Unfortunately when we arrived, we found out that Victor's bag had gone missing, so he and Ags went off to speak to the airline, and Alex, Leticia and I went to suss out the transport options into the city. We ended up catching the "Rapid Transit" into the city, which is really just a fancy name for the train! After walking around a few blocks, and realising we were a little lost, getting out our map, and actually finding the place, we checked in.
The place we were staying was called the Renoir Hotel. Sounds fancy, hey? It wasn't. It was in, quite possibly, the dodgiest area of town. Every time we left the hotel, Leticia would get eyed by all the dodgy men, and walking back to the hotel once the sun had set was definitely an experience. Here we are all huddled up in our room, to scared to go anywhere... Not really, but it was pretty freaky!
San Francisco is a city of homeless people, they are everywhere! The area we were staying in had the most though, by far! One night we were walking back, and we saw them huddling in the doorways of shops and stretched out on the ground with their blankets and trolleys... There was even one man, who had clearly lost his mind, who was screaming at a wall, having an argument with it, we really did see ALL that San Francisco had to offer.
Our first night was spent getting our bearings in the new city, finding the closest Mexican food (always a first in a new city!) - the burritos weren't too bad, and then we went out in search of a pub/club. So we started with the club at our hotel - it was advertised in the lift and we thought we would give it a go. Free entry for people staying in the hotel, can't go wrong, can you? Or can you?? Three letters - RNB. We had never seen anything like it, I'm sure if we had have stayed there for more than the 30 seconds we did, someone would have asked us if we were lost. All the mumma's were shakin' their booties... One of them were even wearing GOLD hot pants... We walked straight back out... And laughed so hard we couldn't breathe. We ended up finding something a little more suitable - an Irish pub. They had some live music and we had a couple of drinks, and then much to Leticia's dismay, we headed back to the hotel.
The next morning we got up and caught an electric bus (it was kind of like a tram on wheels - it got it's electricity from overhead) to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was so windy and cold, so we thought we would walk over the bridge, have a coffee or something on the other side and then catch a bus back. So we took our photos, and walked over the bridge. Leticia ran ahead because she couldn't stand the cold. Alex and I saw a car accident happen on the bridge... Some car ran up the back of a BMW... Worst sound in the world!
We spent the afternoon walking around the city, along Fisherman's Wharf and the different piers. I even saw a tram from Melbourne!
We wanted to warm up for dinner that night, so we found a cool little Thai place. I hadn't eaten Thai in 3 months, so I was excited!!!
We caught up with Ags and Victor the next day, as we had planned to go to Alcatraz (for those who don't know, Alcatraz used to be a prison on an island in the middle of the bay). We had checked the website and it said to book in advance, which we tried to do, but it appeared that everything was sold out. Surely that can't be true, we thought. So we went down to the pier to investigate, and sure enough, the next tour was on Wednesday - the day we were leaving! It was sold out two days in advance... Crazy!!
By that stage is was nearly dinner time again, so we decided to treat ourselves to some Italian. We picked the restaurant and ordered our food. It took forever to come! And the service was crap. AND they served a chicken parma with pasta and vegies... What the hell is that?? They then had the gall to add the tip onto the bill themselves. Which we slightly adjusted, before running out the door... Fair enough waiters need to live, but they also need to work for their money!
Next morning we headed to the San Francisco Public Library, where we had been heading most mornings to take advantage of free wi-fi! This city really is very accepting, between your Average Joe's at the library, there were cross dressers and homeless people, all reading books and studying various topics, something I don't think you would ever see back home!
Once we finished at the library, we went down to Golden Gate Park, and got lost. We couldn't find a way out of the park! There were no signs anywhere, and the map we were using was pretty average, but we managed to find out way out of the park and went for a walk through the neighbourhoods of The Haight and The Castro. The Haight is a bit eccentric, a bit hippie, a bit druggie... Every second shop sells incense or bongs, but it was definitely a bright, happy place to be. The Castro is the gay area of San Francisco with choice restaurants called 'the Sausage Factory'...
We headed back to the Mexican shop to buy burritos for dinner, and then headed back to the hotel to pack our bags... Tomorrow Alex was heading home, and Leticia and I were off to our last American city - Los Angeles.
Alex woke up at about 5am, we said our goodbyes, and as he walked out the door, Leticia and I didn't envy him one bit - having to walk past all the homeless people to the train station!
