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Published: July 21st 2008
...in San Francisco
So following on from my previous blog, I left Vegas to fly to San Francisco. I was flying with Virgin America, a fairly new domestic carrier. From the moment I got on board I was impressed. Having never flown with Virgin before I don't know if this is the norm or not, but they employed
mood lighting throughout. This was some kind of purple light, which made the cabin look almost comfortable. All the window blinds were also closed, in an attempt to keep some of the heat out (it was 105 farenheit outside, at 10.30am). Apparently the in-flight entertainment is supposed to be really good - the same kind of facilities you have on long-haul flights. I say apparently as I was flying on what is commonly referred to as
the Dark Horse, in other words, the one plane where the inflight entertainment doesn't work. Not to worry tho, as we were informed that the flight crew were going to entertain us...
And entertain us they did. Apart from a few inane comments over the tannoy, the main form of entertainment was a quiz to win some bottles of wine left over from 1st class. Most
of the questions were Virgin America related. For example, did you know that on the innaugaral flight to Vegas Sir Richie B dressed up as a priest and married a couple, on board the airplane. Yes, it was a rivetting quiz!! However, there was one question, that like a good ex-virgin employee I knew the answer to - how many different Virgin Airlines are there, and where in the world are they? Answers on a postcard!
Anyhow, we arrived in San Francisco in good time, and after a huge wait to get our bags, I made my way to city. SFO airport has a BART terminal inside, so it was nice and simple to get downtown, no need to faff around with shuttles etc. I had directions to my hostel, so didn't imagine that it would be too hard to get there.... Somehow, I had forgotten that one of the most famous things about SF are the hills. So as I arrived at Powell St station, I found the main road that I wanted and looked up in despair. However, not one to let a poxy hill or 20 stop me, off I set... the directions to the hostel
didn't tell me how many blocks it was exactly I had to walk. After about 6 agonising blocks uphill, I found my cross street, and it was blissfully flat... By this point my bag felt like it weighed about 100kg and I was dripping with sweat. But it was ok, as I found Taylor St, where my hostel was... only to find it was the steepest block yet. I took a deep breath and set off, nearly collapsing through the door of my hostel.
The girl at reception didn't seem at all peturbed by the mess that was me as I checked in, no doubt she's used to people dropping dead at the desk. Once checked in, I went to explore the hostel and my room. The only bunk left, was a top bunk, which is never my favourite, but here it was even worse. Not only was there no ladder at all, it was also the tallest bunk I had seen. It was hard enough making the bed, I had know idea how I was going to get up there to sleep... So I decided to figure that out later and go and explore.
I had about
3 days in SF, and was determined to get the most out if it, so made my way to the Tourist Info Office. After wandering around, picking up enough leaflets to wallpaper a small house, I found a leaflet advertising the City Pass, the same pass I used in NY. Like NY it gave you entry to random museums and places around the city. However I was in 2 minds as to whether it would be worth it. Not only did I not have much time, but I was also dubious about going to so many museums, as I think I over did it in NY. I decided to let fate take a hand. As one of the tickets was for a boat cruise in the Bay, I decided that if there were any tours that evening I would get the pass, if not... I went over to the info desk, and as luck would have it there was a tour at 5.30, giving me 90 mins to get to the pier. After handing over my card, I headed off in search of a tram stop. Luckily the pass also included a 7 day travel-pass which made life a lot
easier.
To get down to the pier, I had to take the famous F line. I never did find out why it was famous. But it did have lots of vintage trams running on it. It was also the only line to only use trams. All the other routes were buses, that could run of the electric cables above, but not on the tracks. The tram I ended up getting on turned out to be one brought over from Italy, replete with original adverts. I only realised this after being on there for about 15mins, at first I just thought the posters were for Italian restaurants that hadn't bothered translating the writing into English!
The pier for the boat was Pier 39, which turned out to be a massive tourist attraction, full of restaurants and shops. Once I got my ticket I wondered around the place for a bit. I managed to get a seat at the back of the boat, and started taking pics of the bay. It was only a one hour cruise, which took us out under the Golden Gate Bridge before turning around and doing a loop of Alcatraz on the way back to
the pier. Just to prove how little I had researched this leg of my trip, I didn't even know Alcatraz was in SF... One of the highlights of the trip was all the wind and kite surfers who were out on the river and were using the surf of the boat to propell themselves. The bridge itself was just big and orange. There was no live commentary onboard, but a series of recorded voice-overs were played, supposedly representing people from the past (an immigrant, a prison warden at Alcatraz, a worker from the bridge construction) which were interesting, but not amazingly so. It was also bloody cold on the boat. Bearing in mind that I had come from the heat of the desert, I felt like I was in Antartica! Once back on dry land I headed back to the pier and decided to redeem my ticket to the Aquarium, to save me having to return another day. And I'm glad I did, as I was barely there 30mins! It was a decent enough place, just small. The main attraction were these tanks where you could touch baby fish and stuff... which I just didn't agree with. It was also
strange seeing some of the fish in the tanks - like the Nemo Clown Fish, bearing in mind that the last time I saw one of those was when I was snorkelling in Thailand.
