San Francisco - Welcome Change


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Published: July 23rd 2008
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Waking-up in San Francisco you could feel the difference, how to describe it?.

I searched for a single word, I found effervescent..

- Adjective
1. effervescing; bubbling.
2. vivacious; gay*; lively; sparkling.

No, San Francisco Bay is not filled with soda water. It's more that there's a tingle in the air from the omnipresent mist that rolls in. It mixes with the culture of this place. LA is sterile, San Francisco (SF) is alive. We got off the plane late at night after a short flight up the coast with Alaskan Air. The tatty sensation of LAX was smartly replaced by the warm, hospitality of the crew aboard. As we flew into SF we caught a glimpse of some of the incredibly long bridges that go over the bay. The airport was stylish and modern but we knew this as Michelle had stopped-over here a couple of years back. The BART system (Subway) we caught into town was straight out of Futurama. Ten minutes later we were in the Civic Centre.

Up a couple of flights we met our first homeless people who were milling round panhandling. We splashed-out on a cab ride to get us safely to our hotel. The driver was a pony-tailed smoker who without prompting drove very fast and told us exactly what he thought of the US healthcare system as well as we got out on the wrong side of the BART station and were lucky to get a cab.
The fare was amazingly low but it turned-out we were only a couple of blocks from the Hotel. Our driver's last words were 'Oh you're staying at the HI, that USED to be a great hotel'.

He was right though, it used to be a hotel but was now a backpackers hostel. By this time it was 11pm. I'm new to travelling and lack of sleep combined with slight agrophobia plus aggravation equals bad Simon. The staff at the hostel were friendly and helpful, which defused my badness. The next few days were tough for Michelle and I had to apologise for my meaness. Sorry Michelle. We worked it out and accepted that sooner or later both of us need time-out. Living together is one thing, but living and travelling together is tougher.
You have to make it work because you're thousands of miles from your friends and family and the best friend you've got is right next to you.

Travelling to a new city is a bit like teleporting. After travelling down night's black hole you walk out the door into a new morning with new surroundings.
Ellis St, downtown SF takes you straight into town centre. However, you have a gauntlet of homeless people to run. Like many streets in downtown there's a strong whiff of urine to hurry you along if you weren't hurrying already. The walk isn't dull & boring. There's a vibe, a nervous energy of sorts as you pass shuttered shops, fortified house entrances and beat-up cars. SF has a lot of homeless people and some I would say like a bit of attention. Like the catman who loudly declared "get out of the way, I'm coming through" as he trudged through the throngs with a ghetto chic live cat stole draped over his shoulders.

From the town centre the tourist attractions radiate out along the transport routes. We bought city passes ($54.00 each) for the week we stayed. They get you unlimited travel on the all the public transport except BART and the iconic cablecars. If you want to catch a cablecar beware. Go early in the day or get stuck in a 1 hour queue which gives you ample time to be shaken-down by the homeless and the god-botherers circling the milling hordes of tourists. Even the kindest of persons will become a little hardened towards the homeless here. You could give out money all day to them and it would never be enough, so do it once and do it nicely then be done.

SF has a profusion of Museums to visit. In the citypass we bought you can get into about 6 for a heavy discount if not free.
The Legion of Honour up near Golden Gate park was a delight. The suitably grandiose title had nothing to do with Beau Geste but everything to do with fine art and sculpture. The crowd was minimal (something to do with the 20 minute bus ride from town) and the Museum was on the smallish side.This is a good thing. No matter how determined you are to absorb every detail, sooner or later every exhibit starts to look the same with the bigger museums. The aching in your feet also becomes a bigger attraction eventually. A good exhibit has good seating.

The Legion of Honour pools it's collection with the de Young gallery in Golden Gate Park. We went there next. It has a modern slant as opposed to the Legion of Honour's classical stance. The floorspace is larger too, making for a lot more walking, a lot more sitting.
Our sense of time by now was badly distorted. Fly from winter on standard time to a summer on daylight savings with a 6 hour time change, walk around all day. Think it's 1pm, glance at your watch and find out it's 6pm. I would have loved to explore Golden Gate park but time and the weather conspires against us.

