San Francisco - Home of the crazies.

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San Francisco - Friday 21st September to Wednesday 26th September.

We left Yosemite after another HUGE buffet breakfast, the old waistlines are starting to expand a little now - we’re ready for some more street pounding in the cities to keep in trim. The road out of the valley was closed due to a huge landslide. The whole hillside had collapsed, completely covering the road for about 200 yards, and pretty much damming the whole river as well. Rather than try and clear it up and shore up the hillside, they built a bridge either side of the blockage, and a new road on the other side of the valley bank to go around it.

It was a pretty easy, uneventful drive of about 200 miles. We left the cold mountains of Yosemite and drove through the plains and rolling hills of California. We drove through miles of dead straight road, undulating through what must have been thousands of square miles of olive, grape and apple farms.

We stopped at Redwood Park, about 20 miles short of San Francisco for our lunch but got swamped by flies as soon as we opened the car door. We had great views over the bay though as we were up on the opposite side of San Francisco, before entering the Bay Bridge.

We managed to do the 600 miles from Vegas to San Francisco with no wrong turns, until we got within three blocks of the hotel! We missed one of the streets and had to go around again, driving in a city that is made up of a simple grid, where all roads are one-way, seems straight forward in principle - but when those streets can be 4 lanes wide, and you have one block to decide where you are, and where you’re going, and then have to get across the four lanes to get to the right lane for turning, all the while dodging people and trams - it becomes slightly stressful. Still, we made it without too much hassle.

The hotel is superb with a very nice room. Free wi-fi in the room, free coffee and cookies 24 hours a day! We’re one block up from Union Square, it’s a great location - handy for shops and eateries, and a good base to set out from walking each day.

We headed straight out to find an outdoor shop as we needed a few more things for Peru. We found one in on the internet and set off for it. As we seem to have done a few times since we have been in the USA, we ended up taking the route through the wrong parts of town - there were a lot of undesirables lurking on street corners, and very few ‘tourists’ around. A good job I’m usually pretty scruffy, so didn’t attract too much attention. We were eager to make it back to our own ‘hood’ before dark though.

Saturday we checked out Chinatown - there were street markets all along the road, the place was mobbed. We walked up to Coit Tower which offers some great views over the bay area. The weather has not been good though, wet and overcast. From there we walked to Lombard Street - seen on many a movie and TV show, it is reportedly the crookedest street in the world.

On to Fishermans Wharf from there for some clam chowder served in a bread bowl at the Boudin bakery. You can watch them baking through the glass windows in the café. They put the fresh bread in baskets and it is conveyed on tracks hung from the ceiling to the café and shop.

We weren’t overly impressed with Fishermans Wharf - it’s pretty much as you would expect a working harbour to look, ( and smell ), like. We definitely made the right choice in staying at the Union Square area of town.

We walked along to Pier 39, which has a resident seal colony. There were hundreds of them, all in fine voice - and smell.

Sunday saw us exploring Japan Town and Pacific Heights, on our way down to the Golden Gate Bridge. Japan Town was disappointing, not much there - just a small Japanese Mall. Pacific Heights is a trendy area, lots of little boutiques and cafes, reminded us a lot of Toorak in Melbourne. The bridge was miles away, and once again the day was overcast and dull. We took a few pictures of it from the marina, and walked back from there. The weather picked up nicely by the time we got back late afternoon.

We went to the cinema on Sunday night to watch Resident Evil Extinction - it was showing in their digital DLP theatre. It was fantastic, way better than a regular film showing - the picture was so bright, sharp and steady, Americans are strange though, whenever the ‘hero’ did something spectacular, or beat up some bad guys, the whole audience would start whooping and clapping??? - They also clapped at the end of the film??? Bizarre. It must be an American thing as they did the same in DC when we went about nine years ago. A couple had brought their two year old kid in to see the film, what a weird pair - who would bring a two year old to see a film about zombies?

