San Francisco

I arrived at the Adelaide hostel in the heart of (read: tourist central) San Francisco, Sunday afternoon. The urban exploration began in Castro, the gay-bourhood, probably the nations largest, but definitely the proudest. San Francisco is a beautiful place. Most striking are the brightly painted houses and warm feeling neighbourhoods. And of course, the steep climbing hills that offer magnificent views of the city and the bay. After ascending Buena Vista park and enjoying the evening calm of the city, I headed back to the hostel where I met some really great people, some that were unfortunately leaving that night, but others I ended up hanging out with all week.

Monday was by far my favourite day. Since it was a holiday, I decided to avoid the shopping districts and highly touristy areas and just take a nice long walk through the city. I started by hiking up a hill (before coffee this was quite a challenge) and then back down the other side (it was around this point that I stopped doing exactly what my guide book told me to do). The views were amazing, and unlike the park, it was close up of the streets people somehow drive, bike and walk every day.
It was in this area that I found the cable car museum and the building that makes it all tick (or rumble). I can understand now why they needed the cable cars. It would have been very difficult to populate the city without a means to get up the hills, and horses were becoming more and more expensive.
After eating the largest peach you have ever seen, over looking the city, I headed down Hyde street and ended up at the far end of the painfully touristy ‘fisherman’s wharf’ at the Hyde street peer. Although I try to avoid such places, there was coffee, and a lovely spot called the Aquatic Park, so I stopped to have a rest. Little did I know that this spot would captivate me and I would end up watching the swimmers, children and dogs for over an hour. There is just something about the ocean breeze that makes the rest of the world fall silent, and it the most peaceful feeling.

Further walking took me around the marina and all the way to a beachy spot where I watched about a hundred wind surfers skim across the water and breathtaking speeds as they passed back and forth in front of the Golden Gate bridge. The wind was so strong, that to get up, all the had to do was prop the sail out of the water from underneath, and poof, the wind pulls them up onto the board and they are off!

Another highlight was the Academy of Science at Golden Gate Park. It is San Francisco’s answer to Central Park, but I found it takes a while to get into it and find the really interesting and beautiful places. The academy was great, not only because of the aquarium, filled with some of the largest and smallest fish I have ever seen, but I learned some really cool stuff about real life.
There was an exhibit on climate change featuring a scale. On one side, you mark how much you drive, bike, take the bus and fly, in about a year. It also considers the efficiency in your home. Adding all these factors shows how environmentally friendly you are. As it turn out, even though I don’t drive, and if I were to have a solar powered home with high efficiency appliances and were a model citizen in every other way, the number of times in a year that I fly, still make me worse than the Smoggies! (refer to wikipedia). Note to self, look into Carbon Offsets.

I took public transit around for the week and really enjoy it, as I always do in new cities. It’s a great way to see the real place, and in a city like San Francisco, it ‘s efficient and quite pleasant. I do get frustrated with first time/tourist transit go-ers, who don’t understand, or just don’t listen when they ask you to move to the back, but other than that, it’s quite enjoyable.

Other things on the touring agenda included the famed prison on Alcatraz island, the barking sea lions at Fisherman’s Warf and the Golden Gate Bridge. It is important to know that although we are in California, a heavy fog descends upon the city almost daily, and as a result, I could not in fact see the Bridge. But I do feel that I saw the real San Francisco.