California

I just got back from a short business trip to Mountain View, California. While I liked the weather and being close to amazing places like Yosemite, I hardly would like to live there. I find the traffic and housing standard and costs truly terrible. I recognize that the critical mass of talent and VC money in the Valley is unbeatable and therefore large chunk of world's innovation will be driven from there. But I don't at all feel like participating in this personally.

I work on "Shopping" project, and during the trip I was much more exposed to the frontend aspects of it and heard some of our partners speaking. This brought to my attention how consumption-focused the American culture is and I think Poland or Switzerland are still significantly less so.

Having said all of that, I had a very nice trip to Point Reyes and did 21km hike there. Also the views around San Fransisco itself are great. I have fond memories of Rancho San Antonio, Stanford campus and hiking trail above it are very nice. RV trip around US National Parks is still a dream of mine.

Long time ago I used to admire US a lot and wanted to live there. I do not anymore, but I still think it is a land of opportunity, but not so much quality of life or equality, compared to Europe.