Shayan Afzal

Arrived in San Francisco after an interminable journey, weariness cloaked me like a dense, unshakable fog. The notion of capturing my arrival in photos felt absurd, a task for a mind less burdened by fatigue. Instead, I surrendered to the city’s embrace, finding solace in a ride to the hotel. As we drove, San Francisco unfurled before me in vivid, dreamlike impressions: silent self-driving cars gliding with an eerie grace, like glimpses of a future both alien and inevitable. These mechanical phantoms wove through streets lined with a juxtaposition of gleaming skyscrapers and weathered, timeworn buildings, facades etched with the poetry of history and neglect.

The city presented itself as a canvas of contrasts, where the new and the old coexisted in a dissonant yet harmonious dance. Beauty and decay intertwined, creating a landscape that defied easy comprehension, a place where every corner whispered a new mystery, every shadow concealed a hidden story. San Francisco, with its layered complexities, pulsed with a life all its own, indifferent to my presence yet inviting in its enigmatic allure. “One day if I go to heaven,” Herb Caen, the famed San Francisco columnist, once mused, “I’ll look around and say, ‘It ain’t bad, but it ain’t San Francisco.’”

Reaching the hotel, I checked in without much fuss, more focused on shedding the travel fatigue. The hotel, reminiscent of the Titanic, exuded a sense of class and timeless elegance. In the room, I found a moment to breathe. As I sank into the chair, I realized this place for sure had character, and I was liking it. Exhaustion mingled with delicate anticipation, poised on the brink of discovery, ready to unravel the unfolding layers of this captivating city.