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Published: February 25th 2014
What truly makes a holiday....
I've always lived by a motto when I travel...
Tourists see sights.... Travellers experience culture
Nothing upsets me more than seeing people pile off a bus to take photos of a landmark before jumping back on and heading to the next stop. How are they experiencing the country... the culture... the essence that makes a place hum and tick, when they never socialise with anyone other than their own group and never experience the local way of life. In my mind, this is the difference between a tourist and a traveller.
Apon arriving in
San Francisco and finding parking, hostel and all the mundane things, I met one of my roommates and hit it off. Ross, from Detroit, was a fellow traveller that's been working around the world for the last 3 years on and off, and finally decided to settle down for a bit in SF. The beauty of this was not only the story swapping but also the fact that, being worldly, he was aware of couchsurfing, woofing and a number of other things travellers take advantage of. With a couchsurfing meet up in
The Haight on the Monday night, we quickly sorted out logistics and headed
for a drink.
The Haight district is a little off centre with the hippie movement starting there back in the 60's. What this means today is that there is a lot of funky clothes, funky bars, and the regular plume of smoke in the area.
The friendship with Ross was a founding stone of my 9 days in SF, and although in the city for different reasons, we managed to nearly always meet up and find a good corner to watch some live music or stand-up comedy to pass a few hours, always paired with a happy hour, and when it's Beer Week in SF you take advantage of the $5 jugs.
On top of the fun nights with the locals, I spent the days doing some of the touristy stuff but always with a twist.
Why photograph the
Golden Gate Bridge when you can walk it.....
With construction commencing in 1933, and taking 3 years to complete, the bridge is synonymous with San Francisco. At 1.7 miles in length it is not the longest of bridges but because of the style, colour and that it straddles the mouth of the bay it has become
world renowned. It's older brother, the Bay Bridge stretches to the east at a length of 8 miles and was completed the year before. Upon completion, there was some debate as to the colour it should be painted, with the navy wanting black and yellow stripes for visibility in the legendary fog that envelopes the bay. Eventually they settled on international orange but can you imagine... a bumblebee bridge!!
Why take a bus to
Alamo Square when you can walk there from Golden Gate Park... and then down to Japantown.
Although, anyone that's been to SF or seen it in movies or on TV knows that walking anywhere in the city may not be the best option. Apart from the reclaimed land by the wharves, the rest of the city and the surrounding areas can at best be called undulating, and at worst a rigorous workout. Some streets are so steep that in the early days of cars the brakes weren't good enough to stop them and they would end up at the bottom in a heap. The solution?.. Make the world's crookedest street.
Lombard Street represents that today and has a number of switchbacks designed to slow
vehicles and stop their descent.
With a stroke of luck, Chinese New Year celebrations ended with a parade on Saturday night while I was in the city and I thought "what a great way to see Chinatown". What I didn't bank on was travels down side rearing it's ugly head.
If someone ever tells you that every second of everyday of their travel went according to plan then they weren't doing it right. On Saturday morning, Tomorrowland tickets went on sale... and after just under 2 hours of trying to get tickets I came up empty handed. No big loss... I've got a few years in Europe to try and go... So it was off to Pier 33 to head to Alcatraz. One big thing about travel means you forget the day as well as have no idea of the local public holidays... And with Presidents Day making a long weekend on Monday, the next available spot to head to the island was Tuesday morning. So this day was a right-off!! Heading to a pub at Pier 39 and the day perked up when the 2 bartenders found out I was Australian. For the next 11 hours
I was plied with local produce (beers) and American pours of Jacks (I had to ask to have it topped up with Coke 3 times). Not just that but the female bartender liked my accent and gave me free drinks.... and the male bartender knew Australians could drink well so he gave me free shots!! Messy night... but good fun!!
It's a well know fact that bad things come in threes, so when I fell over on the way back to the hostel and managed to make sushi out of my knee, I thought it was the end of it.... How little I knew....
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Kuan Yin
Karen Johnson
Love your quote
"If someone ever tells you that every second of everyday of their travel went according to plan then they weren't doing it right. " Amen, brother. And that's what makes travel fun.