Wear flowers in your hair! (and your thermals!)
Trip Start
Jun 26, 2006
1
8
119
Trip End
Feb 28, 2007
San Francisco,
California,
United States
Tuesday, July 4, 2006
Arrived in San Francisco at 5:30am, which personally i wouldn't recommend as a good time to arrive anywhere! It was god-damned freezing. My new fleece had its first wearing and i was still cold! It was such a shock coming from LA, where you were permanently melting and dripping with sweat. Thankgod the bus driver left the air conditioning on so we were acclimatised to the cold!!!
Set off to find the hostel. Neil being Neil decided he knew the best route, straight up one street and down the next. I can excuse the fact that he went the wrong way up the first street, but not the fact that he chose the steepest hill in the whole of San Francisco (and there are many i can assure you) to climb with our bloody heavy rucksacks! The street was so steep, when i stopped to rest i had to hold onto the lamposts to stop myself from falling back to the bottom
Alcatraz
. And im not kinding!!!!! Neil would like to add that if it snowed in San Francisco it would make an amazing ski slope. We then had to climb 6 million steps (or at least it felt like it - neil says there were only 86, but i doubt it!). Surprisingly we then find ourselves at the top of a hill, at the bottom of which is the hostel!!!! I could have killed him! Turns out no real hills at all are required to get to the hostel. Still at least i was warm by that point.Surprisingly the hostel wouldn't let us check in at 5:30am, but they did kindly let us dump our stuff, while we headed off for breakfast. Walked for ages, round and round and round, as you are apt to do in the prescence of Neil (ahh but it does keep me entertained), until we finally found somewhere we fancied eating. A burger bar, serving - yes you guessed it - Neils favourite - burritos! They were yummy i have to admit. Lingered over them, then finally checked into the hostel! Woohoo! Oh yeah forgot to mention that Neil has now discovered that Starbucks is cheap for coffee, so guess where we will be lots of the time!?
Man was i tired. Hadn't slept hardly at all the night before thanks to our lovely driver, who seemed to think it was funny to blind you every hour or so, just to make sure you weren't fully asleep!
So we decided to catch a few hours kip!
Alcatraz again!
The hostel is really cool, well laid back and much more like home! We have got a double bed which makes up part of a bunk bed! We are sharing with a couple of Swedes, who are really nice!Headed out to find Supermarket, to get a few essential like biscuits and beer! Had no bud so ended up with dodgy mexican beer. Ate biscuits, and more biscuits, then Neil ate some biscuits.
Tea was free in the hostel. Oh we like this hostel!! Free stuff!! Woohoo.
It was supposed to be pasta, but the lovely people here decided they would give us an early Independence day dinner!!! This turned out to be hotdogs and salad, but it was still damn dood, and god damn it it was free!!!!!!!!
Spent the evening chatting to the swedes, who by the way are called - Ceceilia and Toby. Hi if you every read this!
Day 2 in San Francisco
Today is July 4th and you know what that means folks - yes you guessed it - Independence Day
Amy eating pizza in Little Italy
! Get out the banners and sing the American National anthem!Today we got up late, after all it had been a damn long day the day before. I need my beauty sleep, as for Neil well he just does as he is told!!!!!! Had bagels for breakfast, with heaps of jam and cream cheese. Damn it makes a pleasant change of bloody pancakes1
Hung around the hostel for a while, couldn't be bothered to get going! Finally decided it was time to move our butts of the seats and go out, so headed down to the waterfront where everything was supposed to be happening!
Was a pleasant walk, still pretty damn cool though, specially when you are in the shade. Its so damn windy thats the problem! Not many hills to negotiate to the front, just a gentle downhill slope. Did anyone out there know just how damn hilly San Francisco was? And if so why didn't they tell me!!?
