Blogs from North Beach, San Francisco, California, United States, North America - page 15

Hi All After being on the road for 3 weeks, we thought it was about time we send an update. Also - confession time - having tired of constantly searching for Internet cafes and then desperately trying to beat the clock as our precious credit dripped away, we’ve treated ourselves to a laptop (Rod added it to the “outside the budget” category :o), and so we can finally let you have some pics of our adventures (Click here for all of the photos) and write a ‘War & Peace‘ update... It’s been a hectic 3 weeks and Whistler seems like a long time ago - as well as a long way away…we drove 1850 miles between Seattle and San Francisco…and another 400 miles between San Francisco and Santa Barbara, where we are at the moment. After ... read more

'If you're going to San Francisco...' Okay.... so after a gruelling ten hour flight, feeling hung over (still), the excitment kicked in, our travelling escapade beginns..proper mind! San Francisco is a vibrant city, block after block of cafes, trendy sushi bars, jazz/blues joints, funky restaurants, a massive gay/lesbo society, strip clubs, fast food (everywhere), and Amercians! On fist impressions we like this place! Our hostel is called Green Tortiose and is situated right in the red light zone..oh yes..start as we mean to go on! It's a crazy place, with a massive common room/bar/LOUD music and wierd people!! Many of the other travellers were Amercian, they also thought that San Fran is possibly the coolest place in America! Round the corner is China town..with the biggest Chinese population in the US, cheap grub, bustling streets, definately ... read more

Another crazy full day in San Francisco....I could get used to these bagels with cream cheese and jam for breakfast, yum! We rounded out our diet for the day with pizza for lunch, leftover chinese takeaways for dinner and irish coffee for dessert....wow tomorrow its salad and water for me! Having said that, I think we can be excused. We spent over 5 hours solidly walking and made further use of San Francisco's fantastic bus network, which we found gets a little more interesting on Sundays. Alright I'll give you some chronological order here, much as I enjoy recounting my life in all its culinarily ordered glory. After a semi quiet night in the Mission area, in a divine little bar Ju will tell you more about (although quiet is relative...most bars close here at 2 ... read more

After a lazy start to the day on Friday 17th (yes, had a bit of a night out on the 16th) we jumped in a car with a group of other travellers from our hostel and took a trip to Muir Woods, an hour north of San Francisco. This is one of the last pockets of Redwoods (Sequioas) in the State, and the only one in the Bay Area. It was a beautiful sunny day, the air was very crisp and clear, and we were walking in a stand of trees over a thousand years old. We also took a side trip to Muir Beach, just south of the woods, and looked out over the Pacific Ocean from a different perspective. it was strange to think of home lying so far away, but still connected by ... read more

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 ... read more