After departing the wharf, I headed on the long, near vertical, trek home for the last time. It was dark now and I just trudged slowly along, enjoying my surroundings and the music of Brand New. Once I got in, I packed my bad for the sad journey tomorrow and went to the lobby to finish my postcards. As a nice coincidence, Dan was working some crazy night shift at his work, alone, so we chatted via the internet tubes. At around 8.30 I trundled to the Indonesian restaurant across the street, where I got stir friend egg noodles with chicken, prawns and veg, a tiger beer and a scoop of mango ice cream all for about £6.35. EXTREMELY nice. I enjoyed it immensely. After returning to the hostel, I did some cool, yet geeky, python/linux hacking on my n810 and disturbed Dan some more. I fell asleep before the random guy returned.
Monday, 10 December 2007
10th December, 17:13
Today, I've been mostly wandering the city slightly aimlessly, enjoying the city in the beautiful sun and taking photos of various buildings. After buying two t-shirts in Macy's, I played in the Metreon shopping centre for a bit, getting a chicken pesto burrito and playing an arcade machine for a bit. It involved being ninjas but with guns, shooting other ninjas, without guns. The whole machine was on sale for $1950 though, which was quite cool. I walked further down market street until I hit the very pretty ferry building, along the bay, which is lined with many palm trees. I walked towards the bay bridge, past a cool spider sculpture, like outside the Tate, and a huge! bow and arrow sculpture. Very impressive.
I walked towards the city to see the big pyramid shaped building, which was again impressive. I then walked onward, past the church of Scientology and up some pretty streets towards the colt tower. It's an old tower built by a woman (called Colt), on a hill looking out over all of San Francisco. The views from the top were amazing, and it was really quiet and only $4.50! After that, I descended down some little crazy stairs to some streets, past lots of amazing house built directly alongside these weird non-road streets. As I came down I randomly saw a trickle of water and discovered the amazing Levi plaza. In the middle is a really fun water feature and the Levi HQ surrounds it. Inside there was loads of interesting Levi related paraphernalia, including jeans from over 100 years ago. I carried on towards the waterfront, past a crazy early sculpture and on to pier 39. I wandered around this for a while as the sun was setting, enjoying and reflecting on San Francisco. Now in a Bondin Bakery cafe, with a cookie, and a coffee, near some french woman taking 15 minutes to eat a boiled egg by apparently sucking it. Very odd.
I walked towards the city to see the big pyramid shaped building, which was again impressive. I then walked onward, past the church of Scientology and up some pretty streets towards the colt tower. It's an old tower built by a woman (called Colt), on a hill looking out over all of San Francisco. The views from the top were amazing, and it was really quiet and only $4.50! After that, I descended down some little crazy stairs to some streets, past lots of amazing house built directly alongside these weird non-road streets. As I came down I randomly saw a trickle of water and discovered the amazing Levi plaza. In the middle is a really fun water feature and the Levi HQ surrounds it. Inside there was loads of interesting Levi related paraphernalia, including jeans from over 100 years ago. I carried on towards the waterfront, past a crazy early sculpture and on to pier 39. I wandered around this for a while as the sun was setting, enjoying and reflecting on San Francisco. Now in a Bondin Bakery cafe, with a cookie, and a coffee, near some french woman taking 15 minutes to eat a boiled egg by apparently sucking it. Very odd.
10th December, 09:00
Yesterday, after what I last wrote, I wandered around some more, along the harbour, past all the extremely nice boats there. I then found a "fish and chip" shop, which I should have guessed would not have been able to grasp the concept of chips, wasn't too bad though. I then chilled and browsed for a while before the 4.30 ferry came, to take me back to pier 41. I walked back to la hostel because queues for cable cars are crazy and they rarely seem to be faster than walking. I organised to meet train Jane and her friend at 7.30, so I chilled for a while, breaking various internet terminals and other such things people of my calibre do. I met Jane and her friend, Rachael, also from Glastonbury, at the lobby a bit early and we wandered off on our bar finding expedition.