Honestly the hills here are just crazy, like nothing you've seen before, but i'll get onto that one later! Wandered along the very touristy front. Was pleasant, loads of boats, including old steamers and sail boats. A small beach we where admired the view for a while. Loads of touristy shops selling the usual touristy tatt
Amy on the bridge
! Not too many food options. There were loads of fish on offer, crab and chips, lobster and chips, prawn and chips, but it all seemed a little odd! There other thing which looked really cool, but we didn't know if we would like, was clam chowder, served in a bread bowl! Its such a cool idea, a huge sourdough bread roll, with the middle scooped out and filled with soup and then you get the top bit to dip in! Absolutely everyone was eating it, except us! We weren't really hungry, but its all so damn tempting. Plus with the weather being so much cooler, it makes you able to eat more! So we opted for our first Macdonalds and were pleasantly surprised! They are so damn quick for a start, fast food really does mean fast food here! It also means it comes hot too! I had a big tasty burger, which im sure we had in england once and neil had some chicken thing. They were really tasty. Far nicer than in England, tasted like real meat! And only like $2.50!Not much happening in terms of Independence day, except for a few empty tents, one with a useless leaflet on the days events, and a band playing. There did seem to be lots of people turning up, not entirely sure why! The area was nice, but not because it was independence day, cause trust me if you didn't know what day it was already, you would never have guessed! There were no flags, no nothing.
We headed back to the hostel, apparantly in the wrong direction, as everyone was walking the opposite way. Yes Americans walking, apparantly they discover they have legs on Independence Day! No sorry if there are any Americans reading this, i actually think Americans exercise heaps more than the Brits, they just use the car to get to wherever they are exercising, and damn it they have nice places to walk!
At the Club
Back at the hostel, got lazy again. There is something in the air here in SF that makes you chilled, you just can't help it, and its so contagious! Anyway we managed to do some washing, so we have clean clothes again, thats when they dry that is! And had showers! Amy and Neil are clean again!!
Hung out, hung out and hung out some more, then got ready to go to the fireworks with everyone from the hostel. Met about 7pm, quite a few of us. Headed off to the waterfront. Felt like we were at school again on a school outing. We took over the streets, specially when we crossed the roads! The lights would change for us to cross and change back to red and then back to cross before was had finsihed crossing the road, so the guys in the cars must have been a little peeved!
Best bit was visiting the offlicence on the way. We had been told that we could take alcohol, except you were not allowed to drink on the streets! Seems like a contradiction right, ahh you are wrong see, you have to know the little secret of California. All yoyu need is a brown paper bag, and hey presto you can get away with anything! It seems if you drink your alcohol out of a brown paper bag, which the off licence kindly provide, the police will not stop you as they cannot search you? It seems a very odd concept to me, but apparantly it is the way
Buffalo in Golden Gate Park
! It has become the in joke at the hostel, but i like neils suggestion best that if you killed someone with a gun in a brown paper bag would you get away with it as you could not be searched, and they would have no evidence?Anyway gonna cut this real short guys, cause im so bored of typing now! Plus there are people waiting to use the net and we go on our trip very soon.
We ate burgers from in'n'out burger, check out the website its fun, sat on the grass and watched fireworks, with all the americans, who got very excited! That was it, no flag waving, no parades, no patriotism! In short a big disapointment.
Day 3
Walked 12 miles or so from Hostel across Golden Gate bridge to other side and got ferry back past alcatraz! Cool views, huge bridge, very yummy icecream, and very tired feet!
Free mexican food in hostel, ate loads and drank beer!
Gate to Chinatown
Day 4
Did nothing but eat, drink and be merry! Had pizza out for lunch, beer in hostel, then went on pub crawl with hostel and had amazing burritos, and more beer. Oh and free entry to a club!
Day 5
Checked out of hostel. Wandered round the biggest park ever, which had bison in it! Came back, had amazing chinese food in House of Namking. Scaring and a little expensive, but damngood!!! spent hours writing this. got bored!
Off on our tour of national parks, so will update this in a few weeks time, if i can be arsed!!!!
Till later folks, have fun....we will!
Comments
look on the bright side
your seeing places you wouldnt have seen if you went the right way!!
all the wrong hills and stairs will help you get fit!!
No change there then!
Just like when you are at home. Lots of talk about food and drink!