San Francisco

Before we got to San Francisco we found this coupon booklet for cheap stays at a hotel. We got dropped off in a taxi to this hotel and found it was fully booked, not good as we had all our stuff to lug around. We found a hotel up the street but ended up having to pay 100 dollars a night; not in our price range. We had nowhere else to go so we had no choice and booked the room for one night. It was a nice enough room and we were very tired but had decided to leave the next night so we found a cheaper place online and left in the morning. We arrived at the Abigail hotel and they were renovating so first impressions weren’t great but it ended up being fine. The room wasn’t ready as check in wasn’t till 3 so we left our stuff there and headed to look around the area. Bruno Mars was playing at the arena opposite that night, unfortunately we couldn’t afford the tickets but we did see a big important hummer type bus thing outside the following day so wondered if that was Bruno Mars’. We found a charity like shop called Good Will and bought loads of cheap books for a couple of dollars each and some bits n bobs. We walked around some more taking some pictures and headed for a coffee before we could check in. Once in the hotel we decided to Google where to go in San Fran for a good night out, I found a place on yelp.com called blue light and it had loads of good reviews for a tuesday night. $2 Tacos and $2 Coronas....sorted! So we got showered and headed down there.

It turned out to be a really good night, the bar was simple and we couldn’t get a seat but we met some funny guys and it was $2 a beer. We met this group of guys when we walked in and they kept buying us drinks, one of the guys said that where he was fromit was rude for girls to buy guys drinks back so we kindly accepted his drinks. One of the other guys was really drunk and kept going back and forth from me and Char saying blue ----pink----blue----pink. I was wearing pink and char was wearing blue and he couldn’t decide which one of us he liked more. Luckily neither of us were interested in him and he was so drunk he kept falling over. The other guy with them said to Char that his mate was a good guy and Char asked him why he wasn’t a good guy and he was like I have a gf so i’m not interested, he was not a pretty guy and char was def not interested in this guy who seemed to think she wanted him. The guys were quite annoying and kept trying to get us to go to restaurant with them. We ordered a taco each and nachos to share...it was good stuff, and also needed as we were already merry on the coronas and empty stomach. Nat was saying to me how much this guy looked like Prince William when his mate who was stood next to us heard and started talking to us. The guys were from England and we ended up drinking with them most of the night, turns out the guy Rich went to school with my friend Josie in London but we didn’t discover this until the photos were up and Josie recognized him. Char was bet by Nat to talk to these guys so she pretended she met them at spring break the guys then bought us more beers. Everyone kept saying our accents were exotic and how much they loved our accent, well everyone apart from a girl in the toilets who overheard char talking about the American men and turned to her and said you English always coming over here and stealing our men just for a visa...That made me chuckle...what an idiot! We also met this guy called David and girl called Jamie, they were really nice. Had a really good night and it was topped off by the barman also giving us free drinks and sliding it across the bar to us like you see in films.

Also while we were in San Francisco we got the tram to this place called Pier 39, it was really nice down there it had a fruit market, loads of restaurants, shops and a harbour. We got an ice cream and signed up for a boat trip. It was sold when he reduced it from 40-20 dollars and said we’d get free alcohol while we were on it. You’ve got yourself a deal my friend...as Char said to the guy. It turned out to be pretty scary. The wind was really strong so the boat was pretty much on its side and we felt like we were sliding off. Me and char were holding on for dear life and leaving Nat to take the photos as she positioned herself further up. We saw views of the golden gate bridge and Alcatraz prison...where we were going the next day. It was good but we were glad to get off finally..alive!

Alcatraz the following day was really good we got an audio tape and walked around the prison taking pictures and hearing stories of what happened there. I like that they have kept the prison as it was it makes it so much easier to picture it all back then. Also the views from the island were incredible.

San Francisco was great fun although there was so many weirdos and homeless people there, it was quite hard to feel safe walking around the streets. They kept shouting at us, one guy walked past me saying “I’ll be honest with you I didn’t kill him” I told the girls what he said and we had a giggle but then walked a bit further! We saw the famous San Fran hill from Mrs Doubtfire and lots of other films. Before we left we went to a proper American style diner and prepared ourselves for the 17 hour journey to VEGAS BABY!!!