San Francisco

Everyone raves about San Fran, saying it is one of the coolest towns in America. There's so much to do there, everyone is really cool, rah rah rah... Well, unfortunately, we beg to differ. It's not a bad town, but it didn't rock for us, unless we missed something that everyone else experienced here!

We arrived around 9pm (after a 5 hour flight with American Airlines who made us buy our own lunch, tight wads). We'd booked a hostel in the Mission District which the Lonely Planet assured us was one of the cool, hip areas, with lots of groovy bars and clubs.

We were put in seperate rooms at the hostel as they didn't have 2 beds in the same room. The guy at reception said one of us would be unlucky and have to share a room with 11 actors. I didn't see the problem with this but the reception man seemed to think differently. Obviously I was the unlucky one and as I walked into the room I was greeted by a number of people who all wore black and white and had a load of white make-up on too. Interesting. It was soon explained that they were all actors in a silent black and white play and had been rehearsing that evening. They all had rather loud voices and talked a lot but I was saved by Laura who said there was a spare bed in her 4 bed dorm.

We went out for a burrito that evening, as that was all there was to get at midnight, and then retired for the evening.

(Laura Says:
I wouldn't say that we felt completely intimidated when we arrived the 1st night, although I can confirm that we are both able to jog the half mile from the subway to the hostel with 3 rucksacks & a wheelie suitcase.

Things have been made a little easier by the free litre bottle of wine we were given by some English guy who was leaving our hostel.

& can further confirm we are still able to jog with 3 rucksacks, a wheelie suitcase & a litre botlle of wine )

We spent the day wandering around, booking rental cars and hikes into the the Grand canyon. We explored the Mission a little but didn't really feel safe wandering around in the evening, it's not the nicest of areas and the lonely planet does warn that the area between 16th St and 24th St BART stations (exactly where our hostel was located) was a dodgy area and care should be taken. Wished we'd read that first!

So we moved to another hostel pretty sharpish, which was closer to Union Square and the main shopping area (hoorah!). We're still not in the best area (just next to the Tenderloin which also happens to be under the 'Dangers and Annoyances' section in the LP!) but it's easier to get around on foot from here.

There are a lot of homeless people here and a lot of weird people too. You get a lot of people talking to themselves or shouting randomly at people or just doing handstands on beer bottles on the corner of the streets.

(Laura says:
The don't talk to strangers moto comes in very handy here!
We were chatting to a guy in the hostel the other night who told us that the local goverment really look after homeless people in the city of SanFra,n hence it attracts such high volumes of destitute people.
The amount of them I've seen drinking from brown paper bags, I can only imagine they're offering away free booze, I ignorantly replied, whilst pouring myself another drink from our free litre bottle of wine)

The last few days we've been the typical tourists!

Saturday we took a tram up the Fisherman's Wharf. We bagged an external seat so that we could take it in turns to stand and lean out as they climed the hills, which are very steep.

We had a wander round this area and booked our tickets for Alcatraz the next day. There's lots of tat shops around here, selling everything any tourist may want and lots of cafes selling clam chowder in a big bread bun. Not tried it yet.

We then took a walk through China town. Why does every big city have a China Town? They definitely get around the Chinese! We sampled some free tea and then went to visit the Cable Car Museum as it's free and surprisingly very interesting. You can see all the big cables that are pulling the cable cars around the city and there's a bit of history about the city, especially on the big earthquake which happened in 1906 and destroyed most of the town. We then rolled back down the hills to the hostel.

That evening we watched Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds outside in Union Square for free. (You'll be noticing that free stuff features quite frequently in our days!)

We visited Alcatraz which was pretty cool. The cells in there are really small. We took an audio tour around the prison and heard from some of the guards and ex cons that spent time there. A lot of the island and buildings are under repair as they are crumbling but the prison itself is still in pretty good nick.

We saw the crookedest street and took the obligatory photos.

We then hiked right across town to see some Shakespeare in the park as we are highly cultered individuals darling. We saw the Golden Gate bridge, well some of it, as a lot of it was covered by the constant fog that seems to hang over San Fran. We watched the last act of the Tempest without having any clue of what's it's actually about (I didn't do that one at school!) and then ran off before they came around with the donation bucket and walked back along Union Street which is a really nice area. Hang out around here if you come to San Fran!!

Yosemite Park
We booked ourselves on a tour day trip to Yosemite National Park which:

"Not just a great Valley...

but a shrine to human foresight, the strength of granite, the power of glaciers, the persistence of life, and the tranquility of the High Sierra.

Yosemite National Park, one of the first wilderness parks in the United States, is best known for its waterfalls, but within its nearly 1,200 square miles, you can find deep valleys, grand meadows, ancient giant sequoias, a vast wilderness area, and much more".

They picked us up in San Fran and took us back to the hostel just outside the park (this journey took 3.6hrs, this country is massive). We spent the afternoon swimming in a little river and laying on the beach and then did some mountain biking down a high windy road. My bicycle skills were not as dire as last time I am pleased to report!

(Laura says:
The 'high windy road' was pretty steep, stoney with loads of switch backs, so I can confirm that J9's 'bicycle skills' are exceptional - as far as squeezing your left hand on the back break like your life depends on it go!)

The next day we were up early for our trip into the park. First stop was a walk up to the see some trees. Now, I really enjoyed my time in New Zealand but they were pretty obsessed with their Kauri trees and it seems that America are equally obsessed with their Giant Sequoias. Yep, they're pretty big trees but both Laura and I feel that we've seen our fill of trees and prayed that the whole day wouldn't revolve around tree spotting! We did walk through the one that they carved a big hole in to attract the tourists (and yes, someone did ask if it was natural or a man made hole...)

We then had a walk up to the top of a big granite rock called The Sentinel, where you get a really stunning view of the valley and all the high peaks etc. We had lunch there and asked our guide various questions whose replies always included the word probably.

"Is that a bush fire over there Douglas?"

"Yes, that's probably a bush fire" Then Douglas stands up to get a better view of the fire, "Yes, yes, that certainly looks like it's probably a bush fire"

Excellent! Good to know that our guides are so knowledgeble and so certain in their knowledge. From then on we tried to read all the information plaques so that we were sure we were getting the correct information!

The last hike we did was to the top of the Nevada Falls. It's 594 feet high and so there were a lot of steps to climb but the view from the top was pretty good.

(Laura says:
Would just like to point out that these 'steps' up to the falls are not your average 'steps' they are pretty deep & when you're only a 28" leg they are GIANT! However, being as athletic as we are now J9 came in 1st & I came in 3rd which wasn't bad going - 2nd was some 8ft South African guy with a 4ft inside leg)

It was a good day but perhaps a little too long spent in the car driving from place to place. We didn't see any mountain lions or bears although one bear did, allegedly run right in front of our van but only the driver saw it. We did see lots of squirrels though...

More photos have been added....

http://www.travellerspoint.com/photos/gallery/users/J9travels/

Next stop, San Diego