I was so sad to have to give the car back, I loved having it but hay ho it had to come to an end. After about half an hour of wondering around the airport trying to find the shuttle that took me to my hostel I was finally was on my way. There were other people on the shuttle that were going to hotels and when we pulled up outside my hostel they all looked at the it with that look of please don't say this is mine when I got off the look of relief they all had was rather amusing. This hostel was the sister hostel of the one that I stayed at in Seattle but this one was a lot bigger. I got chatting to a girl from Australia and she was giving me advise of where I should go whilst in San Francisco. She also told me that there was a rough part called Tenderloin and to stay away from it. That night at the hostel had this thing called beer Olympics in the bar next door so myself and two German girls that I had started chatting with (Iris and Elke) decided to go along. The lady that run the events said that there would be some locals there as well which I thought would be quite cool to get a locals opinion on what to do in San Fran, er this was not the case. The locals where mostly old men that seemed like they just wanted to pick up foreign girls, they were so letchy but we stuck together and had a good night with two Australian guys that we played our first game against. The games consisted of flip cup. This is where you had down the beer and then flip the cup upside down and each team member had to do it but not till the one before the team member before them had done it. The first one to get to three won. Well we won that one the guys were rubbish at flipping the cups. We then played beer bingo. This is where you'd had to throw a ball into the oppositions beer once it went in they had to drink it and the first one to get four in a column, row or diagonal won. We lost unfortunately. The third game was beer, paper scissors. The game explains itself and the first team that had drunk all the beer lost. Well we lost that one too. The last game was beer pong. Again another throwing one which we sucked at. This was similar to bingo but the cups were in a triangle and the team with beer left won. Each game was played against different teams. Our game of beer pong was the longest out of all of them and the guys from the beginning that we won against came over and tried to help us win the beer pong but we didn't we lost that one as well. The worst thing about the games was that I hate beer but it was still so much fun! At the end a guy was having a house party that myself the German girls and the guys from Australia were going to go. Well I don't know what happened but only one of the guys from Australia Andre) went. Myself Iris, Elke and the other guy from Australia (....) missed the cabs and ended up back at the hostel. We all just carried on drinking then the hostel staff started drinking with us. I think it was five am before I got to bed that night.
There was again free breakfasts at this hostel but I woke up like fifteen minutes to late for it due to the late night. I was not happy. I seriously did not want to anything that day but lay in bed but I couldn't I had to do something I did not go traveling to lay in bed. I decided to go to a few places the Australian girl told me about that weren't too far from the hostel, stay close to home. Well bloody hell the first place I went to you had to walk up this really steep hill, one of the steepest I've ever seen in a city it was ridiculous. By the time I got to the top the hang over had gone it really sorted me out. The view from the top though was incredible and I was so pleased I done it. I then decided to go over to the gay district of San Fran. The girl had told me that it was in completely the opposite direction to where I was but I wanted to have a look around anyway. Whilst I was walking I got to a part of town that stunk and was really dirty, rubbish everywhere loads of homeless people. When I checked my phone I was in Tenderloin the place I was told not to go so I quickly turd around walked out of it and went a longer way. When I got to where I thought I had to be there was nothing there no rainbows no gay community, nothing. I was in the wrong place and I thought my map reading skills got better, er no. When I got back to the hostel I was so tired and my feet were throbbing I had walked five hours to see nothing. Myself, Iris and Elke had a few drinks after dinner but then I decided I wanted more so we went and got some kracken, a spiced rum. Well that went, I decided to take myself of to bed a little earlier that night though so I didn't feel too hung over the next day.
Yet again another hang over but I got myself up in time for breakfast and went off to find this gay district and knew where I was going this time. When I got down there it was no where nearly as flashy as what I thought it would be but was still cool to see. There was a big Christmas tree and they were turning on the lights on the 1st December I thought that would be quite cool to go to. The hostel were doing another event that night where you paid fourteen dollars and they took you to four different places for four meals. The girls and I decided to do it but no drinking that night they were leaving in the morning and I needed a rest. It was quite good for what it was. When we got back I took myself straight off to bed and I had the room to myself, amazing just what I needed.
That day I wanted to go to the Golden Gate park, the bridge and also try to get down to see the tree lights being turned on. I got to the park and I wanted to go to the Botanical Gardens and the Japanese tea Gardens when I got here I realised you had to pay. Wtf I'm not paying to see some flowers and a bloody bonsai tree, no chance so I left and went to the bridge. When I left the hostel it was really warm so I only had a cardigan on but when I got to the bridge it was freezing so I took a few pictures went back to the hostel grabbed my jumper and made my way to the lights. I didn't want to walk the whole way because it was getting dark but when I got to where I needed to get public transport from I couldn't find the stop. It started to get late and I wouldn't be there in time so I just went back. That day was quite a bust. The bridge was amazing though. Another early night for me that night to get ready to make my way to Los Angeles and pick up my Trek America tour. I was really looking forward to spending two weeks with the same people. My fingers were crossed that they were all nice.