28th of March – 8th April
With over 1000 songs written about this place, I knew we were heading somewhere good and even arriving unslept two days before Marty, I was disappointed by the hilly city. The taxis are reasonable and uniquely know exactly where they're going so once I worked out the 2 level road outside the airport, I was driven to the Adelaide Hostel (picked at random and, of course, not booked) in the heart of downtown San Fran. My knowledge of the US is limited to LA, San Diego & New York (the latter of which doesn't count) but nonetheless I was delighted by the difference this city and although the poverty is still quite blatant and after dark, the lunatics roam, it is leaps and bounds above the misery of downtown LA and the sheer insanity of downtown San Diego. In fact, San Francisco is beautiful. My two days alone involved a lot of walking (in the rain), a lot of time in the same bookshops that we have at home and a fair bit of sleeping. I limited my social life to sitting in the homely hostel lounge and drinking tea and reading with the other remarkably quiet hostellers - who perhaps like me have also decided to slow down for a few days.
After 2 days of this (it's a good life), I booked a cute and cheap hotel room round the corner and made the most of the private bathroom and digital TV until Marty arrived and the pace picked back up! We hit the town that first night on a mission to go for a meal, which comprised of $3 margaritas in a bar similar to the one in 'Cheers!' before sharing a greasy burger and hitting the deck around 2am. The following day rained, rained and rained. We wandered the streets near Union Square but soon returned to movies in the room resolving to make the most of sunny periods that followed. We started to really see the city a day or two in and relaxing days of exploring streets, bars and cafes drifting into each other. Having found ourselves a local in an overpriced Irish bar, with homely music and delicious food, we had a base for our excursions and retired back here after days that included the famous and colourful gay district, Castro and a massive hike to the stunning Golden Gate Bridge, for endless photos and warming spicy tomato soup before waiting for about an hour for a bus that wasn't running. Well worth the sore feet and cold hands though as the bridge is stunning and so famous that it feels exactly like wandering onto a movie set. In fact, I think we read that it's the most photographed man-made structure in the world but don't quote me on that.
Alcatraz is the other infamous landmark in San Francisco and quite a thrill for me as I had no idea it was even here! You have to book this one in advance and so 3 days after we first wandered up to the pretty piers, we head out for our tour. Its $26 each for the boat and after the 15 min ride, we embarked on what is the coldest and harshest island I've ever stepped on, equipped with a $5 'Alcatraz' poncho. The tour involves a head set telling you stories of life on The Rock - which wall of cells were wind beaten and which offered sunshine, hashed escape attempts, isolation and how on New Year's Eve, if the weather was right, they could hear the music coming from the mainland. It's not a pleasant place but pleasant people didn't normally end up here and in 1963, due to the damage done by the climate, prison life ended here.
All in all, we spent just over a week in San Fran, longer than expected but in such a carefree city, it's easy to do and then on Thursday the 8th, Marty flew to Mexico and I flew to Canada.
Last stop...
