Pride, Pins and Public Holidays
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Mar 09, 2009
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San Francisco,
California,
United States
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
On Sunday 28th June, Gay Pride hit San Francisco. Rachel, Ben and I went to Brunch in one of Ben's favourite places in the Ferry Building, called Boulette’s Larder. The menu changes daily and the chef uses fresh in season ingredients to make delicious dishes and desserts. After another amazing meal, I said my sad goodbyes to Rach and headed up Market Street, joining the hoards of others to watch the Pride parade. It was over quickly or else I was late. It seemed anyone could march with a cause, including Jews, who were anti-Israel, religious groups supporting same sex marriage and acceptance, various companies from realtors to Google and Macy’s. Wandering through I saw many sites, completely naked men, topless women, drag queens, transsexuals and people just enjoying the beautiful sunshine, atmosphere and general spectacle. The crowds soon moved to the area outside City Hall, where drinking was permissible as it was deemed an enclosed area. There were masses of food stalls, stages where hilarious drag queens strutted their stuff, amazing cheerleaders putting on a fantastic show which made the routines in "Bring it On!" look decidedly amateur. I met up with Heath and his girlfriend Nicky and we soaked up the atmosphere watching the street party begin as the music started pumping out. We called it a day and headed to Sam’s on the other side of the bay in Tiburon, for an early dinner.
I later found out that the real party was the pre-party on the Saturday night in the Castro District, which is the predominately gay area of San Francisco.
Gay Pride
Yes there is one!On the Monday, I met up again with Heath and a friend of Nathalie’s (Katrin), who I had met in LA. We spent the day doing a bit of a driving tour of San Fran, taking in the Presidio, which is a wooded hill with great views of the city, when it’s not foggy. Originally military houses spread out over the hill all uniform and the same. These have now been converted into offices and private housing. Unfortunately there was still a fog hanging over the city so we moved on the Painted Ladies, which were made famous by a small show called “Full House.”
Allegedly it was quiet popular and starred the reasonably unknown Olsen twins!! Going there made us all feel sorry for the current owners as every day scores of tourists turn up to photograph the houses. All the windows had closed curtains or shutters in a vain attempt to retrain some privacy. We then continued down the 'crooked street’ a section of Lombard that has hairpin bends and is another huge tourist attraction and a must do. If you can drive it, do it, otherwise there are buses, trams etc that drop you off at the top of the street on Hyde. Onwards we went to Coit Tower on Telegraph hill for views of the city and then finished at the Ferry Building which Katrin hadn’t been to. We then dropped Katrin off at a BART station so she could get a plane back to LA. I then walked back from Heath’s apartment to Beach Street and realised why pretty much every woman in this city have amazing legs.
Great Pins
What goes up must come down and nowhere is there a better example of this truism than in San Francisco.
With Heath at Tiburon
There is practically nowhere in San Francisco that is flat, so everywhere you go, you have to walk up and down steep hill which turns out to be an amazing workout for the calves, thighs and glute muscles. The hills are not gentle undulating slopes, but huge towering mountains with sharp gradients, where even in a car you can’t see much beyond the bonnet and many are deemed too steep for buses, trucks etc. On some streets, you cannot park your car facing up or down but have to park horizontally (at a right angle to the road) to prevent runaways. There are signs everywhere telling drivers to park with wheels turned into the curb and to leave the car in gear. Some places the hills rise so sharply that instead of a street there are steps, including the famous Lyon (pronounce Lie-on) Steps. These steps are sheer and not only do mad San Franciscans run up them, they stop half way where there is a paved area to do a few sets of skipping, stomach crunches, lunges etc and then continue up where they repeat the same work out. Total madness, I was exhausted just walking down them!I realise my last blog was all about eating and drinking, I can still fit into all my clothes and can walk up and down the Lyon steps instead of rolling. Also my last week in San Fran was detox week. Not only did I abstain from alcohol well for most of it, I also managed 2 swims, unfortunately not in pools that were the same calibre as those I found in Australia (Melbourne 1; San Francisco 0) and I clocked about 30 miles in walking around the town and getting my bearings.
