Halfway up the coast

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So, today is roughly halfway through my west coast trip, and surprisingly I still have SOME money left. Admittedly it's slowly becoming more apparent that i need to ditch my healthy, exotic cuisine, to more thrift conscious choices like the many hole in the wall vietnamese places dotted around the area I'm staying in. But that's not all bad. America is cheaper for food and drinks so you can make a buck go further. Today is the first day I've really taken it easy and just chilled out since I've been here. This morning I awoke at 11:30, had my $1 breakfast from the hostel cafe, and then went back to sleep until 2:30 in the afternoon. Yep, one of those lazy days, had a late one last night. I'm currently staying in a hostel in the "Tenderloin" (which I've recently been told is kinda sketchy. Nothing really that bad, although last night I did have a car stop next to me as I walked down the street at 1am and a black guy leaned out the window and started shouting at me that he was racist, and agressive, and he hated "whiteys" and he wanted to kill em all. He went on to add a few other choice things that need not be repeated. Haha.) district in SF, right in the heart near downtown.

SF isn't as big as L.A. which is a welcome relief for a skater like me who's main method of transport is via 4 80mm wheels, and the footpaths (sorry sidewalks) are a whole lot less cracked and broken, making it a dream to skate on. Yesterday I went for an epic skate, down south into some industrial areas, East towards the bay, and up past the Bay Bridge (which is was quite underwhelmed with after mistakenly confusing it with the Golden Gate Bridge. The Bay bridge is silver, but looks very similar, and I felt all the photos of the GG bridge I had seen were just an optical illusion created by the light. Needless to say, at the time I felt entirely ripped off until the guy at the front desk of the hostel explained to me my error). From there I went through Financial District, Japan and Chinatown, and all the way West to Haight-Ashbury where all the hippies live, or at least it used to be the hippie mecca of California. It's a cool part of town, obviously affected by a commercial and tourist influence, but there's definitely still the original undercurrent of peace and love flowing through the streets there. Tie-dyed shirts, smoke shops, record shops (Amoeba records being the best of these. A world famous, amazing record store that you could get lost in), and dreadlocks abound. The unique and eccentric are accepted and welcomed here, as in so many parts of this city. Which I love. It means there are a lot of intersting people, places, and experiences to be had. Only two nights ago I was sitting in another dive bar in the city when five guys dressed head to toe as ninjas burst into the doorway with a drunkit, guitars, bass, portable amps and a microphone, and proceeded to bust out some wicked death metal for anyone that would listen. And no-one seemed to think that this was some kind of strange occurence. Apparently so they tell me, expression and uniqueness define what it's like to live in San Fran.

So anyway, all in all Haight-Ashbury is a really nice, clean, friendly part of town, which I unfortunately wasn't able to spend enough time in. After a few beers at a local dive bar I headed back to Union Square in downtown to rock the few remaining hours of the night away (bars close at 1:30-2am here) with some lovely travellers on a roadtrip from Maine. San Francisco seems to be the friendliest city I've been to so far, with the least amount of people up there own arse and standoffish as in L.A. and Vegas. So far I've just been going out and meeting people in bars, or on the street, and everyone seems open to engaging in conversation or helping you. One thing I've noticed about San Francisco I don't like though, is the amount of homelessness and hopelessness in some very select pockets around the city (Like right down the road from my hostel). The lack of infrastructure to facilitate any positive impact on the homeless and underpriviliged community is alarmingly prevalent, with the line for a shelter (I saw one yesterday) stretching probably 200m around two city blocks. It's troubling and alarming, and even further reinforces to me the privilige I so greatly take for granted of being able to save up money and travel the world, when these people struggle to eat each day. Although I try not to feel guilty, it's difficult to keep from feeling a pang of self-centred ignorance when I remember how caught up in my own trivial problems I can so easily find myself.

Two different sides to a city that I find myself loving already, but so much more to explore before I leave.

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Photos

The "fake' Golden Gate Bridge
You can see my disappointment when I thought this was Golden Gate Bridge.

City Streets
Cars, Pedestrians and cable cars all share the road. This week they had to share with my skateboard too.

Street Art
Their is some fantastic street art all over SF

Street Art in Chinatown
SF has Chinatown AND Japantown, two amazing places that have lots of character

Fillmore District
Fillmore is a district just east of Haight, full of characters.