After leaving the aquarium I wondered round the pier, taking fotos and nosing in the shops. Whilst rifling through my bag trying to find something, I found instead a book of coupons valid in all the shops and restaurants on the pier. Whilst most were things like
spend $50 dollars, get $2 off I did find one which was offering 25%!a(MISSING) pizza and pasta buffet... so that was my dinner sorted!! However, I had learnt my lesson in Vegas and just ate until I was stuffed, not sick!
By then I was exhausted, so headed back to the hostel where I met Meg and Nick, and Australian couple from Melbourne and Ally, a Scottish dude who were also staying in the room. After chatting for a while I somehow climbed up to my bunk at the top of Mount Everest and passed out.
The next morning, after waking up stupidly early, I disovered that whilst getting up to the bunk hadn't been too hard,
getting down again was nigh impossible. Luckily tho, Ally had checked out early that morning, so I quickly moved my sheets to his bed on the bottom bunk.... The hostel provided a breakfast of All You Can Eat waffles. However, as you also had to make them yourself, with one of the 2 waffle irons, you didn't really eat that much, as the queue was always long. After spending some time in the room chatting to Meg & Nick, and the other Melbourne couple they were travelling with Addy and Andrew I headed downtown to the bus-stop. My plan was to go to the De Young Museum in the Golden Gate Park. That bit was fine, I had a bit of a wait for the bus, but apart from that no probs. Then just as I got to the Park the infamous SF fog arrived, bringing with it a drop in temperature. I made my way to the museum entrance as fast as I could. The De Young houses mainly American Art, with some South American art and artefacts. It wasn't the most amazing museum in the world, but worth a visit. Once I finished with the main exhibits, I
made my way up to the 9th floor on the Observatory Tower, to get a close-up view of the fog.... I decided against staying in the park, as I didn't want to risk pneumonia, and instead jumped on a bus to take me to the Legion of Honour Museum, stopping along the way at Safeway to grab a sandwich for lunch.
I decided to eat the sandwich in the grounds of the museum, and sat down on the first bench I found, having been scared away from the balcony overlooking the foggyy bay by an evil looking raven. It turned out however, that the bench was in front of the Holocaust memorial, inended no doubt for quiet contemplation... but I was hungry! The museum itself was cool. It mainly focused on European Impressionists. There was a big collection of Rodin sculptures and the rest of the galleries where split depending on the countries the works came from. There was also a special exhibit on the Dead Sea Scrolls which I found interesting. However, both at this museum and the De Young, I was getting confused with the dating of the artefacts. Everything was either BCE or CE. And I grew
up being taught BC (Before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini). So either the whole thing got changed and I missed the memo, or they do things differently here. I still don't know!! But I did find out that BCE is
Before Common Era and CE is
Common Era and I only found that out from listening to some bloke explain it to his kids!
After all that confusion, I decided it was time to head back downtown. Thursday was late night opening at the SF Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) and given that I loved the NY MOMA I was looking forward to it. Thee SFMOMA is pretty much in the centre of the city, right by the Yerba Buena gardens. The gardens themselves are worth a visit. The focal point is a Martin Luther King memorial, but all around the gardens are things to see. And the museum didn't disappoint. It was a lot smaller than the one in NY, but it still had a lot to offer. There was a special ehxibition on Frida Kahlo, which wasn't included in my pass, but only cost an extra $5. That had a timed entry, so before my 5pm slot I
looked at some of the permanent exhibits. When the time came for me to see Frida, it was already busy in the gallery, which made it a little hard to appreciate the picutures. However, I'm glad that I went, as I've been fascinated by her ever since I read her biography a few years back. There was another exhibit, on a photographer caller Lee Miller who I had never heard of. Before I went in, I played around on the computers outside, which had lots of info on her. Turned out she was a model turned photographer from the States who moved to Paris to study under Man Ray in 1932. She ended up staying in Europe, and was a war photographer and correspondant for Vogue. At one point, she was the only journalist during the siège of St. Malo and her photographs were just astounding. So whilst I had no idea who she was before I went there, I left enlightened!! Apart from that there was an exhibit on Contemporary Chinese art that had opened that day which I visited, but didn't really interest me much. Before I left, there was a showing of a documentary on the life
if Frida Kahlo, which I went to see. A lot of it I knew, having read her bio, but there lots of people interviewed who were her contemporaries, which made for interesting viewing. And that really was it. I spent hours in the museum, and definitely didn't leave disappointed!
Not long after I got back to the hostels, the others in my returned, and Meg was scared out of her mind. They had been on a ghost walk around San Fran and their guide had told them the best way to look for paranormal activity in fotos was to look for an orb, or a white ball of light, in the fotos. When they had been looking through their fotos, the only one they found had been in our very room....
