Arrived into San Francisco at night to be greeted by numerous homeless people pestering us as we were lost and loaded down with the huge backpacks. Flagged down a taxi (very tricky as had no hostel address or name!) and arrived at Pacific Tradewinds. Taxi driver was crazy! Kept complaining that he was falling asleep at the wheel, wanted some drugs and told Helen to use the internet when she asked him what was good to do in San Francisco-charming! Lugged the bags up three floors in the hostel to walk into a very small shared area and we were breathless like we´d hiked a mountain! Hostel was slightly unusual set up in that it had no doors and you could hop over the wall into the next room, so there was no privacy. Katy flirted outrageously with the man on the front desk which would prove very useful later on in our trip.
The following day we attempted to make our way to the Golden Gate park (which we thought was near the bridge - how wrong we were!) and visited the Japanese Gardens where we both risked life and death climbing a very steep bridge. Helen found it very amusing watching me climb down with a look of horror on my face until it was her turn and the facial expression was even more terrified! Went back to the city centre on a bus where a strange homeless man chatted to me for the full journey. Any attempts I made at including Helen into the conversation and thus helping me out where dissapointingly ignored as she stared out of the window with a grin on her face! One month down and already she is turning her back on me! Hopped on a cable car to pier 39, watched some street performers and all the marines as it was fleet week where the military recruit people and bought a spanish phrase book in preparation for South America! The next day with false optimism we went back to the pier and hired two of the most irritating modes of transport known to man...the bicycle! Hiring it was surprisingly easy until we had to do a test run, Helen went off in a strange direction almost killing herself in the process and I had to ride while an old lady chatted alongside me about how pleased she was that we were boosting the economy!! Not helpful! We should point out that it has been 15 years since either of us has ridden a bike and it did not come naturally to us! We set off painstakingly slow, following all other biking tourists as we couldn´t follow the map and we eventually (by some miracle!) ended up at Giradhelli Square where we locked up the bikes after several attempts at working out the locks and we headed to Lori´s Diner (as suggested by Karen!) While we were sitting eating our humongous burgers there was much excitement as the Blue Angel´s (America´s Red Arrows) were flying past. Helen was mortified as I jumped off my chair everytime they flew by...it was very impressive! We sat outside and watched the pilots perform some crazy stunts, before getting back on the bikes! This was not without drama as Katy could not undo the lock and when Helen attempted to help she dropped said lock down a flight of stairs...then I couldn´t get the bike stand up and had to be assisted by a family watching the planes, very smooth! Carried on towards the bridge which by now we could see (hurrah!), at this point both loving the bikes and the mini races, Katy exclaiming that she would not learn to drive but would get a bike when she returned to Selby! After only having to ask for directions once (very impressive for us) we finaly made it to the approach to the bridge where we were met by a crazily steep hill. I´d love to say we cycled it but I´m afraid I would be lying since we practically crawled up it on our hands and knees. On reaching the top we decided we deserved an ice cream so sat and watched the view whilst getting our breath back! At this point it should be noted that I had been left sat on my own and had NOT attracted anybody at all. However, when i went to look in the gift shop I returned to find Katy had made herself a new friend of a particulalry interesting variety even by her standards! Said man turned out to be currently under the influence of a large amount of pot and when attempting to show someone the way fell off his sparkly new bike into the bushes. Very ammusing to me! He then proceeded to insist on showing us the way over the bridge at a very swift pace. Katy managed somehow to keep up, I dismounted! As i caught up it was to hear him praising Katy´s cycling ability and telling her she was a good rider! Eventually we had made it onto the bridge and all was well, although, despite the many hints we could not get rid of the stoner! As we flagged he finally gave us a little wave and was on his way leaving us to navigate a very busy, very scary highway. Katy going at a snails pace and getting off every time she saw even the smallest of downward slopes. Her mum would not be proud! Finally we made our way to the Sausilito Ferry terminal and were at this point feeling very proud of ourselves. This is where the story takes a turn for the worse.
As we drew into the dock we realsied somewhat belatedly that it was in fact the wrong Ferry terminal. We had by this point 15 minutes to return the bikes to the hire place. As we were leaving the Ferry more drama occured as Katy not only had to be assisted in pushing her bike up the ramp mainly due to the fact that her oh so suitable footwear of flip flops had by now BROKEN. This in turn led to much amusement on my behalf! We phoned the bike place like we had been told to tell them the bikes would be late however the mean bike men did not reply, leaving Katy to cycle barefoot from pier 1 to pier 39, not a short distance i will tell you! By this point several people had pointed out to Katy that she wasn´t wearing any shoes... and was riding a bicycle. Whoever knew! Eventually after some olympic speed cycling we arrived at pier 39 to return the bikes only to be told we were too late and they would not take the bikes back. After being given instructions to the next rental place we got back on the bikes and carried on. By this point Katy was refusing to cycle any further without some adequate footwear. Thus leaving me with two bikes on the busiest street in San Francisco with many many marines strolling by while she tried to buy some flip flops. After several minutes i looked up to see a figure running towards me from across the road waving something that did not look like flip flops. They were in fact a very fetching pair of black and white ´property of ALcatraz socks.´No flip flops were in sight. So... Katy pulled on the socks and we carried on with our epic journey. Katy would like to note that at this point she was still laughing despite the series of events which incidentally had also included her being shunted by a reversing Range Rover as she sprinted across the busy road. Continuing on the journey to the next hire place, who would have guessed that the Alcatraz socks would have drawn more attention than bare feet. By this point several people were openly laughing at her attire but she cycled on regardless. The laughing did however turn to tears as we arrived at the bike shop to find it firmly locked up. Neither of us were impressed. Being the lovely friend that i am i did of course go and find Katy a replacement pair of flip flops which caused me much much amusement since they had some lovely sparkly flowers attached to the shiny white embroidered sole. They were very classy indeed. Then began the real journey. A journey that would take us THREE hours (by this point it was 8.30 and we had been riding the bloody bikes for 9 hours and our arses were killing us!) and take us up the most unbelievably steep and unwalkable streets in San Francisco - Taylor is a street name i will forever have nightmares about. We needed to push each other (as well as the sodding bikes) up about three miles of 90 degree angle streets, stopping every now and then to declare that we would leave the bikes and tough if they weren´t there the next day. We were good however and persevered finding our way back to the hosteln by 11.30 - 12 hours after we originally recieved the bikes. The drama did not end there however when it became apparent we would need to hoist the bikes up 4 flights of stairs to attach them to the bannister. Obviously this was well beyond me who dropped the lock, the keys, and very nearly the bike back down the stairs. Eventually we were helped out by numerous people including a Swiss girl and the man from the hostel before finally falling into bed. Everyone was sleeping by this point but due to the dramas of the day we both got the giggles as we recounted the events. We will leave you hanging for how we finally got the bikes returned to their rightful owners as it is time for bed.