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BERKELEY |
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BERKELEY (pronounced as for Busby, though named after the English
philosopher-theologian George Berkeley) is dominated by the University
of California , one of America's most famous - and infamous -
universities. Its grand buildings and thirty thousand students give off
an energy that spills south down raucous Telegraph Avenue , where ageing
hippies peddle rainbow bracelets in front of vegetarian restaurants,
music stores and pizza joints. The very name of Berkeley conjures up
images of dissent. Sproul Plaza , in front of the school's entranceway,
Sather Gate, is where the Free Speech Movement began, and, too, argue
some historians, the experience known as the Sixties. Among the sites of
the almost-daily pitched battles of the Sixties and early Seventies,
part of the broad campus revolt against the Vietnam War, was the now-seedy
People's Park . Things have calmed down considerably, and now the campus
prides itself on its high academic rankings and Nobel-laureate-laden
faculty. In recent years, the biggest cause célèbre on campus was the
plight of Naked Man, an undergraduate who refused to wear clothing while
attending class, and the attempted shutting down of local radio station
KPFA. Today's students yell profanities and shout down Bible-thumpers on
Sproul Plaza, unaware of the irony of it all; feel free to stroll around
the campus's tree-shaded pathways and contemplate the dissent of years
long gone.
Telegraph Avenue holds most of the student hangouts, and several
excellent bookstores. Older students congregate in Northside , popping
down from their woodsy hillside homes to partake of goodies from
"Gourmet Ghetto" - the restaurants, delis and bakeries on Shattuck
Avenue. North of here, on the hills, Tilden Regional Park has good
trails and a fine rose garden. Along the bay itself, at the Berkeley
Marina , you can rent windsurfing boards and sailboats, or just watch
the sun set behind the Golden Gate.
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from $80.00
USD