San Francisco

What a bonkers place this is. I thought Venice Beach and LA were bad enough but this is even madder. Loads of people everywhere doing all sorts of things, completely unperturbed by anybody or anything else going on around them. In the space of a 40 minute walk downtown around where we are staying, Wilf and I were offered ‘good weed’, we walked through the middle of a drug deal ( literally) there was a fire with two big fire trucks attending, a beefeater chatting up a fire crew, a man was lying in the middle of the street at the feet of a police officer, while another man dressed in a city suit who wafted past and as he did so, we realised that he was wearing not suit trousers but the minutest shorts that showed off his arse cheeks, and high heeled boots.  And all in the city centre, not down some dark old alleyway hidden away from tourists or ‘ordinary’ people. And these were all unrelated things. The bloke who  remarked “ this is not’ Land of the Free’ but ‘Land of the freak” was spot on.

The boys turned up OK from Vancouver and were let through US Customs with only minor grilling. George apparently attracted a bit of attention for having a different haircut from his passport photo, but its not that different, and the photo is 5 years old. However, he later confessed that Wilf had chopped it in Vancouver, and used a pair of nail scissors and it was wild in spots, so maybe the bloke had a point after all.

It was tortuous booking into where we’re staying. So slow and so weary. Its a hostel right in the city centre - great location but staffed by a collective of weirdy beardies with an alternative sense of organisation. Nice people but not the most efficient. As a result, all five of us are in different dorms instead of the large private room that we booked.  Not a big deal, but a bit annoying.

The famous cable car system here ( the trams) is very cool. Just down the road from the hostel is one of the turn arounds. The car - and it is generally only one car in the city centre, not several coupled together - gets to the end of the line and is pushed onto a wooden turntable by the two turn around blokes. They then literally drag it round in a circle until its facing the other way, get their backs on it and shove it back onto the track until its ready to go back the other way. Very simple and very low tech.

We wandered down towards the waterfront where we stumbled across a demo. Apparently some rich builders are trying to build a huge condo there, charge mega bucks, increase area property values n the process  and price key workers ( fire, police, medics etc) out of San Fran.  So we had a chat with them, swapped stories about bastard politicians and property developers, then went on our way to Fisherman's Wharf.

It is an interesting place despite now being set up for tourists, but it's a place to see nonetheless. 

It's also where the sea lions hang out. Big fat noisy things that lie in the sun and fight and play and entertain anybody who cares to watch. They only appeared in San Fran Bay in 1990 after the 1989 earthquake but nobody is sure why. At first there were apparently only about 15 of them, but now there are a regular gang of about 300, which sometimes increases to 600 in winter. Something to do with a ready supply of fish from fishermen.

It's also the only way we were going to see Alcatraz, given that it is also closed down due to the government. Its just out in the bay - about 3 kms - from Fisherman's Wharf and the whole escape then swimming ashore idea seems very feasible - until you notice the currents and realise how cold it is in the drink. It's really windy and the sea temperature, even in summer only gets to about 14ºc. Add in the wind chill factor and the occasional shark, and you start to get a sense of the difficulty. That's why only five escapees were ever known to get away via the water, but as they were never seen again, nobody knows whether they actually made it and morphed into mainstream life, or whether the Bay got the better of them. Apart from Clint Eastwood of course - he was heard of again. 

But those prisoners did have a great view because the famous Golden Gate Bridge is just behind it. Built in 1937, its just over 1km long and takes 110,000 vehicles daily. Pretty busy. It always reminds me of the old cop shows though - Ironside and the Streets of San Francisco.

Its quite hilly up behind Fisherman's Wharf, which wasn't a surpass as San Fran is known for its very steep streets. But there is steep and steep. And the streets up there are very steep, Lombard Street for example, has a 27% gradient. This was also where the Hitchcock film ' Vertigo' was partially set; James Stewart is a cop who gets retired because he's been up on the roofs up there chasing a suspect and starts to suffer from vertigo. And no wonder really.....

But there are great views over the Bay from up there, although its quite a climb from the bottom. You can take a street car but the queues are long and anyway, we all needed a bit of exercise.

The houses up there are impressive too, clearly built by wealthy merchants. They're nice old Victorian era weatherboard jobs, with verandas and they're big. 

After getting to the top of the hill, we wandered down through Chinatown. It was actually very like real China but nowhere near as crowded and the streets were much wider and newer of course. But the same stalls, the same music, the same people. It was odd to be so far away yet it be so familiar.

By the time we got back to the hostel, our feet were falling off so we had a drink, dossed about for an hour, went out to eat just down the street, then went back to the hostel and vegetated. More walking is on the cards tomorrow though. Gonna need a new pair of shoes at this rate.