May 4-7
San Francisco
By the time we flew into San Fran and made it to the hotel it was mid arvo so we went for a walk around the place. We ended up along fishermans wharf which was kinda cool. San Francisco is a very colorful and lively place. If you want amazing legs and bum we recommends moving here, because your chances of finding a flat surface is as rare as hens teeth. This place is like hills on hills on more hills. There are street performers and music being played everywhere, the occasional hobo, and just like Los Angeles you found the same store 100 meters up the road.
We eventually found pier 39 which was pretty nice. Robe could do with one of these. It's this massive pier with a double story outdoor shopping mall. At the end of the pier you can see the bridges, Alcatraz and Angel island, all the marinas and these massive seals that just lie there taking up room on walkways to the marina. They are huge! And loud! We didn't stay here long, the sun may have been shining and warm, but the sea breeze was big and bloody freezing!
We found another hop on hop off bus tour and went for a cruise around on that to fill up the rest of our afternoon. In about 2.5 hours we saw all the main attractions like union and Washington square, Alamo square (the house on full house), golden gate bridge and the bay bridge, Chinatown, little Italy and lots of artsy stuff. We also went for a walk along the golden gate bridge. It is enormous and so amazing. Pictures don't do it justice! The weirdest thing about the bridge is you can actually feel it wobbling or vibrating beneath you when cars drive past. The tour took us through some really bad areas full of homeless people and every shop window was boarded up, it was pretty sad to see. But you would also be taken through the next neighborhood which looked all neat and lovely and every second house was a different colour.
One lesson we learnt today: when ordering a meal don't ask for a large. An Australian large coke is America's small. We picked up the wrong cup with our subway to be told "no this is your cup" and she's pointing to this jumbo cup that would easily hold a litre! Needless to say between the two of us we couldn't even drink half! And a 600ml bottle of coke in America is $1.50, you can't even get a can for that price in Australia!
There is a lot more homeless people in public in America. Kane has been trying to teach Chloe not to give them money because they will only spend it on beer or drugs. Funnily enough, the next homeless person we saw had a sign saying 'need $4 for beer'. Now it makes sense why some of the homeless we've seen look so well fed, they don't need money for food. And a lot of them have pet dogs!
May 5
Our hotel has a Denny's restaurant downstairs that's open 24hrs so we slept in and had breakfast for lunch. Good feeds for $10 each, eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, pancakes, and juice...we were full!
Hooters have shut down in San Fran, kane was most disappointed. So instead of checking out the lovely talent the bay has to offer, we went shopping instead and headed straight for union square. Here you can find everything from Macy's to Westfield, Saks to Tiffany's, Prada to china town. Chloe managed quite a haul, poor kane wasn't so lucky. He says he's holding out for new York. We recommend shopping in union square, especially in the westfield mall because it's huge and open from 10-9. It has these escalators that do a half circle-nana jack, you would HATE this! Hehe.
Walked and walked today, luckily the union square area is fairly flat, there are a lot of hills in this place! Kane didn't know where to look today, he says he's seen maradi gras before and this place definately has more gays. In his words, they're everywhere.
May 6
Today we went to Alcatraz. To get to the pier we took a cable car which was in amazing condition. America is very good at preserving its history, they don't really replace anything, even the postal cars are old school from maybe the 40's.
Our Ferry ride was about 15 minutes each way and you can actually see how huge the bay really is, not to forget the awesome views of San Francisco from sea! The Alcatraz tour was pretty cool, definately recommend it. We watched a short documentary in the theatre, walked all over the island (where you were allowed) and took a walking audio tour of the actual prison. The audio your was pretty interesting, it took you everywhere in the prison, including inside the cells, however Kane was the only one to actually go in a cell-they gave Chloe the creeps!
Walking around Alcatraz is like walking the streets of San Francisco with steep hills. Wear layers and comfy shoes! On saying that today was the best weather we have had all trip, quite a picturesque day! A good thing about Alcatraz is you can spend as long as you like there, just don't miss the last ferry!
After Alcatraz we ended up back at pier 39 in the sports bar for an early tea and basketball, did some more shopping and actually noticed how many people smoke pot around here. You could smell it every now and then, but it seems to be around a lot more here! We've probably been half baked the whole time we've been in San Fran just from smelling it, and maybe spending some time on Alcatraz island sobered us up!!? Only kidding! Kane's told Chloe she's only noticing it now because her colds better and she can actually smell today.
That's San Francisco for us. We're off to Vegas tomorrow! You'll hear from us soon!!
xoxo