Travel

The Biggest Weekend in San Francisco

09.29.2009

Oktoberfest by the BayThe first weekend in October is always jam-packed with huge gatherings all over the city. Geographically and ideologically they are all quite different except for having fun outdoors in San Francisco.

  • There’s Oktoberfest by the Bay that runs from Friday to Sunday. I’ll be bartending there on Saturday from 1:30 to 5:00. The crowd is usually fratastic and the event’s on the expensive side, hence why I volunteered to bartend for it.
  • For all the freaky people, there’s Love Parade, Love Fest, LovEvolution, or whatever they hell they’re calling it this year. This is a mini-Burning Man right in front of City Hall. Lots of fur, ruffles, sparkles, spandex, neon and crazy floats blasting electronica. Saturday only.
  • I’m not really one for huge music festivals, but Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is free. And they use the term “bluegrass” loosely because MC Hammer will be there. And Steve Martin, but apparently he plays banjo. I aim to make it on Sunday for Neko Case.
  • Fleet Week usually falls on this weekend but I guess it’s the weekend after. Three events is still kinda big. If you plan well enough, you can make all three.

Countries (and States) I’ve Visited

09.07.2008

Facebook has several apps that let you record and show the places you’ve been to around the world. The two most common, based on my observation, are Trip Advisors’, Citie’s I’ve Visited and Where I’ve Been.

If you’re looking for a travel map that you can put on any webpage, however, you can use Douwe Osinga’s Visited Countries tool. There’s a map for the globe and a separate one for all 50 United States or India.

As you can see, I’ve covered most of the United States on a road trip, but I haven’t been much outside the continent except for being born in Japan, and a 2 week visit to Europe.