San francisco day 4

Wow, what a day.  I have walked for miles and miles.  I started at 9.40am and I finally sat down at 5.30pm.  All that walking training has got me into shape because I have seen loads today and don't feel completely dead! For anyone who knows I have walked from North Beach up  Telegraph Hill and up Coit Tower.  Down and up Lombard Street, past Fort Mason, along the Marina through Crissy Park and the beach all the way to Fort Point.  back up via the Presido to the bridge. Along the Bridge to Marin County and the look out.   Back along the bridge and then finally two bus rides back to China town.  Yes, I am exhausted but I feel great.
  The weather today was just so good I couldnt justify a guided tour around a claustrophobic China town so I decided to just walk and walk.  I started with a trip up the excentric tower/folly built in 1932.  The art work all inside were  murals in the socialist style of Diago Rivera.  The artists were all employed by a back to work program during the depression and many of them hardly got paid at all.  The people working there were all really nice and one old guy there had fond memories of drinking in the Turf Tavern in Oxford.  (His son went to Brookes)  the art deco building itself was really quirky. People think it looks like a fire fighter's nozel.  To me it was more like something else.

At the top.

 At the bottom.

Wild parrots live in this part of SF but I didn't hear them.

After this start I decided to go and find the Crookedest Street in the world and after a steep descent followed by equally steep climb again I got there.. To be honest it was quite difficult to get a good photo.  The angles were too weird.

 Crooked Street

looking back down Lombard Street and how far I had come.

Then my trek to the the Golden Gate Bridge began.  I knew it would be a long walk but I was ready.  As most areas are residential there isn't too much going on and the grid system repeating itself block after block after block does become repetitive and dull but once I got to the Marina and the beach things improved! Walking is definitely the best way to travel here.

 Alcatraz from the beach.  there were so many dog walkers around.  People holding on to up to eight huge dogs. Plus loads of cyclists and runners.  People are into healthy  lifestyles here and having a dog too.

I was so lucky with the weather.  Perfect day.

I then hit the edge of the headland and could get no further.  Plus I was gettin wet from wave spray and I had already been washed in waves up to my knees, so my jeans and feet were a bit soaked! My shoes are waterproof but they weren't expecting that! 

Then I headed up again to the footpath on th bridge.  Lots of hills today.

then I started to walk.  It took about 45 minutes.. It was brilliant if a bit wobbly. The traffic on one side and the high drop on the other did affect me I was shocked by how low the wall was.  One guy I was chatting with did tell me that there are many suicides.  There are a few phones with red buttons on the bridge which instantly put you through to a therapist but I never tried to see if the phones actually worked. I also saw dolphins and sea lions swimming underneath but it took all my will power and concentration to just put my head over the parapet.
I am a bridge fetishist so I loved this experience.  Seeing how the angles of the bridge changed as I walked over and the size, shapes and strength of all the supports.

leaving San Francisco.

I then got to the view point on the other side by this time it was gone 4pm and getting a bit chilly.  I only had my cardigan so was beginning to shake..Anyway I got a few more snaps and then headed back.  The sky had changed a lot.

 Love this one.  Totally in line.

Looking wind swept.

The swirling sky over San Francisco from the bridge.



this last photo is my favourite though...

I then headed to the bus station and had to stand for 35 minutes waiting for a bus but I did get chatting to two incredibly handsome Palestinian guys who lived near Haifa.  They were over for job interviews with a Start Up company.  But they had just found out that they hadn't been successful and were heading back to Israel. At least they made me forget that my feet were pounding and still wet from my tidal wave soaking a few hours earlier.
Got the bus back to China Town and ended up eating Chinese.  To be honest the food was a bit blahhh.  But hey the view and atmosphere were great.  Loads of people out. Leaving tomorrow in a transfer taxi at 3.30pm. (11.30pm UK time.)  Going to try and get up early tomorrow and do more stuff in Downtown area and Yerba Buena.  Anyway, night night.  I must go and lie down!

San Francisco/Oakland day 3

This evening I am so tired I really don't have the energy to write much.  Woke up to rain this morning so decided to get on the train to Oakland. I was curious to have a look at this more working class, politically radical district; the birth place of the Black Panthers and Jack London. Another reason to go was I had heard that if the weather is rubbish in SF it will more than likely be sunny in Oakland.

