RTW Day 3 - San Francisco

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Today is a mixture of highs and lows. Highs - Alcatraz and a rollercoaster of a tram ride. Lows - drinking Bud with clam and tomato juice and being called a fat arsed bitch by a tramp.

An early start as we are booked on the first boat to Alcatraz and the old man can’t walk too fast. He can’t understand why prisoners would want to escape from prison when the canteen has an all-you-can-eat policy.

Then on to pier 39 to see the sea lions and eat clam chowder for lunch. Finally, a ride to Chinatown on the Hyde Powell cable car. The smell of burning from the brakes on the downhill section is most disconcerting. And that is Essential San Francisco covered.

Dinner tonight is from the supermarket deli. All the staff of 4 (5 if you include the cleaner) are Vietnamese and the speciality spicy chicken smells amazing. Just the matter of checking it doesn’t contain nuts. The assistant can’t understand my question and calls for backup. They all have a go at trying to understand, even the cleaner has a bash. The manager is summonsed and gives me a printout of the ingredients. There are no nuts but numerous weird sounding chemicals. I am beginning to go off the whole idea. The staff gather round, they are keen to find out what my problem was. The manager explains, in English. They understand perfectly. The language barrier was caused by my accent. I buy Beer with clamato to go with dinner. Then it’s back to the hotel to eat chemical chicken, practise my American English and google clamato. Turns out it means clam and tomato. What on earth induced someone to think adding clam and tomato to beer was acceptable behaviour?

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