California Dreaming...

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So I had to head back to Vancouver from Seattle to catch my flight onwards to San Francisco. I was surprised because the bus from Seattle was packed. Then i realised its because today is the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics. The bus over the border took quite a bit longer but the real problem lied in getting into the city. Loads of streets were closed off and full of pedestrians with their Canadian flags out. I managed to find my hostel just round the corner from the BC Stadium and I got in contact with a girl called Brittany who is the best friend of my Canadian friend from Liverpool, Tiffany. She was really lovely and took me to a bar with her friends where we watched the opening ceremony on TV. Naturally there was lots of rediculous chanting, the Yanks were trying to outdo the canadians- battle shouts of "U-S-A!" versus "CA-NA-DA!" went on most of the night.

My flight the next day left at 9am so made an early start to the airport. To fly to San Fran i had to go via LA which if you look at a map is a pretty silly route. I had a 3 hour wait in LA so went for food at a mexican place. I happened to be wearing my "Por qué no te callas?" T-Shirt so all the latinos were talking to me thinking i was spanish. I got into San Fran airport at around 7pm and checked into a cheap Motel, it was cool experiencing this traditional american accomodation, it had the big courtyard area with all the cars in the middle. I had a really good nights sleep and looked into staying in a hostel for the rest of the week so found a place that claimed to have won 2nd best hostel in america in 2009 so went for it. The crazy thing was that when i checked in another guy was checking in and i thought i recognise him... It turns out that it was Tim- one of the Ozzies i shared a room with in Seattle. How crazy is that!? we happened to be checking into the same hostel in the same city at the same time, small world eh?

It was only 1pm at this point so decided to go for a wander and take a ferry cruise across the bay, it was a really sunny warm day so i decided to crack out the shorts. This felt amazing since i hadnt worn shorts since september in portugal. It also made me realise how long its been since ive seen the sun shining. December and January was all dark with snow and ice at home. Whist walking the hilly streets I had some great tunes playing on the Ipod, theres a new band called Chickenfoot who i really like, as well as some classic Van Halen, i think its just cos i really like Sammy Hagar's voice.
Anyways i saw some cool sights like Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge and the resident Sea lions on pier 39.

I got back to the hostel and met up with Tim and we went to a bar to catch up. He's a really top guy from Melbourne whos been travelling for about 4 months around the US. Actually its a funny story cos we met up on the sunday night and the two of us walked out to find a bar and cudnt find anywhere so asked these two blokes walking past if they knew of a bar nearby; they said yea walk 4 blocks that way. So we walked along and saw a bar with a queue of people outside, cool this is gonna be good we thought. As we got closer we realised the queue was all men who were giving each other back rubs in line...oh dear we just walked into the gay district. Then it dawned on me tonight is Valentines day and we're two guys walking and looking for a bar. We talked to a guy round the corner and asked "Are there any bars round here?" and he asked"Gay or straight?" so we said "straight", and in a really camp accent and a flick of the wrist he said "Sorry cant help you there", his leather waistcoat swinging as he turned away. We did eventually walk on to find a sports bar so that worked out okay.

The next day we walked up to Fishermans wharf which is on the north of the city overlooking San Francisco bay. We found a place that claimed you could rent a bike for the day, cycle across the Golden Gate Bridge and catch a ferry back. We thought this wasnt very far so decided to cycle all the way to Muir Woods, a woodland full of redwoods and sequoia trees. We cycled across and the bridge area was completely fogged over by the common sea mist that rolls into the bay, the further we got across the bridge the more it cleared up. We arrived at Sausalito, a town on the other side of the bay, stopped for lunch and continued our ride to the woods. It was very hilly with lots of great views, beautiful houses and massive trees. The ride was pretty hardgoing with about 5km of incline along the 27km ride. We arrived at Muir woods at 5pm and looked round for a while, the trees were huge and many were known to be over 1000 years old. There was a tree trunk piece that had been dated to show that its year of birth was 99AD, it had rings showing important world dates that had happened during the trees lifetime; discovery of America, declaration of independence, etc. The park area closed at 6pm and at this point we were a bit worried thinking that its going to get dark soon and we're miles from home.

Taking back to the road it got dark within an hour and this was along dark mountainous roads, we were walking our bikes up a hill thinking what to do when a car drove by asking if we needed a hand. Luckily he was a cyclist himself and had a bike rack for his car so he drove us to the Golden Gate Bridge which we rode along with San Fran city looking amazing lit up across the water. We called the rental shop who happened to be open late (because across the road there was a domestic dispute lol) and wouldnt charge us extra for late return. There was still a 30minute walk back to the hostel so we stopped for a well deserved beer and pizza in the Little Italy district.

