US road trip

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DAY 5
After a good night sleep at the Comfort Inn in Oakland we woke up to get ready for San Francisco. I had a quick run in the gym at the hotel and after a decent complimentary breakfast we set off for San Francisco. We had planned to go to the Muir Woods first a natural reserve north of the Bay, with superb sequoias. The weather was awful, foggy and rainy but again it was worth it. The trees are amazing and the whole place is an oasis of peace and tranquillity. The trails are also very easy and accessible. After an hour and a half we set off towards Sausalito, a charming town opposite San Francisco Bay. We went for a little walk and had a hot chocolate in one of the coffee shops overlooking the bay. Unfortunately it was still too foggy so we couldn’t see San Francisco but we still had a good time walking around.
Only 10 minutes drive from Sausalito and we entered the famous Golden Gate Bridge. It was a nice drive but again, the dense fog prevented us to truly enjoy the drive but we were quite excited anyway. We made it to San Francisco! We drove to the Powell hotel which was dead in the city centre. After unpacking and having a quick rest we got out and started walking up Powell street to Union Square and Chinatown. I’ve been to so many Chinatowns but I think SF’s is one of the largest ones I’ve ever been too. We then walked onto Ross Alley where Karate Kid was filmed and up the hills to the Coit tower for panoramic views of the city. Then we walked down onto North Beach, the Italian part of town and had coffee at Caffe Trieste, where Francis Ford Coppola drafted his script for The Godfather. By then we were quite tired so we decided to walk back to our hotel stopping at a few shops for some window shopping. At night we planned to go for dinner to the latino neighbourhood of The Mission. We took the subway for a quick ride to Mission st. We had a couple of suggestions that we had read in the guide so we went to check them out. Unfortunately we didn’t have a reservation and we had to wait for an hour and a half in both places so we gave up and went off to check out other places. And we were lucky! We found this little restaurant called Lolo at 22nd street with Valencia and we had without a doubt one of the best meals ever. The food is kind of Mexican/Spanish tapas fusion. We had two dishes each and then we got another two to share and they were all delicious. The Mexican maître, Juan Carlos was really nice and he lived in Barcelona for two years, so we had a good conversation about football and lifestyle in general. Henar and I decided to share a bottle of Navarra red wine, in which was the starting of a crazy night ahead.
After dinner we went for a drink at the bar next door, quite a cool bar with music not too loud and with lots of piñatas hanging of the ceiling. Then Henar and I fancied a bit of a dance and we looked for another bar a bit more animated and we just ended up in the bar right opposite which was a Mexican bar with live Mariachi music. And you know what happens when you go to a Mexican bar. Tequila, it makes me happy…
We ended up closing the bar at 2:15, being invited to a 40th birthday party in September, sharing drinks with some of the locals and consoling a Nicaraguan amigo whose married girlfriend had cheated on him with another man. !!!
We then spent more than an hour trying to flag a cab and we finally made it to the hotel in a very drunken state, at about 3:45 in the morning.
A very very long but exciting day.

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