Monday was Alcatraz day, we got down to the docks for our 9:30 ferry to the Rock. It was very interesting, we spent most of the morning there. To be honest though - it didn’t seem that bad to me, it’s how I thought all prisons should be, so I was expecting something really shocking for Alcatraz. It’s portrayed as being escape proof, mainly due to the way they hype up the cold swim from the island to San Francisco, yet several times a year they hold a triathlon from there, the record swim is 30 minutes and everyone who enters makes it across - so, it can’t be that bad?

They told us about the escape attempts, and the riots when three guards were killed and the marines had to bomb the place - it was all interesting stuff. After it was closed, native American Indians squatted on there and tried to make it a commune, but the government kicked them out, presumably as it is was too lucrative to turn into a tourist hot-spot instead.

We explored the city a bit more on the afternoon, and caught up on some much needed laundry - my underpants were about to sprout legs and walk out of the hotel! We have pretty much covered the whole city now.

Every city we have been to has had its fair share of homeless people, but San Francisco has them in droves, and they are by far the craziest out of all the homeless we have come across. Too many old hippies who’s brains have been addled by too much pot. It’s really sad to see. They tend to leave you alone, just a quick shake of their empty coffee can, or a quick ‘can you spare a quarter’ usually followed by a God bless you, however - some of them are very vocal, lots of shouting at themselves, or whoever they imagine they are talking too. It’s tough to see such poverty and desperation in a country as rich as America.

We caught up with mum and dad on the webcam on the afternoon, unfortunately the sound didn’t work their end, so we couldn’t hear them - it was good to see them though.

Tuesday - Last day today, had a lazy morning packing before heading to the gym for the first time in ages, ( suffering for it now though ), We have an early start in the morning at 5:30am, so we pretty much just chilled out this afternoon.

We had pre-booked tickets for the theatre tonight - the 'American Conservatory Theatre' companies production of Sweeny Todd - Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The crazies were out in force tonight on the way to the theatre, I got collared by one as we walked along. The guy followed us, staring at my shoes, ( I'm thinking I'm going to lose my shoes here ), he said to me 'bet I can guess where you got em' - he seemed harmless enough, so I played along saying bet you can't. He said, bet you a buck I can guess where you got em', I'm thinking I'm on to a winner, how's an old black dude going to guess I got my boots in Ambleside, so we did some sort of 'boyz 'n' the hood' handshake, and then he excitedly proclaimed - YOU GOT EM ON YOUR FEET!. He got me good, fair and square - so I paid him his buck.

Anyhow, the play was superb. A stripped out cast of only ten actors - who were also the orchestra. They were all on stage the whole time, whoever wasn't singing was playing their instrument. It was a very simple stage with few props and worked very well. We really enjoyed it. You got more immersed with the cast and drawn into the stage by the fact that everything that was going on was all happening at the same time infront of you, the orchestra not being hidden away in a pit.

The nutters were out in force as we came out, it must be a full moon or something - we ran the gauntlet back to the hotel and managed to arrive unscathed. In the five nights we have been here, we have not seen one police car. All the other cities have been crawling with them. Maybe thats why there seem to be more homeless here, because there is no one to move them on out of the sight of the tourists. It's a sad sight.

Well, that wraps up San Francisco - proper travelling starts now, off to Peru in the morning. Up at 5:30am for the 9am flight to LA, then 8 1/2 hour flight to Lima. We will arrive just after midnight.

Not sure how good the internet access wil be in the Andeas, or the Amazon Jungle - so there may not be an update for a while. ( Phew, I hear some of you say ).

Tarra for now.

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Photos

The Bay Bridge.
We came over the Bay Bridge on the way into San Fran.

Chinatown.
The entrance gates to Chinatown.

View from Coit Tower.
Looking over San Fran from the hill at Coit Tower.

Steep Streets.
This gives you an idea of how steep some of the streets are!

Lombard Street.
Recognise this one?

Boudin Bakery.
The baskets of bread made their way from the ovens to the shop and cafe in baskets on the overhead tracks.

Pier 39 Seals.
There were hundreds of selas at Pier 39 - making a racket barking - and they STANK!

Ferry Terminal.
Lots of nice food, and a farmers market inside.