Blogs from San Francisco, California, United States, North America - page 181

Easter long weekend 2007 we drove the 7 hours up the coast from LA to San Francisco. Definitely our favourite US city so far it had a bit of everything. Downtown reminds us of Melbourne with the trams etc but much bigger and better in a London (great shopping)crossed with New York (fire escapes on buildings & hotel porters hailing yellow cabs) kinda way. There are steep hills everywhere like you see in all the "cop TV shows & movies" with the down hill car chases which were very scary to drive down & up at first. But the great thing about all the hills is that everywhere you go you can see the water that surrounds the city which looks like Sydney Harbour with all the sail boats etc. Also all over the San Francisco ... read more

Hi All!!! First stop: San Francisco. First thought: Oh my god...look at those hills!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We were in San Francisco for 6 days and stayed at USA Hostels which was a few blocks from Union Square. The hostel was ok, not great, but not horrible (which is always good!). The actual city and the houses are like nowhere else I've seen. They are so cute, and you see the typical houses on postcards, movies etc., but there are actually heaps of different styles all mingled together. They're all so pretty, and apparently worth a pretty penny too! The hills...oh my god, the hills!!! I would never imagine a city where people are supposed to walk around, could have hills quite that steep! They need the signs they have for thrill rides at the bottom warning people ... read more

We woke up nice and early ready for our monster 500 + mile trip across to San Francicsco. We set off at just before 8am and managed to make good progress on the oh so boring Interstate freeways. Apart from the odd pee and fuel stops there really was not much to report as it was really really dull drive - nothing around but desert and the odd hill! When we finally got closer to our destination things started to get a little more interesting and the sat nav finally had something to do! (Especially helpful in rush hour traffic - we hit the outskirts of San Francisco at 5pm). We first caught sight of the Golden Gate Bridge whilst we were driving into 'Frisco' on the Bay Bridge - on an 8 mile stretch ... read more

After years of wanting to do this, months of deciding, weeks of planning, days of details, we're almost ready to embark on this journey. Tomorrow we fly from San Francisco - L.A. - Fiji - Auckland - Invercargill. Our goal for this trip is to ride the length of both islands from the south to the north. Roughly 1500 miles. Wish us luck, safety, peace, health and incredible beauty. This, after all, is life, and one must live life in depth and richness with an eye and heart tuned to living on the edge of the experience of being alive. ... read more

Hello all! We write our inaugural travel blog entry in a dilapidated, rat-infested "internet" room of the back corner of a backpacker's just outside the red light district of San Francisco. We've had nothing but bread and water today (being on a tight budget), and the smell of hot dogs drifting in through the broken window is making our mouths water. Actually, we're sitting on a comfy leather executive chair in the study of my aunt and uncle's home in the USA's Silicon Valley - Cupertino, California. This place is far from dilapidated, and there certainly aren't any rats or red lights around. And who said anything about hot dogs? We've stuffed ourselves silly (for the fourth time in two days), the crime scene tonight being a Chinese Restaurant just outside the main part of ... read more