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After 3 months of working full time, trying to save money and still have a good time, planning, organising and booking everything, none of us could quite believe that our California trip was actually here. At 5am on Tuesday morning, the 8 of us (Aimee, Sam, Fran, Craig, Owen, Amanda, Abs and I) set off for Washington Dulles Airport, where we would be catching our Virgin America flight to San Francisco, something that Craig seemed to be more excited for than the actual trip, as on the flight we could watch American TV and order drinks and snacks from our own TV screens, it was pretty cool. After a 5 and a half hour flight, we arrived in San Francisco, collected our bags (and waited for Aimee's bag to be brought to her as she had left it on the plane!) and we headed to the hostel. After we had settled in we spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the shops downtown and getting acquainted with San Francisco. We then went for dinner at Lori's Diner which is a really cool 50's styled American diner and following that we headed back to the hostel and went straight to bed as it had been a long day.
The next morning, we woke up bright and not too early, made pancakes for breakfast in the hostel and headed out to catch the tram to Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf. To us all, Pier 39 reminded us so much of Ocean City, there was a carousel, all the tourist shops you found in Ocean City and even the boarded floor reminded us of the Ocean City Boardwalk, it honestly felt like we were still there. On Pier 39, we spent our time wandering around the shops picking up a few souvenirs; we saw the sea lions and then found somewhere to go for lunch. After lunch, we hopped on the bus and went to Coit Tower, which provided an amazing view of the whole of San Francisco. To go back downtown, we hopped on the street trams, we were all gobsmacked when the driver told us to literally stand on the edge and I definitely thought I would fall off, but it was such a fun experience, and worth every penny. Once downtown, I then met up with Violaine, a French girl who I became friends with when studying in France, she is in California to do her year studying abroad (of course I am extremely jealous). We went to the Financial District and saw the famous Transamerica Pyramid Building and the even more famous hilly roads of San Francisco. We also went in this really posh hotel called the Mark and went to the Top of the Mark for another amazing view of the city. After this, I met back up with my friends and we went to the famed Chinatown area of San Francisco, using the street trams again (our new favourite way to travel). We found a nice Chinese restaurant and had dinner there; it was only after we found out that no one was really a massive fan of Chinese food.
On Thursday morning, we had booked to go to see Alcatraz, the famous high security prison which closed in the 60s. It was a beautiful day and we were all glad to see the sunshine, although it was still much colder than the weather we had become used to in Ocean City. We caught the ferry up to the island and walked up the hill to the prison, the views were incredible, we had 360o views of the whole of the San Francisco Bay and it was so hard to imagine that we were standing in a place that was once one of the harshest living environments. We picked up our audio tours and began walking around the prison, the cells were so bare and minimal and the whole place just had such a chilling feeling about it. The audio tour was very interesting, the best part of it was the fact they had used real stories from former prisoners and officers. The most shocking stories were those of the failed and successful escape attempts, it was unbelievable the intelligent and carefully crafted out plan the prisoners used to escape, as this was a prison isolated a mile away from the shore. Whilst at Alcatraz, I had my first glimpse of the famous Golden Gate Bridge, we were so lucky it was such a clear day as we were all worried that it would be foggy on the days we were in San Francisco and that we wouldn't be able to see the bridge. After Alcatraz, we found a deli and bought food for a picnic lunch, then we walked up hill to much complaint from certain members of the group to see the famed twists of Lombard Street. This section of the road is one block long and has eight tight turns in the road going downhill. After this we continued walking for a bit longer and then eventually caught the bus to the Golden Gate Bridge. We took our compulsory snaps of the bridge and of course the group picture. It was really windy there, but it was amazing to see the famous bridge. We then walked over part of the bridge before turning back as we did not fancy walking the whole 2 miles there and then 2 miles back. We again saw the most amazing view of San Francisco from the bridge. We then hopped back on the bus and went to Alamo Square to see the famous Painted Ladies which are a row of very quaint painted Victorian Houses. After our packed day sightseeing, I felt satisfied that I had seen San Francisco and was ready for the next adventure.
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