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Published: February 24th 2006
I spent 2 nights in San Francisco. Saturday night (Feb. 18/06) was spend touring Fisherman's Warf, which was cool, but a bit too touristy. I did break down and buy yummy clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl for supper though - all the vendors and restaurants had them. Sunday, I hung out with Nat from Australia. We rented bikes and rode along the water to the Golden Gate Bridge. The scenery on the way there was really pretty, but the bridge itself was crowded and loud. The rugged shoreline past the bridge was gorgeous and we attempted to continue our bike tour along here to see Golden Gate Park, but we took a wrong turn and wound up on the disappointing trip back to where we came from on a narrow pathway alongside the bridge highway, having to cross over homeless people's shelters and through mazes of sharp turns and stairs. We were exhausted.
After a lunch in a park, we explored the Ghirardelli chocolate market. I loaded up on goodies for Korea. Next, was our bus trip to Haight Ashbury, the cool, former hippy area of town - real trendy. The bus ride there proved to be the
first exposure to the stong gay culture in the city. Castro (see pic of streetcar), near Haight is the "gay" area and although I didn't have time to wander through there, the homosexual influence could be found throughout the city. When I took the shuttle to the airport Monday morning, we picked up a couple men at a hotel. Making small talk, I asked what brought them to SF. They said they had been at the BEAR conference. Here's me all excited thinking maybe it was some kind of wildlife conference. When I questioned, they hesitated and then explained it was the "big, hairy, homosexual" conference for men. I'm not quite sure how the acronym fits.
Sunday evening, I found a big fancy church to go to in the Italian district. On the walk back to the hostel, I was drawn in by a sidewalk sign flaunting $2 pints of Guinness - couldn't pass that up. Deciding also to eat there, I sat with my Guinness, cheap but delicious Indian food and my journal, just hanging. Perfect ending to a great day.
Other events:
A man waking up my dorm room of 12, yelling, "Where's my f***ing sock?
I'll see you all in court!" I found out in the morning, he was a bit mentally unstable.
On one of my bus adventures, a huge, rough-looking, biker-type guy, whose name could have been Tiny started up a conversation with me. At first confused by the fact that I carried a Nalgene of water around with me and that I was wearing runner-type shoes and sporty clothes but had not been jogging that day. He went on to tell me in great detail how Californian girls have attitude, Canadian girls are cool and that I should be meeting Californian guys. I just sat and smiled, waiting for him to get off.
Monday morning, I departed for Korea!!!
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mathieu
non-member comment
full house
sweet full house picture.