On our first day as real life tourists...

---

And thus has our first day in the U S of A progressed.

Well, ok. Before that. Following fond farewells at the airport - from our families and from the toilet at our gate (seriously, it thanked us and asked us to come again, has the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation started shipping toilets to Earth now?) they announced that random bag checks would take place while boarding. Juliet tried for the triple, having already been stopped at two out of two check points, but this time was allowed through.

Jenny seriously doesn't recommend sitting next to smelly people on the plane (and I don't mean Ju!) but inflight entertainment was otherwise passable. Juliet discovered that she is amongst those who are physically incapable of sleeping on planes, and threw intermittent bleary and jealous looks at sleeping Jenny's contented be-masked visage. Jenny was oblivious. Mostly. In between movies at least. (At least 30 movies to choose from! Juliet found her sleepless hours at least passed usefully!)

We were mightily impressed by the charming young US customs officer who checked that we weren't international money launderers, or bringing in illegal quantities of Marmite, and apologised profusely for the inconvenience. San Francisco airport is alllllright.

Following this promising arrival, we decided to brave the fates, take our destinies into our own hands and catch public transport into the city centre to find our hostel. The kind man at the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station gave us comprehensive instructions for catching our train but failed to mention the 98 degree slope when he told us we'd have to walk 'up' Montgomery Street. 4 sore legs and 2 tired backs later we arrived at our hostel room and progressed onto more important things.....pizza! $3.50 for pizza and a soda can't be bad, especially when the slice of pizza is the size of a dinner plate. But anyway back to the man at the BART station....

To tip or not to tip?
So ok, we cleverly got the hang of subtley leaving a couple of dollars for the waitress after lunch. But the guy at the station? And the receptionist at our hostel? Are they mortally wounded that we didn't make with the cash? And more to the point, how exactly do you go about handing someone cash without feeling like a 70's gangsta bribing a cop? We are genuinely wondering, and we can't exactly ask the receptionist. Suggestions are more than welcome. In the meantime, we're not coming back here in the immediate future so we'll just pretend we're ignorant of tipping culture altogether, at risk of sour looks. So far mightily impressed with American customer service, however. Despite the surrealism of the fact that everyone has American accents!!

So we walked around the city for a lovely couple of hours. The sun was shining, the Americans were singing, our calves were thoroughly exercised and Alcatraz was glowing with romantic ambiance beneath the American flag billowing gracefully from the top of Telegraph Hill. Ooops apologies for overuse of adjectives, but it was just that kind of afternoon. Fuelled by our splendiferous pizza slices we cavorted around the city like gleeful school children who haven't slept for 36 hours (apart from jenny, a little).

Ju says: Our Hostel has The Onion! Weekly!
Jenny says: Smile and nod

Alright so back for superlong hot showers (bliss!) and Mexican dinner for free! Yum! And we got chatting to some lovely Scootish lads and lasses who filled us in on the best places to go clubbing in London and how to scam car rego's in the US (don't worry mums and dads, we won't!!), along with recommendations to permanently relocate to Glasgow and to queue for at least 45 minutes outside of anywhere before its worth actually going into. This is a strange idea to us but we make allowances for cultural differences.

Having tired our jetlagged selves out, we will now sleep and plan to visit the modern art museum tomorrow and find more $3.50 meals to recommend to you.

Love,
Jenny and Ju

---

Photos

Pizza!
We were majorly impressed with the pizza slices at Pizzelle...although we were starving by this point so any food would have looked like heaven on a plate to us.

Parking In San Francisco
While we were charmed by everything we saw, I am sure the locals thought we were utterly strange for photographing perfectly normal street parking (!)

Coit Tower
We climbed to the top of Telegraph Hill (more stairs!) to see Coit Tower. Christopher Columbus is standing in front there, he has a great view of the Bay - with Alcatraz in the middle, a bridge on each side, and the Stars and Stripes whipping in the wind...

Christopher Columbus' view of the harbour
In which we admire a billowing US flag (these are all over the place so will probably inadvertantly feature whether we photograph them or not) fluttering over Alcatraz in the distance.