After a rather annoying hunt for a post office I got on the BART train.  Bloody hell finding the post office was a mission. People I asked kept sending me in different directions.  A block that way meant two blocks in the opposite direction and on the left meant on the right.   I had to crawl through 4 different shopping centres to find a post office and when I did it was the crappiest, slowest damn post office I have ever had the misfortune to visit.  But the server was very pleasant once I met her!

Anyway, the museum of California in Oakland was great.  the history part went right back to native Indian culture and how they used to pound the acorns from the oak trees  and make their staple food from ground up acorns.

 the time line of events was funny.: 

5677BC-Ancestors of Klameth and Madoc people witness explosion of Mount Maxama

1770-First Spanish missionaries arrive

That's hell of a period of non-recorded history!

Every period from the Spanish invasion of the 18th century onwards was then presented.  It was excellent and really informative with lots of interactive stuff and areas where locals could write and present their own memories and ideas.  (Such as a wall full of what people remember about life in California during the 60s. ) the curators were all smiley and helpful and there were even signs up saying you didn't need to whisper. In fact school kids were running a riot and having a ball.  I loved the atmosphere.  There was nothing stuffy about the place at all.

My favourite section was the bit on the Great Depression.  I loved that there was a pipe where people could hang out and get an idea of the living space!

This girl followed me around quite a lot until the teacher realised she was missing and came and found her!

These were the confinement houses of the Japanese in SF during World War 2.  they were forced to live in horse stables.  Families of 6 in one horse stable. 

 this section was memorabilia of people who had lived through the 60s.  Each case was full of different Californian memories.  I loved it.

This was an audio visual  of the people who came to work in the fields after the gold and silver rushes died down.

Mac from 1984.  I'm sure this was the same computer we used in  Bicester Community College. it used to be wheeled in for special events.

the following sign was quite disturbing.very weird.

I liked how they presented immigration as an arrival board.

One of my favourite sections.  I have read lots of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Isabel Allende and they are always going on about daguerreotypes.  I never  had any idea of what they really were until today and they were definitely the most beautiful things in the entire museum.

I then left and got the BART and the muni metro back up to Haight Ashbury, home of the hippy movement.  To be honest if I were a hippy looking for my ancestoral home I would have been well disappointed.  It was like a really shit Camden..without the vibe.  To be honest I was disappointed and felt like it was a parody.  I've always been harsh on hippies and this little wander around this district only made me stronger in my general disdain.

I did like the legs out the window and the Starbucks copy socialist hang out below was fun.  I have to say the Anarchist Book Shop was a pile of shite.  If all you can put in the shop window are copies of a colouring book full of  vaginas. (Called The C***s Colouring Book) then I don't want to be an anarchist!  Also this book shop was pumped full of a weird smell which was awful.  A kind of Eau de Ancient Manuscript.  like it was full of old books when it most definitely wasn't. Bollocks.

Then I walked for hours over hills and down dales. As it was pitch dark I could see absolutely bloody nothing but at least I did it.  And I ended up in Mission.  My favourite area so far. ( Apart from where I am staying.)  I ate South Indian Thali with fish and it was totally gorgeous. the only problem was that the server could barely speak English.  All the clientele seemed to be Indian.  Anyway.  Time for bed now. Tour of China Town tomorrow.  

San Francisco Part 2

Wow. I am just so happy to be in this fantastic city. What a great place to live in. What I love is how relaxed the place is, yet also so cool and on the pulse. It has surprised me how friendly, without being annoying, everyone is. There is a kind of underbelly of true friendship here. I found out from the server in the 'Hottest Chilli Sauce Shop in the World' that SF has just won the World Series so everyone is really happy at the moment. I'm glad about this even though I have no idea what sport the World Series is.

Last night after blogging I went up to my room and ended up chatting to my roommate Nicoletta from Turin in Italy and she took me out around North Beach and Little Italy. She has been here a few times and knows it well. We had the most fantastic pizza.  She's off to Mexico on Friday, I wish I could get on that plane to Mexico too. In fact no, sod it, I want to stay here.

