San Francisco is a city of many personalities. My first impression was not a good one as I arrived to a hostel on Post Street that wasn't very nice. The window in my room did not close therefore letting in every sound imaginable from the street below (including many a loud fire engine) as well as exhaust fumes deluxe! I was given the top bunk with no ladder and no guardrails round the side. This would have been okay if the bed was positioned near a wall but considering it was in the middle of the room I was paranoid about falling three metres to the floor in the middle of the night. I resorted to sleeping with a book on each side of my pillow so that if I rolled too far I would wake up! Thankfully there were no 'bumps in the night' during my stay! I walked down to the visitors centre my first afternoon and was pretty shocked at what I saw - from gangs of big black men with their baseball caps to one side and oversize jeans hanging down by their knees, to people smoking marijuana outside the visitor's centre - It was then that I realised that San Francisco is very different! I have never seen so many homeless people in my life. Walking back to the hostel one afternoon they lined the sidewalks along Mason and Geary Streets. It is also not an uncommon occurrence to walk past people digging through the trash. Quite tragic really - I often wondered what happened to them to put them in that situation. Surely they must have families somewhere? I'm guessing that drugs are most probably the answer. A white man lying next to the wheel of a car rolled over as I walked past and started shouting, "F%$3*@ I can say what I like and you can't stop me!" As I ignored him and carried on walking he continued, "I'm not talking to you! I'm talking to Satan!" There was no doubt in my mind that he was as high as a kite! I also had a lady drive past me, wind down her window and yell "drug addict" at me. No guessing who was on drugs there!The better side of San Francisco lies along 'Fisherman's Wharf'. This is where the famous Pier 39 is found with hundreds of sea lions lying in the sun at the end of the pier. There are various restaurants and souvenir shops as well as musicians performing along the pier. I tried my first cup of clam chowder, which was different. The best way to eat it is right out of a sourdough bread bowl - very yummy! There are various piers along the wharf. It's so nice to go and sit at the end of one and watch the world go by on the bay. There is an abundance of ships on the water and you can see Alcatraz in front of you as well as Golden Gate Bridge to your left and Bay Bridge to your right. It's great to sit and breathe in the ocean air because in the city it is a different story! It's also a wonderful place to sit and think. You can hear the sea lions on Pier 39 and wonder what mischief they are getting up to! There are some wonderful looking seafood restaurants along the wharf but I didn't get to try them out because the cheapest think on their menus was $12 and that was probably the garlic bread!Coit Tower in the area of Telegraph Hill has some amazing view of the city. You had to pay $4.50 to ride the escalator up the tower which I chose not do - pretty expensive to stand in an escalator! They day I devoted to the Golden Gate Bridge started off with a visit to Steiner Street to the house owned by the Hillard's in Mrs. Doubtfire. Sadly they were painting the outside so it didn't quite have the full effect and the trees have grown immensely! I then walked the whole of San Francisco Bay past For Mason, Ghiradelli Square, Marina Green and the St. Francis Yacht Club to Fort Point where the view of the bridge is amazing. It took me 4.5 hours and then another 45minutes to cross the bridge. This thing is HIGH! I couldn't go near the rails for too long because I would get the feeling that I was falling and if you stop you can feel it shaking beneath you - really quite scary! There are phones every 100metres for suicide help lines. Reaching the other side of the bridge I caught a bus to the small town of Sausalito. This town is very cute - it has a Mediterranean like feel and has a beautiful waterfront. The yacht club must have had over 2000 yachts moored! The cable cars here are lots of fun - you can stand on the side and hold onto the rail while it's going - best feeling ever when you're near the ocean and can feel the breeze and smell the salt in the air! On the weekends there is an arts and crafts market outside the ferry building, which was fun to go and browse.CHINATOWN - well…one word…pandemonium!! There is a luggage and souvenir shop everywhere you look as well as herb shops, Asian food markets and restaurants advertising allsorts of weird and wonderful 'delicacies'. Many a headless fried duck can be seen as you walk past these windows. I stopped at a place advertising dim sims where I got 4 chicken buns for $1 and I tried what I would call a 'sesame ball' only to discover black goo in the centre as I bit into it! YUK! I wanted to go to a jazz club while I was there but it works differently to what I thought. I thought you could go, buy a drink and sit and listen to jazz but it turns out that you have to buy tickets first. Pity that! The cathedrals are amazing - I visited Grace Cathedral as well as Saints' Paul and John Cathedral. Each was massive and absolutely beautiful to look at!I didn't find a fresh vegetable until my second last day where I stumbled across a mini-mart selling carrots! They have little corner stalls, not supermarkets so it is easy to find fruit and nothing else and everything is hugely overpriced!! (Eg/ $3.49 for a tin of soup!) If you want meat the only thin on offer is processed vienna sausages and if you want a bread roll you have to buy 12 not just one! I found some frozen veggies one night that were expensive but I got them anyway because I felt that I needed some greens! A change from the usual apple/nectarine! A diner across the road made really nice turkey burgers so I had those a couple of times. It is really hard to find anything under $5 though! A simple salad averages at about $7! There was a massive bookstore at Union Square that was five storeys! I spent hours in there the one afternoon reading in the history section - it was nice to just chill our since all I had been doing was walking. The weather here is funny - it's cold and overcast in the mornings and then clears up for pleasant afternoons and then the wind kicks in at about 5pm. It's the sort of weather where you have to carry a jumper around because no doubt you will get cold at some point during the day.Am off to 'the big apple' or New York City tomorrow!!! Really excited. Have an early start as the airport shuttle is picking me up at 5:10am and then I arrive in NYC sometime around 6pm in the evening so it's going to be a long day!!