My last full day in San Francisco today.... Boooo!!!!
Met Josh in the hostel and we decided to go out for breakfast, so where should we go in San Francisco? I know!! The cheesecake factory!! I was good and got some Asian salad thing but Josh had a burger and did nothing but moan about how sick it made him feel all day: men!!
Then I dragged him to Castro: Castro is a neighbourhood in San Francisco and is most famous for being the first and largest Gay and Lesbian neighbourhood in the United States. Harvey Milk who was the first openly gay man to be elected to public office famously lived here and Sean Penn played him in the film 'Milk' so I wanted to come here.
Also, the fact I'd seen naked men sat around Castro on my bus tour made me want to go back and get a picture for evidence haha. It's an awesome area where everyone is completely chilled out and it just feels fun as soon as you walk down the street; we checked out a few key areas like the plaque that's there for Harvey Milk an what was Castro Camera.
I wish I had time to come back here at night time because I bet you'd have such a good alcohol filled night... I'll be back one day I'm sure!!
Next stop was a quick walk round Chinatown where I decided to buy a mini samurai sword, huh, a what?!? Yep, a mini samurai sword! I have no idea why, and it gets worse, it's not even cool, think letter opener and you're closer to visualising what this thing looks like, I guess it has a story now though and who knows I could decide that one of you would love this as a present.
I'm not sure if it was the impulsive sword buying or the convention he was due to attend, but Josh left at this point!
My plan was to now take the cable car up to Lombard street, which is the world's crooked-est street but alas, the cable cars were having some cable related problem and were due to be down for the next few hours; I got my map out, jumped in and decided to get the bus up to Fisherman's Wharf where I could walk to Lombard Street.
The next twenty minutes of my life were where I really started to realise just how hilly San Francisco is; I thought I'd lost a lung half way to Lombard Street: I survived, go me!
It was certainly a very crooked street; I took pictures, I ooh-ed, I Ahh-ed and then had a nice gentle walk downhill to Fisherman's Wharf. It's a really fun cool area, with stuff going on everywhere you turn: there's restaurants, bars, arcades, shops, people dressed as superman, man dancing with a puppet, live bands and rapping on the street.
I'd rang home so was having a chat to the mother and little sister while I walked around; by the time I got off the phone it was nearly time to be at the pier for my Alcatraz tour so I walked down to the right pier (there's a lot) and waited for my boat, excitement!!!!
We had to pose for a picture before getting on the boat, which of course is never embarrassing when you're on your own *cringe* then got on the boat to go over to the island. On the way over they told us a little bit about the history of Alcatraz and how it was actually a prison for prisons, so if someone was misbehaving in prison they would be moved to Alcatraz and would have to show they could be controlled for 30 days. We then anchored at the side of the island and were separated into groups for our tours.
There's quite a few steep hills up to the main building on the island and as we all wheezed and grunted ourselves up the hill, the guide told us all about how this is exactly how all the inmates would be transported into the prison. When we entered the prison we were all given headphones and a digital player to provide an audio tour of the prison: it started by telling me all about the cells and how people were brought into the prison. It went on to describe how black inmates were treated differently, all about the recreation time, meal times, library time and finally talked about the big escape from Alcatraz; during all these they actually had segments recorder by past officers and prisoners giving their views on different situations. It was really informative and interesting but for me it was just super cool to be stood where they filmed 'Alcatraz' and 'the rock'.
After the audio tour were some talks and stories given by the guides on the island; the first one was about the most hated man on Alcatraz who used to get special treatment by grassing up other prisoners and then the second story was all about a man who was linked to Bonnie and Clyde and was the only man to ever break into Alcatraz after previously escaping!!
One of the interesting things about Alcatraz is that the prisoners were told they would never escape as the water was too cold, San Francisco was too far away and the sea was filled with sharks; interestingly a girl as young as 7 has since swan from Alcatraz to San Francisco so the prisoners were kept there by fear of the water.
It was now time to head back to the boat as I didn't want to get back to San Francisco too late because of the sketchy area I was staying in, and it was at this point I first saw the amazing view of San Francisco and it became apparent how tortured the prisoners must have felt to be so close to land yet so far away.
I got the bus from the pier back to the city centre; the buses were completely rammed and I ended up talking to an American couple after they commented that I must be a local as I looked completely unstressed. Guess all that practice on the London underground paid off haha. We ended up talking about where we were both staying and I mentioned I was staying in the Tenderloin, which they knew wasn't the best area.
As I stepped off the bus, they handed me $20 and told me to get a taxi back as they didn't feel comfortable letting me walk back alone.
I know, I know, you wouldn't believe this but Mum, I guess people are looking out for your daughter and when people see a girl travelling alone they want to look after her especially if they have a daughter, like this couple did.
I thanked them a lot, went back to the hostel, chatted to a girl from England and then crashed out in bed.