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Published: January 24th 2006
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Tandem trouble
About to cross the GG After escaping the island of Kauai and its $45 nachos we were psyched to get to San Francisco and check out what it had to offer. None of our traveling party (Linda, Ben, Cookie and myself) had been to San Fran before so we were all keen to explore the place with fresh eyes.
Our time there was taken up primarily with doing the "tourist thing" which proved to be relatively rewarding as far as those types of experiences go. On the first morning we got up and walked from our hostel in Union Square through China Town up to Coit Tower, across to Lombard Street and down to the Tourist trap of Fishermans' Wharf. I was very much struck with how appealing the architecture is in San Fran. All of the houses seem to have a lot more character than they do in many Australian (or US) cities and the whole place (with its rolling hills, crisp, clear winter weather and big harbour) reminded me more of Europe than the States. Lombard street is that crazy, crooked dog-legged street that you've probably seen on postcards from San Fran or on an old episode of Full House (prior to Mary-Kate
Zig Zagged
Lombard Street - mind the tourists. and Ashley's evil world domination). It zig-zags its way up a steep San Fran hill while scores of tourists in hire cars zig-zag their way down the hill at 5 km/h while the person in the passenger's seat (or sometimes the driver) videotapes this feat of automobiling excellence! It was fun standing there watching them go down the street one by one as locals walked past shaking their heads. (I'm reliably informed by a local that no local has ever used that street as it really serves no purpose but to be put on the front of calendars of San Fran).
In further touristic fashion we took an old cable car back from Fishermans' Wharf to the main shopping district of San Fransisco. Luckily during our trip our cable car driver was exchanged for a fresh one. I cant recall the guy's name but he was wearing a jacket that proclaimed him to be the 1999 and 2002 San Fran Cable Car bell ringing champion. For those of you who have taken part in this over-priced tourist ritual (free souvenir postcard/ticket included in the $5 charge) will recall that the cable car drivers sound a bell to warn traffic
Soon to be bell ringer
Gwen eat your heart out... that they are coming along the street. Well this guy earned his money BIG TIME when, after about ten seconds of relatively prosaic bell ringing he launched into an up tempo rendition of Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" that was pure genius. To have the experience of leaning out of a cable car as it hurtles down a San Fran hill playing Gwen/Pharrel inspired tunes is beyond compare. GOD BLESS AMERICA I say! I'm expecting that the driver will be crowned 2006 champion if he keeps up with the hits as he is now. (Im guessing his rendition of Vanessa Amorosi's "Absolutely Everybody" didn’t wow the judges in 2000.)
We continued checking out different parts of San Fran including Height Street where we did some funky shopping and chilled out with some locals. On our first night out in San Fran Cookie organised for us to meet up with some of his local friends he had made while working at the Sydney Olympics. These four girls were a lot of fun and we went to a great restaurant called First Crush where they were in the middle of filming some movie. Alas, no requests for us to act as extras
so Hollywood still beckons. he girls are all in event management and basically go from one sporting event to another organising corporate packages for sponsors. They'd worked on Salt Lake and Greece and were gearing up for the World Cup in Germany. They'd even done a few celebrity events and had some great stories about Mr Belding from "Saved by the Bell". They also regaled us with stories regarding how "cute" Cookie was an how he had superb "chiseled features and fantastic pecks"/ This being news to us we are soon to remind him at every opportunity during the trip about these wonderful features of his "personality".
Our next day was taken up with further pursuits of the highly touristic nature. We first hired tandem bikes and cycled from the city across the Golden Gate Bridge to a suburb that is across the bay from San Fran. The bike ride was spectacular and I really enjoyed the ride across the bridge - it's a pretty cool engineering feat! The only problem was when I got talked into letting Cookie sit up the front of the tandem bike for a little while. I've never feared for my life more! (Apart
from the time I had to be rescued half way down a double black diamond ski run in New Zealand!). As we rode into the path of a bus that was hurtling down the hill towards us I wondered whether my final few moments would be spent on a tandem bike while wearing my crazy woolen mittens with tassels. Luckily we were thrown clear of the slipstream of the bus and I live to write another schlog entry.
We crossed the bay by ferry and after a feeble attempt at fare evasion relinquished our bikes. That evening we caught a ferry to Alcatraz. The Alcatraz tour was packed - even in winter it proved to be a popular attraction. On the ride across the Bridge earlier that day we had all remarked that it seemed like an easy swim from Alcatraz to the mainland and we wondered why few people had successfully made the swim. The tour enlightened us on this issue - apparently the ebb tide of the San Fran Bay creates category 4 rapids and strong eddies that are almost impossible to swim against.
Alcatraz was an interesting destination. I'll spare you the history but all
the stories of the effort people put into escaping the place were great. It shows you what you can do with a spoon and fourteen years of boredom if you really put your mind to it.
On our final night we went out to dinner again. We all agreed that San Fran was pretty great and somewhere we'd like to come back to.
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Surely a Venga song would have by far outclassed any Vanesa Amarossi rendition in 2000 - I mean how could you look pzast Ibiza?!!