If only I could sit here and write these for a living. I'd quite happily travel the world and commentate on the incredible sights, sounds, smells and my personal favourite - tastes!

We've made our way down the Western coast of America now and have had a long stay in the absolutely mesmorising city of San Francisco.

The city situated in one of the most beautiful (yet windy) bays in the world. Our coach arrived from Seattle around midday which meant that we got a true introduction to such an iconic coastal region as we crossed the bay bridge into the heart of the financial district. In true travelling style we skipped the cab fare and donned the increasingly comfortable backpacks for a 'stroll' to our hostel. Two words spring to mind as I write this - bad choice. The trek wasn't a distance issue, but lugging 20kg backpacks up hills is not fun! But still, the hostel was situated really well and was a clean and comfortable place to stay for the week.

Our first day out was another of those you have, and then regret the following when your legs are in agony. After rising to a complimentary waffle breakfast, we headed uphill in search of the famous windy road of Lombard St and then the Fishermans Wharf. Within minutes we realised why so many people recommended the public transport and tours... San Francisco is the complete opposite of the rest of America as it's pure up and down everywhere you look. The tops of the hills provided some amazing views though which took some of the pain away. Lombard St was typically iconic - packed with tourists, but iconic nevertheless. Now for the decline, and no, it wasn't heaven compared to the incline as the hills are so steep that you're struggling to stay upright! What was heaven was the chocolate stores that were at the bottom though. The place was called Ghirardelli and they made the most amazing chocolate and ice creams... All of which we sampled. That's something about America I've come to love - you'll always have people offering you samples of their products to try and entice you into buying it. Granted, having sampled some amazing stuff its hard to say no, but it sure has helped improve the will power! The weather was certainly an improvement on Seattle and it was gorgeous walking the piers and exploring the museums. We went into an arcade museum that held tons of old school video games. After a blast on Street Fighter and table football we had a relaxing couple of pints in hooters. Typically we called over the waitresses for a photo before heading on to check out pier 39, home to the famous sea lions. On our way we sampled some of the local fish delicacies including the legendary clam chouder which we decided was a must for another outing. Pier 39 was just as expected from my point of view. The seals were fun filled and crowded onto about 3 of the 20 boa decks which was hilarious. The pier itself was home to all the things you (or atleast I) would ever want... Shops and restaurants dedicated to chocolate, ice cream, sweets and crepes. The food over here is just too good to resist and insanely nice to treat yourself too. The rest of the day and night were fairly relaxed as we chilled back in the hostel meeting some of our fellow guests.

Day two was a bit better planned as we headed out in the direction of Chinatown which was thankfully downhill. The Chinatown in San Fran was unrivaled and highlighted the vast culture differences you get within the cities of America. After browsing a few of the hundreds of novelty shops we headed towards the peak of Coit Tower. The tower itself was on the peak of a steep hill near the actual bay and offered some stunning views across to bay bridge and back up he city towards where we had struggled to climb the day before. That evening we went back to the hostel and met a couple of really cool English (Rachel and Renee) and Aussies girls (Clare and Jessie) as we chilled in front of the tele. Typically we shared stories about our travels and got on really well. Neither group had been out to see the Golden Gate so we decided to group up and hit that the following day.

Lead by tour guide Nick (aka google maps/bus routes) we made our way down to the bridge. As all the girls had travelled Asia/Australasia before arriving in America it was great hearing of their stories, tips and advice. The bridge itself was amazing and again offered some great kodak moments. It's sheer size and scale were out of this world. After gazing from the bridge for a small while we decided to go get some food to line the stomachs and cure Wilds tequila hangover! The lads went for a double down KFC which basically consisted of a piece of chicken, bacon, cheese and then another piece of chicken - only in America! We then headed into the Golden Gate Park for a relaxing stroll before our planned night out that evening. The park was huge and offered such a welcome change to the concrete jungle of downtown. Unlike New York, once inside you had no view of the buildings that surrounded it - such a soothing place to go enjoy a nice day in the sun. But we had no time for that, it was time to head back and get started on the drink! I've decided that drinking cheap vodka is not a good idea as my night ended early after the rediculous drinking games we started to play. The night out was evidentally amazing from the stories that surfaced and it was hilarious that everyone seemed to switch hostel rooms and crash in each others beds! I wasn't impressed that after Rachel delivered Wild (aka Beans) back to our room she then fell asleep on me mid conversation! But hey, I supose I was the bad drunk not actually making it out... Bad times, NOT to be repeated in Vegas!

