I’ve been so so lucky with the weather on this trip - only a handful of overcast or rainy days - so I decided to make the most of the sun and go on a free walking tour of the Financial District. It was actually kinda boring cause the tour guide kept rambling off on tangents that had nothing to do with anything, so I left halfway through. But there were a few cool things we got to see, like this hidden rooftop garden.
Apparently San Francisco law states that an office building must provide an open air recreation area for their employees to use during their breaks, so a lot of the high rise buildings built gardens on their roofs!
We also got to walk around inside the ancient Wells Fargo building which still has all the original artwork, elevators, statues and furniture - it was exquisite! Unfortunately we weren’t permitted to take photos.
After abandoning the tour I walked through Union Square - pretty little place with free wifi and power points hidden amongst the flowers - to the Pacific Heritage Museum. It’s a tiny little one room museum located in the old Federal Mint building. The exhibition was on Chinese - Americans tracing their roots back to China and actually returning to their parents or grandparents villages to meet some of their relatives. There were some fantastic stories and photographs describing their experiences - it was fascinating!
After that I wandered along to City Hall. The path to City Hall is through the ‘bad’ area of San Francisco, and even though it was broad daylight I got harassed by the homeless. There are A LOT of homeless people here, and most of them are quite aggressive spitting at you, yelling at you and occasionally trying to hit you or grabbing you. There are also no police around ever…never thought I’d say I felt safer in Mexico! The harassment was worth it though cause City Hall was great.
I love these weird trees! As I was admiring them I was approached by a film crew who were interviewing tourists about their impressions of San Fran - I told them I loved the city, but the homeless were a problem and explained what had happened minutes before. They then asked me if I could offer a solution to the homeless problem, well I couldn’t think of anything so I just froze! So they asked me again and I still couldn’t think of anything to say at all, eventually they felt sorry for me and closed the interview and let me go. Needless to say I don’t think I’ll be making the final cut!
Inside City Hall was gorgeous (excuse the grainy image!). Each wall was carved into different sculptures, each stairway to the next level was bordered by intricate brass rails and the corridors were lit up with pretty lamps.
On Sunday my couchsurfer and I hopped on his Vespa and went for a tour of San Francisco. At first I was terrified about falling off, but after a while I got to really enjoy it - and its such a great way to get around a city like San Fran! We stopped off at Ocean Beach first which made me really homesick for NZ beaches. Even though its the middle of winter here its been so warm the beach was packed with people flying kites, playing volleyball, walking their dogs and even sunbathing!
After a lovely walk along the sand and a quick toe dip in the freezing water we continued on to Golden Gate Park. The park is massive (1017 acres) and very confusing so I’m glad I was on a scooter and not walking. Its very pretty and filled with all sorts of different types of gardens, fountains, waterfalls, lakes, hiking trails and random office building like Lukas Films (Star wars).
There was even a wild bison paddock!
After driving around for a while we stopped at a little food stall for some clam chowder (delicious!) and a giant pretzel which was actually really gross - very yeasty. We walked over to the Academy of Sciences building to see the grass domes on top of the building - and discovered it was free day so in we went!
The museum was fantastic! They had a three level aquarium with all sorts of weird and wonderful fish like a giant squid who shot ink at the glass as we were watching her, and a giant anaconda curled around a log. They also had a ‘rainforest’ area with hundreds of butterflies fluttering around and sometimes landing on you. After spending a couple of hours looking at all these cool things we wandered into the planetarium just in time for the last show of the day. Basically it was highlighting how tiny Earth and our solar system is in the Universe, and showing the latest images of the closest planets, stars and milky way. It was a really interesting show!
Salamander!
The next day we took the Vespa over to Golden Gate Bridge - it was too small to actually go on the bridge so we parked underneath and walked up hundreds of bloody steps to the top and then wandered along. One side of the bridge was closed for maintenance so the pathway was really busy with pedestrians and bikes all trying to go in different directions. I was really impressed with how pretty the bridge is up close, and the views of Alcatraz and the harbour were great too.
Apparently there are numerous suicide attempts each year from the bridge, so every few hundred metres you see these signs.
I’ve wanted to get to Alcatraz for as long as I’ve known about it, so I’m so pleased I got to see it on this trip. It almost didn’t happen - the night before I met up with a couch surfer and we ended up partying till 4am, so I slept through my 9am alarm and had to make a mad run to catch the tram, then I got off 5 stops too early so had to make another mad dash to the ferry building where I just managed to get onto the boat before they sailed away! Luckily it was all worth it, I had such an amazing time I can’t wait to bring Guy back here.
The tour began with a 20 minute video about Alcatraz’s history (was initially a military fort, then a military prison, then a federal penitentiary). It’s now used as a breeding ground for several different types of birds and also has beautiful gardens all over the island. A short walk later we were exploring the old cell house accompanied by an excellent audio tour from old guards and inmates. It was pretty incredible walking through the cells and isolation areas and hearing first hand accounts of what it was like.
Apparently the prisoners weren’t permitted to make any noise at all during their incarceration - so no talking, singing, humming etc.
Isolation - they were kept in the dark and without a bed. One prisoner said he used to rip the top button off his shirt and throw it up in the air then get down on his hands and knees and search for it, when we found it he’d stand up and do it again as a way to pass the time and not go mad. Another said he used to stare at the dark walls so long he would start to hallucinate and see a movie of his life playing in front of him.
A common comment from the prisoners was the torment of having San Francisco so close - they could hear New Years Eve celebrations if the wind was blowing in the right direction, and they could see this view from their recreation yard.
There was also a section of the audio tour from some of the children who grew up on Alcatraz - children of guards and the warden. It was fascinating hearing how normal their childhood was, and how safe and happy they were. This is the wardens house that burnt down shortly before Alcatraz closed (also some of the gardens).