The next morning I got talking to a Brazillian guy in my room who was driving his rented car to a pier in Fishermans wharf to catch a ferry over to Alcatraz, Tim and I jumped at the chance of a free lift and a chance to see this unique place. Alcatraz Island sits a mile and a quarter from the city, discovered by the spanish and named after the pelicans they found living there (Isla de los Alcatraces). It was first used as a place of sea defense, then the military built a base and from there it became a military prison. In 1932 a new cellblock was built on top of the Island to become the infamous federal state penitentiary housing famous inmates such as Al Capone, "Machine Gun" Kelly, Robert "The Birdman" Stroud, Sean Connery and Clint Eastwood :p

Its quite impressive that the 12 acre island has its own power station, crop fields and water tower so can sustain itself. In the 29 years it served as a prison 36 prisoners attempted escape all but 5 were recaptured, these five are still unaccounted for. Apparently the prison led all of its prisoners to fantisise escape because of the Island being just a mile and a quarter from the city. On a windy day it was said that the inmates could hear the sound of people laughing, the ring of the cable car bells and the smell coming from the chocolate factory; freedom held just out of reach. Escape was made very difficult by the strict prison guards and prison structure but mostly by the icy and strong current waters surrounding the Island. Although there was never any evidence the bay was inhabited by man-eating sharks the guards often told new inmates that they had captured a great white and cut off one of its fins so could only swim in circles around the island, they nicknamed him "Lefty".

There were some elaborate escape attempts, the most famous one being two brothers who dug a hole in their cell with spoons and covered it with a fake grate to cover it up, they made fake heads out of the loose cement and climbed up the maintainence shaft behind the cell to the roof where they made a raft out of supplies stolen whilst doing various jobs, one night they put it all into operation and used the raft to sail away into the night. The raft was recovered the following day but with no evidence of their bodies. There have been recent rumours that they are still knocking about in South America and are planning to make a public reappearence.

According to the federal prisons service Alcatraz was inescapable and the perfect place to house the countries most dangerous criminals during the time of gangsters and mobsters. It was closed in 1963 due to high operating costs. The day i visited, an old prison guard who had served during the 1950's was signing books and answering questions.

Since its closure it was captured by native american Indians for 19 months who claimed it as Indian land (hence the sign) and thought it was apt that people entering the city would realise the true history of the nation. Nowadays Alcatraz island, as well as being a tourist attraction, is part of the national park with many protected breeds of birds and plant life living on the island.

The following day I found a leaflet offering a Segway tour of the city. Having always wanted to have a go on one of these innovative machines i signed up. It was great fun and would thoughorly recommend it, they respond to the slightest shift in weight. The guide took us to some beautiful buildings that were once an art gallery but now form part of a park (see pic).

It was such a nice clear day where you could see all the way accross the bay. So i called tim afterwards and we climbed Coit Tower for a panoramic view of the city. On the way home we walked along Lombard street which is "The windiest street in the world". We walked through the massive Chinatown on the way home and took a tram back to the hostel. They are such a great way of getting around, old and ricketty with squeeky brakes but really good fun. The funny thing is that because they run on tracks along the road you have to wait for cars to parallel park and get out of the way before you can move off. The driver has a lever to grip the underlying cable up hills and to apply the brakes down hills.

On thursday we walked through town to a region called Mission that was famous for its murals and Latino district. The fascinating thing I found about San Francisco was the varying regions of the city you can walk through; Mission is like walking throught a city in Mexico, China Town has all the signs, smells and goods you would find in the East, and North Beach is exactly like a district of Rome. The vast variety of people make all this possible.

Thursday night the hostel put on a bar crawl hosted by a crazy guy from Philladelphia. It was mostly Ozzies on this night out so lots of drinking, so much so that Tim walked up to a barstool and completely stacked it taking 3 stools with him! I did meet a hot girl from Texas who wouldnt believe me that i was English, I teased her for ages before bringing out my driving license to prove it. Apparently she gets approached loads by yanks pretending to be the sophisticated englishman. The other great thing about that night was that I was bought a vodka and orange juice and the juice was freshly squeezed and tasted amazing.

The following day i was feeling a bit rough so very slowly ambled to the Cable Car museum which housed all of the working cables, gears and generators being powered over the city which had been running since they were rebuilt in the 1980's copying their original design which was made, i believe, a few years after the city was rebuilt following the devastation caused by the 1906 earthquake.

Back at the hostel that night i was playing pool with Tim when we met a guy from Alabama. I've always been fascinated by the southern states so it was great talking to him. While we were playing pool, he was sitting on the sofa when this crazy middle aged chinese woman came up to him and was talking endlessly about how she was an amazing psychic and had come to San Fran on her tour of the country to spread her magical powers. It was cringing to watch her going on about it so i quickly finished the game and invited him out to dinner to save him; we went for an amazing Thai dinner down the road. We returned to pool later and I met an guy from Buenos Aires and a stunning girl from Brazil. They were talking to each other in Portunol (a mixture of spanish and portuguese) which was great to listen to, I tried joining in but mostly spoke spanish with the odd portuguese word, they seemed to understand.

The next day was my last in San Francisco, Tim left the same morning on an early bus to LA but my flight wasnt til 7pm. I decided to go to a nearby cinema to watch Shutter Island, the new Scorcese film with Leonardo DiCaprio. It was a brilliant film, i dunno when its out in the UK but you should definitely go see it.
My flight to Fiji is again via LA so its 2hrs to LA, a 2 hour stopover and an 11hr flight to Fiji. Im crossing the date line so am effectively losing a day. San Fran has been a great city to visit, I thoroughly enjoyed it but cant wait for Fiji 😊

Until next time....Chris

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Photos

Alcatraz
Power station on the left, water tower in the middle, Cellblock on top

The Oakland Bay bridge
Although a year older than the golden gate, nowhere near as famous