San Francisco on Foot
My first time in San Francisco, and I spent most of it walking. I was here for RSAC 2026, but the city itself left a bigger impression than I expected.
My travel to San Francisco was not a planned thing. Through networking events and contacts, a recurring piece of advice kept coming up: the RSAC conference is the must-go conference for everybody trying to get a foothold in the field of cybersecurity. After a short chat with my boss, I booked the hotel, flights, and conference in February. Since I have never been to California before, there was some kind of excitement to be able to see Silicon Valley and the center of western tech. But after what felt like a short while due to the constant workload at work, the baggage was packed and the date of the flight was there. This was the day, when the realization that I was really going to travel there kicked in.
The flight was fine, the view was great, and the border passing in the US was also a pleasant experience. From landing to the Uber it took 90 minutes including the baggage collection. During the wait for the Uber in San Francisco, we were instantly hit by 30 °C with a sunny, blue sky, which was crazy thinking about having started in the somewhat rainy and cloudy, 5 °C Frankfurt.
And since it was still 3 pm after I left my stuff in the hotel, I instantly went outside for exploration.
The Rattling
On my first morning I noticed a constant metallic rattling near the cable car routes. Not from the cars themselves, but from the street. It was everywhere along the lines, even when no car was in sight. It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure it out: the cable runs continuously under the street, and the car grips onto it to move. That is why it is called a cable car. The name is not a metaphor. It is a literal description of how the thing works, and the rattling is the cable running through the channel beneath your feet. One of those moments where the obvious was hiding in plain sight, and you feel a little dumb and a little delighted at the same time.
The Hills Are Not a Joke
I knew San Francisco was hilly. I did not know that the hills are steep enough for road cyclists to use them as mountain training. You see them everywhere, grinding up grades that would be a named climb in most European cycling regions, except here it is just the way to the grocery store. Walking those streets yourself puts it in perspective quickly. My calves had opinions by day two.
Remember the Red Bull Bay Climb, the fixed gear criterium they ran after the pandemic? I watched that online and thought it looked insane. Now, having walked those same hills, I can confirm: those riders are genuinely superhuman. Fixed gear, no brakes, on grades that had me questioning my life choices on foot. The event made sense as spectacle before. Now it makes sense as a feat of pure athletic absurdity.
Twin Peaks
Someone told me to hike up Twin Peaks. They did not mention that the path gets genuinely freaky toward the top: steep, exposed, windy, and narrow in places where a stumble would be memorable. But the view from up there is one of the best I have seen anywhere. The entire city laid out below, the Bay Bridge, the Golden Gate, downtown, the ocean. You can see why people fall in love with this place.
50 Miles of Everything
"Silicon Valley is the center of western tech" is a phrase I have heard a hundred times. It means nothing until you are physically here. You walk around San Francisco and you pass GitHub, Anthropic, OpenAI, Y Combinator. You cross the bridge and there is Berkeley. A bit further and you are at Stanford. Cisco, Apple, AMD, Google, Microsoft, Netflix, all within 50 miles of where you are standing. LinkedIn has its campus a short drive south.
It is one thing to know this intellectually. It is another to feel the density of it while wandering around on foot. The sheer concentration of talent, money, and ambition in this tiny corridor is unlike anything I have experienced in Europe. Not better, not worse, just absurdly concentrated.
The Part You Cannot Look Away From
My hotel sat right on the edge of the Tenderloin. Every morning I walked from there to Moscone Center, and every morning that walk was a reminder of how extreme the contrasts in this city are. Within a few blocks you move from open drug use and people sleeping on the sidewalk to billion-dollar startup offices and conference venues where the future of cybersecurity is being discussed over $8 coffees.
It is difficult to talk about innovation and progress all day without also noticing who is being left behind just outside the door. That juxtaposition is jarring, and it stays with you. I do not have a conclusion here. Just the observation that San Francisco does not let you look away, and I think that is worth something.
The Beautiful Parts
Walking the Embarcadero after a full day of conference conversations, with the Bay Bridge lit up ahead, makes the intensity feel less like exhaustion and more like momentum. The Golden Gate Bridge. The food. The energy of the city. And The Best Bookstore, which might genuinely be the best bookstore I know. A carefully curated collection, well sorted, with handwritten staff notes on the books. The owner told me to read around page 50 to get a feeling if a book catches you, and if not, take another one. That is the kind of place you do not forget.
San Francisco is genuinely beautiful. And it is also a place that forces you to sit with uncomfortable questions. Both things are true at the same time.
I Will Be Back
A week packed with conference obligations barely scratches the surface. The coast, the national parks, the towns across the bridge — there is a lot left to see, and I want to see it without a lanyard around my neck.