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I'm thinking I should wrap up my days in SF, seeing as I left a week ago (but look, the location still says San Francisco... so many lies). I started making use of public transport, and thus less walking up and down hills. Win. But still mucho exploring various parks and neighbourhoods (the Mission is probably my favourite, with art all over the walls and my favourite coffee shop, despite the atrocious spelling, Philz Coffee), and more drinking of irish coffees (my new hostel was just round the corner from Buena Vista, the place of the irish coffee from that last blog you enjoyed). I met up with Aly and her mum on the weekend and went to the California Academy of Science, where I enjoyed frogs. Seeing them, that is. Never tried eating them (all together now: "I am not actually French").
So I went to see a ballet for the first time. Seeing as San Francisco apparently has one of the best companies in the world, now/then seemed like as good a time as any to check it out. Onegin, based on the Alexander Pushkin novel, is a story of love, passion and betrayal, and it was moving, beautiful, exhilarating, and other words that you're supposed to use to describe ballet. The standing tickets are hardly the height of status and comfort, but at $20 a ticket and located right behind seats four times the price, an absolute bargain. Temporarily ignore the potential ethical issues highlighted by horror stories of bullying and anorexia that regularly plague ballet and enjoy the show, I say.
There was also the Alcatraz night tour, which was pretty cool; the sound of the doors opening and closing was simply chilling. The fact that the system to control the doors is entirely mechanical is mind-blowing to a child of the computer age such as me (or is it myself?), but not as impressive as the entirely mechanical baseball game I played earlier that day at the totally awesome Musee Mechanique. Priorities, people, priorities.
And that's all for North America, folks. I've been staying with my cousin in New Zealand for the last week or so, but that's for another day.
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Mark Freeston left as in fprgot/lost? or left as in needed to shed baggage? books, that is. Good photos!
Dominic the latter. I still brought about a dozen with me.