The following day can be described in one word - hangover. It was actually my sisters birthday so i had an early morning skype date with the rents. And just like the loving family they are they didn't hold back in telling me how rough I looked ... Cheers! None of us actually left the hostel till mid afternoon after sitting and laughing at the stories of the previous night. Not alot came of the day where we'd planned to go to Alcatraz. But let's be honest, hangover boat = bad times. Me and George did manage to have a stroll out to the shops of Union Square however and had the surreal experience of stumbling upon a stupidly huge mall as we walked through Abercrombie and Fitch. To say the place was big is an understatement. It had about 6 floors which stretched the length of a block and included spiralled escalators, a cinema and two department stores! Safe to say me and G were simply window shopping and actually spent most of our time in an electronics store sitting in $4k massage chairs - hangover cure extrodinaire! The evening was as chilled as the day as we sat watching the Lakers game reminicing the previous nights events. My personal favourite of all the stories would have to be George getting lost on his way back from the club (which was 1 block away) and then getting helped out by a drunk woman who found him sat on his own looking lost!

Thankfully in our hungover state we'd managed to organise a trip to Alcatraz the following day. We woke up nice and refreshed and made our way down in some gorgeous sunshine to pier 33. After collecting our tickets we boarded the ship and set sail for the island. Alcatraz loomed and as we approached you really felt the sense of how inescapable this place must have been. We started our stay on the island with a 20 min introduction video that explained the history of the island. It was really interesting to hear that the island wasn't just a penetentiary and actually was home to the native American Indians for a period where they'd been forced from their home lands. Next came a stroke up to the main attraction, the prison cells and audio tour. I can't begin to explain how well done it was, and how engrosed you became to the inmates and guards tales of the past. From the breakouts to the detention cells it really gave you a sense of what it was like on the island. What was strange though was the other side to islands 'personality'. It's become home to stunning plants and sea birds as the wildlife volunteers have transformed and preserved the derelict buildings into a national park. We had an incredible stay but after a good 3 hours our stomachs took over and we had cravings for the clam chouder bowls we'd seen earlier in the week. So we caught the boat back and made our way back towards fishermans wharf. And damn... bread bowls and clam chouder is heaven. To be fair, any decent meal would have received that statement as we've been living on noodles and homemade peanut butter sandwiches. It was soo good though and certainly took our minds off the walk back to the hostel. As it was our last night we chilled out for a while before taking a walk down to a hotel to abuse their glass elevator for some night views of the city.

And then came the day of the big game - England vs USA in the world cup! We checked out early and headed straight down to the Civic Centre where the local government/council/whatever had put up a 18ft by 16ft screen to show the game. The sun was blazing down and the crowd certainly packed out really quickly. We were all buzzing for the game and it started amazingly well with Gerrard smashing home a goal in less than 4 minutes! Beer went flying and 4 elated English blokes arrogantly jumped around like t*** in the face of hundreds of Americans. Shame the good times didn't roll and a Robert Green howler meant the game finished 1-1. Safe to say the Americans were happier with the result and went off cheering and whooping for their amazing result... I've got to admit that I'm a little disappointed but it's a platform to build on and hopefully we'll improve in the next game. We've chilled the rest of the day and paid another visit to the mall and it's massage chairs (:-D). Our coach leaves for Vegas in 4 hours or so... Can't wait! Pictures from our San Fran experience will be up as soon as possible.

Much love,
Nick x