San Francisco

We had to travel via LA to San Francisco so it ended up being a long journey. We took the megabus to LA, waking up in the early hours- oh I completely forgot, the journey to the bus terminal in Vegas was a nightmare. Judging by our bus ride in the opposite direction when we arrived a few days earlier, we thought it would take max 30 mins. We left an hour, but we got on a different bus to what we were going to get because the hostel gave us rubbish directions to the bus stop. Anyway, we hoped on the deuce which took us all the way there, in fact it was the last stop and we were so nervous as it was taking ages. When we arrived at 7:45am the bus was about to leave so we ran and just made it. So lucky!! In LA we hung round Union station and went to Denny's American diner for a few hours to kill some time. We picked the bus up again and got to San Francisco later than expected. We then caught the bus to the hostel and ended up walking in the wrong direction, but thanks to a map in the road we turned around and found our way there several minutes later. We arrived at Adelaide hostel at about 1am and after checking in, were greeted by a frail old lady in our dorm room. We told her to go to sleep, bless her! I've never seen an old woman like that in a hostel before! The next day she said she was moving hostels. 

The breakfast in the hostel was great: bagels, bread, homemade porridge with apple and sultanas, and fresh fruit. It was the best breakfast we've had all trip. The hostel is really homely and I would highly recommend it. The beds even have little curtains you pull close so you can have the best night's sleep!

We started our day by visiting Union Square, just down the road from our hostel. There was a massive Christmas tree and a nice skating ring. I guess that is the first hint of anything Christmassy. We then headed to Chinatown and had a walk through, bought some grapes of all things, and wandered up to Coit Tower, at the top of Telegraph Hill. There are some good views of the city from there. We wandered down and along the sea and visited Pier 39. There are loads of shops along the pier including the shop for left handed people, the magic shop and the shop that sells just magnets. We saw Alcatraz from the end of the pier and saw a bit of a magic show, which was no 'Penn & Teller'! We bought some fudge from the fudge shop and walked to Fisherman's wharf, booking the Alcatraz tour along the way for the following day. Fisherman's wharf was really busy and there were so many kinds of fresh fish on the stalls. It all looked delicious! There was a man on the street begging, who created quite an audience. There are loads of homeless people here, a lot more than LA even, which is really sad to see. Anyway, this guy had loads of branches with leaves on them, creating a kind of bush which he sat behind. He kept jumping out at people, and from our view across the street it created quite a funny show. Passers by understood what he was doing, and after the shock, they laughed and would donate some money. We then made our way to Lombard Street, which is a famous crooked street with eight turns, where cars are only allowed to drive one way. It was quite cool to see. The houses and gardens are all very well kept and the cars drive very slowly down the windy road. That evening we had our free chilli dinner in the hostel and chatted to some lovely Australians, two girls and a guy. I then skyped Mike, which was nice as I hadn't spoken to him on the phone for several weeks.

We got up early and walked to catch the ferry to Alcatraz. We arrived on the island, which is very close to the city. The view of San Francisco is clear and you can see how steep the city is. We began by watching a video of the history of Alcatraz then wandered around the main building, saw the prison cells, the dining area, kitchen, library, recreation area and remains of the living quarters for the workers and their families. The whole experience had become very touristy and there were loads of people there, but we had headphones which provided you with a self walking tour. The commentary was really interesting and it gave you a really good insight into what it might have been like here. Criminals such as Al Capone and Robert 'birdman' Stroud came to Alcatraz. Stories of escape attempts by the prisoners were talked about in the commentary. Even if the prisoners got out of the prison, the cold sea water and rough tide would never allow them to swim all the way to the coastline. We spent about three hours on the island and then left to go back to the mainland. We could see the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance, which I didn't realise was so far away from the centre of the city. We had a very late lunch and ate some soup and then headed back to the hostel as Jen and I weren't feeling well. We both had headaches- because of what, I don't know! That evening we ate a big burrito from around the corner of the hostel and booked buses and accomodation for later in the week and started to look into Peru after getting some good advice from a guy called Grant in our hostel, who had been in South America for a few months.

The following day the hostel told us it was the hottest day all week. We thought that we'd been really lucky with the weather and had had some very clear days. We hired a bike from a company around the corner, called Blazing Saddles, who had a deal with the hostel and we paid $15 each. In San Francisco there are specific bike routes so we cycled on those roads. We had a map and followed a route recommended by the hire place. We cycled to Alamo Square, a residential neighbourhood and park located west of our hostel and on a hill. There are some really nice houses around there and you can see some good views of the city. We also saw the famous 'Painted Ladies', a row of Victorian houses facing the park on Steiner Street. The architecture in San Francisco is very distinct and has great character to it. We then cycled through the Golden Gate Park, which was soooo big! It just went on and on and on. It was really pretty and green and there were loads of people out cycling, running and walking. As we were riding through the park the weather began to change: it was misty and cold. We got to the coast eventually and couldn't really see a thing, so stopped off at a tiny cafe to get a hot cup of tea and some soup. We knew we'd chosen to take the hilly route, but didn't anticipate how long and steep it was going to be! It just kept going and going forever. We eventually got to the Golden Gate bridge and couldn't see a thing! We decided to cycle over it and see if the fog had cleared at all on the other side. I'm so glad we did, because once we were on the other side we looked back and could see a great big area of fog that had hit San Francisco. The sun was almost setting, so the bridge looked a bright brick red. So the sun was going down and we still had to cycle back. We just kept going and eventually got there, exhausted, then had our free dinner at the hostel and went out to buy postcards and food for the next day. We packed, showered and despite everyone trying to persuade us to go out, we collapsed into bed!