The City by the Bay

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Landing on the plane and looking out the window I was a little sceptical of San Francisco's reputation for being a hilly city, indeed millions of people must have just been having a winge about a few little hills. It was a day or two before I realised my mistake. It was a big one.

After arriving at this really cool little place called the Adelaide Hostel I decided to go for a walk in the remaining light of the day, this inevitably turned into a massive trek as these things inevitably do. I walked along the main street towards the Embarcadero and the Old Pier's where the ferries used to ply their trade before the construction of the city's bridges. It was kind of pretty walking around a new city in the late afternoon sun and just relaxing, doing a bit of people watching and examining the city skyline and the cool Bay Bridge. After walking along almost the entire boardwalk I got tired, found some cheap food somewhere and called it a night.

The next day was a day of two parts, I decided to go for a little wander and stumbled across the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, (SFMOMA) and luckily decided to check out the store first. I have come to the opinion that I have a very low appreciation for art, especially "modern" art. I disliked many of the posters and postcards in the shop and so I left without going in and saved myself a few bucks😊 Looking in my LP just after though I found something that I definitely would like, the Cartoon Art Museum. This place was brilliant, I spent about an hour in there looking at almost every single piece, it was great. The museum was split into 5 seperate galleries, the first entitled Why Do They STILL Hate US? was a collection of editorial comics from newspapers around the world depicting the rest of the world's opinions on US foreign policy in regards to the Iraq War, Oil and other such things. Some of them were pretty harsh and very biting. The next featured the beginning artwork of some now prominent comic book artists, all of whom I had never heard of. The next, which was one of my favourite, showed how cartoons were made before computers with pens and ink and lots of time consuming work. They had some cells from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Dumbo, early Simpsons and loads of other cartoon movies and TV shows. The last gallery was dedicated to Peanuts by the late Charles M. Schulz and while it is nowhere near my favourite comic it was interesting to read the extra info about the comics creation and evolution. After I was all comic'ed out I went back to the hostel and fell asleep.

When I awoke I decided to walk up Telegraph Hill to the Coit Tower to see some amazing views of San Francisco, it was during this little walk that I realised just how incredibly hilly the city is, bloody hell, I took back all previous thoughts of flatness as I traversed these streets, some of which I swear were at about 60 degree angles. After I finally got to the top and recovered from the hike I was treated to some really special views of the city in the evening light. I could stand and see from the Golden Gate Bridge all the way around to the Bay Bridge with the beautiful twinkling lights of the city all below me. It was great, totally worth the walk.

Bike Ride Day
As is usual with days like this it turned into a very long, hot and sweaty day. This always happens I have found, bike ride day, hike day, walk to beautiful and famous natural wonder day, they always go on for way longer than anticipated, you never have enough food or water and by the time you are finished you are shattered and can't wait to see a bed.

Anyway I had decided to ride a bike over the Golden Gate Bridge across into Marin County. The Bridge itself is stunningly beautiful; set between steep shorelines and turbulent waters it is a monument to engineering ingenuity and perseverance. It is such an iconic structure that to actually see it in the flesh was uber cool. The ride along the shoreline was nice and relaxing, I was stopping all the time to take pictures of the bridge from a slightly different angle so it was great. The ride across was incredibly windy, you don't realise how high you are till you stop and look over the edge and see the water way below you and the yachts sailing serenely under you look tiny. After more photos on the other side I decided to ride up this huge hill to get some views of the bridge with the city in the background, mistake. It was bloody steep and about 3 miles long, as the sweat was dripping off me I imagined myself to be Lance Armstrong which soon ended when this other cyclist flew past me and disappeared around the next corner! It was all worth it for the views though, a beautiful panorama of the bridge with the city laid out behind it, I spent a while up there just soaking it all in.

And then came the adrenaline rush of the downhill, I was flying down around these steep bends with the wind streaming through my hair and only two wheels between me and the road. It was exhilarating and I only slowed down slightly after I had overtaken a Mercedes and entered the charming bayside town of Sausalito. I got some very well earned food and not being able to face the ride home got the ferry back across the bay. The rest of the night was spent drinking much deserved alcoholic yeast water with some friends in the hostel.

The remaining days in San Fran were spent relaxing and generally doing nothing, I went out to see the UC Berkley campus with its architectural beauty one day and spent another recovering from a night on the piss with some Irish😊

Alcatraz
I actually went to Alcatraz my last morning in San Fran after getting back from Yosemite National Park, which I will blog about soon, and before jumping on the plane to LA. I was on the early bird special tour that I would recommend everyone do, as the crowds later in the day were truly horrible. As I was on the first tour I walked up the large hill to the main cell block and was the first person to go on the award-winning audio tour, as such I was in the cell block before any other and got some really cool photos of the place with no-one else in it. The audio tour is great as four ex-guards and four ex-inmates narrate it. It chronicles the history of the island when it was used as a maximum security prison and goes into detail about how it was run and lots of cool stories like escape attempts and
Cartoon Art Museum
Cartoon Art Museum
things like that. The island is situated a mere mile or so from San Fran and it must have been hell to be so close, apparently if the winds were right the inmates could actually hear the noises of the city, torturous. Anyone going to San Fran should really make an effort to get across to Alcatraz, its really informative and a great look at how this icon of a prison and island were run.

After the island I had to rush to the airport only to discover my flight had been delayed, how wonderful. But soon I was on a plane off to LA.

Hopefully the blog on Yosemite I can get up soon as well.

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Photos

Me
Check out how windy it is

Roman Temple
This roman temple was just along the shoreline, no idea what it was for.

America
On the ferry across the bay.

Cells
The high security cells at Alcatraz

Comments

[Joel]

Lone Vagabonder!
Hey Dan Great to see you are having just as much fun travelling on your own, and getting some great pictures while you're at it!

[Vincent]

Great pictures! I stayed in Adelaide Hostel, it's a great place to stay, huge kitchen and dining area.

[deleted_15735]

San Fran
Did you put a flower in hair, when going to San Francisco? Tom and I are giong to go play ice hockey on Thurs! You better be getting in on the action too when u get back.

[Gil]

Roman Building is the Palace of Fine Arts
Built in 1919 for the Panama Pacific Exposition (like the World Fair), the only remaining structure out of a whole campus of buildings like it... thought you might like to know from a former SF resident! Safe travels, mate.