San Francisco

San Francisco is definitely one of my favourite cities in America. We arrived from an overnight bus at 5:30 and got a taxi to the hostel which was ace. It had free internet and the best free breakfast of bagels and coffee. When we eventually checked in to our room we fell asleep straight away as we were sp tired. For lunch we wandered in to china and found a cheap place to eat and looked around. We walked in to town and stopped at The Cheesecake Factory to get 2 massive pieces of cheese cake. Elliott got chocolate peanut better and I got chocolate brownie cheese cake with chocolate and almond sauce – ummm! We walked further in to town and got the cable car – the only one of its kind in the world, and got dropped off at the docks. San Fran is hilly to the extreme and it’s a mission to walk around. We had a look around the piers and then headed home, passing by the crookedest road in the world. That evening we bumped in to Steve – we had met in Fiji and Mitch –we had met Los Vegas, so decided to go out for a drink. We were surprised to find that last orders are early even on a Saturday night. We ended to just staying at the hostel playing pool.

The next day we agreed to meet our room mates that had just moved out in a local park for some football. From the park you could see the golden gate bridge which was nice. They then dropped us up a windy hill to Coit tower, which is the highest point on the skyline, where you got great views of not only the city and the docks, but also Alcatraz. We walked back down the hill and in to china town for some late lunch. One of the guys and Elliott went around some of the Chinese stalls to find dinner. That night the hostel put on a live music night, which was made up of the hostels talent – and was surprisingly good.

We planned to go to the aquarium the next day, booking our tickets to Alcatraz on the way. Ever since we started scuba diving we’ve definitely become more interested in fish. It was cool, 2 walk through tanks with plenty of sharks and rays, and a tank to touch the fish. For lunch I got the famous clam chowder – it tastes a lot like fishy mushroom soup served in a bowl made out of bread, but tasted really good. We checked out the sea lions on pier 39 and walked back to get to the hostel to get there in good time for the free dinner! We chilled out in the free sauna and got some lovely pasta and salad. By far the healthiest food we had eaten in America. I can see why they have such a problem here – fast food is absolutely everywhere and is so cheap.

Our last morning we pack our stuff up and went to the dock for our Alcatraz tour. You got a 20 min boat and you were there. There was an audio tour round the cell block where all the prisoners were kept – it looked pretty nasty. Then you could wander around the grounds and we went to a talk about the escapees and found there out there was actually one person, who made it make to the main land, but he was so exhausted, the police re-captured him as he reached the shore – harsh! It was really cool and interesting. Back on the main land we bought some nice fruit real cheap – some amazing mangos and star fruit, and headed to the greyhound to start the long journey to Portland.