!! Happy New Years !!

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As they say here, we were up early for breakfast and out by 9am, it was glorious day, about 20 degrees, we had planned to do loads today and first on the agenda was Lombard Street, "The crookedest street in USA" as it markets itself, you've seen in on the telly, a windy street of right angles that cars que up to drive down. The walk up to it is mental, we felt like we were going to fall backwards it was that steep. The street itself is small, and didn't look as impresive as I remember on TV, there were no plants or that on it with it being winter so I didn't look as big as I though it would, crowds of cars waiting to drive down it though, just one one of those things you have to see I guess.

After that we walked down the other side and got on a bus to the Golden Gate Bridge, the buses are $1.25 and the ticket is valid for three hours, and they run completey to time which is a novelty in itself for us.

It was about a 10 minute ride and you can see the bridge from pretty far away, it's in San Francisco's north point and is the bridge over to Stanford and UCAL universities amongst other places, college life here is mental, they hate each other like we do to football teams, one wears red the other blue, Stanford gear is made by Nike and UCAL by Reebok and the gear is sold in sports shops in the town and that, very bizarre.

Anyway we got off at the North side of the bridge and walked over it, the bridge itself isn't as impressive as the Forth Bridge and could do with a lick of paint but the views from the middle more that make up for it, the hills to the right, San Francisco to the left and Alcatraz right in front of you, it might have been a wee bit of a swin to shore after all but I still think I could do it, will defo confirm on Monday when we visit the prison.

Point of interest, the bridge is actually painted orange, not red as I'd always thought, blends in with the rust.

We walked back across to the bus stop then jumped on the bus to Golden Gate park it's meant to be a 10 minute ride away but we got on the bus in the wrong direction and it ended up taking us 30 mins, got to see more of the city though so not a bad thing.

The park is huge and we walked though the middle of it, loads of Arboretums and Tea Gardens and stuff but it was after 2pm and we were real hungry, the next point on our agenda was Haight-Ashbury, the hippy area, this is where peacefull protest and flower power were born, it hasn't changed much from the 60's and there loads of stoners who I'm sure still think it is '67 and the summer of love and that, loads of shops selling hippy clothes and smoking equipment, we got some lunch then another bus into town.

It was getting near 4pm and Scottish New Year so we searched for a decent pub, ended up back near our Hostel and at 16:05 got our first beer of the day, we'd missed the bells by 5 minutes but that's par for the course for me in Edinburgh anyway, Fiona was on the Bloody Mary's next and there sold by the pint, something she would live to regret later that night.............

Dinner was at 7pm in the hostel so at 6.30pm we headed back to get there in time, it was a nice meal, Shepherds Pie with loads of salad and bread, they put a couple or bottles of wine on the table too but we ended up with 6 empty ones by the end of the meal, it was all free and boy did we take advantage of it, there was six of us, Fiona & me, a Japanese dude called Serge or something, Bruno from Brazil and a couple of Aussie chicks, Amber and Jenny, it was all good banter and things got messy.

Fiona was blootered and by 11pm when the conversation turned to Politics and the Bush administration (I've no idea how we got on to this by the way but it tends to happen with beer in America) she turned to the Aussie girls and asked them if they voted for Bush, the silence was genius as we all tried to understand if the Aussies could indeed vote for Bush then Fiona remembered that America and Australia, although they start with the same letter, are in fact different countries.

Much dancing and more drinking continued and I turned into DJ, I'd found a Scottish Country dancing tape but couldn't find a tape player so we just made do with me teaching the room how to Slosh to some rap music, it was a sight to behold but everyone joined in.

Fiona crashed around 1am and I went out to the pub for a bit, the place was crazy loads of people partying on the street but everyone just having a good time back to the hostel and the party was still going, I headed up at 6am and it was still going on, a great day and night but I had a feeling that tomorrow was going to be a write-off.

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Photos

Lombard Street
The Crookedest Street in the world

Golden Gate Bridge
From the North point

Fiona & Andrew
on the Golden Gate bridge, San Francisco and the Bay Bridge in the background.