First complete weekend in San Jose

This happens to be the entry of my first complete weekend in San Jose. The dates: 2/8/2008 and 3/28/2008.

2/8/2008 Saturday

I had planned on going to San Jose downtown . After doing some research on how to go and what to see, I got confused as google map told 2 routes. And I decided to take a route told to me by one of my colleague which happened to be the wrong one and lost much of time due to it. Nevertheless, the actual route is taking a VTA station going towards Santa Teresa from Karina and get down at San Antonio or Santa Clara and everything in downtown is within walkable distance from these places. So, we started off from the room at around 9.30 to reach there by around 11. After enquiring about the whereabouts and roaming around for some time into what seemed to be a very happening and busy place very much unlike the part of San Jose I stay in. This place was full of business activities like hotels,saloons,parlours,theatres etc.etc. Finally we reached the art mueseum . The building looked good and old made of stone unlike the buildings back there in area near our hotel. So after getting a 8 dollar ticket we went into to see what was inside. There was nice help available to guide us who told us that photography is prohibited inside. It was more of a scientific art mueseum rather than a pure art mueseum. The first floor had photographs of some eminent photographers(I didn't know even one of them) who had done some strange photographs like a girl with dress in the form of tent in snow. So it was a mix of art and science. Some light show and other stuff in this floor. Second floor was dedicated to robot. Robots play a great part in the life of a American. Right from childhood , a child is made to think and imagine about what all a robot can do and its various designs and functionalities. Also, american scientists have been doing research on robot since a long time. This floor has all such research material . It had places where children could design their own robot. It had some working samples of robot. Overall we found this place was not worth of the 8 $ spent on it. And we left this place around 12.30.

Then I was left alone to explore the rest of downtown. Opposite to the art meuseum ,acroos the road is the tech meuseum in the junction of the roads is a small park with very very tall trees and some fountains where kids where playing and getting drenched on a very warm day. I spent some time in this park and then moved on to have my lunch before I go into the tech meuseum. After much struggle I managed to find something vegetarian to eat in subway . After finishing my veg delite, I went to the tech meuseum. Again a ticket of 8$ and it had a movie in i-max also. Tech meuseum is a great place to learn. It had all amenities to teach in a practical way. It covered all major technologoies like genetics,medicine,latest trends in medicine,internet,geography,electronics,chip design,ultrasound and judging once health condition with his/her body temperature etc etc. You name it , it probably is there in there. Some very interestin things which stood out for me were, a hood which makes u see the world as if u r drunk and walking on a straight line after that, arm wrestling with another guy across the globe sitting on any of the tech meuseums, a manequin with which you can see how a open heart surgery is performed. After roaming in for about an hour and a half, I went to see the movie in i-max. It was a national geographic movie about explorers and how they discovered the western part of US somewhere in early 1800s. Nothing great about the movie but imax was truly amazing. i max is supposed to be the best movie experience in the world. It claims to give u 13000 watts of pure digital sound that too from six different directions. The images are crystal clear and the dome shaped theatre gives an amazing effect to the whole thing. I have to agree with whatever they claim about, that it is indeed the best cinematic experience on planet earth. All this is achieved by the minute things like the frame used for filming here is 10 times the size of the normal frame . They use very hi-tech instruments and technologies to give an experience of a life time. By the way, before I forget, the movie I watched was "Lewis and Clarke" . Hope to see some commercial movie in these conditions and that cud be the experiece of a life time. Once done with imax movie I set out to further explore San Jose downtown and went to San Jose university. A really cool campus. Lush green with superb architecture. After strolling around for some time, I finished my outing to return to the room.

3/8/2008

Next day, Sunday we had planned a SFO trip. We got into VTA train at early hours of 7.30 AM that Sunday morn to reach mountain view station from where we were supposed to board the CAL train to SFO. All trains as usual came dot on time and we reached SFO by CAL train at about 9.45 am. The weather was damn cold and cloudy there. and the sea breeze was making things still colder. Walked all the way to market street and saw the real city of US. With tall buildings and busy people all around, it was a true depiction of the US city life. Our destination was Pier 39. And we reached there at around 12, buy taking a tram. We equired about the cruise and city tour bus. The first person told us it will cost 44 $ . While still strolling around, one more person gave us at 40$. Thats when we came to know that there is no fixed price and everyone gives discount according to his/her wish. We decided to take the cruise first. The crusie was supposed to take an hour. It started from the coast into the Bay of America which joins with Pacific ocean. The sea breeze made the weather really cold and the overcast conditions didn't help us either. But the cruise was a great experience. The golden gate bridge as it gradually came out of the mist cover was a marvel. The way it is constucted makes us beleive in the technical wizardy the US has. The way it is constructed in ocean floor is amazing. Also, the cruise showed us the alcatraz prison( was a prison). After the one hour crusie, we went and got on one of the open roof hop on hop off buses to see the SFO city in the tour. We went on to see Bay Bridge,State building without getting down. Then we hopped off in union square. My God what a place, a very busy and happening place with a sit out place in the center with tall buildings all around. We managed to get hold of a Chinese hotel for lunch and post lunch we again hopped on the bus to go to China Town. China town is the best place for shopping as things are comparitively cheap here. And also, a photographer's delight as the buildings show the Chinese architecture in its true form. Again we hopped on the bus to see Italian town and a nice cathedral before the bus stopped at the place where it began , Pier 39. From there on , we hopped on to the next bus to get down at market street from where we took the BART train to head back to San Jose. BART train is the undergroud train system of SFO. SFO has amazing public transport facilites , beleive me. BART train runs in 2 different directions from here, one goes to Milbrea and the other one to Fermont. We got down at Milbrea to take CAL from there to Mountain view. And our own dear old VTA from mountain view to Karina. Finally the trip was over after shelling out some 80 $ from my pocket, and some 200 plus snaps in my camera and heart full of a wonderful experience.