The conclusions that can be drawn from the highly excellent night is that 1) You should always listen to Tom about where bars are 2) USA hostels are far better than hostelling International 3) I'm immune to food poisoning. Let me guide you through the night.
We began by wandering to a bar the girls had found previously, and had a pint in there, but we decided to move on as although it was nice , we wanted to see what else here was. After a while of wandering, and being unable to find anything but Disney shops ("That doesn't serve alcohol") and Macy's, we trekked back to the hostel and asked the dude on reception where bars were. Turned out they were on Polk Street, where I had initially pondered some might be. After crossing the road to avoid the guys in gang colours, we went in a cocktail bar which had a Marilyn Monroe film playing. The bar people were jolly nice and we got free popcorn at the bar as well. After initially having some form of generic lager, possibly Amstel Light, I was persuaded to get a cocktail, so I got a Hawaiian ice tea, which after watching them make it and following a taste confirmation, seemed to be a near pint glass of vodka, rum, gin and tequila, with a splash of pineapple and cranberry. I had two in the end, as for $7.50 each, they seemed best value for money. Rachael had a number of cosmopolitans and Jane had some crazy drink with leave in that could have been Japanese.
We then went across the road to another bar which was cool, busier, and they're Guiness was EXTREMELY suspect. In that the whole pint was poured in one go, and there was no swirling, highly strange. Anyway, after various super power conversations I headed to the loo, as you do. Where somehow I met some guy who I chatted to, back in the bar, for a while, both of us jovially mocking the others city. Twas very humourous, though I fear 50% of the words we used were "dude". The girls peeled me away from him and we went to a diner where Rachael and I got friend chicken and Jane got a hamburger. Which I finished in the end. As it turns out, they both were up all night ill from food poisoning, not sure how it didn't affect me. Anyway, we bid farewell and I wandered back home to bed.
Woke up this morning, awake and fully fit, there's a new guy in the room, but not met him yet. I think he's called Ali, and is from Saudia Arabia, according to his receipt anyway.
The conclusions that can be drawn from the highly excellent night is that 1) You should always listen to Tom about where bars are 2) USA hostels are far better than hostelling International 3) I'm immune to food poisoning. Let me guide you through the night.
We began by wandering to a bar the girls had found previously, and had a pint in there, but we decided to move on as although it was nice , we wanted to see what else here was. After a while of wandering, and being unable to find anything but Disney shops ("That doesn't serve alcohol") and Macy's, we trekked back to the hostel and asked the dude on reception where bars were. Turned out they were on Polk Street, where I had initially pondered some might be. After crossing the road to avoid the guys in gang colours, we went in a cocktail bar which had a Marilyn Monroe film playing. The bar people were jolly nice and we got free popcorn at the bar as well. After initially having some form of generic lager, possibly Amstel Light, I was persuaded to get a cocktail, so I got a Hawaiian ice tea, which after watching them make it and following a taste confirmation, seemed to be a near pint glass of vodka, rum, gin and tequila, with a splash of pineapple and cranberry. I had two in the end, as for $7.50 each, they seemed best value for money. Rachael had a number of cosmopolitans and Jane had some crazy drink with leave in that could have been Japanese.
We then went across the road to another bar which was cool, busier, and they're Guiness was EXTREMELY suspect. In that the whole pint was poured in one go, and there was no swirling, highly strange. Anyway, after various super power conversations I headed to the loo, as you do. Where somehow I met some guy who I chatted to, back in the bar, for a while, both of us jovially mocking the others city. Twas very humourous, though I fear 50% of the words we used were "dude". The girls peeled me away from him and we went to a diner where Rachael and I got friend chicken and Jane got a hamburger. Which I finished in the end. As it turns out, they both were up all night ill from food poisoning, not sure how it didn't affect me. Anyway, we bid farewell and I wandered back home to bed.
Woke up this morning, awake and fully fit, there's a new guy in the room, but not met him yet. I think he's called Ali, and is from Saudia Arabia, according to his receipt anyway.
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