San Francisco by Zoe who loves chocolate milkshakes, U.S. diner style….

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Our quote of the day and possibly the week is “so lets fight about it”. This is when we realise that we are starting an irrelevant argument with the other person.

I’m trying to think of a new way to start off my blog entries, other than “So we then…” but it’s not been too successful and after not getting that much sleep last night, I can’t think of anything better to say, so tough….Anyway as Brett will tell you and I’ll concur with him, I get irritable and not very nice to be around when I haven’t had my 10 hours of sleep at night. So we spent last night on a bus from L.A. to San Francisco, waking up in the middle of the trip to see the bus driver hooning it while she can barely see 2 metres in front of her because of fog, does make me lose a bit of sleep.

Anyway we arrive in San Francisco safe and sound, the bus driver gave Brettie and I a free ride to our hostel, acting like a dumb tourist does has its advantages. We arrive at our hostel and are able to swing a free breakfast. We decide that we’ll go on the free tour of San Francisco, the tour guide apparently has a different perspective, so we have our breakfast and wait around till 9am when the tour starts. The tour guide, David is really lovely, his perspective for the tour is more about the socialist point of view, after spending 3 hours with him, more time with him that I’ve had sleep and I’m a little confused. Although I can remember he made some good points, something about owning nature, but not being about to own it….Anyway, he takes us around San Francisco, pointing our some interesting things about it, how it’s changed over time, how some of the buildings are constructed to make them safer when there is an earthquake (apparently San Francisco has about 18 small earthquakes per day which is what they want, rather than one big one). After the tour we have lunch at a diner, where I have, yes you’ve guessed it a chocolate milkshake, aka a shake….So we’ve checked into our hotel, which is where I am at the moment, think that we’ll have a early dinner, early to bed. Brettie is napping and I think that I’m going to have a nap too. We want to be able to be ready for tomorrow, because of what we’ve seen of San Francisco, we both really like it, much more that LA and are looking forward to exploring it more tomorrow! We finished off last night with a beer at the pub and then Thai for dinner.

So we get up excited about our second day in San Francisco, having being woken up by our room mates coming in at about 3am, have breakfast then head to the cable car. We join the queue for the cable car, which takes us up and over the steep streets of San Francisco. We get off at Lombard Street, which is apparently the most crooked street in the world, take the obligatory photos and walk down to the bay. Wander around the bay, walk up to Ghirardelli Square, do a bit of shopping, buy some yummy chocolate and catch the bus to the Golden Gate Bridge. So the Golden Gate Bridge is pretty big….we walk about a quarter of the way across it, look back over the city and Alcatraz. We wander back down and have some lunch looking back at the Golden Gate Bridge (gee it’s a hard life) then make our way back to the hostel, via another cable car. Back at the hostel we decide that we’re a bit hungry and head out for some dinner, Mexican is on the menu and happy hour is too! We’re both stuffed so we head back to our hostel to potter about for a while and then head off to bed!

Day three in San Francisco – (there’s been a bit of a delay in me writing this blog. Right now we’re in India and San Francisco seems so long ago….) So we wandered to a suburb called Mission. This was after Brett was followed and abused by a homeless man which was a bit scary. We were told about this area by a guy who worked at our hostel so we thought we’d check it out. There is a community group who paint murals on the building walls in the area, the collective is called Precita Eyes and they paint murals for people in the community some with political messages, some relating to the building. We stopped off at the information/mural HQ for some info and guidance in regards to the mural. The lady there gave us a run down of what to see and gave us a map to help us. She spoke about a female artist named Swoon who had put up some street art illegally, it’s made out of paper and it has lasted for about 2 years, although I think that she has added to it over time. The mural, which I’ve added some photos to the blog, is in regards to hundreds of females between the ages of about 15-24 years being murdered and their organs being harvested in a country somewhere in South America (but for some reason Brett and I can’t think of the country and with no internet to google the country, I’ll leave it up to you guys to find out if your interested.) In the centre of the work is a photo of one of the girls, of the age of 15 years and around the edges are skulls, all different designs to the rest. I found this very interesting, so sorry if I bored you all with that. We then walked around the area for a while, stopped off at a Mexican Bakery for some sugary sweets!

So we then wandered back to the bay for some lunch, Brett had some clam chowder which he enjoyed then we went to catch the ferry to Alcatraz. The ferry ride was cool, it was nice to see the city from a different perspective. At Alcatraz we got an audio guide which guided you around the prison. It was interesting to hear commentary from guards and inmates of the prison and to hear and see the history of the prison. It was meant to be the equivalent of a super max prison, for the worst of the worst prisoners. We heard about Al Capone who was in there for fraud and other infamous inmates. Views of the city were pretty good too. Then we headed back for dinner and bed!

Day four – we had a relaxing morning and head to the Ferry Building, which has fruit and veg markets as well as some gourmet food! We bought a salad, bread and some yummy cheese for lunch. We then got a car that Brettie, aka my personal travel advisor, has hired and we head out to Muir Woods which is famous for its giant Redwoods. We drive over the Golden Gate Bridge and head north about 45 minutes through the windy roads and we’re at Muir Woods. $5 entrance fee and no picnicking allowed (how stupid is that), we end up eating our lunch in the car park and then head into the woods….Brett was taken with the woods. There were massive tress everywhere and walking around them reminded me of Dorrigo National Park. We walked around for a couple of hours and headed back to the car only to find that the card that we use to open the doors to the car isn’t working….the guy at the Muir Woods information office was kind enough to let Brett use the phone to call the company who then sent out a mechanic to come and look at the car. Then short version of it was that he was able to open the doors but not to get the card thing working, which meant that the horn alarm went off if we opened the doors or if it was in park. A guy said that we were best to just get in the car and drive before it gets dark (the whole process has taken a few hours) so we jump in the car, thankfully the alarm goes off after a few minutes and we drive back to San Francisco. Brett drops me off at a sports shop so I can buy us some shoes for India (most ugly shoes I have ever bought by the way) and Brett takes the car back….we meet up at the hostel after I get momentarily lost (I’m so used to just following Brett around). Washing, dinner and then bed!

Last day, boo hoo….neither of us want to leave. Again we are making plans to come back. We check out and go for one last final walk around San Francisco. We walk to Jack Kerouac Alley – he and a few others were the founders of the Beat generation which were made up of writers and artists. Have a look in the Beat Museum and then have lunch at a pub with the best chip sandwiches that Brett and I have ever had! Yummy! Then we sadly make our way back to the hostel, collect our bags and head out to the airport. Then realising that we are heading to India to see Nezzi we cheer up and also look forward to catching up with people in London during our stopover!

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Photos

My chocolate shake!
Yummmmm

The paper wall art
Hard to see but very intricate and cool

Brettie and clam chowder
As recommended by his mum