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Published: February 14th 2009
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This is one of two blogs i'm putting up at once, so be sure to read the first of the NYC ones after this 😊
There are two pages to this blog, click on page two at the bottom of the first one to see the rest of the photos
The 9th of February was the longest Monday we have ever had. After flying from Christchurch to Auckland then Auckland to San Francisco we had arrived several hours before we had departed. The flight was long and I didn’t get too much sleep, but the movie was good. We tried our luck at taking the train into San Fran from the airport (which proved very easy to navigate). We had decided to stay at a hostel in SF, which was OK. The location was good, but it was a hostel, rather noisy and quite old. - However to our delight, we found out that they provided a free breakfast of bagels, toast juice and coffee. We spent the first day re familiarizing ourselves with the stores in the area. It was becoming quite apparent that the amount of homeless people had increased hugely since the last time we were here
in 2007. You cannot walk one block without being hassled by at least two beggars’, and although it’s annoying, I can’t help feeling awful as I shake my head and keep walking. One of the stores we went into, the assistants were talking about all of the job losses in their company, obviously we really have not been hit by this recession in New Zealand as much as they have here. (I guess I already knew that, but this makes it more real). Dinner on the first night was at a little Italian pizzeria which was a nice change to the usual fast food outlets.
Day two started out with a cable car ride to fisherman’s wharf. Finally, we were rid of all of the beggars’…. But not rid of tourism operators trying to sell us time shares, etc!! We boarded the boat for Alcatraz and after a short ride, arrived on the island. We both really enjoyed visiting Alcatraz. They say you will likely spend 2.5 hours there, but we spent 4. The cell house is the most interesting part of the Island; there is an audio tour that guides you around the various locations in the cell
house, including explaining some of the escape attempts and places where some of the murders took place. I expected it to much quite a spooky and airy place, but it really wasn’t at all. After Alcatraz we walked around Fisherman’s wharf to have a look at the touristy stores and have lunch at a place called Hook and Cook. - We managed to sit ourselves next to a rubbish bin that several pigeons had taken a liking to. We were starting to notice that despite the recession, none of the store assistants were friendly (or maybe that is due to the recession?) They all really don’t seem to want to be at work, which isn’t a good impression for tourists. We headed back towards town on another cable car and stopped at Lombard Street - The curvy one (see pics) - the cable car stops are all in the middle of intersections… apparently for no particular reason, more for tourist reasons and because they can. Lombard Street is rather spectacular. We walked (hiked!) to the bottom and up again and had some pretty neat views of the city. By now we had worked up quite an appetite, so headed back
into town and found an Indian restaurant. Ne of the dishes was really; really good the other was OK. However I thought that Gordon Ramsey would have had a heart attack at the décor. We ended the day in an Irish bar; funnily enough the friendliest assistant we had encountered so far was the Irish bartender. - Off to the big Apple next!!
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Mummy Su
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Brings back a few memories!
Hi there my world travellers! Was jealous all over again,seeing these photos,bought back alot of good memories.Just wish we had ,had a much,much better camera.....*! We didn't do the subway there.Guess it was our first big trip,we have got alot more 'intrepid' since then! Take care Ma.xxxxxx