We got up again a few hours later and caught the train ourselves to the airport - Hollywood here we come!
San Francisco is a city of homeless people, they are everywhere! The area we were staying in had the most though, by far! One night we were walking back, and we saw them huddling in the doorways of shops and stretched out on the ground with their blankets and trolleys... There was even one man, who had clearly lost his mind, who was screaming at a wall, having an argument with it, we really did see ALL that San Francisco had to offer.
Our first night was spent getting our bearings in the new city, finding the closest Mexican food (always a first in a new city!) - the burritos weren't too bad, and then we went out in search of a pub/club. So we started with the club at our hotel - it was advertised in the lift and we thought we would give it a go. Free entry for people staying in the hotel, can't go wrong, can you? Or can you?? Three letters - RNB. We had never seen anything like it, I'm sure if we had have stayed there for more than the 30 seconds we did, someone would have asked us if we were lost. All the mumma's were shakin' their booties... One of them were even wearing GOLD hot pants... We walked straight back out... And laughed so hard we couldn't breathe. We ended up finding something a little more suitable - an Irish pub. They had some live music and we had a couple of drinks, and then much to Leticia's dismay, we headed back to the hotel.
The next morning we got up and caught an electric bus (it was kind of like a tram on wheels - it got it's electricity from overhead) to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was so windy and cold, so we thought we would walk over the bridge, have a coffee or something on the other side and then catch a bus back. So we took our photos, and walked over the bridge. Leticia ran ahead because she couldn't stand the cold. Alex and I saw a car accident happen on the bridge... Some car ran up the back of a BMW... Worst sound in the world!
We got over the other side of the bridge to find that all there was, was a car park and a toilet block! Nothing else!! At all!! So we started the trek back over and managed to get to the cafe on the other side again, by this time we were starving!
We spent the afternoon walking around the city, along Fisherman's Wharf and the different piers. I even saw a tram from Melbourne!
We wanted to warm up for dinner that night, so we found a cool little Thai place. I hadn't eaten Thai in 3 months, so I was excited!!!
We caught up with Ags and Victor the next day, as we had planned to go to Alcatraz (for those who don't know, Alcatraz used to be a prison on an island in the middle of the bay). We had checked the website and it said to book in advance, which we tried to do, but it appeared that everything was sold out. Surely that can't be true, we thought. So we went down to the pier to investigate, and sure enough, the next tour was on Wednesday - the day we were leaving! It was sold out two days in advance... Crazy!!
We ended up going to the Hard Rock Cafe for some lunch and then Alex, Leticia and I spent the afternoon wandering the streets, making videos and visiting "the World's Crookedest Street" which must also be one of the world's steepest streets!
By that stage is was nearly dinner time again, so we decided to treat ourselves to some Italian. We picked the restaurant and ordered our food. It took forever to come! And the service was crap. AND they served a chicken parma with pasta and vegies... What the hell is that?? They then had the gall to add the tip onto the bill themselves. Which we slightly adjusted, before running out the door... Fair enough waiters need to live, but they also need to work for their money!
Next morning we headed to the San Francisco Public Library, where we had been heading most mornings to take advantage of free wi-fi! This city really is very accepting, between your Average Joe's at the library, there were cross dressers and homeless people, all reading books and studying various topics, something I don't think you would ever see back home!
Once we finished at the library, we went down to Golden Gate Park, and got lost. We couldn't find a way out of the park! There were no signs anywhere, and the map we were using was pretty average, but we managed to find out way out of the park and went for a walk through the neighbourhoods of The Haight and The Castro. The Haight is a bit eccentric, a bit hippie, a bit druggie... Every second shop sells incense or bongs, but it was definitely a bright, happy place to be. The Castro is the gay area of San Francisco with choice restaurants called 'the Sausage Factory'...
We headed back to the Mexican shop to buy burritos for dinner, and then headed back to the hotel to pack our bags... Tomorrow Alex was heading home, and Leticia and I were off to our last American city - Los Angeles.Alex woke up at about 5am, we said our goodbyes, and as he walked out the door, Leticia and I didn't envy him one bit - having to walk past all the homeless people to the train station!
We got up again a few hours later and caught the train ourselves to the airport - Hollywood here we come!
No comments:
Post a Comment