San Francisco's weather is more a patchwork of moods. One part of town can be sunny and inviting, go 2 blocks away and it is bitter and windy. We found this out on the nautically themed day at Fisherman's Wharf. Alcatraz didn't happen as in July/August it's booked-out a week in advance. The closest we got was 100 metres off the shoreline on a tour boat (free with the citypass). The boat ride was pleasant with earplugs. Without plugs you had the pleasure of listening to McDialogue delivered with a faux mariner accent.
You ride out to under Golden Gate Bridge and back via Alcatraz. The Golden Gate is a stupendous and captivating landmark.
The towers were fog-bound which added to the moment.

Fisherman's wharf where the boat trip began and ended has good seafood. We ate there twice, the first time in a restaurant eating Clam Chowder out of a sourdough bread bowl. The second meal, this time Calamari, had to be repeated. I got it from a stall and brought it over to eat and we got mugged - by a seagull! I put down the food to get something out of my pocket. A gray, rustling blur blew in and Michelle shrieked. I turned back and our Calamari was being hungrily shared amongst 7 or 8 birds. 1.2 seconds off guard by my reckoning. At least we had room for Ben & Jerrys which makes Haagen Das look like Tip Top.
I wondered if they had cyanide flavour for the gulls?

The weather prompted a trip to the stores to get windbreakers, thanks to The North Face. This Democrat town had sales on everywhere thanks to the actions of a Republican government but no one seemed to mind. To get out of town we hired another car. We'd figured out the GPS and drove up to Muir Woods over the bridge and walked amongst the Redwoods. It was tranquil. Later, we drove down to Tiburon which was as pretty as photos I've seen of Portofino. The day before we'd hired a tandem bike and cycled the Golden Gate then free wheeled down to Sausalito which wasn't as pretty and was a predictable tourist trap. The highlight was standing in the queue for the ferry back to Fishermans Wharf. We had another comparitive benefits of destinations talk with American tourists this time. All the hippies had left SF since 'Bob' had lived here in the sixties. #

I feel like I understand the British now. All those stories about them needing an english breakfast everywhere they travel and the whinging and moaning that goes with it. It's coffee that does it for me. American coffee is rubbish, also they have to serve 'creamer' with every cup of their dogwater filter coffee. 'Creamer' is the margarine of dairy products. Why???
The solution lies at Trieste Cafe in North Beach. North Beach is nowhere near the beach we should point out. The place was cramped and filled with aging Beatniks who were impatient for the Jazz players to start. The counter staff detected my non americaness and asked me if I'd like a flat white! It was great. Their pizza was good too. We haven't had bad pizza yet.
City Lights bookstore a block away from Cafe Trieste had a wide, considerable selection of books to buy. You could spend thousands here. It's somewhat of icon due to Kerouac and Ginsberg's patronage in the fifties.

Our last day arrived, we had stuff to do and not much time. Coit Tower above North Beach gave us panoramic views of the city we'd just visited. At the base you queue around a mural about the workers of California. San Francisco would probably be the leftiest city in the States, the city commissioned major works of art by the likes of Diego Rivera. We saw the Frida Kahlo exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). The SFMOMA, apart from Frida Kahlo, had us discover Lee Miller. Miller was a model cum photographer whose photos were superb. Her career included time as an American photojournalist in London during the blitz.

That was about it. We left a lot out but the gist is there. If you travel to SF remember this...

* Bring something warm and take it with you everywhere
* There's public WIFI on the green buses!! They're called 'Connected Buses'
* The locals are really friendly and proud of their city - rightly so too!
* Avoid getting shaken-down by the homeless. If you want to give money, do it only once
* Buy a City Pass
* Guard your food at Fisherman's Wharf
* BOOK AHEAD FOR ALCATRAZ















*however, contrary to stereotype San Francisco is not one giant hero parade. We saw no one wearing chaps, not even in Castro.
#I didn't get his name.


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