Slept like a dream in my bunk last night. V. Comfortable and this morning after my super soft bagel and delicious peanut butter and jam I was ready for the day. I have found I adore peanut butter. Catherine Blay  you are right  Reeses Pieces are delicious. 

This morning I faffed about for too long and had to charge up and down the hill to pier 33 for the 9.30am ferry to Alcatraz. I was in such a mad rush I wasn't even able to stop to take a photo of all the Chinese women with their fans a flapping doing SF style tai chi in the park. maybe I will catch them tomorrow.

Alcatraz is only a mile off the coast so I was there in 15 mins and then the joy began. I thought it was gonna just be a dank, yucky prison on a hill, a grim adventure which all tourists blindly partake in but NO WAY. It was fantastic. 

I really enjoyed the gardens. Flowers which the families of the wardens started, prisoners with privelidges enhanced and now the National  Park is continuing. I loved that such lovely flowers were surrounding such an imposing and forbidding place.

 Alcatraz gardens with Golden gate Bridge behind

 in the gardens

On the boat across

 I also loved the Park Rangers personal tours. To be honest most spoken guided tours in the UK are just a bit worthy. Guides are often knowledgeable but as dry as old bones, and the ones abroad are just totally incomprehensible  but here people are passionate, knowledgeable and entertaining. They can hold the attention of the WHOLE crowd no matter how big or varied in age and, as a teacher, I loudly applaud their style and dedication.

I especially like how they twisted everything and made me think.  What was the purpose of Alcatraz? Food here was the best of any penitentiary in the USA. Guards never used guns on the shop floor. Guys stayed calm and even learnt how to crochet and read on average 75 books a year. Was Al Capone really such a criminal? MAybe if he had been an Irish hard man he would have been employed by the NY fire or police service. People of Italian decent were discriminated against too. But don't get me wrong this place was not the first port of call for prisoners,it was full of the guys who broke the rules inside of prison.

 Guys were so bored that one guy who knew how to crochet from his gran.taught a few of them the art. The image of these hard men sitting with pink yarn in their 5 foot cells did make me laugh.

 The audio tour inside the jail was excellent too. It really got the atmosphere of the hideous place and how the noises of the city carried across the waters to make the inmates even more aware of their awful fate. The isolation cells were the worst. Really super grim and the size of the lock ups was just obscene.

But the unexpected highlight was the Ai Weiwei installation in one of the employment blocks. It was so moving and bloody brilliant. To be honest it made me cry. Yes, Im that To see such exuberance, joy, energy, creativity and beauty in such a grim backdrop was breathtaking.the Chinese dragon was AWESOME.

And as for the amazing lego installation of political prisoners all over the world laid out on the floor of the factory.  WOW, it was brilliant.  Not to mention that in the dining room of Alcatraz you could personally write to any of the political prisoners you chose with individually addressed postcards. you then put the postcard in a box and hoped that the rangers kept their promise to post them all! ( I wrote to a guy in Iran and told him I was on holiday in SF and that I hoped one day I hoped to visit his country too.)

 All made from Lego.  Ai Weiwei wanted the public to be able to walk on them but Alcatraz said no.

They were all so well created. Bloody HOURS of work!

Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowdon too. the whole world was there for you to support or learn about their struggles.

Each person was in a file and had a personal postcard you could send them .  Iranian prisoners all had tulips like the one I chose above.

 A few more of my photos and time for bed.  I had a great clam chowder this evening and a couple of beers as I walked along the Wharf but by 5 it was pitch black so for safety reasons I had to turn around and come back out of the park.I loved how the wharf I was walking on was so derelict.  It kind of a added a bit more atmosphere to my views of The Golden Gate Bridge.

 Me, Golden Gate bridge and seagull

sticky up hair selfie.

 Coit tower

 East Bay-Oakland Bridge from Alcatraz

Derelict wharf  and Golden Gate.

A few more funny photos before I go to my room.  Typing and adding photos here is a dream compared to China and other places where I haven't had the quick, free access.

 Quiet back room of the liquor store on this block.  It is full of prostitutes and their prospective clients.It smells like a tart's boudoir. I had to take a photo of the oh so bloody cute, weird bunnies on the wall.  WTF?!!

 My hostel.A piano, a ship in a glass box and a flat screen TV all surrounded by pink flourescent lighting.