San Francisco



[30.01.11] Sunday: Drove into San Francisco today with Jen, Molly, Lily & Joe. Selena had Volley Ball practice. She is actually very good so Jen is forking out a small fortune for her to play club VB during the close season at the school cos if she doesn't she won't get back in the school team! Don't get me started on the schools here; that's just one observation I may at some point tear into Windsor High like I did Daryl!

 The trip had the duel purpose of giving myself and Joe a lift to the city (only homeless people get the bus in America) and, more importantly, take Molly to a dog show in Daly City. I have to say I was a little disappointed, I thought it was going to be all 'Little Miss Sunshine' with Dogs. Full of pampered, yappy little Bichon Frise's dressed up as former First Lady's. I think Molly was hoping the same cos even she was bored. Lily was so bored she tried to knock herself out by eating an entire carton of nacho cheese. It was  a much more normal affair than I give most Americans credit for plus there weren't even any funny pooing incidents so I'll move on.

Phallic dog toys



dog shortly after being groped





After the Show Jen dropped us off at the Hostel which was fine and in a good location a couple of blocks away from Union Square. The week prior when booking the room on the web I asked Joe 'Shall we get a private room or a dorm?' he was non committal so I said 'we should probably go for the dorm. I think we should try and meet people and it will be good practice for when we're proper travelling...you never know we might get lucky and end up in a room with 3 Swedish girls...then again we could end up in room with an old man that snores...' Not one but two snoring old men!!! and two German Lads, one was mute and the other was sound [Thomas].

That evening we decided to walk/hike to China Town. I don't need to tell anyone reading this that San Francisco is famous for its hills and I foolishly said to Joe at the bottom of a particularly steep one 'race ya to the top!' Turns out there are two ways to do a 'whitey' in California.

The dorm was good practice for travelling, Chinatown was good practice for China! Its an amazing place, very authentic sights and smells and no one speaks English. After the meal we decided to try our luck going for a drink. As Joe is only 18 we wondered if he'd have trouble getting served, he did, however after a few knock backs we ended up in a dive bar just around the corner from the hostel with a Korean barmaid that could barely speak English and probably didn't want the hassle of having to pronounce identification. It had a pool table and a duke box so all was good.

[31.01.11] On Monday morning we got up and went down for breakfast. In reception they had Sky Sports News on, we sat and watched in amazement as Torres was sold and Andy Carrol was bought! I actually thought at the time we'd bought Charlie Adam too, gutted we didn't get him.

Buoyed by a bit of shrewd business in the transfer market we went off to Alcatraz which despite being my 7th time in San Fran' I've never actually done before. It was well worth it and very interesting but I'm not going to bore you with the details; other than it was the reason the Spanish never discovered San Francisco bay. Apparently they sailed past it twice a year but never noticed it because the opening to the bay is only a mile wide and because of the position of Alcatraz in the bay it plugged the gap so to speak on the horizon! Also it was only a federal penitentiary for 30 years and its now Americas second busiest National Trust attraction.

That evening we walked/hiked to an area called north beach to try and find more bars, we found a few but none of them had more than 3 people in them (an improvement on the night before) so went to a liquor store and ended up back at the hostel playing scrabble (not in the Luke Traynor sense).

View of GG Bridge from Lincoln Park

[01.02.11] Tuesday we went for a cracking bike ride. The route took us up through Haight Ashbury, through Golden Gate Park to Ocean Beach, up through Lincoln park, through sea cliff, down through Presidio, over the Golden Gate Bridge and into Sausalito where we had pizza and got the ferry back to San Francisco. It was a beautiful day but there was a thick looming fog that sat just off the coast all day that made for some dramatic views.

I also got my architecture fill- I don't normally visit buildings when abroad unless I'm forced to, but two of my favourite architects Renzo Piano and Herzog & De Meuron have new buildings adjacent to each other in Golden Gate Park so they graciously made it very easy for me to visit them. I'm not going to harp on about architecture but they where both very impressive in very different ways, see for yourself...

 

H&M's de Young Museum

  

Piano's Academy of Sciences



When we returned to the hostel we were shattered so a quiet night was in order. There was a notice up in reception for a Poker night in the rec room with a $5 buy in so we decided to do that. I started off well but soon got bored. Myself and Joe decided that a woman at the end of the table had been consistently bluffing so we conspired to 'out bluff' her. Turns out she had a flush, me and Joe went to the cinema.

Went to see True Grit which was, as usual, good but over hyped and somewhat self indulgent for the Cohen Brothers. would you agree Mike?

Trans America Pyramid

[02.02.11] Wednesday. Basically we walked around the areas Joe had not seen yet and in particular I wanted to take him up the Bank of America Building where you get great views across the city. I did it once before with Rich years ago but unfortunately since 2001 America's paranoia hasn't abated and they still wont let anyone with a backpack into a tall building. We also went to see another of my favourite buildings now that i was suitably inspired: Mario Botta's MOMA! It was closed so we turned our attentions back to getting drunk.

Back at the Hostel that evening a guy from New York, Johnathan, did a sterling job of rounding up a group of us to go out partying in the Mission district. We were well up for it and I told Joe straight "If you don't get in to the bar I'm putting you in a cab home by yourself!" Joe got ID'd in the first place and we where left standing outside whilst everyone else had gone in.

Joe + One

I just didn't have the heart to leave him there so we walked down the road and soon came to a bar with no bouncer, we dove inside and Joe hid in a corner while i went to the bar. We must have been stood there for 5 minutes when a girl came over to us and started chatting, her mate had pulled so she was left standing there like a lemon and decided to talk to us. After I'd finished my beer I left Joe with her to run back to the first bar to tell everyone which bar we had gone to so they could come an join us when they were done. When i got back, well I'm sure you've all guessed, Joe was in a passionate embrace with a certain someone; so resisting high fiving him there and then i took myself off to the bar, got a round in and sat and waited... and waited. Joe eventually came over and said she wanted to take him to a bar over the road for cocktails so i said OK, I'll finish your beer and follow you over. After another 10 minutes it struck me that everyone else was having a great time in a bar up the road, Joe was obviously having a great time and here was me, sat at a bar by myself like billy no mates!

The rest of the gang eventually tuned up and we had a great night, we even went to another bar where Joe was ID'd only this time the bouncer couldn't be arsed to do the Math and work out how old he was!

I was talking to an Aussie couple most of the night who had the right idea, working for 6 months and travelling for 6! they'd even been to Liverpool! They said they loved scouser's and laughed at everything i said. It was a nice change.

[03.02.11] Thursday. Got the bus home- ran like clockwork and completely uneventful. Jen and Selena had missed us, Lily hadn't noticed we'd gone, Molly meow'd like a cat all night...