A little Berkeley shopping trip

I pack everything carefully into my backpack (geez, it has been a while since I have had to pack anything). It all fits. The detergent, my crocs, all my clothes, and the food. Everything fits inside my bag, nothing hangs on the outside, not even my crocs. My bag is a decent weight and of that 80% is food. I eta a protein bar and then I fry a tomato with pesto (the tomato was squished and would have become rotten had I left it to keep sitting there). I leave Reena's apartment at 10:45 am and walk downtown to the NorthFace Store. I want to purchase the NorthFace Radial sneakers I saw a week ago and put on hold. I forgot to pick up the sneakers, and when I go back, I learn that they have shipped them onto their outlet, since they are last year's style. Bummer. I check into the Hosteling International Downtown San Francisco at 11:30 am. I make my bed, brush my teeth again, and unpack my bag into the locker. I walk to the Apple Store and check my email, just to find that another news piece on my travel will run in this Sunday's Sun Journal. I read an email from a new contact listing a bunch of outdoor stores in nearby Berkeley. Within five minutes I have looked up my nearest BART (Bay Area Regional Transportation...subway) station and left the Apple Store and entered the BART station (right outside the Apple Store). It costs $3.40 each way to downtown Berkeley and I walk a few miles each way to the Wilderness Exchange, REI, and NorthFace Outlet. I thought I would take the bus to the stores, so I entered a Starbucks in Berkeley to get change for a $10 bill. The man behind the counter gives me what he has 7- one dollar bills, and $3 in nickels and dimes...argh! I buy nothing at Wilderness Exchange or REI, but I find the same exact sneakers I am wearing now (except they are blue instead of yellow) for $29.99. I also leave the store with a black hooded running layer, and a pair of brown fleece pants, each $21. I pay using 3 of those American Express gift cards I received a few days back at the timeshare seminar. I love buying things with those cards...it feels like free gifts. I leave the store when it closes at 7 pm and ride the #9 bus straight to the Berkeley BART station. The train I need never seems to come (3 other trains come on that track while I am waiting. While I am standing there, I help out another traveler who is trying to navigate the subway system. We decide to get on a different train and transfer lines a few stops later. She is coming back from an interview at Backroads (a cycle touring company I had looked into working for a few years back). I ask her a few questions about the company and we end up chatting the entire ride. She has no cycling experience, but is very much intrigued by the idea of getting paid to lead cycling trips around the world. Who wouldn't be? She thinks I should apply. I tell her I still have a job to go back to, but maybe some day in the future. I get back to my hostel room by 8 pm and I meet the 50- year old cranky, woman sleeping in the bunk below me, that seems to complain about everything. Her being uptight is very unappealing, so I wander around the hostel reading the historical snippets of San Francisco's history. Did you know that in 1981 when AIDS cases first appeared in San Francisco, they named it GRID (Gay-Related-Immune-Deficiency) until they realized it wasn't contained to that population? There are so many interesting things about this city I hadn't realized. I eat a grilled cheese and fries at a 50's themed diner for dinner.

I have always wanted to visit Berkeley, but when I'm there, I rush to reach a few stores & I don't have time to explore.