Comments

[Gareth]

Sounds fun :)
Glad you made it safely and busying yourselves already. England is freezing even if it's suppose to be Spring. Should warm up by the time you get here though. Will check back again. These are a great laugh.

[Shannon]

OMG - we are soooo BAD
I am soooo sorry Ju for not coming and seeing you last weekend. We kinda put it off until Monday, thinking we could pop in after work but then I got the flu! It's great to hear that you are already taking in the sights and enjoying yourselves. I have no idea what The Onion is but, as Jenny appears to be the calm one of the pair, I'll do as she suggests and smile and nod. Have a good sleep and thanks for the cool update.

[Kevin aka Skerzug]

Tips
Tipping is a custom that dates back to the Civil War in the USA. I don't remember exactly why but that is about the time of its origin. Tips on Tipping: at restaurants tip your server by paying extra and not getting the change back or getting change and leave a few dollars behind, they don't get payed much so its expected. Bartenders, depends on thier personalitied, they usually bring home a paycheck so tips are iceing on the cake, they earn it with thier personalities. Taxi cab drivers... give em something unless they are assholes or scary. Don't hire a taxi cab driver for the day in the USA. People handing out info like at the BART... up to you but probly not expected. Front Desk at hotels, my job at home, don't expect it and will more than likly try to refuse it out of politness. I'd say only tip them if they are going out of thier way to make your day better. Now for Hotels when you check out leave something for the Housekeeper when they come and clean your room, but only when you check out, if they take money while you are still there they are stealing. But mostly restaurants are the only "excpeted" tips you will encounter, that and Taxi Drivers but be critical there. And if you don't want to feel like a gangster just shake thier hand and say thanks with some money in your hand, or if you hand them something do it at the same time. See you two later!

[Monskinnah]

Tipping waitresses is a given (My thoughts are: if they have to clear my plates I should leave em something for it). The guy at the station: no Cabbies:...depends on their attitude. I'm half Italian...and we would tip the President if he offered us a cookie at the White House, but ya do have to limit yourself when traveling. Mons

[Keller (Jarvis)]

tipping
Dont tip those fools shit. be cheap. wait people 15-20% of the check. bartenders, $1 per drink and toss a coupla bucks at cabbies and thats about it.

[Mark]

Tipping
$2-$5 for cabbies up to $30 ride should cover most of your little trips. 15-20% of the bill at any restaurant, weather it's a diner or a nice steakhouse, servers make a special minimum wage, in Illinois, last I heard it was just over $3 an hour. Bartenders, I usually go with $1 a drink also, they are typically living off of tips as much as servers. A few bucks for the hotel cleaning crew is a nice gesture as well, or anyone who handles your baggage for you, at the airport, cabdrivers, etc. That should about cover most of the situations you find yourselves in. Oh yeah... the bathroom attendants at hot nightclubs! You tip them a buck or so also! That one's annoying!

[lcw]

Enjoy
Tipping does't cpme nturally to us, but some people eg in restaurants are said to be really dependent on them. Ask the locals. Don't know when i'll next have a terminl to sit at, off to Turkey in 1 hour!

[Matt]

Tipping
I say it depends on the drink. I know a bartender that makes a ridiculous key lime martini, one taste and you'll be throwing your money at him!

[Amy]

I second the tipping of restaurant people - many of them earn about $2 per hour and have to supplement that with tips in order to survive. You're supposed to tip 15-20% of your total bill unless they are really terrible. And tip anyone else who is polite. And taxi drivers, because otherwise they might yell at you. Onion = YAY :D

[Cat]

Tipping...
The general rule for tipping in the US is "double the tax". Because they add on the tax on top of the quoted price (because the tax rates are different in all the states) - making a $5.99 subway meal something like $6.47 or some such ridiculous amount - just double that approximately and you'll be sweet. I only tipped in restaurants (not places like McDs etc though - only where you were brought food) and usually would just let the taxi driver keep the change from the nearest note to the fare. As far as I know I didn't get any snarky comments as I walked away... =)