6: Day 1, part 2/Oh San Francisco...

Date: 25/6/2010
Time: 9.50pm
Town: San Francisco, California
Timezone: GMT -07.00

Oh, San Francisco, why are you so foggy? And also, what's with the hills everywhere? The hills in this town are so steep that they had to alter Lombard street so it zig-zags down the hill (and funny story, a limousine got stuck there once and had to be lifted out by a helicopter). Oh, San Francisco, you're so cold, I'd be worried if you didn't have such character, 'character' being an inclusive term for anything from colourful jetties and awesome cafes to your collection of nutbags and the fact that a main tourist attraction is the Alcatraz prison. Delightful.

This is one of the first few things we saw on the way from the airport. Also, the moment we walked into the car-park out of the airport lobby we saw a dead rat on the road.
Roadkill... welcome to the USA!
But really, truly, so far I am loving it and not just because I'm a tourist. In SF, everyone is free to be themselves and it's so colourful and arty and full of life. It's amazingly noisy and ridiculously cold at the moment, but as Mark Twain said, 'The coldest winter I ever saw was the summer I spent in San Francisco.' The man speaks the truth! It's colder than Perth's winter at the moment, that should give you some sort of idea. And I saw people in the pool! They must be visiting from Antarctica. I'm not sure why it's so cold but I'll do a bit more research when I have some free time, or free internet. I totally haven't been stealing it from the Starbuck's downstairs... much.
I am thoroughly enjoying it here though, despite the cold. Having a hoot and a half - two hoots, I dare say. You have no idea how amazingly amazing it is, everyone is either really really nice or really really crazy and sometimes even both!
So, San Francisco is amazing. I'm writing this one Saturday night because I didn't get a chance to write it last night, which was two nights ago for you Perthlings, but the whole time-difference thing just confuses me no end so I can't be bothered working it out.


So on the second part of the Friday, we wandered around Union Square and in the general town area. There's a lot of art around the city, the university of art is sort of spread out everywhere, and I personally love the four hearts around Union Square, one at each corner if you weren't sure.


There's heaps of other murals and paintings in random places, some floral crab type things. You know, the usual. Almost as cool as the cow in a tree that I saw in Melbourne.
Not a real cow, obviously. It was art of some sort or another.


There's also art galleries everywhere. There's a Dr. Seuss art gallery below our hotel, and a massive art exhibition in Union square at the moment.



The shops are really cool here, there's this enormous David Jones-esque shop called Macy's. It's so big, there's one shop for the gentlemen, and one shop for the ladies. We also spent a lot of time in this shop called Urban Outfitters, very nice shop. I like it a lot, lots of sweaters.


We then took the tram - ahem, sorry, cable car - down to Fisherman's Wharf which is pretty much a giant tourist playground. Markets, shops, street performers and Alcatraz!


Before I go, can I mention that the cable cars are still using the same technology from hundreds of years ago (I wasn't really listening to the history lesson from the conductor, though it would have been useful if I had) and they have to spin them around on these wooden platforms, so manual labour is still involved. Tres amusant, as the French would say.


So we took one of these carts down to Fisherman's Wharf, and we spent so many hours down there just doing touristy things, shopping, taking pictures, shopping, taking pictures, the usual. It smells like crabs down there, but it's a major seafood area so it's to be expected. It was pretty cloudy by the time we got there but it was alright.


It was awesome and I loved it. Pier 39 has such great character, an amazing sort of atmosphere. It's so colourful and so busy and so exciting. I loved it so much!


Also got a bit of a look at Alcatraz, the island prison. We decided against a tour there, it's sort of like 'come see where we kept the psychos and oh this is where Smithy McSmith hung himself, isn't that lovely?'
Yeah, haha, no. Thanks anyway. I'm not into that sort of death and suffering stuff, but apparently it's a big tourist attraction and also a film set for many prison movies.


We went to the Hard Rock cafe on Pier 39. Geoff, Wong, you would have loved it. Good food, good music and guitars everywhere. I went to the one in Melbourne a few years ago, I think it shut down. This one is epic, the memorabilia they have is better than monkey spankin'. Yes, Jordan, better than spanking the monkey.
... Whatever that is.

So, after that we came home. Well, I say after that, we waited just under an hour for the tram, in freezing cold weather.
The cable cars are suddenly not so awesome.
But otherwise, San Francisco was amazing on the first day. Also, found out that on Sunday it's the 40th annual Gay Pride festival. Which means every gay person in California state is now in San Francisco.
How exciting. Hehe.
Shall update my Saturday post later either tomorrow or tonight. Stay with me, people, I'll get up to date soon.
Stay safe, sleep tight. Hope you all have a nice lunch, I'm going to dinner.
Is it Sunday there already? Damn you Australians, living in the future.