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The Golden Gate Bridge
It's long, it's red-ish....it's still a bridge though! After our Yosemite Park adventures, we headed west to San Francisco to a hostel based in the heart of Chinatown, which is home to the second largest Chinese community in the States. Walking around the streets, you could totally forget that you were in the USA....everyone was speaking, eating and selling everything chinese! I imagine that this must be what it feels like for a Spaniard to walk around Cuidad Quesada.......We had a great chinese meal there and we were spoilt for choice as there were literally hundreds of restaurants to choose from.
We obviously visited the famous Golden Gate Bridge - what can I say?? It's a big metal bridge, very long, very orange, still a bridge....I think we were missing something! However the Golden Gate Park was amazing - it was a Sunday afternoon and the park was absolutely buzzing with people skating, picnicing and even learning to dance to swing!!! Afterwards we took a walk around Height, the popular hippy hangout which was as colourfully vibrant as the houses which make this city so individual.
Our highlight though was the trip to Alcatraz....We caught a ferry to The Rock which is visable from San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf
San Francisco
The most colourful houses in the world...nearly as colourful as the people who live there! although always through the foggy mist which shrowds this city. First of all we took a guided tour with a ranger, who gave us a really interesting talk about the past 200 years of The Rock. I especially enjoyed the escape stories. They believe that the men who to this day are still wanted must have died in the water as it is freezing - I would like to think that they are living it up somewhere in the sunshine! Afterwards, we took an audio tour which leads you through the prison and encourages you to enter the very cells which housed famous convicts such as Al Capone, The Bird Man and Machine Gun Kelly...the tour gave a very frightening and honest account of life on Alcatraz during this period. What shocked us most was the size of the cells...they were just 5 ft x 7 ft and prisoners would spend up to 23 hours couped up in these tiny holes.
We also met a lady who grew up on The Rock - her father was a prisonwarden, and she has written several books based on her first-hand knowledge.
After our Alcatraz tour, we decided to hit the road
The Rock
The infamous Alcatraz Prison again and joined the scenic Highway 1, which is California's winding costal road. We spent three days crusing along the Big Sur, stopping off at random campsites along the way. Garry's fire-making skills improved immensly and our campfire cooking went gormet. All of the sites were within 30 seconds walk of the beach but unfortunantly the weather just didn't permit sunbathing. We met two guys camping on a site next to us when we reaxhed the outskits of LA, and in true American style, they had a flat-screen TV and a sub-woofer so on our last night of camping, we got to enjoy an outside cinema....
We said goodbye to our car which has served us well and got the train the San Diego...with no plans and nowhere to go, we headed to the nearest hostel and where we deceided to spend just one night on sleep-recouperation and hot showers and then move on.....one week later, we are still at the hostel - having seen very little of the town! We have met so many fantastic people here that we have become a bit grounded - and the more people we meet, the less anybody else seems to do.
Jailhouse Rock
Inside the prison In fact, I have a reputatation for only leaving the hostel to purchase food & beer! As a guy called Jim pointed out (who ended up staying for an extra four days with his friend Rachel), we are beginning to fully appreciate the song 'Hotel California' - you can check out any time you like, but you never can never leave....well said Jim!
Garry's birthday was spent here and a couple of s we met, Fiona and Jo, organized a birthday party for him. It was absolutely crazy...vodka jellies, sangria and even a classy cake...it was messy to say the least.
The four of us have decided that enough is enough and we are going to move to a new hostel tomorrow called the Banana Bungalow - we are all in need of a change of scene and the hostel is in need of a change of guest!
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Big Al
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Great Blog
Good work Webbie, keep 'em coming. Gaz, sorry u missed out on Paris, the crack was good!