San Francisco

---

OLA!
We have just arrived back in LA after spending Friday and Saturday in San Francisco.
On Friday Ham and I arrived around 10am after only an hour flight - which meant an hour of sleep (I am now the master of sleeping on planes), we couldn't check in until 2pm so we headed out in search of Fishermans Wharf, instead, we found Westfield, after a quick trip to the Chemist and $40 later I had sufficiently stocked up on everything to cure my flu/cough/conjuncti (I'm an incubus of viral plague), Sam made me take cough medicine in the street he was so sick of me coughing. So anywho, we decided to have some lunch in Westfield after bypassing Victoria's Secret, Bloomingdales, Macy's and Saks Fifth Avenue, we thought we may do a quick hop on hop off tour as we only had a day and a half to see as much of San Fran as we could, on the top of my list - The Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz.
Unfortunately, Sam fell asleep on the table at lunch so we decided just to go back to the hostel and recouperate, the lack of sleep has been drilling us, not having gone to bed before 1 and being up at 6 every day since we arrived in the US.
We spent the afternoon sleeping, skyping and went to a fab diner for dinner- so Americana!!
On Saturday we got up, made our complimentary pancakes- ohh yeah, and headed down to Union Square where we jumped on the hop on hop off bus, we saw the sights of China Town, Little Italy, City Hall (amazing building), the Bay Bridge and eventually Fishermans Wharf. We had a wander around and checked out the tours to Alcatraz - All booked out until Monday 16th!! Boo. So sad.
We met Sarah and Nick under the flags on Pier 39 after an eventful day for them so far; damaged luggage, no phone battery, no adaptor for phone charger and the hostel decided that they couldn't put us all in the same room- wtf! I had booked a whole 4 bed dorm for us, but never mind, we weren't too concerned as we knew we would be back from UFC late that night and had to be up early for the flight back to LA so there would be no bedroom discos anyway.
We all decided the best way to see GGBridge and as much of Alcatraz as possible was to take a river cruise, the bridge is a fair way away from the main attraction (being Fishermans Wharf- the second most visted place in California, after Disneyland). The cruise was lots of fun, VERY chilly, especially for Sarah and Nick who had come straight from LA (average temp at the moment is about 30 and San Fran is about 13), we took so many snaps of the GGBridge, had a really good look at Alcatraz Island and had great views of the San Francisco skyline and Bay Bridge. With very salty hair and skin we headed back to the hostel checking out Lombard (the crooked street) and the Financial District and much more.
Sam was well and truly ready to roll by the time we got back to the hostel as we were just about to make our way to Oakland to watch Silva V Sonnen in the UFC.
We took a taxi out to Oakland, THE dodgiest place in San Fran by reputation, a lot of racial and religious differences- needless to say we were all quietly poo'ing ourselves. However, upon arrival the Stadium was awesome and a great entertainment centre - home of the Oakland Warriors. We picked up our Will Call tickets and headed in, we all bought sufficient paraphenalia (I bought a t-shirt for Al, UFC isn't really my thang clothing wise) we walked in to the stadium and had no idea where we had to sit as there were no lights to guide us up the stairs and the lady at the door just said "up there", so we managed to find seats close enough to what our tickets said, great seats and we didn't have any problems with sitting in the wrong seats. We had an excellent view of the Octagon and heaps on screens around to watch. The energy and atmosphere was electric, a lot less rowdy to what I had expected, but still the odd verbal abuse coming from here or there. I was really enjoying myself, asking Sam everything bout what was happening, who we were going for, who was good, who was going to win, why did he win? Why hasn't anyone been KO'd? I wanted some more blood and broken limbs but all the fights we saw were quite tame. My favourite part of the whole night was definitely Bruce Buffer and his massive diamond 'B' ring, he's hilarious and I do a great impersonation.