The Painted Ladies, Heath and Katrin
And my review of the neighbourhoods are as follows:Neighbourhood Watch
Above the Marina district is the uber rich and exclusive neighbourhood of Pacific Heights, made famous by the film of the same name, via the amusingly named Cow Hollow, that runs from Lombard up to Union. Walking along Union, from Divisasdero to Franklin, there are loads of boutiques selling beautiful clothes, little cafes and neighbourhood restaurants. From Union upwards, sumptuous homes with mature gardens grace tree-lined streets. This is no more evident than the houses you find along Jackson and Pacific just above the Presidio where even the street names, Spruce, Laurel, Cherry and Maple conjure up idyllic and pleasant images. From the Presidio south via, Pacific Heights you get to Geary and the Richmond District where the University of San Francisco looms like an evil looking prison over the community. To the east further and you wander into Ocean Beach, to the South the magical Golden Gate Park, a beautiful inner city green space and home to fantastic rose gardens. Continuing on and going west slightly takes you via the Inner City Projects, which as this is San Francisco aren’t no go areas to Haight Ashbury. Down the hill from Haight and Haight Ashbury is the pleasant Hayes Valley, where I had my haircut. This is just a couple of blocks of cute and funky boutiques, art shops and cafes.
Going the other way - to the east of the Marina is Fort Mason which is an amazing location for the hostel that is situated there, continue along the sea front and you will come into the highly touristy Fisherman’s wharf, try to avoid, unless taking a ferry to Alcatraz, Sausalito or Tiburon.
The Crooked Street
Further away from the sea front you will find Russian Hill, where the crooked street is situated, which is a pleasant and pricey neighbourhood, big houses overlooking the bay. Continue on into the funky North Beach area, situated around Columbus and Broadway via Washington Square where a multitude of inauthentic Italians vie for your trade. Avoid any serving French fries and burgers and try for the back streets for a decent meal. North Beach is also home to the Stinking Rose a garlic restaurant and most of the city’s strip joints advertising their wares in bright neon. If you continue along Columbus (a rare diagonal street in a grid system) onto Stockton you will come across the busy, hectic and colourful Chinatown. Continuing south and you end up in the CBD and touristy Union Square. From here you can take Market Street another of those diagonal roads that through the hapless tourist just when they’ve got used to a grid system and on one side is SOMA (South of Market), meant to be trendy (I didn’t get round to checking it out) and then North of Market to Van Ness is the Tenderloin. Basically this is the rough area of downtown San Francisco and you are most likely to be mugged there, but given its name I like to think that the muggers would be polite and courteous about taking your money. Going north again towards Russian Hill you come to my favourite named suburb – Nob Hill! This is another wealthy neighbourhood and the houses are large (mainly split into apartments), the roads tree lined and the people friendly.
Straight roads and hills!
Walking around the city is easy, if you can get over the hills and pedestrians have mostly the right of way. Be careful to look out for traffic lights, some have walking men and red hands to signal when you should/ should not cross but many don’t. Also there are a number of 4 way stops, in fact too many, but that is the problem with a grid system and no roundabouts. Here the complications of the road bear out but pedestrians should and often do get right of way. Allegedly with the 4 way stop it’s the car that arrives first goes first, then if two or more cars arrive at the same time, the rules stipulate giving way to the right, however in reality it seems “give way to the bigger car.” Further afield than my two legs could carry me, is the Mission District and Castro. The Mission District is fantastic, loads of great funky, eclectic and cool places to go out and a cool laid back and casual vibe. Castro, as said previously, is the gay area of San Francisco and most if not all places cater for a party crowd and is probably (for a single woman) the safest place to go out and about in San Francisco.
