Touching down... breaking away

Let me begin by saying United Airlines - while they might fly direct to San Fran from Sydney this convenience does little to make up for the brash American flight attendant hospitality/hostility which includes terse reminders of 'not crossing the curtained area' or the lack of decent entertainment system on a 16 hour flight.

But I digress.

my trip through immigration in this instance took 3 times longer than any other previous visit

I landed in the San Francisco airport at 10:30am on a Wednesday. Temperature was a balmy 5 degrees which (coming from 35plus in Brisbane) was a delicious opening winter treat. Before I even exited the airport, two things are note worthy;

a) the USA has a new visa system called ESTA for those of us from countries designated 'safe' enough to attract very little visa scrutiny when it comes to simply visiting the States. ESTA is an online application for an electronic tourist visa which is free and you apply for prior to traveling. Those of us with machine readable passports are meant to save ourselves (and the immigration dept) a lot of time by doing this before entering the USA. Being an attentive traveler I applied through ESTA three weeks before departing on my holiday. Surprise, surprise, Immigration still had me fill out the 'Visa waiver' form which ESTA supposedly replaced despite the fact that I already HAD a visa so didn't need the requirement to be waived... not to mention that my trip through immigration in this instance took 3 times longer than any other previous visit.

b) apparently i visit the USA too much :) while the immigration official proceeded to interview me in, what he no doubt believed to be, a 'subtle' manner, my years if immigration training and common sense saw right through his intent... maybe it was the question regarding the gender of the person I keep coming out to visit or maybe the unnecessary attention paid to my knowledge of USA immigration law, all I know is that this immigration official actually thought an Australia would purposely immigrate to the USA... madness! But mostly amusing. The constant belittling of my profession as opposed to his glorious occupation did little to endear me to this 'face of the USA'.

After the delay in immigration clearance I set out on the BART towards Oakland/Berkley. (Note: The BART is an excellent cost-effective and reliable transportation system which will take you pretty much where-ever you want to go in the San Fran/Oakland/Berkely area). The lovely HRG took time off work to come and get me from the train station and delivered into a warm shower I managed to sleep away the day. That night we headed out to the local 'drinking' establishment, 'Ben and Nicks' and proceeded to wind down in the accepted USA way - which is surprisingly similar to the Australia way - over multiple pints of ale. When in Rome :).