Back to San Francisco.....................
Trip Start
Jul 09, 2008
1
10
29
Trip End
Jun 10, 2009
San Francisco, California, United States
Friday, August 8, 2008
Jesus San Fran is cold in comparison to Yosemite. Its about 63 Degrees here, Yosemite was in the 90's!!
Stayed
in the Taylor Hotel, still height of summer so most hostels full, but
this is the cheapest we can find, probably explains the smell!!, we
can't quite put our fingers on what it is but aftershave, perfume or
deodorant just doesn't touch it!!
This was probably our first
chance to have an easy few days
Chinatown Entry
. San Francisco has a really relaxedfeel about it, people are friendly, its quite compact so getting around
is easy - and quick (providing you don't queue for the cable cars!),
food is varied, its pretty clean compared to other places and its not
overly expensive. So far its probably our favourite city of them all
(If it were a touch warmer - it would be perfect).
We spent the
following few days slowly taking in more of the sights. The sea lions
had returned, probably to the annoyance of the locals at the marina!
We, ahem............... I tucked into a great clam chowder on the sea
front - still can't get Kash to turn carnivore. We wandered through
Chinatown, which was an experience. Unlike New York (or what we saw)
Chinatown in San Fran has a traditional gate, apparently a gift from
China in the 60's
The Golden Dragon
. Beyond the gate are dozens of Souvenir Shops allidentical. All are stocked with the same tat, but tourists seem to
browse each one in turn, its bazaar!! Looking beyond the tat shops
though there are some very nice art shops and markets off the side
streets. We found probably the steepest street in San Fran (no doubt
I'll be proved wrong), but it was stepped all the way, Peter
Macchiarini Steps. We found our way to Alamo Square, close to where the
Victorian buildings are photographed with the San Fran skyline in the
background for postcards, and finally to the Cheesecake factory for a
few hard earned slices of cheesecake - and very nice they were too!!
Our
final day in San Francisco we were wandering south from Taylor Street
towards Market, its a little grubby around here, quite a few homeless
people floating about but it is safe. Across the street there's a
woman, sounds pissed, shouting at everyone up the street - very funny
actually, then without warning strides into the road drops her keks and
has a toilet break in full view of everyone
Transamerica Tower
. Now it would have probablybeen marginally unnoticeable had it not been for the fact it was like
someone opened the bloody flood gates - ITS A GUSHER!!, and i suppose
if you've gotta go................you've gotta go!!
Following
our Yosemite experience and wanting to see more of the Natural side of
the West Coast we hired a car for a month and set off north with San
Fran behind us yet again.
