The Chapter in Your Life Entitled San Francisco

Insert your own captions about shrimp, fingers and
 inserting!

Dearest readers, What a great song title I found! I am sorry that I have been neglating you recently. San Francisco was just so so much fun. Let me explain why.

My first day in San Fran I decided to go for a walk and to explore what the place had to offer. I walked down from my hostel to pier 39. It is a famous pier amongst tourists and has lots of shops and restarunts on it that really define america. For instance there is a Bubba Gump restarunt there (from the film Forresst Gump). The best way to describe it is like a american version of covent garden as there are also street performers there. So I spent a good half day there haveing a look around. I then walked around to a nearby pier and saw a submarine that was involved in WWII and also a ship. Whilst I was there I brought my ticket for Alcatraz the following day.

San Francisco in all its glory!

I decided (stupidly) to walk back to my hostel. On the map it looked pretty straigt forward, only a few miles down one street. However this street was in San Francisco, a place that makes the great city of Bath look like a bowling green. It was so so hilly. By the time I got back to the hostel a pint was well needed. I had the 2 S's (S**t & shower - there is no shaving on THIS trip!) and headed down to the reception to ask about where was good locially to eat. Instead of just directing me to a place the biggest Korean man I have ever met said 'do you like Thai?', I replied that yes, I did and he just goes 'follow me' and walks out the door. After I have follwed him a few blocks we ened up at this amazing thai restarut. It tunrs out that he is the manager of the place. AWESOME customer service. When we get back it was time for drinks. Now there was a very clear reason why I chose this particular hostel. It was billed as a 'Party Hostel'. Oh, and it gave away free beer, every night!

Best photo I have take of my travels yet.
The 'bay mist' at Alcatraz!

So I head down to the nightclub that is in the basement of this place and drink. I met some awesome guys and girls. Specifically a aussie called Nige. He was a dude and shared the same taste in music. He was travelling alone and so very quickly became my drinking buddy for my time in San Fran.

The guarenteed hangover arrived on Friday morning. I managed to shake it off with a nice brisk walk to the pier for Alcatraz. That place was awesome. So many stories there. It was only $28 and for that you got your ferries there and back and as long as you want on the Island. I did the audio tour as well and what was good about it was that you could pause the tour and go off exploring and then come back to it. It was really intresting hearing all about the prison side of the island but also it was really good to hear all about the American Indian occupation that happend in the 70's as well. You can really see how it was near impossible to escape from it, but to quote a mate - we have all seen mythbusters! After Alcartaz it was back to the hostel, more free beer and staying up untill four in the morning chewing the fat and putting the world to rights.

. . . because if a Tsunami hit, I was thinking about going in
for a swim. Although by the looks of it, even higher ground
won't save that fella!

Saturday didn't happen. Well it did, I didn't do anything. I felt so rough that I took a 'rest day' and stayed in bed pretty much all day. Drinking happened in the evening though.

Feeling really bad at myself for the write off that was Saturday I decide that I would have to punish myself for the loss of a day. I decided to walk to the Golden Gate Bridge. Not just across it, but TO it. It was a 15 mile round trip, a 15 mile HILLY round trip. I am glad I did it. The bridge was amazing and I was really lucky that there was no fog covering it. It was a beautiful clear day. When I was halfway across it I noticed a cruise ship reversing (I know that isnt prper sailing terms) out of its 'parking place' at the marina in the city. I calculated that I could make it to the end of the bridge and back half way to see it go under the bridge. Boy am I glad that I did. It was such a experiance, those things are HUGE! Just as it passed under the Captain (got one term right) sounded its air horn. You could clearly see everyone waving. Really cool. So I walked a different way back, still hilly and I saw the crookedest street in the world and walked down that then back to the hostel. I felt like I became a man by walking so much and definatly made up for Saturday. My last night in the hostel was awesome. Me and Nige managed to get our iPods being played instead of the crap dance shit that was on and closed the night with Let it Be! Perfect.

I'm walking across THAT?!

So we head out for a ciggy and whilst we are avoiding the tramps that keep coming and asking for money/cigarettes/a good time we noticed this guy who has also come out of the hostel. He looks like a pretty decent chap, except he is dressed in a dragons costume. It looks like he has be sperated from a stag party. After chatting for a bit we discover that there is no stage party that is dragon-less. He just decided to quit his job on friday, take his savings and go travelling for 8 months, wearing a dragon suit. It was so bizzarr but honestly one of the best things that has happened to me here. He was really dead-pan. The americans just thought he was crazy, I know that he is a comedy genius. I asked him if he was going to see Alcatraz and he said no, as wild animals aren't allowed on the ferries. But then when I asked him his name, he said Paul! Thankyou Paul the Dragon. You were excellent!

T.A.R.D.I.S. - USA style!

So monday arivved and it was time to say good bye to the best hostel I have stayed in. I met up with Alex who I met at the hostel in NYC when she was looking for universitys there. She is from San Fran and it was really good to spend the day with a local. We walked the length of Golden Gate park. It is about the same size of Central park but seems more wild! After that we then caught a muni tram/bus/underground thing to the Baseball stadium where I STILL haven't seen the team that I am supporting win. The mighty Colarado Rockies were in town and having seen them before I had to support them really, much to Alex's disgust. The San Francisco Giants won 3-1 in what was really a pretty poor game. We then visited a few bars and then headed back to hers.

Today I woke, said my goodbyes and headed to the Greyhound station where I missed my coach by 15 min. I caught a later one, that was delayed, and also has no air conditioning. This is only a small inconveniance as we are heading through the most remote, dessert parts of California, where air conditioning is just a luxury!!! SO thankyou greyhound for making my last trip on you one of the best! (British sarcasm at its finest!) I will be getting into L.A. about 10ish now and then it another 20 min taxi to my hostel in Santa Monica.

GO ROCKIES . . . . . . I mean Giants Mr. Crazy Mexican
 Giants fan!!

San Fransico was awesome. I had such a good time. The city has a really cool feel to it that NYC didnt have. I think that I will definatly be back here. Next time though I will wear a flower in my hair!








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