The Old Sac

The previous weekend granted us another beautifully sunny day, although not quite as warm anymore. A friend from the institute joined me on a quick trip to California's capital city, Sacramento. We had planned to go to the famed California museum to learn about the Golden State. But the weather was too nice, so we ended up walking through town, looking at old trains and old houses and the capitol and hipster coffee places.

Sacramento is a sizeable city with around half a million people living in the area, but it cannot compete with thriving San Francisco only an hour and a half away. Today the capital, it used to be the staging ground for the infamous Gold Rush to the West. The Sacramento river flows into the bay of San Francisco and was easily navigated and offered itself for transporting bulk goods. The Old Town is right next to the river and consists of throw-back Wild Wild West houses and brick warehouses. Everything is merchandise, tourists and muesums. And candy stores. Tons of them, for no apparent reason. It felt a bit like in Lucky Luke, even though no one seems to know these comics here.

We walked around a bit and then headed to the Capitol, seat of the Governor, House of Representatives and Senate of California. It's basically a smaller version of the one in Washington, DC, only that the palm trees are healthier and the tourist count is reduced to a minimum.

While talking travels and politics, we ended up in Midtown. This part of Sacramento has had a bad reputation but is now in the firm grip of gentrification. And of course we ended up in a coffee shop that tried quite hard for a warehouse look - and actually pulled it off! There were open bean sacks lying around and steam rose out of kettles. People were playing board games, catching up on the newest trends, tiping away on their Mac Books and I actually saw one guy deeply immersed in a crossword puzzle, sipping an espresso. He didn't wear a barret or smoke a skinny cigarette but I could swear the air around him shimmered in black and white and a melancholic, ghostly accordion tune seemed to vape in from nowhere in particular. Ah, la cité sur le Sac ...

Yes, it's the guy with the eagle jacket.