My first day in San Francisco I walked along to Chinatown. It really was a Chinese town - you forgot you were in America. As far as you could see (and all you could see) there were Chinese people speaking Cantonese and walking in and out of Chinese shops, markets, churches, temples, etc.
In the middle of all the frantic walking, haggling and spitting I stumbled across Jack Kerouac Alley. It was a pretty little place with some great artwork and plaques honoring the writer.
Right next to the alley is the famous City Lights Bookstore which was such a cool jumbled together place.
Three levels of this - and so much selection! They had EVERYTHING
After perusing for a while I continued on through Chinatown to North Beach - the Italian area of San Fran. Mostly it was just Italian restaurants and cafes, but they also had red, white and green lamp posts and flags flying from every second building. Also in North Beach is the gorgeous Washington Park where people and dogs soak up the sun and smoke joints while listening to buskers playing jazz.
This church reminds me so much of Mexico.
After listening to some jazz and resting my legs I tackled the Filbert St steps to climb Telegraph Hill. It was an intense walk, but the views on the way up kept me going. Unfortunately I didn’t see any of the wild parrots that inhabit the area, and most of the gardens weren’t looking too great either - but there was a cool museum at the top to look at.
I spent 4 lovely days in Sacramento sleeping in, playing with a kitten and puppy, watching movies and exploring the shops and cafes.
The first day I was there I was lucky enough to accompany my couch surfers on a para-hawking expedition. Basically it involved para gliding alongside a hawk - it was A LOT cooler than it sounds! The hawk was gorgeous and so well behaved. Watching them glide together was insanely cool and the best thing was that the hawk really seemed to be enjoying herself as much as the guys were!
Shanti
They actually filmed the whole flight through a camera on one of the guys shoes so you can see the hawk flying from behind, landing on his arm and then taking off again its really cool! If you wanna you can see it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrEGH9bO7kk.
The other cool thing about this day was seeing some of the Californian countryside - we drove two hours north to get to the paragliding site. I got a ride with a friend of the hawk guy who was a native american and a really cool guy. He had lots of stories about pow - pows and peyote experiences, and when he dropped me off he gave me a dream catcher that he had made. I love it!
Another day I walked the American Bike River Trail - yes there is a reason its called a bike trail, cause its bloody long and shouldn’t be walked (I ended up with blisters and cuts all over my feet cause I was wearing crap shoes). The walk was pretty but I was warned not to stop and take too many photos in case I was attacked by one of the many bums who live there.
At the end of the trail I reached Old Sacramento - a small area of original or restored shops from last century. Most of them were little souvenir shops or cafes but it was really cool to walk around and see the buildings. And I found a giagantic candy shop!!
I had such a great time in St George it was really hard to leave. I was welcomed and accepted into the Briggs family from the moment I arrived and they treated me as if I had always been there. Apart from making new friends it was great to experience daily life in an average American home. So many fond memories - I will miss them!
They all thought it was crazy that I had never seen snow before so they arranged a trip up to their cabin at Brian Heads. It didn’t start off quite as I expected..we had to trudge through knee deep snow in the pitch dark for 20 minutes to reach it, but the next morning when the sun was out the view was breathtaking.
Trench leading up to the cabin
Unfortunately I had caught a virus and was feeling crappy so I didn’t participate in the skiing, but we did all go sledding later on that day which was heaps of fun!
Being sick turned out to be a good thing in a way. They looked after me so well and made sure I was very comfortable - letting me watch the Vampire Diaries for three days straight :).
When I was feeling better, they took me out to Snow Canyon to see some of the gorgeous desert scenery. I was desperately searching for a desert tortoise but didn’t see one :(.
On my last day they took me to a vintage candy shop and bought me a gigantic bag of treats. I’m trying not to eat them all so I can bring some home to share with Guy, but they are so damm tasty!
First day in Utah I was taken out by a couple of locals for a hike through the desert and on the way we saw some Indian rock carvings - so fucking cool! They thought it was hilarious how awed and excited I was by them.
Apparently if the figures have their arms pointing down it is symbolising an event that is occurring on earth, and if their arms are pointing up it symbolises events happening off earth.
As if these weren’t cool enough there were also some remnants of their houses.
Las Vegas really is a place of extremes - the buildings are huge, the casinos even bigger and even the buses are double decker and everything flashes in neon lights day and night. The weird thing with it is that most of the strip is a mixture of pawn shops, wedding chapels and random empty buildings, only the ends have the big casinos and restuarants.
This was a small, and plain casino.
My hostel was in the ‘arts district’ and was next to a strip club on one side, a Elvis themed chapel on the other and across the road from the ‘Precious Slut Tattoo Parlour’.
Hostel in the background. We got tickets for half price lap dances, which seemed like a good deal until we found this ad..
The unfortunate thing with Vegas is that nothing is free. Gambling, shows and clubbing all cost a fortune there. I did manage to find one free magic show which was awesome.
There are also a lot of homeless people there, but unlike LA these ones don’t hassle you or even ask you for money. Mostly they just want to talk. One guy was so funny he followed me shouting “why are you so beautiful?, why did god make you so beautiful?”. Another told me she would put in a good word for me so when judgement day comes I’ll be spared.
My favourite thing about the city was the friends I made in the hostel. I started off shyly - esp cause I was one of only a couple of girls amongst 40 guys , but slowly started talking to more and more people and by the time I left I felt like I was among good friends. One guy I didn’t have a chance to say goodbye to so he left me this
This museum was sooo cool I had to do a whole post about it!
This is the ‘fishbowl’ laboratory where you can watch the archaeologists and volunteers chipping away at the fossils and cleaning them.
