St. Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey, though it's smaller than both. I could've taken pictures if I bought a permit, but decided not to. (I figured if I made it through St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey without pictures, taking pictures of this less impressive sight might blur my memories of all three.) Also, Southwark Cathedral provided a handy walking guide and occasional plaques too, a nice touch.
I ate lunch in Borough Market, which had fewer shops open and was less crazy than on Saturdays, but certainly had more than enough shops open to be interesting.
I met Di Yin at the reconstructed Globe Theatre. It was made with traditional materials and even used the building techniques from the time. Neat! This also meant the theatre's design is unlike most modern theatres -- the audience is arranged into rings that go 180 degrees around the stage. The inner ring is for standing people; the outer, for sitting ones. The rings are about equally sized, meaning about half the audience is standing. This, combined with the small size of the theatre, gave the show a very lively feel; the audience seemed more engaged with the show than most plays I've attended. Indeed, sometimes it felt as if the audience were part of the show as the actors walked among them to get on and off the stage and even acted parts of scenes on the grounds in front of the stage. The crowds parted as necessary. (This is probably why if you buy tickets for the standing section, you're not allowed to sit down. Ushers will remind you of the rules if you do.)
Di Yin and I thought it'd be uncomfortable to stand for several hours, so we bought seated tickets. This may not have been much better, as the (bench) seats were very tough and our butts ached by the end. Ah, one downside of old-fashioned theatre design.
As for the play itself, As You Like It, I hadn't seen or read it previously. I thought the story was decent, though parts of it felt like mere ploys and some characters felt superfluous. Think romantic comedy that's not particularly tightly plotted. I enjoyed the play: the acting was good, and the actors even danced in the last act. The themes include how quickly one's perceived social status can change, the foibles of love, and the freedom of speech.
From the extensive playbill I learned some interesting things about how Shakespeare wrote. For instance, I learned that he wrote As You Like It partially to exercise the abilities of a new actor in his company, Robert Armin, who specialized in playing fools, after his last leading fool, William Kemp, moved on. I'd never previously thought of Shakespeare as having particular actors in mind for his roles while writing his plays, though in retrospect it should've been obvious. I also learned that As You Like It's style is partially a response to a recent change in the theatrical experience: some newly-opened acting companies in London used choir boys as actors and included much singing in their performances. Presumably in reaction, Shakespeare made As You Like It have more boy actors and more songs than any of his other plays. In these ways, though the plays are timeless, they do reflect the local milieu.
We decided not to allocate time or money to tour The Globe's exhibition on Shakespeare or to tour the theatre's backstage.
After the play, we walked across Millennium Bridge to get to the tube. I returned to work.
Later, we grabbed dinner at a place near work that I'd been eying: Wilton Cafe, labeled as Turkish Pide Salon. Its menu includes pide (basically boat-shaped Turkish pizza), lahmacun (round Turkish pizza), and gözleme (gozleme) (Turkish crepes). Pides are hard to find and the others even harder. We talked to the chef about what to order, and he made it fresh. :) The pide I had was pleasing but not great.
On the way home, Di Yin convinced me to ride a double-decker bus for a couple stops (before we needed to get off to get on our regular single-decker which plies the route to our street). To think I've been in London for more than a month without riding one of these. It was great! I can certainly see the appeal of those sight-seeing buses. Through the huge, bubbly windows, we could look down on everything, and across to second-story windows. There's even a roller-coaster aspect to the ride: getting tossed around a bit (especially when on the stairs) when the bus turns, wondering what'll happen as we rapidly approach a bulldozer parked in our lane, and seeing people running across the road where the bus is about to go.
Oxford (Sep 9)
I took a holiday on Wednesday, September 9, 2009, to go with Di Yin to Oxford.
Overview
I'll start with the obvious about Oxford because it's true: Oxford's a small, picturesque, university town. The highlights from my visit aren't any particular sights but rather two vistas: one, the architecturally interesting buildings and cobblestone streets that make up downtown Oxford/the university (these two things are intermeshed) (especially as seen from atop the central church's spire); and two, the peaceful, pretty paths along the canals. I was surprised to find the latter so notable, as no guidebook I had mentioned them.
When I say Oxford is small, I mean it. Though the university has 18k people, the town is still tiny. I can easily imagine seeing and knowing every street and most buildings, shops, and restaurants before too long. Di Yin told me of a friend who went to Oxford and complained that she'd gotten stir-crazy after a couple of years because she knew everything about the town and was getting bored of it. I certainly felt like I'd gotten the full flavor of Oxford within five hours of wandering.
Oxford's size and flatness lends itself to bicycle riding -- I saw a good number of bicycles.
