City by the bay

I've been high

I've been low

I've been yes and I've been oh hell no

I've been rock 'n roll and disco

Won't you save me San Fransisco

I love New York - so it's no surprise that in September when I reached the end of my first stint in the city I realized that I hadn't seen much else of the country. Before I went back to Sydney I had to break out of my New York bubble. But where would I go? Easy. San Fransisco! 

To my delight Noodles decided to join me on my San Fran adventure and with that we were off!

We left early on a Friday morning. The flight over was fine, but by the time we arrived we were exhausted. Adrenaline kicked in and we were ready to roll. We dropped our bags off at the hotel and hit the streets. That when we saw it. Our first San Fran hill. It was hardly a hill and more of a 90 degree angle. We were going to need a rope and picks to tackle this. We did manage and were reward at the top by... another hill. Luckily the second had stairs cut into it. Phew! 

When we reach the local high (because in San Fransisco you can always see a higher peak in the distance) we discovered a magnificent view.

It is such a beautiful city. The streets are winding and house are so cute. They look like something out of a fairy tale. Bright colors, arches and hidden entries. Windows and walls covered in flowers and climbing plants.  I took so many photos because none of them could do the magnificent details of the city justice.

The father of all San Fran hills is Lombard Street. The famous stretch of the street has eight sharp turns to compensate for the steepness. The sharp turns in the street create an impressive and gorgeous site. At the bottom the the hill tourists crowd to take pictures. Cars line up for miles to make the drive down. As a result the traffic moves very slowly. One girl in a car descending the hill was hanging out of the sun roof screaming "Woooohooo" as the car crawled down... 

Having heard the view from the top of Lombard is amazing, Noodles and I were not satisfied with taking pictures from the bottom. We made the short, albeit steep, trek up. As we climbed two men walking back down warned us "It's not worth it! Go back now!"


They were wrong. It was worth it. Amazing. We had a view of the entire bay area. I took another million pictures.


The sun was out and the city was stunning. To bad it was freezing cold. We had been expecting something out Katy Perry's California Girls. Sunshine, warmth, seaside. What we got was an Aussie winter. "California lied to us." Clearly, we weren't the only people taken aback by the weather. Tourists flocked into souvenir stores coming out adorned in San Francisco branded jerseys, gloves, scarves and hats... and still looking cold. 

When cruising around on top a tour bus Noodles and I were forced to rug up with three blankets and scarves wrapped around our heads. I was surprised when the guide started his spiel with "It's such a nice day. This is about as warm as it gets!" We were going to need to stock up on scarves.

We learned later that San Francisco doesn't really have seasons. Because of the location of the bay in relation to the mountain range they experience micro climates. This means it might be sunny and warm in one place, but five blocks over there is a thunderstorm. 

Next stop was the Painted ladies at Alamo Square Park. 

A number of movies, television shows and commercials have been filmed in or around Alamo Square. The opening sequence of the American sitcom Full House (1987-1995) features a romp in Alamo Square Park with the famous row of Victorians in the background.[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alamo_Square

The park is lovely - something of a suburban dream. People walking their dogs and playing tennis. Birds singing... children laughing. The whole bit!

The "painted ladies" are a row of Victorian houses which can be seen from the park. They attract many tourists and are beautifully perfect. We learnt in our guide book that a lot of the Victorian houses in the area were destroyed in the 1906 Earthquake making these remaining houses all the more special. 

We spent a long time in the park discussing the houses and watching the people who live there come and go. The sun was wonderfully warm which felt amazing given how cold the day had been. We laid down on the grass for just a moment.... and fell asleep! A little crazy of us?

I took this as a cultural experience as San Fransisco has her fair share of interesting people. There is a huge population of homeless people and I found it very confronting. To a greater extent than in New York, in San Fran, homeless people approach people. They heckle and try to get attention. It's quite scary and on more than one occasion I found myself turning around or avoiding even busy streets because I felt uncomfortable. 

Of course, part of the appeal of the city is the crazy people... that is, pretty much everyone there. There is a quirky style to San Francisco folk and they have a loud, fun sense of humor.

One morning we saw this fat pigeon having a feast on the side of the road. He was eating about five broken up bagels. We watched and laughed for a while. The best bit was when a hippy looking guy stopped in his tracks and shouted very loudly - "Oh my god that fat pigeon is pigging out!"

I was very eager was to walk across the Golden Gate bridge. I'm not really sure why I had this dream. Probably too many sitcoms. Nevertheless, it's always been something I have wanted to experience. It's a beautiful bridge and just as stunning in real life. It's quite mysterious and often cannot be seen from a distance (or even up close) because of the intensity of the San Francisco fog. 


The bridge is actually quite far from the city center. We were staying at Union Square, and despite the long distance to Golden Gate park, we decided that walking was the way to go. The plan was to walk to and over the bridge, then across to Sausalito. Turns out it was a long walk. Over ten miles. Perhaps we were a little over ambitious. It was worth it though. Whilst the walk was long and cold, it was nice. It was a really interesting experience to walk the along the Golden Gate bridge suspended in the fog.

The most concerning part of the walk was the section between the bridge and Sausalito. It was along the highway and in the middle of nowhere. Perhaps not such a great idea...

Of course, no trip to San Fransisco Alcatraz would be complete without a visit to Alcatraz. Tickets must be purchased in advanced, so I had snagged us a couple a few weeks before. 

Alcatraz Island is an island located in the San Francisco Bay, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) offshore from San Francisco, California, United States.[1] Often referred to as "The Rock" or simply "Traz", the small island was developed with facilities for a lighthouse, a military fortification, a military prison, and a Federal Bureau of Prisons federal prison until 1963. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcatraz_Island

I was really excited about this. Alcatraz was one of the reasons I wanted to go to San Fran. The boat ride over was freezing cold, but really nice. We had a view of Alcatraz as well as of the San Fransisco skyline. I spent the trip ducking between the inside and outside parts of the boat. I would try and stay outside taking pictures until it was too cold to stand it anymore.

On arriving they give an introductory speech. There were free tours focused on different aspects of life in the prison. In addition there is an audio tour which was great. It was enjoyable and gave me a good understanding of the history and life of Alcatraz. It was not as eerie as I expected, but hearing the stories about the events that occurred in the prison certainly gave me shivers.

The food in San Fransisco is amazing! I did not have one bad meal. Everything was fantastic. The city has a reputation for great Asian food. There is a very impressive Chinatown and equally impressive Chinese restaurants. The queues for brunch more than rivaled those in New York and the options were cheap and delicious. As one would expect from the city by the bay the seafood was also really good - in fact it was the best ever and we found a really great range. The miserable weather made the clam chowder a perfect choice.

We made sure we saw everything the city has to offer... the seals that live at Pier 39...

Fisherman's Wharf...

...and a tram ride through the city.

The line for the tram was incredibly long. We waited for over an hour learning later that there are a number of tram stops, most of which do not have hour long queues.... Damn. At least it was a sunny!

On our last day in the city we walked through the financial district. We passed the San Fran office of our company and admired the parks and artworks creatively placed between the buildings. Given it was the long weekend it was very quiet and we had the area to ourselves. .

Noodles left the city the day before me and I spent some time exploring Union Square area, shopping and eating some more. I was more than ready to leave by the end and felt I had done a good job exploring and seeing the city.

At the airport I was pulled up at customs. The agent shouted out: "Stop that water smuggler!" Whoops... I guess I left that bottle of water in my suitcase - glad they recognized I was not a threat to national security. So, I made it back to New York after a great trip with no arrests. The city was completely different to what I expected, but all in all, I had a great time!