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09-06: San Francisco to Tecopa
Hey there, here I am with a blog post from shiny Las Vegas trying to summarize the past two weeks. The last one was sent from Honolulu shortly before I departed to San Francisco flying with United Airlines. If you ever have the option of choosing your airline then avoid United. The stewardesses were unfriendly and the plane lacked comfort. That wouldn't have bothered me but here is the thing: Since it is kind of a long way flight from Honolulu to San Francisco (a little bit more than five hours), I assumed that I would get the usual microwave flight dinner (take-off was at 9pm) and didn't eat since lunch. I ordered the obligatory tomato juice which was unconventionally served in cans in happy expectation of some food to follow. But I should discover that the only "snack" served on this flight would be a bag of pretzels, the type which usually comes in party boxes together with salt sticks etc. Angrily, I gobbled the ten little things down. The on-board entertainment started with a review on the '92 Dallas Cowboys which doesn't interest me at all. I was heavily pissed off and tried to sleep the rest of this disappointing flight. Probably the worst one I ever had. And I always enjoy flying.
I finally arrived at 5 am in San Francisco and made my way to my hostel which is situated right in the pumping heart of this beautiful town. I got there at half past six, stored my luggage (check-in started at 2 pm) and hit the streets. I didn't even plan the first day in SF, so I walked up to Union Square to read my guide in the morning light. Fortunately, "the city is very compact", so I could start strolling around immediately, without needing to plan my route or similar stuff. For me, the city was like any other city I knew. Hong Kong was more compact. But I should discover that this description compared SF to other american towns, especially those of 50000 and less inhabitants, which can easily stretch 10 miles and where you don't get around without a car.
I decided to make my way to the Golden Gate Bridge and get something to EAT on the way. I bought a three-day-pass for the local public transport system and hopped on the first cable car that got in my sight. These rides are really special. You can stand on a step outside of the cabin. If the cable car is packed, then it looks like an indian train. The cable car drove through various neighbourhoods, each one of them different and special, and I got off at world famous Lombard street in Russian Hill (SFs crookedest street). I then continued to Fisherman's Wharf, took a bus to Golden Gate Park (I had a nap in it due to that short night), where I rented a bike for the day (these b*****s charge 30 bucks for it) and continued on the saddle which I can highly recommend although there are some steep hills in SF (really?).
So I rode my bike through the huge Golden Gate Park. I would have never made it by foot. This thing stretches out over half of the peninsula which SF is located on. I ended up at west coast Ocean Beach. There were some nice waves and lots of surfers. The beach itself is 20 times wider than Waikiki but with 20 times less atmosphere. Despite that I made a mental note to go for a bodyboarding session if I would have enough time. I continued my ride up a steep hill towards the Golden Gate Bridge, which I crossed eventually. Unfortunately, there was a lot of fog coming in from the ocean ("natural air condition")and sometimes I couldn't see more than the huge pillars of that impressive bridge. When I stopped before getting on it, I actually thought about cancelling the ride because there was nothing to see. But my brave (like always) deciscion to continue was rewarded with beautiful views from the northern half of the bridge, which wasn't covered in fog. I stopped in Sausalito for a late lunch and did the return trip too (most visitors take the ferry back to SF, but not me, i'm the deutschman). A little bit more cycling through the city of San Francisco and I returned to my hostel. There I met Robin, my roommate, proper englishman. We went out to eat dinner before he continued to check out some pubs. I got back to the hostel and dropped into my bed like dead. My body made me pay for the night on the beach and the doze on the flight. Did I ever mention that the best way to fight jetlags is to stay awake unil the evening like usual? Works for me.
On the next day I started some preparations for the roadtrip to Las Vegas. My plan was to hook up with somebody to make everything more fun and less expensive. So my basic actions were to put some notes on the black board and get some tips from the internet. I then decided spontaneously to have a look at a North Face outlet (maybe get a cheap tent) and to visit the famous University of Berkeley. Additionally, a major league baseball game was scheduled for this evening in Oakland (south of Berkeley) which I was interested in. For these things I had to cross the bay which was no problem with the excellent public transport system. On my way to Berkeley I got a haircut in a students hairdresser (they messed me up a little bit). It was Saturday and once I was on the campus I found out that all the buildings were already closed. But: The Cal Bears played Michigan State (college football), so there was a lot of action near the campus. I checked on the counters for tickets, but I had no hope of getting some. On the way there I was asked at least half a dozen times if I have extra tickets which I could sell. Proper american experience like you know it from the movies. A lot of students were hanging out having fun, the police looked fierce and fans were cheering. I discovered a street with various studient connections: from alpha beta omega to zeta epsilon (or something like that). Most of the students hanging out here were already drunk. Then I had lunchdinner at a burger place in famous Telegraph Avenue and headed back to San Francisco because the baseball game in Oakland had already started and I would have missed more than half of it. I wandered around town and had a lazy evening in the hostel doing the laundry etc. Lots of plans for this day, but nothing really worked out. Nevertheless a good day.
On Sunday I visited Alcatraz. I had to get up early (before seven) to get to the pier before 8 am. If you have no reservation, then your only hope to get a ticket for the tour is to be there early and queue up. If you are lucky, there are enough cancellations and you can visit fascinating Alcatraz. I had luck and got a ticket for the 9 am ferry. I stayed on Alcatraz for at least three hours. Most of it is pretty much rotten, but it is nevertheless amazing. They tell you about all the escape tries, about Al Capone and about the life on Alcatraz. Btw: I have to watch "The Rock" again, now that I know the location. I then strolled through Chinatown (really cool, way better than the one in Honolulu) and Downtown (Financial District). In the evening I met Sophie, an australian girl from Canberra which had almost the same plan as me: Do a road trip to Las Vegas and visit the National Parks on the way there. She had a tent too, so everything was sweet. On the next day we got our rental car (Mazda 6, nice car) from Hertz (I'll never use them again) after a two-hour-wait. Then, we made our way to Yosemite, getting food supplies on the way. We slept in a nice mountain lodge/hostel mix just at the entrance of Yosemite.
