USA: California: San Francisco

(Post by Colin)

Hi All,

Kizzy and I are currently in Santa Barbara. We are not really doing anything here except catching up on the blog and planning for the next legs of the trip in Central and South America..

We did however have a really great few days in San Francisco and this fine city merits a blog post all of it's own..  I was really excited as we drove up to the Golden Gate bridge..

arriving at Golden Gate Bridge

First sight of the GG bridge

Crossing the GG bridge

When we were looking for somewhere to stay in SF - we realised that this was not a cheap city and most central hotels charged $40 + a day extra for parking - of course if you are only there for a few days you want to be close to the  main city areas.  It was for this reason that we chose to stay at the Phoenix....

Phoenix sign

Pool in the courtyard

The bar...

Apparently a motel  stayed in by the likes of  Keanu Reeves, Little Richard, the Killers etc etc...  ( We are sooooo cool huh ;-) )  Still not cheap - but streets ahead of the others in the same price bracket in terms of quality..  and this one included parking.   There is of course.... a reason for this... see the marketing spiel  description from their website below...

"Funky, irreverent, and young-at-heart, The Phoenix isn't for everyone. It's at the edge of the gritty Tenderloin neighborhood........"

Of course we checked it out and read reviews and we thought what the hell - we are Londoners after all - we can handle anything.. And  of course it was fine - basically a few gritty streets to be avoided with more tramps/winos than the average street- but who generally appeared to have  no interest in the people around them..  Perhaps it also made for a more rounded view of the city.. 

Oh  yeah... when we were leaving we noticed a warning sign on our room door which said something like..

'Warning: This building is known to contain substances that are deemed hazardous to health by California state health officials. Specifically these materials cause cancer, can interfere with fertility etc etc'

Of course no mention of that at all when  booking the place... We guess its asbestos..  Ho hum.. I'm sure we will be fine...

On Day 1 we arrived in SF around midday  - dropped off our bags and decided to take a walk into town towards Union Square which is kind of like a SF Trafalgar Square -  a tourist trap hotspot... fairly pleasant - but with all the big brand name shops around..

Us by the heart in Union Square

 There are lots of trams - the one in the pic is a touristy one - but there are many standard looking ones taking people up  and down the long  and steep hills of SF.. I have to say these trams are powerful beasts  - they really have to be to get up  some of the hills..

SF tram

We didn't hang around long at Union  and began heading  up some of those long steep hills towards  Fishermans Wharf another touristy area...

SF street

Fisherman's Wharf Hotdog Stand

Fisherman's wharf

Fisherman's wharf tourism..

Free show - escape artist

Alcatraz boiler suit..

The best thing about this area was that there was some nice views and  we could see Alcatraz.. Unfortunately you need to book up months in advance to actually take the Alcatraz tour but well we thought we could leave that till our next SF trip..

Alcatraz

Col & Kizzy + random with Alcatraz

After we headed to Green street - the Italian area where a very helpful local recommended several places to eat..We went to an amazing Italian restaurant  called Ideale with possibly the best Italian food we have ever eaten.

Day 2 - our only full day in SF.  We decided to try to do as much as we possibly could by walking through as many of the neighborhoods that we could.  We started by walking from our motel to the Mission district and the  Clarion alley . This area is very well known for it's wall murals and graffiti, it's Latino culture and it's music !

It took us a good while to get there and we were looking for the graffiti and street art and could not find it - so we popped into a friendly looking cafe to  ask.  They were very unhelpful and not friendly at all and seemed to have no idea about the area..  I wanted to leave but nature was calling and I decided to use their loo (washroom in American speak) and the guy told me to just go.. It seemed to be locked and so I told the proprietor and he said "must be someone in.."  10 mins...15 mins... 20 mins later.. he said  "ah yeah you need a key.  He said - just check that there is no one in there.  I knocked and said "anyone in" and got no response.  Th  proprietor then gave me the key and I proceeded to unlock the door only to  find that it was not empty ! and not such a fine perfume either..  I quickly shut the door apologising....  The  proprietor ( I felt chuckling under his breath) said  - ah forgot about him - he's deaf  ! 

Anyway we eventually found the good parts of Mission and we were not disappointed....

.

We have so many street art and graffiti pics from SF. If you are interested you should really check out the Picasa Album - link at the end of this blog..

We carried on from there towards the Castro district. This is one of Americas first and best known gay neighborhoods.

By this time my beard was starting to annoy me  and needed tidying up and my hair needed tidying up also  and this seemed as good a time and place as any.... ( PS - I am only showing these pics - because Kizzy is forcing me to as she thinks quite rightly no doubt that it will get a laugh !)

 We carried on from here towards the famous Haight Ashbury... home of the hippy counter culture in the sixties and now a bit like Camden market in London with lots of quirky shops and restaurants..

and more  street art/graffiti...

.. but perhaps the most interesting experience we had whilst in the  district was visiting the Red Victorian B& B and Peace Center/Cafe and meeting the 90+ yr old owner  and artist/philosopher Sami Sunchild.

Sami Sunchild

 This  place seemed to fit into what  in my imagination we could have expected in a Haight Ashbury of the 60's/70's ..An interesting woman and an interesting place...

The evolutionary personality by Sami ( is it you?)

 Next up was a walk through  the Golden Gate Park - another enormous city park which leads to the  beach and the sea and then beyond there to trails with amazing views of the Golden Gate Bridge.. Absolutely gorgeous..

We finished off the day with a lovely Japanese sushi meal and then went back to the motel completely knackered having walked a good portion of the city...

I want to finish off this post just taking a moment to reflect on the city and showing a few more pics.  San Francisco had some amazing architecture, amazing street art and food.  It seemed a vibrant city but one that needed alot more time than we could give it in order to discover its soul..  I was sure that it was there to be found...  Kizzy was less sure...

There was a lot of homeless people not just in the area we stayed but in general  everywhere you looked.  Many are young people..   Actually this is a theme of California so far...  Not sure if it is the temperate climate or if it is showing something else.. 

We have heard this week about the  London riots and we wish all the best to all of our family  and friends  and hope it all dies down soon.

Please click here for the Picasa Album.

Love ya'll

Col & Kizzy