San Francisco Part I
Trip Start
Mar 25, 2008
1
12
Trip End
Jun 13, 2008
San Francisco,
California,
United States
Saturday, May 24, 2008
The hostel I wasn't surprised with having stayed in it for 2 nights before but I was surprised by my room mates, an English land just older than me called Connor and his 2 Danish bitches he picked up in Australia, or maybe it was the other way round seen as he asked to join them. These guys are touring the west coast and were soon heading out to Yosemite National Park and then on to Las Vegas. Now I didn't meet them straight away but when I went into my room I found a thong hanging on the bunk bed post, so I assumed one of them would be a fittie. However, the first one I met was more the shamu of the female world, however the other one who appeared and she was more the Ariel of the female world (the Disney character).
I can't remember there names because I only ever heard there names once, but oh well. The only problem was whenever Connor disappeared and I was left in the room alone with them they were always speaking in Danish, which actually sounds a lot like Welsh for some reason, but like when anyone speaks a different language around you, you immediately think that they are talking about you and laughing, or in this case saying 'oh he's so hot, I wonder if her wants me?' No Shamu, i'd only want you if you were deep fried.
Now keeping up my new found rule that I was not going to eat out all the time I headed to the local supermarket, not far away distance wise but up a great big hill, not the biggest but it was big and this was 25 degree heat, something us ginger people don't cope well with, just ask my good friend Prince Harry, it wasn't because of the Taliban he came home from Afghanistan, it was because it was so fecking hot and his face was becoming like a giant tomato.
In the shop I stocked up on the necessary stuff, high fiber cereal, can't be blocking hostel toilets, pasta, rice and orange juice. Now it might have been the heat or the fact every says I look about 23 but I had a crazy thought that I might try buying some beer, not loads, just a 6 pack. Now I'm at the checkout and the guy in front gets by without being I.D, but then it's my turn, and just then like Karma is trying to kick me in the face a security guard appears standing at the next checkout, panther like waiting to pounce, (I say panther instead of lion because he was a negro amigo). Anyway, I know the worst they can do is say no but still, I'm in a foreign country, one that almost considers a rubber glove search mandatory for getting though customs, so my mind was racing. She goes to scan the beer, I'm almost home free, and then she says the words that almost make my head explode 'Do you have an I.D?' So I start doing the obvious padding down of my pockets and answer with that little hint of emotion 'ah dam, I must have left it at home, can you just leave that and I'll come back later', which I definitely wasn't going to do. But then out of no where she goes 'you are over 21 right?' me standing then, dumbstruck manage to say 'yeah' in a very unconvincing manner, and then by the hammer of Thor she puts the beer through and the boy at the end puts it into a bag with my pasta, rice and high fiber cereal. I practically ran back to the hostel, like a black man in a country club for fear of the police being called and chasing me.
When I got back and had made dinner I chilled in my room taking with the guys about where they have been and what else they are going to do and for once I got to give someone advice as Connor after going to Las Vegas with the girls was going to go up to Seattle, a place I'm well rather fond of and I told him all the secrets that I knew about, the wall of gum, the Jimmy Hendrix statue, the pink door which you have to look out for because there is no sign, that leads to awesome Italian restaurant, oh crap this has just reminded me that I was meant to add him on facebook so he can tell me when he gets to Seattle, oops, just like at home where someone rings for mum and I pretend to take a message and then forget, but mum can't wait till I'm home!!!
Well as is now a custom on my first day in a new hostel I slept in till about 11am, god I don't miss working in a bakery, I'm so not going to go back there hopefully. Now when I woke up I had to walk about 25 minutes to get to the only HSBC bank in San Francisco so that I can save a precious $3. It might not seem like a lot but when you consider that in New Zealand there wasn't a HSBC bank and I lost over $30 dollars to them it is a bitch!!!
Now that I was cashed up and ready to go I found out that some of the best things in San Francisco are free. My first stop was to be Grace Cathedral, only 5 blocks, now it might not be a very touristy thing here, and the only reason I went in was because it looked very impressive from the outside, surrounded by all these towers and the cable cars everywhere there it was. I got a little treat inside, first where they ask for a $5 dollar donation but I got away with putting a $1 in the box, I'm not that mean to go in free...but still, hahaha, come get me Jesus. Second, a visiting church choir was performing at the front and it was magical, not the singing about god but there voices, they could've been singing Paranoid by Black Sabbath and still made it sound magical.
So I caught the end of there performance and then looked around the Cathedral, and it turns out that it is pretty new, the old one having been pretty much destroyed by the 1906 earthquakes and fire. So modern in fact that the church commissioned several new stained glass window with modern men depicted in them, including the first black judge of the San Franciscan Supreme Court and Albert Einstein with the window featuring his famous E=mc2 formula. Now why in the heavens would they allow Albert Einstein a window, a man who followed the works of Isaac Newton, who followed the works of Galileo Galilei, men who together basically fathered modern science and destroyed the churches monopoly on the theory surrounding the creation of the universe and they give him a stained glass window. Seems to me like the church is losing its backbone, I want them to go back to the days when someone questions them that they were beaten up and left on the street, maybe that is where the Mafia and IRA learnt there traits, from the Church??
