San Francisco

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After dropping off the car at the airport we headed into town; and were welcomed by what on first impression seemed like a really nice city. I had been told SO MANY positive things about San Fran, so there is always a risk that it isn't going to live up to all the hype. But lets hope on this occasion that wasn't the case (I know the answer to this, but you don't - so read on!)

We were couchsurfing for the first few days in San Fran, so we departed the airport and headed downtown in search of the bus stop which would take us to her house; it was here that we parted company with Tim, as he was staying in one of the local hostels. After getting a little lost and confused we eventually found the hosts place; it was a cool little flat in the student area of the city, not too far from downtown. We met up with our host and exchanged stories as to what we had been up to up to this point in life. She was a bit snowed under with all the university work she had due, so we gave her some space and went out to explore the local area. However, she had invited us to a bar that evening for Halloween celebrations, so while we were out we picked up the cheapest costumes we could (which basically consisted of white t-shirts and fake blood).

We returned home and got ready for the evening. The "bar" we went to was in the trendy/dodgy area of town, and it had the front of an antiques shop; then you go into the basement and there is a bar and a stage. What it turns out that this event is, is an improv music, poetry & spoken word night. The events that followed were some of the most surreal I have ever experienced, although it was also pretty awesome. There was a very crude girl punk bands, old men reading poetry, a reggae guy doing a political rally, people reading stories and all manner of weird, but creative outlets. This was the sort of evening that I would never go to (or find by that matter) of my own accord, but one which I'm really glad we went to.

The next day we headed into town for a day of touristy exploration. In a very random turn of events we had been given a couple of complementary CityPASS's for San Francisco to try out by the kind people at CityPASS; and over the next few days we really put it through its paces! First things first though; as a group of tourists preparing for a day of walking we needed to put some fuel in the tanks, so we went to The Cheesecake Factory to eat our body in pasta and cheesecake. Now we were good to go! We spent a couple of hours walking around downtown, exploring the various squares and the huge sloping streets and some of the cool little districts that the city had to offer. Next up was an essential for any tourist visiting San Fran - A trip on the iconic cable cars that brave these steep hills (This was covered in our CityPASS). It was awesome to hang off the edge of the tram as it traversed these amazingly steep hills (in fact, we passed the worlds steepest street during the ride!). This journey took us to the waterfront where we spent the next couple of hours wondering along the beach, admiring the spectacular views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. At this point the sun was setting, and we had a beautiful walk back via Crissy Fields; a really nice parkland which hugged the beach. We made our was back to our hosts flat, with a brief stop off at at a traditional American diner for some cheesy chips.

The next day we moved on from our hosts place to the USA Hostel downtown. Our host didn't seem to be particularly friendly towards us and seemed to have a lot of work on so we thought it was easier just to get out of her hair. I wouldn't put this down as a negative couchsurfing experience, but I definitely wouldn't put it down as a positive one. With this behind us we settled into a four bed dorm at the hostel. With plenty of activities still unused on our CityPASS, me and Beth headed out for another day of tourism. James decided to stay at the hostel for the day and to hang out with Tim (who was also staying at this hostel!). The first order of the day was a cruise around San Fran bay, under the GGB and past Alcatraz. It was a beautiful day for this, as the bay area is notoriously foggy and rainy, so to get a clear sunny day was especially lucky! The tour itself was very good, and we even saw dolphins swimming alongside the boat during the journey! We headed straight from this to the San Diego Aquarium, which was also enjoyable; however, I feel like we have been to about a million aquariums over the course of our travels and I certainly wouldn't say that this one is anything particularly special. We headed back to the hostel to hang out with James and Tim. We played some pool, some table football and some other board games, then hit the sack for another busy day to follow.

