San Francisco and Greyhound Buses

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Hey folks,

Well, we survived the bus...all 12.5 hours of it. Managed to get a bit of sleep, despite it being totally freezing for the whole journey. Arrived around lunchtime and decided it wasn't too far to the hostel, so we'd walk it, complete with rucksacks and all. Fortunately we didn't have to hike up any of the notoriously steep hills to get there, but did have to negotiate 6 flights of stairs once we'd arrived: the sedatary commute of the last 6 months seems a distant memory!

Having showered and eaten, we headed for the harbour to check out the Alcatraz tour times for tomorrow. Managed to stop a couple of times on the way, once for a quick look around a magnificent Catholic Cathedral, and a second for a devine brownie and coffee. Timed this pretty well, as the heavens decided to open at just this moment. Yes, we're not so smug any more are we? It is quite a bit cooler up here than in San Diego, so we officially have no chance of getting anything resembling a tan while we're here. oh well...

So we took in th eview around the harbour, and thought we'd hike up one of those steep old roads to see the hairpin bendy road (Lombard Street). Had a bit of a race with a jogger (I won! Hurrah! with a bit of a headstart), and met a couple from Nebraska, the husband was a corn seed farmer, just so you know.

Caught the typical San Fran cable car down to Chinatown, close to our hostel, and are now just hanging out with the other hostelers in the common room. nice.

Thanks again for all your messages: it's really lovely to hear from you all. We're only just a week in to the trip, and still haven't quite settled into the idea that we're gonna be away for so long...I'm sure I'll get over that soon enough!!

Take care, lots of love,

Rach & Rach xxxxxxxxxxxxx

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