After I'd left the Cathedral, escaping the clutches of an over zealous, obviously gay (whats happening to the church) volunteer wondering if I had any questions, I followed the cable car until I came to the Cable Car Museum, which turned out to be free aswell, my day was getting better and better. The museum was cool, as learning how the cable car has evolved over time, originally there were dozens of cable car lines, before the car helping to link the city and people, yet after the earthquake and the invention of the car and street buses the cables cars were starting to be fazed out, yet a group of San Franciscans lead fiercely by some chick managed to force a vote, to which the people said they wanted cables cars to remains, and thus becoming a symbol of San Francisco, 3 lines to this day are active, California, Powell - Hyde, Powell - Mason. I have had the pleasure of riding 2 of these all the way from start to finish but more about that later.
My next stop was a walk away, and with these hills it was becoming tiring. I mean the fact that I'm only eating enough to equal 2 meals a day, the substantial weight I think I have put on outweigh the effects of my now huge calf muscles so this was starting to become challenging, yet I wouldn't not give in and use public transport for my dollar 25 was precious. Having managed to conquer several hills I made it to my next free attraction (all this free stuff, I think I'm going to make and excellent student, and surviving on 2 meals a day, I'm going to be fine ;)
Welcome my friends to the crookedest hill - Lombard Street. Located in the Russian hills district this is a street and road descending with eight 40 degree corners and a 5mph speed limit. Although I thought this hill would have made many drivers avoid it because of its complicatedness it didn't. Driver after driver wanted a go at Lombard, many from the license plates were out of towners and I guess they wanted bragging right to there friends that they conquered Lombard. Unfortunately the footpath doesn't follow the curved road and is instead on either side, which does provide some good picture opportunities, infact many passengers would hop out to take a picture of there car on the famous street and hop back in at the bottom. I got some ok pictures but the sun which had appeared wasn't helping, I also couldn't get the necessary elevation to get a shot of the road to show the corner, this is when at the bottom I had something I would call a brainwave at the time but now it just seems silly. At the bottom was a bin with a sturdy lid and a sign post next to it...Can you see where I'm going?? Yep I climbed on top of it for a better picture, what lengths I'll go to, lol.
It was midday and I was heading to Fisherman's Wharf, time for lunch I thought and I enjoyed some delightful fish and chips. Although they were fresh, the fish and chips I had enjoyed at Watson's bay, Sydney some month and a half earlier still had an edge. Fisherman's Wharf was like the rest of San Francisco hiding many free attractions, a decommissioned World War II submarine, and battleship behind it, on display, street performers, cheesy shops to look at junk, the view of Alcatraz however one of the best value for money free attractions has to be Pier 39, watching the Sea lions have an afternoon nap. These guys are just like the ones your thinking about right now at the zoo, that clap there paws together and go 'arpa' 'arpa' for ages, but whats different is there are dozens of them, all just lying on these floating pontoons, many sleeping peacefully, others pushing others off. The best bit was 2 males, I think because they were pretty angry, unless....do female sea lions get PMS? Anyway one of them, we'll call him Kenneth, was 'ruling' the middle pontoon, right in front of the tourists and out of no where this other male, we'll call him Whitney, appeared and suddenly the noise was so loud, there wasn't much violence, they did go at each other a couple of times, but with both these guys on the same pontoon at the same end it started to lean to one side and Whitney eventually, with a little nudge from Kenneth, slip off completely into the water and proceeded to circle making 'arpa' noises for a good 10 minutes; thats where I left them.
Now my next day was pretty much the same, I had planned to walk across the golden gate bridge, one of the seven wonders of the modern world, yet because of the 30 degree heat and the cold bay water huge clouds of mist were being created, so sadly for the 5 days I was there the Golden Gate Bridge was invisible. I could have walked right up to it and not know where I was or see anything except my own hand, and throughout the day it got worse, coming further into the bay, making it hard for the boats to see aswell. So what did I do for almost a whole day, well I window shopped in some 'unusual boutiques' on Union Street and then by luck on Fisherman's Wharf I found a pier which housed dozens of old arcade games, from Packman, Ms Packman, Spy hunter, Metal Slug, Tekken fighter and even X-men v. Street fighter - a game I had played years ago at the youth club when I had gone to France with the Jones. I spent roughly 3 hours in there and it didn't stop there, they also had really old funfair amusement, ones where puppets in boxes tell your fortune for a quarter, or where you have to take part in an arm wrestler against the machine and it seems lose every time.
So there you go, that was my first 2 days in San Francisco, yet I shall not give in. I shall go on. I shall work to the end. I shall find out what else San Francisco has to offer and I swear to you I will bring you the latest 'Adventures of Oliver Oliver and Snowy!'
(Let me know if anyone gets the last part, there is a free drink in it if you do)
