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Published: June 24th 2006
Big Orange Bridge
Quality bridge....it's also a golden colour which clashed with my hair.San Francisco
What an amazing city. I can’t describe how great this place is, so chilled yet vibrant and it just screams culture and diversity. That sounds a bit dramatic but San Fran truly gets a hold of you and I wanted to stay here for longer. Our stay here was made all the better thanks to the hostel and the people we met. The hostel was awesome, Dave the manager and all the staff were brilliant and so helpful and even went on the pi*s with the guests!! The journey down was even bearable due to a random meeting with two girls who we had met very briefly at Chicago and had happened to bump into again (hope Mexico is treating you two well girls!) at Vancouver. Crossing the border was sooooooo much easier then before, thank goodness! Greyhound was well.....a long long long 25+ hours!
When we arrived at the hostel we were a bit shocked at the small size of the place and that our room and all the other rooms had no privacy. I can’t really describe it; it was like one huge bedroom with partition walls separating several beds. Basically, if one person was
Carnival
Crazy floats at the Carnival snoring everyone could hear it! Anyway the hostel turned out to be the best place we have stayed in within the United States. We had a bit of trouble finding it when we arrived as it’s down a tiny side street just off from Chinatown and isn’t really obvious to spot. The location though was awesome, just a short walk from the hustle and bustle of the financial district and close to Chinatown, North Beach (Italian area) and the Waterfront area where all the piers are.
We met a guy from London called Gareth within the first hour of being there and so arranged to meet up later and go for some drinks as we had already arranged to meet Elana and Faye at their hostel. Before that though we also met a lovely girl from Phoenix called Nicole who was staying in our room, the hostel was so intimate that you couldn’t help but bump into people all over the place! Anyway, we got some booze in and went out. Had a good night, cheap drinks and good company which culminated in some good pizza at half two in the morning, always nice. Didn’t actually get in until
Me and Golden Gate
Me and the bridge. late as we spent a while at the girls hostel which probably wasn’t the best idea as felt rough the next day…..can’t handle these hangovers anymore…too old!! We still managed to explore the harbour though and we walked all the way round to the famous Pier 39 (Fisherman’s Wharf) to see what goes on there. It’s basically a huge seaside pier reminiscent of a pier at Great Yarmouth or Southend….but with sea-lions! The sea-lions are pretty cool actually, quite random but cool. In the evening we stayed in and had a fooo bears (haven’t said that for a while boys!! Ooooooo super merccaadddoooo!) with some of the people staying there. We didn’t actually go out a whole lot and began to get a reputation for being ‘tired’ all the time because we never went out…we couldn’t afford to! This Icelandic guy Ziggy would always say… ‘hey you guys, you coming out or are you still tired?’….!!
Next day was spent doing Alcatraz and it was fantastic! I thought it would be rubbish as it would be over-hyped and too touristy, but it was ace. There were a lot of tourists there, like me and Fran, but the audio tour
was brilliant and the atmospheric noises pumped through your headphones really make your hair stand up on end (well it did to me anyway!), especially when you see famous cell’s like Al Capone’s cell from the thirties and the ‘Birdman of Alcatraz’s’ cell! All in all, the tour was well worth it and even if it is a bit expensive it is still well worth it. There was even an ex-convict there and Fran had her photo taken with him! Saw the seal-ions again when we returned to dry land and it’s amazing how many people go and watch them do….absolutely nothing! They just lie there and make that noise that sea-lions do! We also went to Coit Tower and got an amazing view of the city, quite a mission to get up to the top though as its high up and as you all know, this place isn’t flat! Anyway, we also visited Lombard Street which is crazy. Whoever built it must have been on drugs as it’s just the weirdest street you will ever see, just a quarter of a mile maybe of twists! Random.
Next on the list of stuff to do was the Golden Gate
Smmmooooootttthhhhh!!!!