The final bout with Sonnen and Silva (the main event) was awesome, Silva was being absolutely smashed for four straight rounds and with about a minute and half to go in the final round he came back with some sleeper-hold-leg-twist thing (see UFC website for actual definition) it was amazing, the whole place went even more crazy than before, I have to admit that I jumped out of my seat screaming and clapping enthusiastically, it was soo much fun.
We were all pretty hesitant as to how we were going to get back to the hostel (Oakland is across the Bay Bridge, a little way away from our Hostel), we headed out to see if there were any cabs, there were noooone! Eek. So we headed to the train station, there were cops everywhere so I felt ok, and there were thousands of people at the train station, but I was mainly concerned about people starting fights and accidently punching me..or something. So we found the train, jumped on and were back at Union Square by 11pm, no drama on the train except I think someone was smoking pot, other than that a very uneventful trip home. We swung by Jack in The Box (basically KFC) for some dinner on the way back to the hostel, ate our fat-fuelled dinner in the lobby, hung out, skyped and checked our emails etc. Sarah, Nick and I all headed to bed while Sam was skyping, Sam later then came in to our room, tried to roll me over and then proceeded to shake me awake (I was on the top bunk so not an easy feat) due to the fact that my nose is so blocked I was snoring like an absolute trooper. Hm. I felt badly for the other two in our dorm, but I guess that's the life of a traveller, right? Right?
Sam and I got up at 6.30 this morning, and had to go and tap on Sarah and Nick's door, concious of waking up the other people in their dorm, their alarm had not gone off, but luckily we still had 20 or so minutes before we needed to be downstairs to order the taxi. As we got in the elevator- which was very authentic, it had a sliding cage door and an additional sliding door- just like in the movies, Sarah was so claustaphobic and tired that she tried to get out of the elevator on the first floor with her bags still in front of her, so as soon as she tried to open the doors, her and her bags all went down in a heap, we all laughed so hard, I cried a little and the kind man at recpetion was the only one to offer to help her up, I couldn't see through my tears of laughter, hilarious moment.
We waited for our shuttle, made it to SFO airport and bid adios to San Fran. I slept from San Fran to LA and Sam said he was catching flies like a champion (sleeping with his mouth open for those of you who don't sleep Sam).
So we have now just arrived at our hotel-motel-holiday-iiiiinnnn, no really, we're staying at the Holiday Inn and wow, it's so much nicer than staying in hostels and actually cheaper- boo! The boys have passed out, Sarah has showered and we are uber excited to do sweet F-A today, perhaps have a swim in the pool, hit the gym and grab some eats before heading out to Universal City tonight for the Teen Choice Awards.
All in all a great trip so far, the concensus between the group is that LA is a bit of a dindgey hole and San Fran is beautiful, great architecture, clean and heaps to see and do, mind you it was pretty much raining and the cloud cover made the GGBridge impossible to see from a distance and I STILL managed to get red-raw burnt, I had been so good with sun screen until now! DAMN!
Well must be off, I have to find an outfit to wear for when I meet Ed Westwick (Chuck Bass) and Rob Pattinson (Edward Cullen) tonight, not to mention all my pals at Glee.
Ohh and did I also point out that MC Hammer was at the UFC last night - celeb spotting number 1! When his name came up on the screen I thought who is Mac Hammer? Blonde moment 29878238.
I hope everyone is safe and well at home and we'll be back on line, live from VEGAS tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If we're coherent!
ADIOS from LA LA Land.

---

Comments

[xcapee]

wow ... couldnt help but notice you observing LA as dindgey whilst SF is the opposite. I actually had the opposite impression? The first thing I noticed was how many homeless folk and drug peddlers there were right in the centre of town. Being from Sydney we do see plenty of homeless but nowhere near as much as SF. My hotel was 3 blocks from Westfields right in the heart of the theatre district and every day and night i was dodging beggars and druggos on way back to and from Union Square. Whereas in LA, i didn't have any such problems in Hollywood or any other part of LA that I found myself. I agree that SF has some wonderful historic architecture :)