San Francisco: Piers, Wharf, Lombard Street

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Right, so Greyhound sucks the big one in the US... as an intro, I booked a local bus from LA to Oakland because it would give me more time to sleep and the local runs usually aren’t as busy. The trip was supposed to be 10 1/2 hours – plenty of time to sleep – instead of the 6 hour express. Needless to say Greyhound screwed me over which I’ll explain in a minute, but before I get to that, a few moments from last night.

While waiting for the metro, a bunch of college kids were trying to get signatures for a petition. When one of them came over to me, he asked me to sign for better health care... I think a smug grin crossed my face haha. I shook my head – sorry, I’m from Canada, won’t do any good to have my signature. He huffed, “Oh. You already HAVE the better health care, I see.” I wished them good luck anyway haha.

Then, while waiting for the city bus, some guy comes up to me on the street and asks if he can draw me. I told him I had no change. “That’s fine. I just like to draw!” ... ok...? It ended up being more like a cartoon than an actual drawing, but hey whatever lol. That was different.

Ok, so having made it to Greyhound the fun began. First off there was a ridiculous line to check-in... I was only 3^rd (I beat the rush) but I waited over 20min because even though there were 6 clerks, only 2 (sometimes 1!) were actually helping people. The others kept telling you to go back in line and were just rude. When I finally got to a clerk he looked at my ticket and said “no” I’m like what do you mean, no?!? (I was NOT in a good mood at this point having waited while they all just stood there)

He went on to explain that I couldn’t take the local run from LA to Oakland because it’s only for passengers who get off on the way. I replied that I purposefully did that because I wanted the extra time to sleep on the bus. “No, you cannot take that bus. You have to take the express” I booked it online. Final destination is Oakland all the same - plus, I already paid. “Doesn’t matter. If you try to take the other bus, you will be told to wait until the next express in the morning” He then handed me my ticket and my bag claim – both of which the time had been changed to the 10pm express instead of my 10:20pm local.

Ok. I was TOTALLY not impressed at this point and pretty much started yelling at the guy... the first time I think I’ve ever yelled at a service-industry person haha. Meanwhile he just waved me off saying those are their rules. I was pissed. Not only did a get stuck on the express, but because it was leaving at 10pm (and I had been stuck in line so long) I was near the end of the line for the bus and got stuck sitting in the aisle seat. Great – no sleep for me.

4:45am... arrived in Oakland. Beautiful. Even though the waiting area is only for connecting passengers, I chanced it for awhile and sat there – ain’t no way I was roaming downtown Oakland at 5am lol. They had a tv in the room, so I watched Law and Order. After Law and Order. After Law and Order haha. Finally around 7am I had to ditch because pretty much all the transfers had left and the security guy was looking at me funny. Okfine.

I found the train station without much trouble and puttered over to San Francisco... it certainly was not warm out by any means. (It was around 4-5 degrees... le brrrr) At the hostel the front worker was really nice – we had a little chat about Canada and being French while I put my bags in storage and such. We was all happy because he almost said my name right – he was going on about Jean Dujardin and how he always talks to all the French tourists about him lol. Cute.

I set out to wander the city after that... omg I should have used the pedometer on my iPod – I literally walked from 8am to 2:30pm... my back was beyond dead at the end of the day. Kaput.

I stared just walking down Market St (main road) towards the waterfront. Some homeless guy scared the living bejesus out of me – he was behind a half wall and jumped out shaking his coin jar. I feel terrorizing the pedestrians is probably not a good way to get money. Just sayin’

I continued down to the Ferry Building/Market area. There were some cool statues in a park around there and then I wandered through the Market. If I lived here (or was spending awhile) that would be the best place ever to do your groceries... they really had great looking fruit and veggies and sorts of other things. Even though it was super early, they already had the lamb roasts cooking... drool, drool everywhere... it smelled SO good.

I got some nice pics of the Bay Bridge and walked back out to the other side of the building, continuing down along Embarcadero to all the Piers. I looked around 33 (where the Alcatraz Tours run out of) so I knew where everything was for tomorrow – that will be such a great tour, I’m really excited for that. It’s going to be freezing though.

After that I spent a really long time at Pier 39 – it’s where all the shopping, food and amusement stuff is. Didn’t really buy much, but it was fun to just browse and people watch. There’s a carousel in the middle section for the kids, more souvenirs than you would ever need, and about 500 places selling chowder. I shall get some tomorrow... can’t really come to San Fran and not get some good seafood!

The other great thing at Pier 39 is the sea lions!! I was walking along the Pier and I heard them “barking” ... I had totally forgotten about the sea lions here!! Can’t believe I did because I had LOVED that last time I was in San Fran. So I checked the side of the Pier and saw nothing... totally bummed. But then I tried the next “exit” and there they were :D HAPPY DANCE! I watched them for a very long time – taking tons of pics and some video. It’s fun to watch them interact – some are just sunbathing, some are playing, some are scratching, some are rolling off the barge, some are fighting, some are eating. And most are making noise of some sort haha.

Next up was the Wharf – basically just seafood EVERYWHERE. It made me think of the Bergen Fish Market where they are pretty much trying to throw the food in your face to get you to buy it haha. But at least Bergen isn’t a tourist trap area, it’s a real market from what I remember.

I then made an adventurous choice... instead of paying $5 to take the cable car a few stops (I’ve been on it before anyway) I decided to walk up to Lombard Street – the crookedest street in the world. And by walk up, I really mean up... waaaaay up. I hate that photos don’t do the street here justice – it took FOREVER to climb the couple blocks because the road was at least 50-60 degree angle. And it’s sad because you’ll think you’re almost there, but it’s just because it levels off at intersections, and then you see the next bit haha. Never ending climb.

Lombard’s great though – it’s fun to watch the cars slowly zig-zag their way down the street. I walked down the stairs they have (that’s how steep it is, hence why it’s so curved). It was funny to notice that people actually live on that street, so they have parking spots along the road... man that would suck. Not only being on that steep of an incline, but then you have to deal with all the tourists all the time.

From there I walked back down (yay downhill) to the Wharf and looped back around the way I came from Embarcadero back to the hostel. Check-in was 2pm and I got there at 2:30pm, ready to just veg the rest of the night! So that I did. I spent the rest of the afternoon just vegging and planning some stuff out... so tired, but not wanting to go to bed at like... 5pm haha.

Also, what is wrong with the weather when I travel?? -2, 0, 3 degrees while in Florida a couple weeks ago... 13 in LA, 5(!!) in San Fran for a better part of the day. Not good. I’m going to lose my tan before I get home and no one will believe I actually succeeded in getting one for a change haha.

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