San Francisco
At last, Veronika meets up with Spela, in front of SF City Hall
Saturday 17th July - Tuesday 20th July 1999
Well we went to San Francisco, but we didn't wear some flowers in our hair 8-)
The first thing that struck me about San Francisco was the weather. Somehow, I expected my first experience of California to be sunny, but apparently the sun in SF is almost as rare as it is in Scotland. What we got was wind, fog and the lowest temperatures we've encountered so far in North America (a chilly 55F or 8C). Still though, SF was interesting, not least because we met up with Spela (there's actually a diacritic mark above the S, but I'm not going to try to put one in) from Slovenia, who was just finishing her tour of the US. She had spent a few days in SF, so she acted as our guide, and did a damn good job too (well done Spela!).
SF is a strange town. We stayed at the HI hostel on Mason Street, just off Union Square. Union Square is the plush tourist haunt, full of expensive hotels and restaurants and even more expensive galleries; it is also full of street people and some dodgy-looking types who seem to make a living out of mysteriously extracting sums of money from parking meters while keeping an eye out for the police, who seemed to have a far less visible presence than in any other US city we've visited so far.
Colourful mural at the International Café - can you spot the Scot?
Again like many other North American cities, SF has many bright and colourful murals. My particular favourite was in the back of the International Café, where we ate an excellent Middle-Eastern meal, only half of which we could determine what it was, but all of which was extremely tasty, and good value to boot! Another good place to eat is Chinatown, where a large plate of dim sum can be had for under $5. Again, though, taxes are not included. Apparently SF has more restaurants per capita than any other city in the US, so everybody should find something to suit their taste and budget. I can also recommend Blondie's, a takeaway only pizza place on Powell Street - the slices are huge, the toppings generous, and the service speedy provided you want to buy by the slice, and not a whole pizza.
Veronika tries to get a different perspective on the Golden Gate Bridge
San Francisco is of course home to one of the most famous bridges in the world, the Golden Gate Bridge. Truly an international landmark, it is an impressive sight, although the wind can make it a slightly unnerving experience to walk across, and the signs proclaiming it to be the longest single-span suspension bridge in the world haven't been updated in many years and fail to take account of the Forth and Severn bridges, both of which are longer, as well as possibly others. Despite this, the setting makes the Golden Gate a stunning piece of engineering, and it provides one of the best free views of San Francisco. Dress warmly, though, since as Mark Twain put it, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco", and the wind cuts through clothing like a knife through butter. Also watch out for the drivers, who have an annoying tendency to honk their horns if you even look like you're going to come close to the roadway, which is safely separated from the walkway. Another strange feature of the bridge area is the fact that there are numerous officials watching who from time to time broadcast instructions to errant drivers over a very loud PA system - if you're standing too close to the loudspeakers, it can be near to deafening!
Veronika and Fergus in front of the Golden Gate Bridge
Wandering around San Francisco, I came across a sign which could readily be misinterpreted:
One of the strangest places in San Francisco is the 1000 block of Lombard Street, which is celebrated as the "world's crookedest street". The US is full of places which claim to be the world's longest, biggest, greatest, largest, and in a country which stages a "World Series" involving teams from just two countries, any such claims have to be taken with more than a pinch of salt, but in the case of Lombard Street, I'm willing to credit the claim. At the top of Lombard Street, on Russian Hill, there seems to be a permanent queue of cars (presumably full of tourists, at least judging by the number of cameras sticking out from the windows) waiting to drive ever so slowly down the road. I imagine that the people who live there must get more than a little annoyed by the constant stream of tourists stepping into their driveways to get the perfect shot of the street. The famous SF cable cars (the queues for which at the bottom of the Mason-Powell line are discouragingly long, as with many of the popular attractions in the US - get there early in the morning, or be prepared for a long wait) stop at the top of Lombard Street to drop people off. The world's crookedest street is topped off with some of the most beautiful flower beds in San Francisco.
Veronika and Spela at the foot of Lombard, the "world's crookedest street"