Berkeley, the 'hippie' cradle of California
To buy a psychedelic T-shirt or see some colorful painted victorian houses s and that served as communes in the 1960s, it's best to take a walk around the Haight-Ashbury area of San Francisco. It was the nerve center of the summer of love and the inspiration for the song by The Mamas & The Papas , San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair). To get a slightly more precise idea of what happened to some of those young non-conformists, pacifists and given to the use of hallucinogenic substances, nothing like crossing the San Francisco Bay Bridge to Berkeley.
Start your hippie route and very progressive in the university campus of the University of California from this city. You can take one of their self-guided tours, where you'll learn all sorts of things about how the Free Speech Movement arose during the 1964-65 academic year, the fact that Berkeley wanted to become the Athens of the West, or that its classrooms the first divorce legislation where neither spouse had to allege any type of fault in the other to ask for separation.
University of California Campus
Exit the campus by the avenue Telegraph and walk through some of the three or four most varied blocks of this city. A visit to Amoeba Music is a must, one of the three establishments of this independent music chain where the character of Jack Black in High Fidelity would be delighted to work. In addition to vinyl, you will find second-hand CDs and an unbeatable selection of rarities. A visit to Moe's Books is also a must, where there is also a good sample of used books and which has little to envy the mythical Strand of New York. Although actually in Telegraph you could simply choose to walk and dedicate yourself to doing an anthropological study of passers-by . It is one of those places that never disappoint inveterate voyeurs.
Telegraph Avenue
While you're in the area, don't forget to check out the Berkeley Rep Theater program. In the summer of 2013 Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen premiered Harold Pinter's No Man's Land before even bringing it to Broadway. And for the spring of 2016 we expect the magnificent Frances McDormand playing Lady Macbeth.
Berkeley Rep Theater
With your most spiritual and intellectually restless part satisfied, it's time for you to walk along the northern part of the avenue Shattuck and get lost in the call Gourmet Ghetto . It is impossible not to salivate. Check out the lunch menu at the café at Chez Panisse, the forerunner of California cuisine. If you prefer to sit al fresco with some live music, opt for The Cheese Board Collective's terrace. This cooperative offers only one type of pizza a day, made from the best ingredients of the season , and his business model was the inspiration for the broccoli pizza place in Pixar's new Inside Out. Pop into the epicurean food market, Epicurious Garden, and try Kirala's tempura prawns. If all this gastronomic offer has not saturated you, at Masse's you can delight yourself with a mini chocolate cake with raspberries or macaroons of all sorts of colors.
Masse's Pastries donuts
Although, beyond the food, the best thing is to walk around this area of Berkeley and observe many of its natives. Long white hair abounds, cotton t-shirts and slightly faded color with political messages, Birkenstock sandals (with and without socks) and good vibes. On weekends the younger generation takes to the sidewalks for impromptu street picnics and on Thursday afternoons, pedestrians loaded with reusable cloth bags abound going to the weekly farmer's market for the best old-fashioned organic tomatoes.
Nothing like ending the evening with a vinyasa yoga class at Yoga to the People, where they're so hippie you decide how much you pay. Suggested donation is $10 , an amount well below the average price of a 60-minute class in the area.
Technically not in Berkeley, but in the neighboring and by extension also very hippie city of Oakland , you can end your visit at Oaksterdam University , a school focused on the business of cannabis, with specialized classes in the horticulture or cooking of this plant but also in matters of legislation, marketing or accounting.
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