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Published: November 8th 2011
We knew we were in for one hell of a flight trying to cross from the Southern hemisphere back up to the North. Ofcourse, it helps when you cram in 4 films but this probably just ended up leaving us more tired when we eventually stumbled off our 17 hour flights! Once we arrived we picked up our new set of wheels, we’d imagined driving down the California coast in a slick open-top American car but instead we turned the corner to see a small bright yellow bumblebee car, you wouldn’t be able to miss us if you tried! So in our bright yellow number we took to the roads to try and find our hotel which was right in the heart of San Francisco. It was a bit of a nerve tester for Paul driving on six lane packed freeways on the other side of the road after barely a winks sleep!
Somehow in all the madness we arrived in one piece at our hotel in Chinatown and literally fell into a heap in our room. All we were craving was some food and sleep so we decided to ‘Yank’ it up and order pizza in and watch trashy
American TV! We can’t lie we both loved it. It was about the time that our eyes went bloodshot that we realized with the time zone changes that our Tuesday had been 44 hours long, literally the longest day of our lives!!
The following day, a little less blurry eyed we set off to explore San Fran, but with an enormous shopping mall on our doorstep there was no way Tina wasn’t getting in on that action. We shopped until we dropped, with all the bags we came back with you wouldn’t have thought we were a couple of backpackers – gotta look good in America! That night we headed into Chinatown for a much needed Chinese, it was like a little bit of Asia had dropped into San Francisco.
After enjoying ourselves a bit too much, it was time to do some sight-seeing – first stop was Alcatraz. When you’re in San Fran you can’t miss the ‘Devils Island’ that sits in the middle of the bay. We jumped on a tram to catch the ferry over to Alcatraz, and just as we stepped off the boat the clouds opened up and it started to lash down.
It was pretty fitting for such a gloomy place as Alcatraz Prison. Unfortunately we weren’t kitted out for that weather so we had to buy some sexy looking bright blue plastic ponchos, what happened to looking good in America?? The tour itself was really interesting and eerie to walk about the place with so many stories about where the worst of the worst had been ‘banged up’!
Back on the mainland we headed to the famous Fisherman’s Wharf where we first checked out this cool little place called Musée Mécanique – it was filled with antique arcades, it was Paul’s turn to be in his element! Afterwards we treated ourselves to a Hard Rock Café, ahh living the American Dream! Staying in San Fran wouldn’t be complete without having a night out so we planned to go to a couple of jazz bars and listen to some blues. It wasn’t as easy as we thought trying to flag a cab to get there though – it took us about half an hour, after screaming ‘taaaaaaaxi’ in the biggest American accent we could muster!
Our three nights in San Fran were over before we knew it, and it wasn’t
easy to leave as we both loved the city. It is such a cool place, with its famous trams rolling up and down the hills you can’t ever mistake where you are. Before leaving though, there was just one more port of call that we weren’t going to miss – the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. The famous red bridge truly is some sight, driving over it and looking out over it from the hills above was one of those moments we had been looking forward to since leaving home.
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Betty
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The City by the Bay
Finally some photos of someplace I recognize! :) So cool you stayed in Chinatown. Glad you enjoyed SF. We'll see you guys in just about a week!