Oxford University is composed of several dozen individual colleges, the first few established in the twelfth century. These colleges are densely packed throughout town. My viewing of them was rather haphazard -- I'm sure I missed some famous ones. They are like walled compounds, though attractive walled compounds with ornate medieval buildings and always with a perfect quad of grass within (usually multiple quads). I took pictures from the doorway of a few that were closed to visitors, though stopped once I realized the colleges' interiors all looked roughly the same. Later, I managed to find a college that was open to visitors and free, walked around inside, and decided the impression I got from peeking in the doorways and from viewing the exterior buildings was just about accurate. Also, as implied by guidebooks and by the sight of all the spires, most colleges have their own chapels. If the one I visited is representative, they're as nice as the town's main church (which is quite well done).
Over the course of the day, through guidebooks and museum exhibits, I learned a good deal about Oxford, including how much it had discriminated over the years. Here's a timeline I put together:
- the twelfth century (roughly): Oxford University founded.
- 1856: Jews allowed to enroll.
- 1877: Lecturers (all male) allowed to marry.
- 1878: Women allowed to attend classes.
- 1920: Women allowed to be granted degrees.
- 1948: First female full professor.
It was a beautiful, comfortable, sunny day. That meant I got some good landscape shots, but also had trouble with too much contrast in my smaller-scope shots (or they just ended up overexposed). Here are the day's many pictures. Di Yin also took some pictures. That link goes to the first picture in her set. In her set, when you see pictures from a double-decker bus (picture 23), you're done with her pictures of Oxford. The rest of the pictures are from another day; I'll link to it at the appropriate time.
We got to Oxford by bus from London. When the view wasn't blocked by trees, we often saw wide-open fields and pastures and sometimes even a herd of sheep or cows. I wasn't fast enough to get a picture of these. While they may not match the views from the train in Scotland, the sights were nonetheless nice to watch out the window.
We arrived in Oxford and quickly stumbled on an open-air market (the Gloucester Green Market), which sells a wide selection of goods ranging from clothes to books to nuts to dairy to produce. I then dragged Di Yin around to some relatively famous places mentioned in my guidebook, before letting her bring me to the "Covered Market". Although not a particularly attractive space, the stores within are neat. Most have character. Besides a number of delis (each with a different atmosphere), there are cute pastry shops, meat shops, a barber shop, a shop with funny shirts, and more.
We then walked up and down Cornmarket Street, Oxford's main pedestrianized street and probably one of the first streets created in the town. A bustling street (at least in the daytime--it was much quieter in the evening), it's filled mostly with chain stores, bank outposts, and fast-food restaurants.
Di Yin split for her meeting, and I returned to the covered market for lunch. Realizing I hadn't eaten enough meat pies when in London, I selected Pieminister, a mini-chain meat-pie company with about a dozen locations in England (the number depends on whether you count farmers markets or not), including one in London's Borough Market. I had a reasonable meat pie, surprisingly non-heavy despite containing beef.
First thing after lunch, I explored the Museum of the History of Science. This two- or three-room museum is packed with instruments, dials, microscopes, telescopes, quadrants, astrolabes, globes, gauges, sundials (even portable ones--think about that), and calculating devices. Though accompanied by descriptions of what each items does and when, where, and for whom it was created, there wasn't much about how the design of the instruments changed over time or about how the invention of or improvement of the devices changed science and our understanding of the world. In short, it's a fine museum, if limited in scope.
Next I walked down Oxford's High Street, stopping in Oxford University Press to browse its intellectual titles, including its series of Very Short Introductions to any subject, which cover topics ranging from anarchism to witchcraft to english literature to kant to nothing.
I also stopped by University Church of Saint Mary the Virgin (a.k.a. Saint Mary's), which I explored and where I climbed the tower's tight, dangerously slippery stone steps. From the tower, there are terrific views of Oxford! Incidentally, it's a good thing there were alcoves along the stairs (with slits for archers), or else people would not be able to pass each other going up and down.
After the church, I walked east, seeing the sights on the way to the River Cherwell, then came back along a different path to see more colleges and back lanes. Merton College, one of Oxford's oldest, was actually open to visitors, so I got to explore its estate.
Returning to Cornmarket Street, I rejoined Di Yin, and we proceeded to stroll through the Museum of Oxford. Although not large by any means, I'm reluctant to call it small. It's a respectable museum, well-laid out and with clearly written signs. I learned some neat facts. For instance, I learned that bread bowls are a modern version of medieval trenchers: an often square piece of stale bread used as a serving dish or a plate. The bread is later given to dogs or the poor. I also learned that, for a time, the Jews in England were considered private property of the king.
From there, we walked through town, a large field (Port Meadow), and down a river/canal. I was amazed to find nature so close to the center of town. Along the river, we stopped and ate a snack of blueberries that we brought with us: good eating a nice setting. :)
Despite the sun, it was cold near the river, and we walked back to town without much dilly-dally-ing.
We looked around for dinner and, finding the covered market closed, eventually decided on a restaurant with the neat name of Nosebag. The food turned out to be mediocre.
Before catching the bus back to London, we stopped by G&D's, Oxford's local specialty ice cream shop. It has three locations and apparently many devoted fans. We were, however, too full for dessert, though the ice cream looked good and interesting.
Before concluding this post, I should apologize to the people who recommended that I go punting on the river: I'm sorry; I didn't have time.
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