We were up early for a traditional hostel breakfast with all matter of sins on it, then we heading out to the San Fran Science Museum (also included on the CityPASS). This was one of my favorite museums thoughout the whole of my travels. It is basically a huge warehouse full of hands on experiements covering the entire of science, psychology and inquiry. We literally spent the entire day there and were hugely impressed by the array of fascinating and mind-boggling exhibits on offer! In what was already a highly educational day, we decided to put our brains to use once more by doing a pub quiz in the evening. This was no normal pub quiz; this was the 'Genius quiz', celebrating Science Week in San Francisco! As three people who would consider ourselves of reasonable intelligence, I hoped that we would do pretty well...... we did not. Hosted from a small packed out pub in a trendy area of San Fran, this quiz was by far the hardest quiz I had ever attended: Questions on Quantum physics were not uncommon. Despite finishing last, it was still good fun, and I feel like we still did pretty well for three people educated to a measly degree level.

We awoke to a crisp November morning in California and decided that the time had come upon us to invest in some warmer clothes. It wasn't but a few weeks ago that we were roasting in the deserts of Utah, or sitting on a beach in San Diego; however, the months getting later paired with us moving North had led us to being ill equipt for the weather we were finding ourselves in. We did what any British tourists would do in this situation and went in search of our nearest H&M. Freshly stocked up on coats, we went to Chinatown for some cheap lunch. For the last couple of months there had been a feeling deep down in my gut....... a longing for my dear Suzie. 'Is this a girl?' I hear you say. No. No it's not. It is my beautiful Yamaha guitar which is waiting for me back in England. We whatever it was, this longing had reached breaking point on this day, and I decided to go in search of a new guitar. I located 'The Guitar Centre' and was very much like a kid in a candy store. After talking to a couple of the staff and searching around the selection I settled on a Martin LXM travel guitar. It had always been my dream to own a Martin guitar, so as you can imagine, this was pretty exciting! After what had been a very expensive, we chilled out in the evening, with me serenading Beth and James against their will for the majority of it. Feeling of longing in my gut, gone!

The next day we went to the Academy of Sciences with Tim (also included in the CP). This was a beautiful building complete with aquarium, aviary, living roof, iMax and a museum. We spent pretty much the entire day here, learning about all manner of things about the natural world and the scientific advancements which have moved alongside them. In the evening we had a very surreal apointment - let me paint a picture for you: waaaay back in 2007, we were staying at a hostel in Prague with our gang from back home and one evening we met an American guy called Alex. We spent the evening chatting and drinking and have had him on Facebook ever since. Now, five years later, we dropped him a message to see if he would be up for meeting up for a catch up beer and we were met with a enthusiastic 'YES'. So that evening we headed off to a bar he recommended and were greeted by him and a big group of his friends. A few beers later we had caught up on each others lives and headed on to the next bar. The next bar we went to had a $25 minimum per person to be in there and it was about $12 per beer, so we made a swift exit. A few cheaper bars later, we were enjoying some delicious pizza and listening to some live music. We'd had an awesome night, but were were both a little drunk and a lot broke, so we headed back to the hostel. If there is one thing which I love about social networking sites like Facebook, it's that they encourage people to stay in contact and allow people to meet up like this.

After what had been an extremely busy, touristy and hectic few weeks we all decided that we wanted a little break before we headed north to Portland. We looked up a place which was en route and where there was very little to see, so we wouldn't be temped to go out and do too much, and eventually settled for Sacremento. We set off on the Greyhound from San Francisco and arrived in Sacremento a few hours later. We arrived at the hostel, which was a beautiful old manor house which had been converted into a hostel. The whole place had a very strange vibe and the staff were a combination of incompetent and just plain right lairy. As well as this, it was probably was the quietest building I have ever been in to; with the other (normally pretty old) guests never seeming to actually talk.

I won't bother going through Sacremento day by day and we really didn't do too much. It was pretty much a 4 day spell of relaxing, playing chess, reading, writing songs, eating and playing the Nintendo 64 which we discovered in the basement. We left feeling slightly replenished; however, due to the strange, unnerving vibe of the hostel it was difficult to relax fully in the hostel. We then headed to Sacremento Greyhound station to get a 14 hour bus up to Portland.

As I'm a big fan of summarising, i'll leave you with this; to me California is not what they'd lead you to believe in all those 'Visit California' adverts. It's awesome in many ways, the weather, the beaches, the palm trees, San Fran in general; but if you're expecting a sea of white teeth, wealth and pristine beauty..... then you might be a little disappointed.

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