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Published: August 5th 2008
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City Exploration
Following a slightly longer lie in than normal, we enjoyed a free breakfast at the hostel (never get tired of those bagels) and then headed to the Union Square Information booth to buy our travel pass for the next three days and also to see if there was any special offers on. The travel pass entitled us to unlimited travel on any mode of transport around the city, giving us the freedom to travel slightly further out of the centre of town taking in all the sights.
We headed down to Market Street to catch the tram out to Castro, the prominent gay district, where we caught a bus up to the Twin Peaks for a fantastic 360 degree view of the city. Fortunately the infamous San Francisco fog had lifted by the time we got to the top, allowing us to see the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance as well as many other city landmarks.
Following the Twin Peaks, we decided to head over to the Golden Gate Bridge itself for a closer look, however due to our location this involved 3 different modes of transport, rush hour and a mass of tourists. Finally arriving
Golden Gate Bridge 2
The postcard shot. Our camera never picked up the billions of tourists who were right beside us thankfully. at the Golden Gate Bridge around 5pm, there was still a mass of tourists in the area. We managed to get a few pictures before standing in another long queue for the bus back into town. We enjoyed dinner at one of the many restaurants at the Wharf before heading to the Actors Theatre of San Francisco to enjoy the performance "Buried Child", a Pulitzer prize winning play by prominent American playwright Sam Shepard, which we had picked up earlier in the day for half price.
Day of Shopping
Following a busy day of sight seeing around the city, we decided to spend Sunday in the close proximity to the hostel. We spent the day walking around the many shops that this city had to offer. Prices in America are very tempting at the moment due to the weak dollar (although they do add tax when they're ringing the prices up), not to mention the vast array of mid season sales. I was in my element, especially in one of the biggest shoe shops that I have ever seen in my life.
Despite the bargains that were on offer to us, we were really good, mainly due
Crookedest Street
Except it's not the worst in the city, but it's the most famous though. to the restricted availability of space in our rucksacks, which are complete packed. We did pick up a couple of pairs of Levi jeans for a bargain price and Gary couldn't resist a few CD's, which he assured me he has been wanting for a while and are hard to find in the UK!! I believe him.
To give our legs a rest, we headed to a local Indian for some cheap buffet food, however we were both very disappointed in both the food and the service, so looks like we will need to have a good Indian Meal when we get back home. The Koh-I-Noor awaits...
Sunday night was spent in an internet cafe, which believe it or not is extremely hard to find in America, in order to catch up on our blog. The lack of internet cafes is possibly due to the fact that most people carry their laptops around with them, with most places offering free Wi-Fi to accommodate them.
City Walking Tour, Hard Rock Cafe and Tram Tour
Our last full day in San Francisco was spent exploring the city by foot. We left the hostel and headed into Chinatown, exploring
the streets and small lanes which were occupied by numerous shops offering herbal medicine and chinese/local bric-a-brac. We passed various points of interest on our way through Chinatown including the oldest chinese temple in the city as well as the site formally known as one of the most notorious brothels in San Fransisco. Due to the earthquake in 1906, which destroyed most of the city, the building was destroyed and now the area is occupied by a small park. Many homeless people now find shelter in this area.
Afterwards, we made our way through the various streets of Chinatown, visiting the oldest temple in the area and going down the alleyways where films such as Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom were filmed as well as popping into some of the shops. We eventually ended up at Kerouac Alley, a street famous for many an alcoholic beat writer to find himself passed out on. It was probably also no coincidence that it was located near the opium dens either. The alley was inscribed with many quotes from different writers including Kerouac (I never did finish On The Road) and others such as William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. This
took us out into a small bookstore with a bohemian focus which we browsed briefly. We eventually ended up heading up yet another San Francisco hill and going to Coit Tower, although we never ended up going up it.
Afterwards, we took a jaunt down some more hills, passed the Levi museum (this was his hometown) and back onto the trusty Esplanade where we ended up giving the Hard Rock Cafe our custom; although we'd seen loads on our travels, this would be our first experience. The guitars and music memorabilia were pretty cool, but the food was a tad overpriced for what it was, but still worth a wee look. We left stuffed to the gills and wandered up the main esplanade area before arriving at the cable car stop. It's a cliched tourist thing, but we had to experience the famous cable cars, which do differ from the trams we got the other day.
After waiting in the queue for a while, we hopped on and managed to get positions literally holding onto the sides. At least now we know what it's like to travel by an Indian train. It was pretty slow though and we
View Over City
Great day for it too. hopped out at the "Crookedest Street", which is basically that flowery, cascading street that's in all the films set in the city. Ideal for car chases, but it isn't actually the crookedest (is that a real word?) in the city. Catching the tram again, it took us over all the hills (including Nob Hill) and back to near Union Square, where we hopped off to do some last minute shopping. The cable car is undoubtedly a tourist trap, but it was still a lot of fun.
Upon our return to the hostel, we didn't get up to much except pack our bags and do some last minute preparations for the big city we were heading to the following morning...The Big Apple. It's a hell of a town.
San Francisco was a great city, but we did have one last minute problem. Although this had been the nicest hostel of our travels, on our last night Emma was savagely attacked by bed bugs. We thought we'd seen the last of those critters, but it seems one of our esteemed traveller roommates must have decided to give them a tour of our room. Emma was COVERED with little bites, which
Golden Gate Bridge
The fog there doesn't clear up until later afternoon normally. itched for a long time after. This also presented us with a worry with extraditing them to New York. After taking precautionary measures, we awoke and caught the bus the next morning to the airport and boarded our flight...
Time would tell if we had brought them with us...
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