The next morning I had a lie-in, and it was bliss!! I had planned to avoid museums and such for the day, and just see some sights in the city. Top of my list was the Crookedest Street. Apparently it's the world's most fotographed street.
I ended up going with the 4 Australians as they wanted to see it to. After a quick brunch at Taco Bell we decided to get the cable car to Lombard Street, as everyone knows you can' t come to SF and go on one!! The queue was quite long, but moved quickly, and we got to see them turn the cars around on this moving platform as they can only go in 1 direction. We also saw a pigeon get squashed in the tracks... The ride itself was very bumpy, and whilst we managed to get seats, there were peopl standing on front of us holding onto the rails, so our view was non-existant!! Once we got to Lombard Street there was the obligatory foto stop, followed by many others on the way down. As the street is so steep, there are steps for pedestrians, and we chose just to go down them as we didn't really fancy the trek back up!!
From there we made our way to Fishermans Wharf, passing through the edges of Little Italy, where all the lamposts had the Italian flag painted on them! At Fishermans Wharf (like Pier 39 a touristy part on the bay) I left the australians as I had a ticket for a bakery tour and tasting session at the Boudin Bakery
- the oldest and most famous Sour Dough Bakery. As luck would have it, the bakery was hosting a private function, and I didn't feel like waiting 2 hours for a small sample of bread, so I made my way to the tram stop, where I again caught the F line, to take me to Castro, the Gay district. Once there I wandered around a while, but started to get accosted by a bum (there a so many bums in SF, more than I've seen anywhere else in the states, including NY). So I decided to make a move. My next stop was Postcard Row. Or rather, Alamo Square Park, facing Postcard Row
From the park there was views not only of the famous houses, but out into the city, and as there was no fog, I could see clearly. In the distance I saw some kind of gilded dome, but the map I had offered no clue as to what it might be. After wandering around the park eating a twix and taking fotos I jumped on a bus and decided to try and find out what that gilded dome was. As luck would have it, the bus drove straight past it, so I got off at the next stop. It turned out the be the City Hall. As I was taking picture, I saw that the door was open... I decided to investigate, and went in, to be met by a security guard. Expecting to be asked for ID, he merely asked if I had a camera of mobile phone, I showed them to him, and he took my camera, aksed me to smile, and proceeded to take my foto!! He then let me enter. I walked around, rather bewhildered, not really knowing what to look at. In the main atrium there was a chinese couple posing for wedding fotos, in another part there was some girl posing for some kind of fotos, and outside the mayors office there was a sports team from China (it turned out they were in town for the Childrens Olympics) posing for fotos. After taking a few fotos myself, I went out the back entrance, past the Museum of Asian Art and found the UN plaza. Rather fittingly there was a artisan fair closing it's stands, but you could tell that the wares came from all over the world. The UN
plaza also seemed to be a home for bums, especially around the fountain at the bottom. From there I made my way on foot back to the main part of town, before heading up to Chinatown. From China town I went back to the hostel where I met back up with the australians, and ended up going to dinner with them, and a guy from NZ called Nick. We went to this diner, that had been recommended to them by a guy from SF who they had met in NY.
Once we went back to the hostel, we borrowed the dvd player to watch a film in the movie room before going up to the room. I had to pack, but we started messing around with our cameras, seeing if we could find any more orbs in the pictures.... and sure enough we did. In fact we found loads. By this point both Meg and Addy were getting scared. Nick decided to help things along by dressing in a toga and telling ghost stories by torchlight! We didn't actually see any ghosts... but... you never know....
Saturday was my last day in SF, and I had to check out
by 10, which I think is way too early! I said my goodbyes to the Australians and after checking my bags into the storage room made my way into the city for the last time. I had one pass left, for the Asian Art Museum, so headed back to where I had been the day before. I managed to arrive in time to catch a guided tour of the Ming Dynasty exhibition. Whilst I usually don't like guided tours, I have to admit that this one was good, and as I know nothing about the subject, it made it a lot more interesting. There was this one lady tho, who managed to annoy almost everyone with her incessant questions. At times it seemed she asked questions only to show off her own knowledge and to try an catch the guide out.
After that tour, the rest of the museum couldn't really capture my attention. It mainly focussed on the history of Buddhism in Asia, and by the time it moved onto other stuff, I was bored!! After deciding to cut my losses I left the museum and decided to head to China Town for some lunch. I ended up finding
SF Aquarium
The last time I saw one of these... I was snorkelling in Thailand...a littl restau down a side street that was full of Chinese people. It had a lunch special for $8, which ended up being way more food than I could manage, and as I was flying in a few hours I couldn't even get a takeaway container.
Once I returned to the hostel, I collected my bags and went on the trek to the BART station. Luckily tho, it was all downhill and in no time at all I was on my way to the airport, ready to make my way to my final US destination....
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