Blogs from San Francisco, California, United States, North America - page 213

San Fransisco Bay that is. Prior to coming here I spent 3 days in Calgary and I must say that it is a relatively dull, unimpressive place. Considering it's size (smaller than Perth) it has an unusually high number of street bums and really dodgy people wandering about. But there is one reason - a good reason - to go to Calgary. It's so you can go to Banff! And what a pretty place Banff is. Pretty bloody cold! Long a mecca for Australian travellers who haven't seen snow before, it is inside a national park beleive it or not and is in a valley wedged between a gap in the Canadian Rockies. When you come out here, you are getting closer to wild Canada. Not too close, but close enough. When you see Bear-proof rubbish ... read more

Hallowe'en in Castro After we got to San Francisco we parked the car and went into a cafe for liquid refreshment and to get our bearings before looking for a place to sleep. As we were drinking our coffees the other customer in the cafe suddenly asked "Where are you guys from?" "Britain" we told her, thinking we would then get something along the lines of "Oh, England, I went there, whereabouts are you from?" Instead she carried on with "Are you looking for somewhere to go this evening? Somewhere exotic, fun, whacky, stupendous, erotic, exciting, unusual and completely unique?" We both decided this was the start of a sales patter and said "whaaaaat?" in that slow, 'don't try and flog me anything lady' way. She told us to go to the Halloween celebrations in Castro, ... read more

This is an old travelogue I wrote up in 2005 outlining my trip to San Francisco with my friend Marta. We'd originally gone over there for an anime convention, but we stayed an extra week in a hostel and saw the sights. (The detail in this log is not what I write in my later logs, but it is the first trip log I'd ever written, and I felt it was appropriate to begin my new travelblog with this.) ++++ This report was written on the road. I left Toronto on October 28th and didn't return until November 4th, so the entirety of this was written on my pda, which would explain the present tense in some parts. Mchan and I made the perilous trek out from the East side of the continent (Toronto, Ontario) to ... read more

Sara - We spent 3 days in San Francisco. We managed to book into a pretty good hostel, recommended to us in New York, called the Green Tortoise. Standard room, free internet access, breakfast, an evening meal 3 nights a week and free beer on Wednesdays. Plus an opportunity to wash our clothes. We set out to discover 'The City'. We checked out the usual tourist attractions. Rode bicycles over the Golden Gate Bridge, quite a long way you know, bought coffee in a starbucks, rode on a tram (although I've done that in Blackpool), had cocktails at the top of the Bank of America and toured Alcatraz with several hundred other people in headsets - the atmosphere was electric. I preferred it to New York.... read more

Well, dear friends, Evi and I are leaving on our trip in 5 days. Currently we are packing, storing, cleaning, planning, but we're ahead of the game! On October 11 we fly to Zurich, Evi's city of birth, and home of her brother, cousins, aunts, uncles, and friends. Her parents are in Basel, one hour away by train. We're excited but frankly a bit nervous about the great unknown in front of us. However, as a great philosopher once said, it's easier to control the present than the future, so we'll just take what comes our way. (Oh, that philosopher was me!)... read more