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San Francisco! My 9 hour train journey was easy enough to get to San Fran mainly slept on the train and wrote the last blog so the time passes pretty quickly. I made my way to the hostel and after getting pretty lost (again - its pretty standard thing now). San Fran looked like a pretty cool place with lots of street entertainers and street shops. My hostel was right in the middle of the financial district area where most of the main hotels are which was good because it meant that everything was pretty accessible. I got my stuff sorted and met the other guys in my room, Justin was a lad from London and Masser was an older guy from Japan - it was a Sunday night so the hostel told us that everywhere would be pretty quiet but we headed out for a couple of drinks (in all fairness I hadn't had a beer for 48 hours so needed one) we made it to an Irish bar for a bite to eat and then took a walk around and ended up in this tiny little Chinese bar with an overly excited waitress there which was pretty mad. We moved on to a couple of other bars where there was some live music - light, classic rock, bit of jazz and country music which was pretty cool before moving on to another bar where there was this guy playing a piano. We headed back about half 1ish and crashed out - they were both pretty cool guys.
My first full day in SF and I headed straight for the golden gate bridge - it was a gorgeous day and pretty hot (apparently not usual in San Fran) so was a great day to do it. it's a spectacular bridge just for its sheer size and there was loads of people crossing it. You get some great views of the SF bay area, Alcatraz and all that stuff so was really good. I didn't realise that it was such a suicide hotspot as there was like a suicide help hotline every 100 meters which was pretty weird. I headed back across the bridge and went down to the golden gate park which was really nice its got a big botanical gardens, a couple of museums and the first ever Japanese tea house in the states which was pretty cool. I headed back to the hostel after a long day doing a lot of walking and got a bite to eat. The hostel put on a historical walking tour which was very interesting and then Me and Justin headed for a few beers in the Mission area of SF which is apparently a bit more of a lively area outside the weekends and ended up in this like biker place with heavy rock music playing, it had a big selection of California beers and a huge beer garden so did the trick perfectly. We met this random Danish guy - rasmus who had just arrived in san fran jumped in a cab and headed to the nearest bar, he was pretty cool and took us to a nightclub that he had been 'told about'. Now as San Francisco is the gay capital of the northern hemisphere and on average one in six people are homosexual I can't really say that I was too surprised that we ended up in a gay bar, apparently during the week they get a bit more of 'straight' crowd, it didn't really matter as it was pretty dead but it was open late and served beer so worked for us. Surprisingly there were a few straight women in there so we were able to entertain ourselves there. We headed back to the hostel and got some food in a late night diner which was amazing (probably tasted like s*** but we were pretty drunk and didn't mind) . We met up with some random people in the hostel common area who were pretty cool and stayed up chatting to them till about 5 in the morning which was a bit stupid as I had to be up early for the Alcatraz trip tomorrow!
So had to get up early and I was feeling pretty rough built I had to get down to Alcatraz as I was apparently pretty lucky to get tickets as they usually sell out way in advance. It was a really cold and overcast day in SF (apparently more like their usual type of weather).Alcatraz was a really creepy but wonderful place, you do an audio tour of the cellblocks and learn about prison life and what it was like to stay there, definitely not somewhere you would want to stay for too long!! It was a shame that it was overcast as otherwise you would get some great views of the golden gate bridge and bay area. It was a really good trip though and something I would recommend if your ever in the San Fran area. I was over in Alcatraz for about 2 hours and then headed back to the hostel to have quick nap before meeting up with they guys that I had met randomly in the hostel the night before. The British girl, Kat, really wanted to go to Castro which is a very famous gay area in SF so we all had to go down. There was 3 girls and 3 guys and we probably stood out like a sore thumb but we made our way down there. Our first stop was this classy little wine bar which was good, it was quiet enough that you could chat. After a few bottles of wine we headed on to Q-Bar which was a lot more an overtly gay nightclub which was quite funny, there was a real mix of people in there , a few baldy dressed transvestites but you can't really complain about the atmosphere in there as everyone was having a good time. It was a bit of a con that women got half price drinks so we just got the girls to buy our drinks. It was definitely an experience but we all had a good night. Matt had a bottle of vodka back at the hostel so we headed back and stayed up drinking and chatting there again until about 5 in the morning!
The next day I felt pretty bad and ended up sleeping in till about 12, a bit of waste of a day but I needed the sleep. This was my last full day in San Fran so I headed up to Fisherman's Wharf which is right on the edge of the bay ( a little east from the Golden gate bridge). I walked through Chinatown to get there which was cool, loads of different shops and stuff, I took a walk to the top of Coit tower which gives you a good view of the rest of the city (it was a bit of nicer day so you got half decent views if everything). Fisherman's Wharf is a real touristy area but was good fun, they have loads of tours, museums, shops, restaurants and bars around. I went to this old school arcade museum which had all the old amusements from the piers on there which was a bit strange. They had an old WW2 submarine moored up quite randomly but you couldn't seem to get on there. I headed over to the Ripley's Believe it or Not museum which was a lot of fun, they had some really strange stuff there and I did believe most of it…. I headed up to 'Crookedest Street' which is a very random winding road in the centre of San Fran, don't really know what it was about but looked pretty cool. It was pretty late in the day so I headed back to the hostel for some food and met up with Justin, it was the last night for the both of us and he was meeting up with two girls that he met travelling before that live in San Fran so we all went to the North Bay area which is where all the richer people in the area and went to a couple of nice bars around there. I was pretty shattered still so kept it fairly quiet and the two girls had to be up for work the next day so we left about 12 ish for bed. San Fran was a lot of fun it's a very laid back town and there is a lot to do, ideally I would have liked to have stayed one more day as there were a couple of bits that I didn't have time to do. But I am Vegas bound after SF so am very excited about that…. Hopefully I'll be able to do another blog, that's if I haven't gambled all my worldly possessions…… take care!
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