However, I’m getting the distinct impression that everyone here is too stoned or laid back to be particularly violent. Having said that it is a major American city and there are several no-go areas around the bay in the surrounding suburbs, notably parts of Oakland, and also neighbourhoods within the peninsular that it is unadvisable to wander around not only at night but also during the day, one being the Tenderloin.
Lyon Steps
Yet I felt safe all the time and everyone I met was extremely friendly and helpful.So apart from mammoth walks, I’ve been
- (obviously) catching up on blogging
· other writings
· shopping
· Catching glimpses of Wimbledon
· Catching up on World Events (aka Michael Jackson’s death)
· haircuts or more accurately a haircut
· meeting randoms who invite me out
New Friends
I met a lovely kindred spirit, Andrea who I bumped into again by chance on my birthday and she insisted that we meet later and have a glass of champagne to celebrate. She was fantastic in giving me tips on Guatemala and Honduras and great to chat to. As we were talking a friend of hers turned up, who has already put me in touch with a contact in Panama – awesome!
On Thursday without having had a drink for 4 days (that may have been my problem) I went to a quick and firm favourite of mine, the Grove on Chestnut to have breakfast and do some writing. I find being in a cafe environment more stimulating than being away from people – I am a consummate extrovert after all. I put down a large cup of coffee without spilling, sat down, got out my laptop, picked up a glass of iced water and watched as it slipped completely through my fingers. Not only did I drench myself but also the people next to me, however, the laptop was spared. Mortified I apologised and towels were quickly brought.
Still going up
Who knew so much water and ice was in such a small glass?! Later I got talking to the guy on my left (Raz) and his co-worker (Genefa) who happened to be from Birmingham. We exchanged numbers and they contacted me that night saying they were shooting pool in the Mission District. I jumped into a cab and headed over there. We had a great evening and ended up in a great place called the Elbo Room on Valencia between 17th and 18th streets. Upstairs amongst the fog of marijuana smoke, there was a live band, drummers and a couple of DJs mixing it up playing what I later found out was considered ‘Afro Funk’. The beats were fantastic, the crowd fun and chatty and the dancing ranging from the jaw dropping spectacular to the mediocre (me!) So now a new means and method of meeting new people that works. Soak them in water. It is important to note, it has to be water, anything else can cause ruction and possibly a hefty dry cleaning bill.Public Holiday
Friday 3rd July was a public holiday as the 4th fell on a Saturday this year. Most people take advantage of the long weekend and head out of the city to go camping, go to Napa, Lake Tahoe etc. I instead went for a much needed haircut, where I found out that people leave the city to go see the fireworks because there are no guarantees they will be visible in San Fran because of the low lying fog and mist. Ah well, I was going to chance it and stay in town – maybe because I hadn’t another option.
That evening I met up with an old friend Meg, who I had met during my last world tour in Botswana and stayed with her in the US at the end of that trip. She is now doing her residency in Stanford Hospital. Her boyfriend, Kitso was also in town as he is doing an internship with BCG whilst doing a MBA at Kellogg.
We went to a night of Improv comedy which was great. In fact it was an improv-off night as local teams competed in a tournament to win the accolade of (I’m not really sure) but hey it was a fun night and with tears streaming down our eyes we did a bit of a bar crawl along Chestnut, where I was complimented on my cute accent “Oh please say 3 more sentences in that cute accent of yours?” I duly did saying I was from London. A confused look “You live in London, but you’re from Australia right?” Despite my emphatic denial, they insisted that I sounded Australian and it was a great compliment to be thought of as an Aussie!
4th July
I caught up again with them to watch the firework display the next day. I think it is very thoughtful of America to celebrate my birthday by putting on an amazing firework display, albeit 48 hours too early. We started with beer and pizza in Kitso’s fabulous apartment in Pacific Heights, with a few of his fellow MBAers and then caught a bus down to the water front and along with everyone who had remained in San Francisco ahhed and ohhed and appropriate moments as red, white and blue fireworks lit up the sky.