I can't find words for Yosemite. It is just breathtaking impressive. All the granite domes are huge and the hiking trails lead to awesome views. Check out the pictures. Accomodation in the national parks has to be taken care of. You can't just drive up a campground and put up your tent. Either get a reservation (preferredely weeks before you arrive) or get to first come first serve campgrounds before noon, otherwise they are full already. We got a tentsite close to Yosemite Village in the center of the park (fc fs). Another exciting thing about the Sierra Nevada is that it is bear country. And that doesn't mean that there are a few, no there are heaps of bears. Everywhere there were signs that you should not hike alone, what you should do in case of encountering a bear and how to store your food. Everything with a scent has to be stored in special bear-proof lockers. Never leave anything in the car because bears get into them easily. I had a checklist of all the most common animals which you enconter in Yosemite, and I wanted to see all of them, especially bears and mountain lions. Squirrels were omnipresent. I saw deers walking calmly over a parking lot and funny birds. There was a fake bear on the campsite next to us. That was really funny: I woke up in the middle of the night from snoring nearby. I then heard voices calling a ranger: "There is a bear on tentsite 35." I thought about getting out of the tent to have a look, but the rangers were faster. The next thing I heard was: "Yes, we made contact with an individual" and "Sir, can you stand up, sir?". The bear snoring next to our tentsite was actually a drunk who couldn't find his tent and now had to stay the night in the ranger station to sober up. That was really funny and a little bit disappointing. I WANTED to see a bear! I had to wait until our departure from Yosemite. The bear was calmly standing next to the street, which lead out of the park. It seemed that nobody recognized that, only Sophie paid enough attention. I would have missed it too. No mountain lions, though.
On the first day in Yosemite we did a strenous hike with 600 m elevation gain and a bath in cold mountain water. On the second day our legs were still sore and we did a scenic drive up to Tioga pass (10000ft/ 3000m). That was really awesome and is highly recommended. We had a look at Mono Lake, a huge lake east of the pass and located in Owens Valley. Detour: The Rocky Mountains form a landscape of alternating valleys and mountain chains, both stretch out in north east direction. We stopped at another beautiful lake just a few miles west of the pass. Believe it or not: this lake at 2700m had a proper sand beach. It was awesome.
After Yosemite, we drove to Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park, another world famous area. We made our way through this enormous canyon (I haven't seen the grand one yet) to Cedar Grove, a remote valley at the end of the street in almost complete wilderness. There was nothing there except for a few campgrounds and one lodge/store. We spent the afternoon seperately. I hiked up to an overlook over the valley and watched the sun disappear behind the mountains. I was a little bit nervous. The terrain I hiked up (300m elevation gain) was either perfect for mountain lions or bears. And the area was so remote, that I got a little bit paranoid. I either sweated because of the hike, or because of the constant expectation of a mountain lion standing on one of the rocks respectively a bear coming out of the bushes. I sometimes even carried a rock for "protection". But that made the hike very exciting. On my way back I collected some wood and we made a campfire. Like in the good ol' times. Campfire and chilli. Btw: thanks to Sophie I ate very healthy things the whole time. Lots of vegetables, no fast food at all (which I usually try to avoid... but it is so convenient).
On the next day we drove up to Sequoia National Park. This park is famous for the worlds biggest trees. They are thousands of years old and... very high. Majestic. They call them Generals. The biggest one is General Sherman, then there is General Grant and General Lee. All of them are named after famous leaders of the civil war area. The only thing which didn't work out on that day is that we came five minutes to late to get a spot at our favourized campground, so we had to drive 25 minutes back to another campground. In the evening we made another campfire. This time we had barbecued sweet corn and proper american marshmallows.
The next station on our roadmap to Las Vegas was the Mojave Desert. Unfortunately, the hostel we wanted to stay in has been closed some time ago, so we drove to the next available one which is almost 400 miles far away from our Sequoia. We left the green Sierra Nevada and entered the brown californian deserts. The highways led through wide open land. You could often see the next 15 or 20 miles of road. The distances between settlements increased continously and averaged at 40 miles. There were almost no trees anymore and the temperature increased (outside of the car). Bare brown rocky mountains rose up here and there. It was fascinating, because this was the countryside which I knew from lots of american roadtrip movies. I liked it. Our destination was Tecopa, a small village in the desert between Death Valley National Park and the Mojave Preserve and our base for the next two days. You had to get there via 50 miles of two lane road through the desert. No other settlement on the way. Really cool. It somehow reminded me of the movie "The hills have eyes" although I have never seen it. And the old Nevada Nuclear Test Site is not far away from it. But as far as I have experienced it, all the inhabitants of that village were friendly, I couldn't find any mutants. And there was almost nothing else there. Sophie went to the local hot springs which I skipped because I didn't feel the urge of a hot bath after a hot day. She talked to a lot of old women which come there every day and live in a small trailerpark on the opposite side of the road. In the meantime, I visited the only local bistro on the search for a cool beer. Unfortunately, they had no license to sell alcohol, so I satisfied my thirst with a cranberry juice and gazed at the stars. There is no better spot for stargazing than the desert. I saw a shooting star for the first time of my life.
Damn, I have to take a break from writing. Expect more soon. I hope I can finish it up to date till tomorrow.
Btw: I am using the infamous Windows Movie Maker now to compose my videos so I don't have to upload them seperately. And I have added some maps to the photo albums.
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