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The adventures of Feather
San Francisco, home of all things bohemian and anti establishment, home of jazz and blues and the anti american dream, home of free spirited americans, who travel overseas and tell everyone they are canadian!! and home of hundreds of crazies and bums, as they call them out here! A week in San Fran and you understand Thomas Hardy's saying that the coldest winter he has ever had is a summer in San Francisco. It may be California but it certainly isn't golden beaches and LA sunshine. Brrrrrrr. But what is does have is culture and cool and soul. My first stop in this beautiful city was Alcatraz. Ferrying over wtih spectacular views of the city behind you approach the island and despite the other visitors milling around its instantly chilling. They have done nothing to it really since it closed so you wander the concrete halls, peering into the tiny cells and feeling the wind howl through the windows. Hearing all about famous escapes - 3 men left but were never found they are presumed dead, the chill of the icy waters in the bay to have killed them. You can stand in the hole, the smallest , darkest cells where prisoners were sent to be isolated- hearing how one man ripped a button off his shirt and spent 3 weeks throwing it onto the floor and finding it again, over and over, to remain sane in the darkness is particularly chilllng. You see the gun galley where the guards patrolled and the exercise yard where the views of the bay and the real world of the city are fantastic and thoroughly miserable to those imprisoned. Another remarkable thing about San Fran is the fog. On the sunnniest of days, and there have been a few! it just descends and you can stand and watch it creeping over the bay. Really quite eeerie. And so the rest of my visit here has included watching the seals at the pier wrestle and shove each other over sunbathing space, admiring the fabulous artwork of the houses, victorian facades in a million colours, marvelling at the steepness of the hills and the rickety old cable cars that creak up and down themrevealing spectacular views of the city and bay as they go. I have also been to a baseball game, San Francisco Giants, yay! it was very like softball but with men in tighter trousers and a plethera of greasy snack food to chow down on.. mmm bagel, pretzel, corn dog, hot dog, popcorn, root beer, normal beer, soda... Americans eat large and they eat well! What San Fran also does well is shopping, enormous record stores stuffed with every type of music imaginable, hours lost perusing the stalls, the same with books, and vintage clothes and shoes and coffee shops and restaurants and.. well you can indulge here, and whatever your taste i think it will be satisfied. Ethiopian dinner last night!And in the evening there are shows heralding the life and music of Janis Joplin , a local hero albeit shortlived, or you can go see some jazz at the local bar. Opportunites are endless, its a great place to come and lose yourself for a few days. But keep a hold of your small change because there are many here who have dropped out of the quest for the Amercian dream but not the quest for your spare change, stop for a second to consult a map and a helpful passer by with dreds and tie dye will assist- for the price of a bottle of beer that is! And finally if you get out of San Fran and hit the bike track, as i was so lucky to do, more beautiful scenery awaits. Staying with an old friend who is involved in a cycling program for disadvantaged kids we took them out of the city to Tennesse Beach and did some mountain biking down dirt tracks, such good fun, I am a convert and will be donning my helmet on a more regular basis when i get home and pulling some endos man!
And so my trip is nearly over, a day or so left to soak up some more San Fran city life, to find my mojo in a blues and jazzy kind of way and then back to Blighty. 3 months has flown by and altho i wont miss living out my bag, ooh i hate ALL my clothes, I will really miss the anticipation of getting somewhere new and the excitement of exploring it. Thanks for reading folks!
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