Me at Carnival looking anything but good...i thought the beads looked good at the time! Bridge and that was an amazing day. We hired bikes out and cycled round the bay to the Golden Gate Bridge and went across. This was something that I can’t really describe, to be on a bridge that you only ever see in movies and postcard’s was awesome, the views weren’t bad either! We went over and then down to a little town called Sausalito which was a really sweet little town. We had some food and a drink and chilled out in the sun for a while then caught a ferry back to San Fran.
Today was carnival day! We were lucky that we were in town when the carnival was on and so decided to get up early…ish and head down to the Mission area of town (mainly Latino) to see what was going on. Well, the actual parade wasn’t until the Sunday and today (Saturday) was mainly dedicated to live music and a market type atmosphere with loads of food being cooked and random crafts and stuff being sold. Really busy as well, and hot! San Fran was so hot when we were there and that made it even better! Anyway, the day was great, we
were with a few other guys…Jeremy (the biggest ladies man I have ever met and that’s saying something seeing as I have witnessed the Casanova known as David Nevick in action..!! haha sorry dude!), Charlie, Rob, Garret and Fran. Amongst the nationalities were Irish, Aussie and American! We drank a bit and took in the atmosphere then got on a bus for free (Jeremy had some kind of skill when asking for stuff!) and headed to Haight Ashbury which is the area made famous by hippies back in the 60’s. It retains a lot of that charm today, random dudes everywhere. We went to the Golden Gate Park and chilled out for a bit…! Good day.
On our last day we got up early and headed off to get a good spot for the carnival parade. We got a great spot which unfortunately was also in the sunshine which destroyed us! The parade was amazing, really lucky to see it, the streets were lined with thousands of people and everyone was having a good time! We were with Rob and Garret again but also with two girls we had met (from the states and aus) called Marcy and Fiona.
The view sitting on "Hippy Hill'
Loads of people just playing in the Golden Gate Park on different and weird instruments! We went to Haight Ashbury again in the afternoon and ate. We also checked out Amoeba Records which has to be one of the biggest record stores I have ever been in! Picked up a new Soulwax cd which I didn’t have! The end of the day was fantastic, we went to the park again but this time walked a bit further in and checked out the Japanese Tea Garden after playing a bit of Frisbee! We also spent ages sitting on the grass at ‘Hippy Hill’ with hundreds of other people watching this really random collection of people playing bongo’s, guitars, sitars, keyboards, full drum kits, shakers, tambourines…..any kind of instrument basically…amazing to watch and listen to, hypnotic really! We also walked past an area which had load’s of people roller-skating to music! A roller-disco!! Crazy. Well the day was rounded off with a trip to a very nice, but windy, beach. Perfect end to a perfect day. Cheers to everyone we met (you know who you are!) who made San Francisco without a shadow of a doubt our favorite city in the USA, great place.
Just walking around the different boroughs was great in itself, cafes, bars
and culture everywhere. The steep streets (stupidly steep!), the great waterfront views and fantastic company amongst much else made it a superb experience.
In Hollywood at the moment (was within touching distance of Robin Williams today-so cool!) and leaving for Fiji tomorrow so looking forward to that. Anyway, hope to post this before we fly tonight..........i didn't because im now in New Zealand having spent an awesome 16 days in Fiji! Im so behind with all these blogs but don't worry, all will be done soon!
Oh yeah, seen the England games, i'll explain how random those screenings have been in my Fiji blog...stay tuned. Also on the subject of Sport, iv'e just spent a few days franticaly trying to get some Ashes tickets and i managed to get some for Perth and Melbourne but not on Boxing Day so im a bit gutted about that but all's well that ends well.
Peace and love
Thommo
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Guy Stapleford
non-member comment
lookin gangsta
liking the fact that the bournemouth graduation hoody is getting paraded in your travels mate!!! looking a bit gangsta with the hat and beads tho! just remember the rules of the game and life is sweet! laters