So here we are, I've had another moment of inspiration and have decided to add another quick entry...
I arrived at San Francisco (SF) after an awful Greyhound bus trip. I couldn't believe that there was any need, on an 8 hour night trip, to stop at 3am at a roadside Burger King. But I'm obviously the only weird one as the entire bus trooped of to tuck into late night snacks! At least I made it although tired and headed down to the Mission District where I was booked into a nice hostel. The hostel kindly let me, after some persuasion, catch up on a bit of sleep before checking in!
I was instantly taken by SF. Firstly it was a comfortable temperature, or in fact a tad cold when the mist rolled in and secondly with narrower streets and great public transport, it felt much more like the European cities that I know and love!
I was lucky enough to have a list of hints and tips of things to do in SF and so set about ticking them off by exploring the Downtown area. I soon got board of this an decided to take a stroll back to my hostel. I had been warned that the Mission District was a bit dodgy, but I found it absolutely fine. I particularly enjoyed the small book shops and thrift stores along the parallel Valencia Street not to mention the great little bars along that route.
I realised my first evening in that the (then world champion) San Francisco Giants were playing a home series against the Arizona Diamondbacks that week. I managed to snap up a ticket for the next day...
I found a great little bar/cafe that night (Revolution Cafe between Mission St & Bartlett St), which was up there in my top drinking spots of the entire trip, it had nice beer and some great live music. Then again I think I probably just liked it because they played the whole of Five Leaves Left by Nick Drake shortly after I walked in but hey....
I spent the next few daytimes exploring the amazing districts of SF such as The Lower Haights, Chinatown, North Beach and also some of the obvious tourist areas such as Fishermans Wharf, where I went on a great boat ride around the bay.
So that second evening was my first trip to a real 'Ball game'! I have to admit I was underwhelmed, people didn't seem to arrive until well into the 3rd innings and left well before the end (SF lost). As such I found it was somewhat lacking in atmosphere. Anyway heres a pic:
I arrived at San Francisco (SF) after an awful Greyhound bus trip. I couldn't believe that there was any need, on an 8 hour night trip, to stop at 3am at a roadside Burger King. But I'm obviously the only weird one as the entire bus trooped of to tuck into late night snacks! At least I made it although tired and headed down to the Mission District where I was booked into a nice hostel. The hostel kindly let me, after some persuasion, catch up on a bit of sleep before checking in!
I was instantly taken by SF. Firstly it was a comfortable temperature, or in fact a tad cold when the mist rolled in and secondly with narrower streets and great public transport, it felt much more like the European cities that I know and love!
I was lucky enough to have a list of hints and tips of things to do in SF and so set about ticking them off by exploring the Downtown area. I soon got board of this an decided to take a stroll back to my hostel. I had been warned that the Mission District was a bit dodgy, but I found it absolutely fine. I particularly enjoyed the small book shops and thrift stores along the parallel Valencia Street not to mention the great little bars along that route.
I realised my first evening in that the (then world champion) San Francisco Giants were playing a home series against the Arizona Diamondbacks that week. I managed to snap up a ticket for the next day...
I found a great little bar/cafe that night (Revolution Cafe between Mission St & Bartlett St), which was up there in my top drinking spots of the entire trip, it had nice beer and some great live music. Then again I think I probably just liked it because they played the whole of Five Leaves Left by Nick Drake shortly after I walked in but hey....
I spent the next few daytimes exploring the amazing districts of SF such as The Lower Haights, Chinatown, North Beach and also some of the obvious tourist areas such as Fishermans Wharf, where I went on a great boat ride around the bay.
So that second evening was my first trip to a real 'Ball game'! I have to admit I was underwhelmed, people didn't seem to arrive until well into the 3rd innings and left well before the end (SF lost). As such I found it was somewhat lacking in atmosphere. Anyway heres a pic:
I was feeling a little city jaded by this point so I booked up a trip to Yosemite National Park for a few days, but I still had time to visit the secluded Japanese Tea Gardens and take a trek through Lincoln Park to catch some (misty) views of the Golden Gate Bridge. I also managed to catch a couple of great gigs just in case you we're missing my drinking exploits!
The trip camping and walking in Yosemite was bliss and although not much to talk about here's a couple of pictures:
Heading back to SF, I had only allowed myself about 8 hours for sleeping before my flight across to NOLA and my penultimate stop on the trip, but what a stop it was! Then thats another story.....
